Some suitable features of Cacti consist of:

• Rapid polling of metrics
• Assist for multiple information acquisition strategies
• Support for advanced graph template
• Consumer control functionality with ACL

Cacti offer an intuitive and smooth to use internet interface which may be used for small LAN installations up to complicated networks with lots of servers and networking devices. So, now we are going to start the installation of Cacti on Ubuntu 20.04.

Step 1: Update & Upgrade Your System

sudo apt -y update && sudo apt -y upgrade

Step 2: Install PHP & PHP Extensions

Run the below command to install the required PHP extensions.

sudo apt install -y php-mysql libapache2-mod-php php-xml php-ldap php-mbstring php-gd php-gmp

Verify the PHP version by typing.

php -v

Output:

sabir@Ubuntu20:~$ php -v
PHP 7.4.3 (cli) (built: May 26 2020 12:24:22) ( NTS )
Copyright (c) The PHP Group
Zend Engine v3.4.0, Copyright (c) Zend Technologies
with Zend OPcache v7.4.3, Copyright (c), by Zend Technologies

Then set your timezone, memory limit and max_execution time by editing /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

sudo nano /etc/php/7.4/apache2/php.ini

date.timezone = Asia/Karachi
memory_limit = 512M
max_execution_time = 60

Do the same changes for /etc/php/7.4/cli/php.ini file.

Step 3:Install Apache Server

Apache is one of the best web server that suits with the Cacti. So, install it by running.

sudo apt-get install -y apache2

As the installation of Apache done, apply a security configuration to the Apache by permitting Prod ServerTokens only. Open the security.conf file with your favorite editor.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/security.conf

Then change the following line.

ServerTokens Prod

Finally allow firewall access to http, https.

sudo ufw allow http
sudo ufw allow https

And restart the Apache server.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 4:Install MariaDB Database

Make sure that you’ve already installed MariaDB on your Ubuntu system. If you don’t know how to install it, then follow the below link to go to the MariaDB installation page first & then continue from here to Install Cacti on Ubunut 20.04.

How To Install MariaDB on Ubuntu 20.04

You can also install it from Ubuntu repository by hitting.

sudo apt install -y mariadb-server mariadb-client

Once the installation finished, run the below command to secure the installation.

sudo mysql_secure_installation

Then change the MariaDB settings to work properly with the Cacti. Edit the config file by hitting below command.

sudo nano /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf

And make the below changes under [mysqld] section.

collation-server = utf8mb4_unicode_ci
max_heap_table_size = 128M
tmp_table_size = 64M
join_buffer_size = 64M
innodb_file_format = Barracuda
innodb_large_prefix = 1
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 512M
innodb_flush_log_at_timeout = 3
innodb_read_io_threads = 32
innodb_write_io_threads = 16
innodb_io_capacity = 5000
innodb_io_capacity_max = 10000

Then restart the MariaDB services to take effects of the configuration changes.

sudo systemctl restart mariadb

As the services restarted , create a new Database for Cacti:

sudo mysql -u root -p

create database cacti;
grant all privileges on cacti.* to osradar@localhost identified by 'yourpassword';
flush privileges;
quit;

Now, run the below command to give permissions to new user for accessing the mysql.time_zone_name table.

sudo mysql -u root -p mysql < /usr/share/mysql/mysql_test_data_timezone.sql

Now, login to MySQL and give permissions to “osradar” user.

sudo mysql -u root -p

GRANT SELECT ON mysql.time_zone_name TO osradar@localhost;
flush privileges;
exit

Step 5: Install SNMP & rrdtool on Ubuntu 20.04

Now, run the below command to get install the SNMP and rrdtool for the monitoring of devices.

sudo apt install -y snmp php-snmp rrdtool librrds-perl

Step 6: Downloading & Configuring Cacti

Fetch the latest version of Cacti by running the below command or you can visit the official page to download the latest version of cacti.

wget https://www.cacti.net/downloads/cacti-latest.tar.gz

After the download finished extract the downloaded package.

tar -zxvf cacti-latest.tar.gz

Then move the resultant to the /opt directory.

sudo mv cacti-1* /opt/cacti

Now, hit the given command to import the default DB data to new cacti DB.

sudo mysql -u root -p cacti < /opt/cacti/cacti.sql

And then specify the DB type, DB name, host name, user & passwd info by editing the below file.

sudo nano /opt/cacti/include/config.php

Update to the similar changes.

/* make sure these values reflect your actual database/host/user/password */
$database_type = "mysql";
$database_default = "cacti";
$database_hostname = "localhost";
$database_username = "osradar";
$database_password = "'yourpassword'";
$database_port = "3306";
$database_ssl = false;

Now, create a crontab file to schedule the polling job.

sudo nano /etc/cron.d/cacti

Then add the below line.

*/5 * * * * www-data php /opt/cacti/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1

After it create a new site for the Cacti.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/cacti.conf

And make the following changes

Alias /cacti /opt/cacti
<Directory /opt/cacti>
    Options +FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride None
    <IfVersion >= 2.3>
       Require all granted
    </IfVersion>
    <IfVersion < 2.3>
       Order Allow,Deny
       Allow from all
    </IfVersion>
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php

    <IfModule mod_php.c>
        php_flag magic_quotes_gpc Off
        php_flag short_open_tag On
        php_flag register_globals Off
        php_flag register_argc_argv On
        php_flag track_vars On
        # this setting is necessary for some locales
        php_value mbstring.func_overload 0
        php_value include_path .
     </IfVersion>
DirectoryIndex index.php
</Directory>

Then fire the below command to enable the created site.

sudo a2ensite cacti

Finally restart the apache server to take effects.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Now, create a log file and also permit the Apache user (www-data) to write info on to cacti directory. You can do so by hitting the below command.

sudo touch /opt/cacti/log/cacti.log
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /opt/cacti/

Step 7 Finalizing Cacti Installation

As we’ve done all the necessary steps to Install & Configure Cacti on our Ubuntu system. So, now we are going to test our Installation. Go to your browser and type locahost/cacti or 127.0.0.1/cacti to finalize our Installation.

Provide the below details to set up Cacti installation.

Username = admin
Password = admin

For security reasons, change the password and provide new strong password.

Accept the License Agreement and hit Begin button.

Make sure that all requirements are okay.

And then hit “Next“.

Select the type of Server, as we are going to Install our first Server so I’m selecting the Primary Server.

Then press “Next” button.

And check the Directory Permissions.

After it press “Next“. And make sure all the options are okay(green tick).

Now, agree to the statement after reading it carefully. And then press “Next“

On the next page you can see the default profile page as we’ve already setup the cron job for every 5 minutes. Then click “Next”.

Then select the profile template and press “Next”.

Hit “Next” button to move on to the next step.

Finally finish the installation by checking the “Confirm Installation” box and click on “Install” button.

Then click on “Get Started” button when installation finished.

Now, you will be directed to the dashboard where you can perform different tasks. Navigate to the graphics section to see the graphic details of local or remote machines.

Now, you can see the graphs, resources and values and other network resources via cacti on your system. So, this is how you can install and configure Cacti on Ubuntu 20.04.If you’ve any question regarding this tutorial, feel free to ask in comments.

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Introduction

Cacti is a totally open-source network monitoring and graphing tool designed as a front-end software for the industry-trendy information logging tool RRDtool. Cacti harness the Power of RRDtool’s data storage and graphing functionality. Some suitable features of Cacti consist of:

• Rapid polling of metrics
• Assist for multiple information acquisition strategies
• Support for advanced graph template
• Consumer control functionality with ACL

Cacti offer an intuitive and smooth to use internet interface which may be used for small LAN installations up to complicated networks with lots of servers and networking devices. So, now we are going to start the installation of Cacti on Ubuntu 18.04.

Step 1: Update & Upgrade Your System

As usual, we do update & upgrade your Ubuntu 18.04 system to avoid any issues by typing

sudo apt-get udpate && sudo apt-get upgrade

Step 2: Installing PHP & Extensions

To install Cacti, we need the help of PHP and some extensions of PHP as they are the important part for the installation of Cacti on Ubuntu 18.04. Just fire the following command to install all of the required tools.

sudo apt-get -y install php php-mysql php-curl php-net-socket \
 php-gd php-intl php-pear php-imap php-memcache libapache2-mod-php \
 php-pspell php-recode php-tidy php-xmlrpc php-snmp \
 php-mbstring php-gettext php-gmp php-json php-xml php-common

From the above extensions, the most necessary tools are php-snmp & php-mysql. So, double check that all these are installed successfully. After the installation of these tools, check the version of php you’ve just installed.

php -v

Open the file /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini and set your correct timezone. You can view the current timezone by typing

grep date.timezone /etc/php/7.2/apache2/php.ini

Step 3: Installing Apache Server

Apache is one of the best web server that suits with the Cacti. So, install it by running

sudo apt-get -y install apache2

As the installation of Apache done, apply a security configuration to the Apache by permitting Prod ServerTokens only. Open the security.conf file with your favorite editor.

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf-enabled/security.conf

And then change the line 18 to

ServerTokens Prod

Allow firewall to open http & https ports if you have enabled ufw.

ufw allow http
ufw allow https

Then, restart the Apache service to take effect of the required changes by hitting

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 4: Install Database MariaDB

Make sure that you’ve already installed MariaDB on your Ubuntu system. If you don’t know how to install it, then follow the below link to go to the MariaDB installation page first & then continue from here to Install Cacti on Ubunut 18.04.

How To Install MariaDB on Ubuntu 18.04

After installing the database MariaDB, edit the file /etc/mysql/mariadb/mariadb.conf.

And under [mysqld] change the following setting to work properly.

max_heap_table_size=128M
 tmp_table_size=128M
 join_buffer_size=64M
 innodb_buffer_pool_size=512M
 innodb_doublewrite=OFF
 innodb_flush_log_at_timeout=3
 innodb_read_io_threads=32
 innodb_write_io_threads=16

Then restart MariaDB services.

sudo systemctl restart mysql

As the services restarted , create a new Database for Cacti:

mysql -u root -p

create database cacti;
grant all privileges on cacti.* to osradar@'localhost' identified by 'yourpassword';
flush privileges;
quit;

After it test the DB connection

mysql -u osradar -p
show databases;

Step 5: Install Cacti on Ubuntu 18.04

Now, after completing the all requirements needed for the installation of Cacti proceed towards the Cacti installation.
As stated earlier, Cacti depends upon Snmp & rrdtool tool for its function. So, install them by

sudo apt-get install snmp snmpd snmp-mibs-downloader rrdtool cacti cacti-spine

When prompted to choose the web server, select Apache.

For Database Configuration, choose the option no for manually configuring as we have already created DB for Cacti. So, choose no

Wait for few moments to finish the Installation process & then proceed towards the SNMP configuration.

Step 6: Configuring SNMP

Comment the following line mibs: on /etc/snmp/snmp.conf file

Change mibs to #mibs

Edit the file /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf & go to line 49 to configure the SNMP community name.

rocommunity OSRadar localhost

Note:Use your desired name

Disable the community access by commenting the following lines

Change
 rocommunity public default -V systemonly
 rocommunity6 public default -V systemonly
 To
 #rocommunity public default -V systemonly
 #rocommunity6 public default -V systemonly

Then restart snmpd services.

sudo systemctl restart snmpd

Run the snmpwalk command line tool to validate the snmp configuration as seen below:

sudo snmpwalk -v 2c -c OSRadar localhost system

Note: Don’t forget to change OSRadar with the name of your community string as you entered earlier.

Step 7: Configuring Cacti Server

Now, it’s time to finish the installation of Cacti Server on Ubuntu 18.04. Go to the file /usr/share/cacti/site/include/config.php

And on line no 49 change the cacti database connection info as highlighted.

Note: Make sure to change the osradar user with the user you’ve created during database creation for Cacti.

Then import the Cacti MySQL database schema

mysql -u osradar -p cacti </usr/share/doc/cacti/cacti.sql

Provide your user name

And setup mysql timezone

Firstly grant Cacti MySQL database user access to Timezone database by

mysql -u root -p

GRANT SELECT ON mysql.time_zone_name TO osradar@localhost;
Flush privileges;
QUIT;

And then setup the mysql timezone

mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root -p mysql 

Step 8: Finalizing Cacti Installation

As we’ve done all the necessary steps to Install & Configure Cacti on our Ubuntu system. So, now we are going to test our Installation. Go to your browser and type locahost/cacti or 127.0.0.1/cacti to finalized our Installation.

Accept the License Agreement and hit Begin button.

Then it will verify the requirements if they are okay.

Make sure that all requirements are okay.

And then hit “Next“

Here Select the type of Server, as we are going to Install our first Server so I’m selecting the Primary Server.

Then press “Next” button.

And check the Directory Permissions.

After it press “Next“.

Then click on the Finish button to finish the installation.

On the next page you’ll be asked to provide details of username & password. Provide admin admin in both fields. Then click on login.

For security reasons, you’ll be asked to change the password. So, choose the stronger password and then click “Save“.

Now, you’ll be directed to the Cacti Console.

Then Navigate to “Console>Devices” and add a new device to monitor it.

So, this is how we can Install Cacti on our Ubuntu 18.04.

The post How To Install and Configure Cacti on Ubuntu 18.04 appeared first on Linux Windows and android Tutorials.