How to install Cacti in Debian Etch

Very good post, thanks a lot.

Does anyone know how to setup a Cisco switch with Cacti and netflow in order to graph bandwidth usage on a per IP address basis??

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Hi, the machine where i have the syslog and the cacti is the same. when i go to syslog in cacti, the logs from that machine are saying from: localhost...

how can i change it?

Thanks.

Hi, the machine where i have the syslog and the cacti is the same. when i go to syslog in cacti, the logs from that machine are saying from: localhost...

how can i change it?

Thanks.

IMHO a better way to install cacti is to grab the latest version from cacti's website or from sourceforge.net since binary package of cacti from Debian etch repo is quite outdated.

Install cacti and friends... (aptitude should take care of the rest of the dependencies)
# aptitude install mysql-server cacti php5-cli

Open your web browser to,
http://host/cacti

..And login with,
admin:admin

Use the cacti web interface to configure the devices you want to monitor.

EOL

If you have problem installing cacti 0.8.7b from www.cacti.net like this:

Delete that file and download a freh copy of cacti 0.8.7b from sourceforge.net.

something is funny about the editor when you log in as cacti through su. it wraps the command to the next line as you type. don't use su and just run

crontab -u cacti -e

from root.

then you can type the line normally and it scrolls over the edge rather than wrapping. this fixed it for me.

i am aware that it does not make much logical sense.

I have the same problem as the above posts.

I think you should look into this a little more.

Is there some small difference we can't notice? are your asterisks the standard character?

crontab will not accept this line of code.

after saving the file, it says

":2: bad hour errors in file. cannot install."

Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /var/www/cacti-0.8.7b/plugins/monitor/monitor.php on line 199

When I click on monitor tab I am getting above error.

Please apply this patch if you have error like this:

To apply patch, go to /var/www/cacti folder/ and download the patch

and run this command

I haven't used this plugin yet, I think the installation is same on installing syslog plugin but the configuration is quite difficult. Anyway here's the link on how to configure the plugin. I will try this plugin too, I will contact you soon if I will succeed. BTW you might be interested in this plugin as well. I don't know your name yet, could you please register so I can contact you. I am inviting you also to post stories, tutorials or anything related to Linux and Open Source.

Got one its a plugin (reportit) but cant get any manual or howto on how to create the reports.any idea? thanks for your usual support.

Got it running now. Your a savior. Thanks a lot. May i ask if what report plugins are available for cacti. i really need some sort of a reporter. thanks again for your usual support.

Hi, Could you please explain what kind of reporter plugin you need?

Hi,

Got it running now. Your a savior. Thanks a lot. May i ask if what report plugins are available for cacti. i really need some sort of a reporter. thanks again for your usual support.

Your syntax looks fine. It should work, make sure you put space between each */5 * * * *.

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/cacti-0.8.7b/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1

I have the same syntax in my crontab and its working fine.

Hi, I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you that you need to install syslog-ng to be able to view syslog logs in cacti using the syslog plugin.

To install syslog-ng, type this command:

Edit your /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf and find the following lines:

# sources

# all known message sources
source s_all {
        # message generated by Syslog-NG
        internal();
        # standard Linux log source (this is the default place for the syslog()
        # function to send logs to)
        unix-stream("/dev/log");
        # messages from the kernel
        file("/proc/kmsg" log_prefix("kernel: "));
        # use the following line if you want to receive remote UDP logging messages
        # (this is equivalent to the "-r" syslogd flag)
        # udp();
};

Uncomment the line # udp(); to receive logs from a remote machine trough the network.

# sources

# all known message sources
source s_all {
        # message generated by Syslog-NG
        internal();
        # standard Linux log source (this is the default place for the syslog()
        # function to send logs to)
        unix-stream("/dev/log");
        # messages from the kernel
        file("/proc/kmsg" log_prefix("kernel: "));
        # use the following line if you want to receive remote UDP logging messages
        # (this is equivalent to the "-r" syslogd flag)
        udp();
};

Add these following lines to the end of the file (still in your /etc/syslog-ng/syslog-ng.conf file).

destination d_mysql {
        pipe("/var/log/mysql.pipe"
        template("INSERT INTO syslog_incoming
        (facility, priority, date, time, host, message, seq, status)
        VALUES ( '$FACILITY', '$PRIORITY', '$YEAR-$MONTH-$DAY', '$HOUR:$MIN:$SEC', '$HOST', '$MSG', '$SEQ', '$STATUS' );\n") template-escape(yes));
};

log {
        source(s_all);
        destination(d_mysql);
};

Create a script called syslog2mysql.sh in your /var/www/cacti-0.8.7b/plugins/syslog directory and these lines:

#!/bin/bash

if [ ! -e /var/log/mysql.pipe ]
then
mkfifo /var/log/mysql.pipe
fi
while [ -e /var/log/mysql.pipe ]
do mysql -u cactiuser --password=cactiuser cacti < /var/log/mysql.pipe >/dev/null
done

Then make the script executable by typing:

Then create the temporary MySQL insertion file (pipe file)

Edit your crontab as root user

And add this line

@reboot /var/www/cacti-0.8.7b/plugins/syslog/syslog2mysql.sh > /dev/null 2>&1

As a cacti user

add these line to your crontab

*/1 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/cacti-0.8.7b/plugins/syslog/syslog_process.php > /dev/null 2>&1

It should be ok now
Anyway, here is my cacti with syslog plugin.

Hi,

Im getting this error when i'm editing the crontab file with this line..

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/cacti-0.8.7b/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1

the error is "bad hour"

Can someone help to explain..tq

Hi,

Im getting this error when i'm editing the crontab file with this line..

*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/cacti-0.8.7b/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1

the error is "bad hour"

Can someone help to explain..tq

Hi,

Got it running but as i have observed under Select Host(s): no Hosts appear where we can choose from...does this need more tweaks? Any idea on how to go about it? Thanks for your usual support.

Thanks Mr. Cahilig its working now. all i need to do is observe if logs are coming in. Your a savior.

A few plugins like syslog will require their own little tweaks or configuration changes to complete the installation of the plugin; you will need to consult the individual documentation of the Plugin. Anyway, to fix your problem; you need to import the syslog.sql located in the /var/www/cacti/plugin/syslog directory to your cacti database.

Edit the config.php, still under this directory and make sure it will look like this.

$syslogdb_type     = 'mysql';
$syslogdb_default  = 'cacti';
$syslogdb_hostname = 'localhost';
$syslogdb_username = 'cactiuser';
$syslogdb_password = 'cactiuser';

Hi i have installed syslog but then when i try to access the site and view syslog this error would appear:

FATAL: Cannot connect to MySQL server on 'localhost'. Please make sure you have specified a valid MySQL database name in 'include/config.php'

the mysql username i have defined is the default from cacti ('cactiuser') the database name is also 'cacti' , password is 'cactiuser'. If i manually access mysql using 'cactiuser' as its user name and 'cactiuser' as its password i can access mysql. Both ntop and discover i have installed successfully.

Here is the listing from global.php and config.php

/* Default database settings*/
$database_type = "mysql";
$database_default = "cacti";
$database_hostname = "localhost";
$database_username = "cactiuser";
$database_password = "cactiuser";
$database_port = "3306";

i hope you could assist me on this. Thanks a lot

Thanks that was a great help. Its running now.

I assume that you follow my tutorial about Cacti installation. Before you install your plugin, you have to download the Cacti's plugin Architecture from here and move to /var/www/ directory.

There are two ways to install Cacti's plugin Architecture, by using pre-patch files and patch file.

The easiest way to install plugin architecture is using pre-patch files. Just copy all the files from files-0.8.7b directory to your cacti directory.

If you want to install using patch file, the command is slightly different. Please check if you have patch installed in your system, if you don't have it; please install it. Move the cacti-plugin-0.8.7b-PA-v2.1.diff to your cacti directory.

Then go to your cacti directory and type this command in the console:

If you don't see any errors, install the patch.

Then import the pa.sql from your /var/www/ directory to your cacti database.

Configure your cacti installation after installing the plugin architecture, edit your cacti/includes/global.php

and make sure it will look like this:

$config['url_path'] = '/cacti/';

Thats it, your cacti is updated and it support plugins. To install plugins, just download the plugins, extract and move to cacti/plugins directory. For example I will install the monitor plugin.

Then edit your cacti/includes/global.php to activate the plugin.

uncomment the //$plugins = array(); and //$plugins[] = 'thold';, then add the $plugins[] = 'monitor';. The plugin configuration should look like this:

$plugins = array();
$plugins[] = 'thold';
$plugins[] = 'monitor';

Login to your cacti interface, click the Console tab>>User Management>>Select admin>>in the Realm Permissions, check the Plugin Management, View Host Info, and the View Monitoring checkbox.
source:
http://cactiusers.org/wiki/PluginArchitectureInstall
http://cactiusers.org/wiki/PluginsInstall

do you happen to have a howto on how to install the plugins? I tried installing the plugin architecture based on the manuals i've search thru the web i just seem not to run.i would like to install the syslog plugin....but cant just make the archetecture work....the directories refered by the mauals is so confusing. im using debian etch.

Cool! No problem, I'm glad to help.

Thanks a lot your Howto really works. I had it installed from a Debian Etch clean install. More power.