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In this tutorial, we will see cacti installation and configuration on CentOS 7 and RHEL 7. We will also know what is cacti? So let’s start.

What is Cacti?

Cacti is an open source web based network monitoring and system monitoring graphing tool. Its enables a user to poll services at regular intervals and create graphs on resulting data using RRDtool. We use cacti as a graph time-series data of metrics such as network bandwidth utilization, CPU load, running processes, disk space etc.

Mandatory Required Packages for Cacti

These packages we need to be install on our CentOS 7 and RHEL 7 for Cacti installation.

1. Apache :- Web server to display network graphs created by PHP and RRDTool.
2. MySQL :- Database server is used to be store cacti information.
3. PHP :- A script module to create graphs using RRDTool.
4. PHP-SNMP :- PHP extension for SNMP to access data.
5. NET-SNMP :- SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is used to manage network.
6. RRDTool :- A database tool to manage and retrieve time series data like CPU load, Network Bandwidth etc.

Start Installing Cacti Required Packages on RHEL 7 and CentOS 7

First, we need to install following dependency packages one-by-one using YUM package manager tool.

Apache installation using yum

[root@cacti ~]# yum –y install httpd httpd-devel

MySQL installation using yum

Red Hat makes a new transaction from MySql to MariaDB, as MariaDB is the default implementation of MySQL in RHEL7  and CentOS 7. So let’s start MariaDB on CentOS 7

[root@cacti ~]# yum -y install mariadb-server

PHP installation using yum

[root@cacti ~]# yum -y install php-mysql php-pear php-common php-gd php-devel php php-mbstring php-cli

PHP-SNMP installation using yum

[root@cacti ~]# yum -y install php-snmp

NET-SNMP installation using yum

[root@cacti ~]# yum -y install net-snmp-utils net-snmp-libs

RRDTool installation using yum

[root@cacti ~]# yum -y install rrdtool

After installation we need to start Apache, MySQL and SNMP Services

Once we have installed all the required software’s for Cacti installation, let’s start them one-by-one using following commands.

[root@cacti ~]# systemctl start httpd.service
[root@cacti ~]# systemctl start mariadb.service
[root@cacti ~]# systemctl start snmpd.service
[root@cacti ~]#

Configure System Start-up Links

Configuring Apache, MySQL and SNMP Services to start on boot.

[root@cacti ~]# systemctl enable httpd.service
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/httpd.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service.
[root@cacti ~]# systemctl enable mariadb.service
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/mariadb.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service.
[root@cacti ~]# systemctl enable snmpd.service
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/snmpd.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/snmpd.service.
[root@cacti ~]#

Check running status of these services

[root@cacti ~]# systemctl status httpd.service
● httpd.service - The Apache HTTP Server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2018-12-01 10:04:02 CET; 4min 37s ago
Docs: man:httpd(8)
man:apachectl(8)
Main PID: 18074 (httpd)
Status: "Total requests: 0; Current requests/sec: 0; Current traffic: 0 B/sec"
CGroup: /system.slice/httpd.service
├─18074 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─18076 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─18077 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─18078 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
├─18079 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND
└─18080 /usr/sbin/httpd -DFOREGROUND

Dec 01 10:04:01 cacti systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Dec 01 10:04:01 cacti httpd[18074]: AH00558: httpd: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using fe80::d384:e38a:717d:7c0b...his message
Dec 01 10:04:02 cacti systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.
[root@cacti ~]# systemctl status mariadb.service
● mariadb.service - MariaDB database server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2018-12-01 10:04:13 CET; 4min 46s ago
Main PID: 18166 (mysqld_safe)
CGroup: /system.slice/mariadb.service
├─18166 /bin/sh /usr/bin/mysqld_safe --basedir=/usr
└─18328 /usr/libexec/mysqld --basedir=/usr --datadir=/var/lib/mysql --plugin-dir=/usr/lib64/mysql/plugin --log-error=/var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log --pid-fi...

Dec 01 10:04:11 cacti mariadb-prepare-db-dir[18087]: MySQL manual for more instructions.
Dec 01 10:04:11 cacti mariadb-prepare-db-dir[18087]: Please report any problems at http://mariadb.org/jira
Dec 01 10:04:11 cacti mariadb-prepare-db-dir[18087]: The latest information about MariaDB is available at http://mariadb.org/.
Dec 01 10:04:11 cacti mariadb-prepare-db-dir[18087]: You can find additional information about the MySQL part at:
Dec 01 10:04:11 cacti mariadb-prepare-db-dir[18087]: http://dev.mysql.com
Dec 01 10:04:11 cacti mariadb-prepare-db-dir[18087]: Consider joining MariaDB's strong and vibrant community:
Dec 01 10:04:11 cacti mariadb-prepare-db-dir[18087]: https://mariadb.org/get-involved/
Dec 01 10:04:11 cacti mysqld_safe[18166]: 181201 10:04:11 mysqld_safe Logging to '/var/log/mariadb/mariadb.log'.
Dec 01 10:04:11 cacti mysqld_safe[18166]: 181201 10:04:11 mysqld_safe Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/lib/mysql
Dec 01 10:04:13 cacti systemd[1]: Started MariaDB database server.
[root@cacti ~]# systemctl status snmpd.service
● snmpd.service - Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Daemon.
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/snmpd.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (running) since Sat 2018-12-01 10:04:22 CET; 4min 56s ago
Main PID: 18369 (snmpd)
CGroup: /system.slice/snmpd.service
└─18369 /usr/sbin/snmpd -LS0-6d -f

Dec 01 10:04:22 cacti systemd[1]: Starting Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Daemon....
Dec 01 10:04:22 cacti snmpd[18369]: NET-SNMP version 5.7.2
Dec 01 10:04:22 cacti systemd[1]: Started Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) Daemon..
[root@cacti ~]#

Install Cacti on CentOS 7 and RHEL 7

Before cacti installation we need to install and enable  epel repository. We can use below command to install epel and cacti on CentOS 7 and RHEL 7.

[root@cacti ~]# yum -y install epel-release
[root@cacti ~]# yum -y install cacti

MySQL Server configuring for Cacti Installation

We need to configure MySQL for cacti, to do this we need to set password for our newly installed MySQL server and then we will create cacti database with user cactiuser. If you’re MySQL is already password protected, then don’t need to set it again.

Set MySQL Password

To set new password for MySQL server, run the below command.

[root@cacti ~]# mysqladmin -u root password YOUR-PASSWORD

Create MySQL Cacti Database

Login into MySQL server with newly created password and create cacti database with user cactiuser and set the password for it.

[root@cacti ~]# mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 289
Server version: 5.5.60-MariaDB MariaDB Server

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

MariaDB [(none)]> create database cacti;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL ON cacti.* TO cactiuser@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'cactipassword';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT SELECT ON mysql.time_zone_name TO cactiuser@localhost;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> exit
Bye
[root@cacti ~]#

Need to be import mysql_test_data_timezone.sql

Cactiuser user should have access to the mysql.time_zone_name Table. So we need to import the mysql_test_data_timezone.sql to mysql database first.

[root@cacti ~]# mysql -u root -p mysql < /usr/share/mysql/mysql_test_data_timezone.sql
Enter password:
[root@cacti ~]#

Database Tuning

Cacti recommend changing MySQL variables settings for better performances.  So we need to configure this file vi /etc/my.cnf.d/server.cnf depends on our operating system. Like this:-

[mysqld]
collation-server = utf8_general_ci
init-connect='SET NAMES utf8'
character-set-server = utf8
max_heap_table_size = 400M
max_allowed_packet = 16777216
tmp_table_size = 64M
join_buffer_size = 64M
innodb_file_per_table = on
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 2048M
innodb_doublewrite = off
innodb_additional_mem_pool_size = 80M
innodb_lock_wait_timeout = 50
innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 2

Import the default database to the cacti database

We need to install cacti tables into newly created Cacti database, We can use the below command to import database.

[root@cacti ~]# mysql cacti < /usr/share/doc/cacti-*/cacti.sql -u root -p
Enter password:
[root@cacti ~]#

Configure MySQL settings for Cacti

Open the file /usr/share/cacti/include/config.php with any editor and make the following changes and save the file. Make sure you set password correctly.

/* make sure these values reflect your actual database/host/user/password */

$database_type = 'mysql';
$database_default = 'cacti';
$database_hostname = 'localhost';
$database_username = 'cactiuser';
$database_password = 'YOUR-PASSWORD';
$database_port = '3306';
$database_ssl = false;

Firewall configuration for Cacti

[root@cacti ~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http
success
[root@cacti ~]# firewall-cmd --reload
success
[root@cacti ~]#

Apache Server configuration for Cacti Installation

Open this file /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf with any editor and enable access to Cacti application for our local network or per IP level.

# vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf

Alias /cacti /usr/share/cacti

<Directory /usr/share/cacti/>
        <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
                # httpd 2.4
                Require all granted
        </IfModule>
        <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
                # httpd 2.2
                Order deny,allow
                Deny from all
                Allow from all
        </IfModule>
</Directory>

Set the timezone for cacti

We need to set the Timezone in this file vi /etc/php.ini like this:-

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
; http://php.net/date.timezone
date.timezone = Europe/Brussels

Finally, We need to restart the Apache service

[root@cacti ~]# systemctl restart httpd.service
[root@cacti ~]#

Cron setting for Cacti

Open file /etc/cron.d/cacti uncomment the below line. The poller.php script runs every 5mins and collects data of known host which is used by Cacti application to display graphs like below:-

[root@cacti ~]# vi /etc/cron.d/cacti
[root@cacti ~]# cat /etc/cron.d/cacti
*/5 * * * * cacti /usr/bin/php /usr/share/cacti/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1
[root@cacti ~]#

Now we need to Run Cacti Installer Setup

Finally our Cacti is ready, just go to http://YOUR-IP-HERE/cacti/ & follow the installer instruction through the following screens. Click Next button.

Accept the license and click on begin to start installation.

Check if any warning, we need to correct them. Then we need to click on Next.

select New Primary Server and click on Next.

Click on Next

Click on Next

Check all box and click on Finish After that you will get log windows of cacti. Cacti default login user name and password is (admin/admin). Login with this username and password. After that you will get the new windows like below. Where you have to set your new password for cacti.

Enter your New password which you want to set. Then click on save. After that you will successfully login into cacti like below.

How to Add Graphs in cacti

Now we have to go to Management –> Device –> Select Device –> Select Place on a Tree –> Go

.

Click on Go after that you will get one new windows like below.

Click on continue and finish. After that you have a successfully graph created.

To display the graph we have to click on Graph –> Default Tree –> Choose Your Device then you will get your graph like below.

 

Thant’s all we have successfully install cacti on CentOS 7 and RHEL 7. Your views and comments are most welcome.