How to Install and Configure MRTG on Ubuntu 18.04
MRTG also known as "Multi Router Traffic Grapher" is a free and open source tool to monitor the traffic load on network links. You can monitor daily, weekly, monthly and yearly network traffic using MRTG. MRTG supports for Windows and Linux operating system. MRTG provides a simple web interface to display network traffic data in graphical form.
In this tutorial, we will learn how to install MRTG on Ubuntu 18.04 server.
Requirements
- A server running Ubuntu 18.04.
- A non-root user with sudo privileges.
Install Required Packages
Before starting, you will need to install some packages to your system. You can install all of them by running the following command:
sudo apt-get install apache2 snmp snmpd -y
Once all the packages are installed, start apache and snmp service and enable them to start on boot with the following command:
sudo systemctl start apache2
sudo systemctl enable apache2
sudo systemctl start snmpd
sudo systemctl enable snmpd
Install and Configure MRTG
By default, MRTG is available in the Ubuntu 18.04 default repository. You can install it by just running the following command:
sudo apt-get install mrtg -y
After installing MRTG, you will need to configure it to monitoring target devices. First, create a MRTG directory inside Apache root directory:
sudo mkdir /var/www/mrtg
Next, give proper ownership to the mrtg directory:
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/mrtg
Next, rebuild MRTG configuration with the following command:
sudo cfgmaker public@localhost > /etc/mrtg.cfg
You should see the following output:
cfgmaker public@localhost > /etc/mrtg.cfg --base: Get Device Info on public@localhost: --base: Vendor Id: Unknown Vendor - 1.3.6.1.4.1.8072.3.2.10 --base: Populating confcache --base: Get Interface Info --base: Walking ifIndex --base: Walking ifType --base: Walking ifAdminStatus --base: Walking ifOperStatus --base: Walking ifMtu --base: Walking ifSpeed
Next, Create an index file for the /web server with the following command:
sudo indexmaker /etc/mrtg.cfg > /var/www/mrtg/index.html
Configure Apache for MRTG
Next, you will need to create an apache virtual host file for MRTG. You can do this with the following command:
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/mrtg.conf
Add the following lines:
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin [email protected] DocumentRoot "/var/www/mrtg" ServerName yourdomain.com <Directory "/var/www/mrtg/"> Options None AllowOverride None Order allow,deny Allow from all Require all granted </Directory> TransferLog /var/log/apache2/mrtg_access.log ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/mrtg_error.log </VirtualHost>
Save and Close the file, when you are finished. Then enable virtual host and restart apache service to apply all the changes:
sudo a2ensite mrtg
sudo systemctl restart apache2
Now, open your web browser and type the URL http://yourdomain.com. You will be redirected to the following page:
