9 Create the MySQL Database and the Cacti user.

In this step, we create the Cacti user and group.

groupadd cacti
useradd -g cacti cactiuser
usermod -G cacti cactiuser

Now, we will create the database and grant permissions on it as needed.

mysql -u root -p

Enter your password and at the MySQL prompt, enter the following commands:

create database cacti;
grant all on cacti.* to root;
grant all on cacti.* to root@localhost;
grant all on cacti.* to cactiuser;
grant all on cacti.* to cactiuser@localhost;
set password for cactiuser@localhost=password('cactipw');
exit

Finally, let’s import the SQL file that will create the tables (remember that you will need to use your MySQL password to complete this command):

cd /../downloads/cacti-0.8.6j
mysql -uroot -p cacti < cacti.sql

10 Set permissions on Cacti directories

Now we need to set some permissions to allow Cacti to function properly:

cd /../usr/local/cacti
chown -R cactiuser rra/ log/
chgrp apache log/cacti.log
chmod g+w log/cacti.log

11 Implement CRON job for Cacti poller

We’re almost done with the manual configuration.  Our last step is to schedule the Cacti poller to run every five minutes.

su cactiuser
crontab -e

Now, press "Esc I" to enter edit mode within the vi editor and paste the following:

*/5 * * * * cactiuser /usr/bin/php /usr/local/cacti/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1

Note: Be sure that when you paste this line into crontab, that it is all on one line.  I'm not sure if it is a formatting issue or what, but sometimes when I paste it in, it wants to break off and place the "/dev/null 2>&1" section on a separate line which will cause the poller to fail.

Press the "Esc" key once to exit edit mode and then type the following and hit then enter key:

:wq

Before moving on, let's verify that your crontab looks correct.  The following command will show you the contents of your cron job.

crontab -l

If everything looks good, then you can exit the cactiuser account and go back to the account you were previously working with. For example, if you were root, you would type the following:

su root

12 Install Cacti

We are finally at the area where we begin to pull it all together.  In the browser of your choice (most likely on another machine, unless you have opted for an X Window System on your server), enter your servers address into the address bar:

http://server IP address/cacti/

If you do have an X Windows system on your server, you could simply go to:

http://localhost/cacti/

On the first screen, click "Next".

One the second screen, ensure that "New Install" is selected and click "Next".

On the third screen ensure that your paths match the ones shown below and that there are no errors.  If you do see any errors or have paths not found, double check to ensure that you have installed everything, otherwise click on the "Finish" button.

RRDTool Binary Path: /usr/bin/rrdtool
PHP Binary Path: /usr/bin/php
snmpwalk Binary Path: /usr/bin/snmpwalk
snmpget Binary Path: /usr/bin/snmpget
snmpbulkwalk Binary Path: /usr/bin/snmpbulkwalk
snmpgetnext Binary Path: /usr/bin/snmpgetnext
Cacti Log File Path: /usr/local/cacti/log/cacti.log
SNMP Utility Version: NET-SNMP 5.x
RRDTool Utility Version: RRDTool 1.2.x

At the login screen, the first time login is:

Username: admin
Password: admin

You will now be forced to change your password.

One final step is to change the settings for the RRDTool Default Font Path within Cacti to the proper setting.  Under the ‘Configuration’ section of the Cacti menu, you should see a link for ‘Settings’.  Now click on the ‘Paths’ tab and midway down the page, you should see ‘RRDTool Default Font Path’. In this area, enter the following:

/usr/local/rrdtool-1.2.23/share/rrdtool/fonts/DejaVuSansMono-Roman.ttf

Now click on the save button.

You should now have a fully functioning Cacti installation, although it will take a few minutes for the graphs to populate (they will not show images until the poller has run).

For additional information on how to expand your monitoring solution, I recommend the following sites:

Cacti - http://www.cacti.net/
Cactiusers - http://cactiusers.org/