Misc 35

Today we are going to do some SNMP graphing in Linux with Cacti. Cacti is known to be notoriously difficult to install in Windows, but in Linux we have a package which we can easily install:apt-get install cacti

For the installation, we'll choose to use "root" as the administrator. This account is required for creation of the tables. If you have a default installation, just type in "root" and proceed:


Now we'll enter the root password. It is "root" by default.


Next we'll create a cacti user for the database. This is the user would be the owner of the cacti table we would create in the next screen.


Enter the name of the table that cacti is going to use. The default should be good enough.


Now we'll choose apache2 to be the web server.


The rest of the process will be automated. Most of the configuration from now on will be done through the web interface at http://localhost/cacti/. Before we do anything with the server, we'll configure a Router to accept SNMP requests. The router will use the community-string of "HELLO" (without quotes) with RO:
en
conf t
snmp-server community HELLO ro

Now we can begin the configuration of Cacti. Log into the web interface and accept the license agreement (select New Install when prompted). When prompted for the versions of the tools, choose the highest from the list.

When prompted for the User Name and Password, use "admin" for both. You will then be asked to change the password. When you're done, you should be at this page:


Now at this point we would have to create a new host. To do this, click on "New Graphs" from the sidebar and click on "Create New Host":


I'll be using these settings. The ping settings doesn't need to be modified.



At this point you should be able to add some graphs. To do this, click on "Create Graphs for this Host":


In this example, I'm going to add a CPU utilization and an interface load graph


You are now ready to add the graphs into the tree. In Cacti, we work with a tree to organize the graphs. We'll keep it simple by adding the router to the root tree:


You would have to wait for some time for the router to have the "Up" status. Once it's up, you can browse over to the Graphs tab and you should see your Router listed.