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Install and configure Cacti v0.8.7g on Ubuntu v10.04.1 step by step

October 14, 2010 richardkok 2 comments

On many occasions I am asked on how to monitor SNMP based systems with a low budget.
There are many commercial tools that can fulfill this request however they mostly require a lot of funding. Environments like schools or universities require a low cost solution.
A good solution would be cacti running on a linux based guest OS.
In this article I am going to explain on how to configure this in an Lab environment.

Required products
VMware Workstation (http://www.vmware.com/products/workstation/)
Linux Ubuntu v10.04.1 (http://www.ubuntu.com/server)
Cacti v0.8.7g and Plug-ins (http://www.cacti.net/)

Required steps
Step 1. Preparing VMware Workstation
Step 2. Install and Configure Ubuntu v10.04.1
Step 3. Install and Configure v0.8.7g and Plug-ins

Step 1. Preparing VMware Workstation

Install VMware Workstation on your computer
Start VMware Workstation
Choose create New Virtual Machine

Choose: Typical and click on <NEXT>

Choose: I will install the operating system later. and click <NEXT>

Choose: Linux and the appropriate version and click <NEXT>

Choose: Virtual Machine Name and File Location and click <NEXT>

Choose: 10 GB as disk size (as you prefer offcourse) and click on <NEXT>

Click: Customize Hardware

Set memory size to 1 GB

Set CD/DVD to use the ubuntu ISO file you downloaded

Choose the appropriate Network Connection

Click: <OK> and <FINISH>

Step 2. Install and Configure Ubuntu v10.04.1

Power on the virtual machine and the installation will start
Choose as language : English

Choose: Install Ubuntu Server

Choose Language: English – English

Choose your country

Choose your keyboard layout

Choose: Configure Network Manually

Choose an unused Ip Address that can reach the SNMP based devices you want to monitor

Choose the subnetmask

Choose the default gateway (if any)

Choose the DNS server

Choose an hostname

Choose the appropriate domain name

Choose your partitioning method

Select the partition

Write changes to disk : Yes

Add an user account called : administrator

Again add an user account called : administrator

Add an password for the account administrator : adminpass

Add the same password again for verification

Encrypt Home Directory : No

Enter a proxy account if needed

Choose : no automatic updates

To install cacti we need : Linux, Apache, Mysql and PHP (LAMP)

Choose a password for the mysql root user : mysqlpass

Add the same password again for verification

Install the GRUB boot loader : Yes

The installation is complete

Step 3. Install and Configure v0.8.7g and Plug-ins

administrator@CACTI:~$ sudo –i
root@CACTI:~# cd /
root@CACTI:/# apt-get update
root@CACTI:/# apt-get install php5 php5-cli php5-gd php5-mysql php5-cgi php5-snmp -y
root@CACTI:/# apt-get install ssh -y
root@CACTI:/# apt-get install snmp -y
root@CACTI:/# apt-get install rrdtool –y
root@CACTI:/# apt-get install sendmail –y
root@CACTI:/# mkdir cacti-install
root@CACTI:/# cd cacti-install
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/cacti-0.8.7g.tar.gz
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# tar –zxvf cacti-0.8.7g.tar.gz
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# mv /cacti-install/cacti-0.8.7g/ /var/www/cacti
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# groupadd cacti
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# useradd -g cacti cactiuser
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# chown –R cactiuser /var/www/cacti/rra
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# chown –R cactiuser /var/www/cacti/log
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# chmod –R 777 /var/www/cacti/log
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# chmod –R 777 /var/www/cacti/rra
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# mysql –u root –p

mysql> set password for root@localhost=password(‘rootpassword’);
mysql> create database cactidb;
mysql> grant all on cactidb.* to root;
mysql> grant all on cactidb.* to root@localhost;
mysql> grant all on cactidb.* to cactiuser;
mysql> grant all on cactidb.* to cactiuser@localhost;
mysql> set password for cactiuser@localhost=password(‘cactipass’);
mysql> flush privileges;
mysql> exit

root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# mysql –u root –p cactidb < /var/www/cacti/cacti.sql
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# nano /var/www/cacti/include/config.php

$database_type = “mysql”;
$database_default = “cactidb”;
$database_hostname = “localhost”;
$database_username = “cactiuser”;
$database_password = “cactipass”;
$database_port = “3306”;

root@CACTI:/ nano /etc/crontab

*/5 * * * * cactiuser php5 /var/www/cacti/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1

root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/spine/cacti-spine-0.8.7g.tar.gz
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# tar –zxvf cacti-spine-0.8.7g.tar.gz
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# mv /cacti-install/cacti-spine-0.8.7g/ /usr/local/spine
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# cd /usr/local/spine
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# apt-get install automake -y
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# apt-get install autoconf -y
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# apt-get install libtool -y
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# apt-get install libsnmp-dev -y
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# apt-get install libsnmp-base -y
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# apt-get install libsnmp15 -y
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# apt-get install libmysqlclient15-dev -y
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# aclocal
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# libtoolize –force
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# autoheader
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# autoconf
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# automake –add-missing
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# automake
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# ./configure
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# make
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# make install
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# cp /usr/local/spine/spine.conf.dist /usr/local/spine/spine.conf
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# nano spine.conf

DB_Host localhost
DB_Database cactidb
DB_User cactiuser
DB_Pass cactipass
DB_Port 3306
DB_PreG 0

root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# cd /var/www/cacti
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/patches/0.8.7g/data_source_deactivate.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/patches/0.8.7g/graph_list_view.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/patches/0.8.7g/html_output.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/patches/0.8.7g/ldap_group_authenication.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/patches/0.8.7g/script_server_command_line_parse.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/patches/0.8.7g/ping.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/patches/0.8.7g/poller_interval.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# patch -p1 -N < data_source_deactivate.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# patch -p1 -N < graph_list_view.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# patch -p1 -N < html_output.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# patch -p1 -N < ldap_group_authenication.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# patch -p1 -N < script_server_command_line_parse.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# patch -p1 -N < ping.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# patch -p1 -N < poller_interval.patch
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/# cd /usr/local/spine
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/spine/patches/0.8.7g/unified_issues.patch
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# patch -p1 -N < unified_issues.patch
root@CACTI:/usr/local/spine/# cd /cacti-install/
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# wget http://mirror.cactiusers.org/downloads/plugins/cacti-plugin-0.8.7g-PA-v2.8.tar.gz
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# tar –zxvf cacti-plugin-0.8.7g-PA-v2.8.tar.gz
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# cp -r /cacti-install/cacti-plugin-arch/files-0.8.7g/* /var/www/cacti
root@CACTI:/cacti-install/# cd /var/www/cacti
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti# patch -p1 -N –dry-run < /cacti-install/cacti-plugin-arch/cacti-plugin-arch.diff
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti# patch -p1 -N < /cacti-install/cacti-plugin-arch/cacti-plugin-arch.diff
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti# nano /var/www/cacti/include/global.php

$database_type = “mysql”;
$database_default = “cactidb”;
$database_hostname = “localhost”;
$database_username = “cactiuser”;
$database_password = “cactipass”;
$database_port = “3306”;

root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti# nano /var/www/cacti/include/config.php

$database_type = “mysql”;
$database_default = “cactidb”;
$database_hostname = “localhost”;
$database_username = “cactiuser”;
$database_password = “cactipass”;
$database_port = “3306”;
$url_path = “/cacti/”;

root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti# mysql -u root -p cactidb < /cacti-install/cacti-plugin-arch/pa.sql
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti# cd plugins
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# wget http://docs.cacti.net/_media/plugin:settings-v0.7-1.tgz
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# mv plugin\:settings-v0.7-1.tgz settings-v0.7-1.tgz
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# tar –zxvf settings-v0.7-1.tgz
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# wget http://docs.cacti.net/_media/plugin:monitor-v1.2-1.tgz root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# mv plugin\:monitor-v1.2-1.tgz monitor-v1.2-1.tgz
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# tar –zxvf monitor-v1.2-1.tgz
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# mysql -u root -p cactidb < /var/www/cacti/plugins/monitor/monitor.sql
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# wget http://docs.cacti.net/_media/plugin:discovery-v1.1-1.tgz root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# mv plugin\:discovery-v1.1-1.tgz discovery-v1.1-1.tgz
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# tar –zxvf discovery-v1.1-1.tgz
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# mysql -u root -p cactidb < /var/www/cacti/plugins/discovery/discover.sql
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# wget http://docs.cacti.net/_media/plugin:mactrack-v2.9-1.tgz root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# mv plugin\:mactrack-v2.9-1.tgz mactrack-v2.9-1.tgz
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# tar –zxvf mactrack-v2.9-1.tgz
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# mysql -u root -p cactidb < /var/www/cacti/plugins/mactrack/mactrack.sql
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# wget http://docs.cacti.net/_media/plugin:spikekill-v1.2-1.tgz root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# mv plugin\:spikekill-v1.2-1.tgz spikekill-v1.2-1.tgz
root@CACTI:/var/www/cacti/plugins# tar –zxvf spikekill-v1.2-1.tgz

Now start a webbrowser and go to http://10.200.30.30/cacti
Choose <NEXT>

Choose <NEXT>

Choose <FINISH>

Enter username : admin and password : admin and click <Login>

Add a new password to your liking and click <Save>

Choose settings

Choose path and enter the spine poller path and click on <Save>

Choose Poller and change the poller to spine and click on <Save>

Choose user management and click on admin

Enable plugin management en click op <Save>

Choose plugin management en install & enable all plugins

Now you are ready to add devices and monitor your SNMP based devices.

This concludes my article about installing and configuring cacti v0.8.7g on Ubuntu v10.04.1. I hope you found this article usefull and feel free to comment.

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