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Installed on Debian 6 - 64bit. Webserver : Nginx

Here is what I did so far:

  1. apt-get install cacti and apt-get install snmpd
  2. chmod 644 /etc/cacti/debian.php
  3. Set date.timezone in php.ini
  4. Added extension=gd.so in php.ini
  5. Tried running php poller.php

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  • I haven't used Cacti for a while but I remember there's a "Debug mode" where you define the graphs. This tells you the command given to rrdtool and any error messages it returned. Probably click on one of the wrench icons in your screenshot and look for a link that says "Debug". There's also a Cacti log but this tends to be for the poller, not the front end. The php error log may also contain useful information. When you find some, add it to your question.
    – Ladadadada
    May 13, 2012 at 19:23
  • You normally need the poller in a cron job. It's probably best to get that working first. You can check that it's working by using rrdtool --dump (I think that's the right option) on one of the .rra files.
    – Ladadadada
    May 13, 2012 at 19:27
  • @Ladadadada Sorry but I have no Idea what rrdtool is and how it is related to cacti. I can't find any rra file. And I can't find Debug mode anywhere. I just wanted to have a monitoring app for checking my system's traffic usage, server load, etc... . Maybe cacti is not what I am looking for ?
    – Hassan
    May 13, 2012 at 19:57
  • 1
    rrdtool is used for dealing with round robin archives (RRA). RRA files are the "database" that Cacti stores the data in that it turns into the graphs. It should have been installed as a dependency of Cacti. Cacti does do what you want but its flaws are in configuration and error reporting. Munin and Zabbix do similar jobs and have different flaws. You may find them easier to configure for your first time.
    – Ladadadada
    May 13, 2012 at 20:09
  • Thanks a lot. I tried zabbix but couldn't manage to compile and install it properly. And munin was super easy. but it's web gui has no security. I will stick to Munin for now to see if it does what I want.
    – Hassan
    May 13, 2012 at 21:03

1 Answer 1

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Assuming cacti has been set up correctly, which it should since you used apt-get et al, you could use snmp to get graphs, then configure cacti to poll the snmp daemon. This is a procedure I use to set up a host to be monitored by cacti. This can be a localhost or a remote server.

apt-get install snmp snmpd libsnmp9-dev
mv /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf_old
echo 'syslocation "Your location"'   > /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf
echo 'syscontact [email protected]' >> /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf
/etc/init.d/snmpd stop
net-snmp-config --create-snmpv3-user -ro -a "passWORD" username
/etc/init.d/snmpd start

For snmpd to listen on anything else besides 127.0.0.1 edit /etc/default/snmpd. Assuming the LAN ip of the server is 10.11.11.2

SNMPDOPTS='-Lsd -Lf /dev/null -u snmp -I -smux -p /var/run/snmpd.pid 127.0.0.1 10.11.11.2'

Restart:

/etc/init.d/snmpd restart

Now on the cacti web interface you add the host with IP 10.11.11.2. Use following settings, these can be changed of course by changing above commands accordingly:

Hostname: 10.11.11.2
SNMP Username (v3): username you gave above
SNMP Password (v3): password you gave above
SNMP Version: Version 3
SNMP Auth Protocol (v3): MD5
SNMP Privacy Passphrase (v3): leave empty
Choose the SNMPv3 Authorization Protocol: none
SNMP Port: 161

Save and configure the rest the way you want. The host information from devices menu should show you information it got from the snmpd server under "SNMP Information", such as uptime and hostname as well as location.

You can check logs (/var/log/syslog) on snmpd server whether cacti is polling, it shows up like this (UDP traffic), assuming cacti server has IP 10.11.11.11:

May 11 06:28:59 example snmpd[1881]: Connection from UDP: [10.11.11.11]:56247->[10.11.11.2]

Update: for the template you can create something like this, call it "Linux_server" if you want. This is just what I use, but you may have different requirements:

Associated Graph Templates
1) Host MIB - Logged in Users 
2) ucd/net - CPU Usage 
3) ucd/net - Load Average 
4) ucd/net - Memory Usage 

Associated Data Queries
1) SNMP - Get Mounted Partitions 
2) SNMP - Get Processor Information 
3) SNMP - Interface Statistics 
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  • Thanks for reply I didn't know I should have set the snmp configs. What did you mean by "Your Location" ? Ip address ? I am setting cacti on my vps, So I guess it's remote. I used 127.0.0.1 for location anyway. and my real email address. and in /etc/default/snmpd I added 127.0.0.1 at the end of string. Then I went to cacti web gui, changed snmp settings to version 3. enter my user pass But when trying to save, I get SNMP error. here is what syslog is showing : ` ruleset=check_relay, arg1=localhost.localdomain, arg2=127.0.0.1, relay=localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1], reject=451 4.3.0`
    – Hassan
    May 16, 2012 at 11:22
  • When I run php poller.php I get warnings and errors. And I think I am doing this completely wrong, both at cacti and snmp settings. If it's possible I would like to check every setting page in cacti with you.
    – Hassan
    May 16, 2012 at 15:48
  • With location I meant the place the server is located, it's just for informational purposes. If your cacti server and the snmp daemon that supplies it with data are both on the same server you can use 127.0.0.1 as the IP to poll data from.
    – aseq
    May 16, 2012 at 18:15
  • Don't forget to use the IP address of the snmpd server in the hostname field. Make sure to check if the snmp daemon is actually running and listening to port 161 (use: nmap -sU -p 161 x.x.x.x).
    – aseq
    May 16, 2012 at 18:27
  • Here is my whole snmpd.conf file : pastebin.com/Le3W7Jrs And my snmpdfile : pastebin.com/tbaXpX26 And this is my Cacti device settings : i49.tinypic.com/a3p3cj.jpg and this is the output when I run php poller.php pastebin.com/8D7VVwGt And I have a firewall called csf, Do I need to allow that port 161 as ingoing or outgoing? Should I Run Nmap in the same server ? if yes what ip address should be used ? I am very grateful that you keep replying.
    – Hassan
    May 16, 2012 at 18:44

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