How to Install Cacti: A Complete Guide

Cacti is a popular and open-source web-based network monitoring and graphing tool. It is designed to collect and graph data. This guide will provide you with a comprehensive step-by-step on how to install Cacti on a Linux server, tailored for network administrators and IT professionals.

Prerequisites

• A Linux server running a recent version of Ubuntu or CentOS.
• Access to the terminal with sudo privileges.
• Basic understanding of the Linux command line.

Step 1: Update Your System

Before you install any new package, it is crucial to update your system packages. Open your terminal and run the following commands:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade

For CentOS, the commands are:

$ sudo yum update

Step 2: Install Necessary Packages

Cacti requires a full LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP) stack. Ensure these are installed by executing:

$ sudo apt install apache2 mysql-server php php-mysql php-xml php-ldap php-mbstring

For CentOS:

$ sudo yum install httpd mariadb-server php php-mysql php-xml php-ldap php-mbstring

Step 3: Install Cacti Package

Once the LAMP stack is set up, you can proceed to install Cacti. Use the following commands:

$ sudo apt install cacti

On CentOS, you might need to enable EPEL repository first:

$ sudo yum install epel-release
$ sudo yum install cacti

Step 4: Configure MySQL

Secure your MySQL installation and set up a database for Cacti:

$ mysql_secure_installation

Create the database and user:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE cacti;
mysql> CREATE USER 'cactiuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cacti.* TO 'cactiuser'@'localhost';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Step 5: Configure Cacti

Edit the Cacti configuration file to set up the database:

$ sudo nano /etc/cacti/debian.php

Find the lines for database configuration and update them:

$database_username = 'cactiuser';
$database_password = 'password';

Step 6: Configure Apache to Serve Cacti

Modify the Apache configuration to allow the Cacti application:

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

Ensure the Apache service is running and restart it:

$ sudo systemctl restart apache2

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues during installation, check the Apache and MySQL log files located at /var/log/apache2/error.log and /var/log/mysql/error.log.

Summary Checklist

• Ensure system and package updates are completed.
• Install and configure the LAMP stack.
• Set up the Cacti database securely.
• Configure Cacti and Apache settings correctly.
• Verify Cacti installation and check logs if issues arise.

For further integration of Cacti with network monitoring, consider using tools like Nagios.