====== How to install Cacti, a network graphing solution ======

Somewheres on the Accelerator form it was mentioned that a good system/resource monitoring program was [[http://cacti.net/index.php|Cacti]].  It is a php based system so it appears easy to install.  On my M Accelerator the only dependency missing was RRDTool, the following is how to install it.  Unfortunately, I've yet to master the usage so hopefully someone else can work on that section.  All documentation based on the [[http://docs.cacti.net/node/5|Cacti install steps]].

**What is Cacti?** Cacti is a complete network graphing solution designed to harness the power of RRDTool's data storage and graphing functionality. Cacti provides a fast poller, advanced graph templating, multiple data acquisition methods, and user management features out of the box. All of this is wrapped in an intuitive, easy to use interface that makes sense for LAN-sized installations up to complex networks with hundreds of devices.

  - Install RRDTool, Webmin -> System -> Software Packages, Install a New Package -> Package from CSW -> Browse CSW .. -> Find packages matching:  RRDTool -> Install
  - Assuming that you want Cacti to run on a subdomain (logging.mysite.com) create new virtual server logging.mysite.com with logical USERNAME/PASSWORD and DATABASE, otherwise you could install it in a folder of an existing domain.
  - Install Cacti<code bash>
ssh USERNAME@logging.mysite.com
cd  ~/web/public
mkdir temp
cd temp
wget http://superb-east.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/cacti/cacti-0.8.6j.zip
unzip cacti-0.8.6j.zip
cd cacti-0.8.6j
mv * ~/web/public
cd ~/web/public
rm -fR temp
mysql -uUSERNAME -pPASSWORD DATABASE < cacti.sql
chown -R USERNAME log/</code>
  - Update PHP memory_limit to 128m via Virtualmin, Services -> Configure Website, click Processes and Limits, set Memory resource limit to soft limit 128.  This will allow scripts to use up to 128 Megs of ram, obviously if you don't have this much ram you will need to research Cacti more 
  - Add the following to your cron tasks, setting the Cacti poller to run every five minutes <code cron>*/5 * * * * USERNAME /usr/bin/nice -n20 /opt/csw/php5/bin/php /home/logging.mysite.com/web/public/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1 </code> If using Webmin add the following command to be run by user USERNAME <code cron> /usr/bin/nice -n20 /opt/csw/php5/bin/php /home/logging.mysite.com/web/public/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1 </code> Set it to run every five minutes by select each value of 0,5,10,15... minutes 
  - Login, run the install steps, set your paths as needed, my paths were as follows; snmpwalk Binary Path -> /usr/sfw/bin/snmpwalk, snmpget Binary Path -> /usr/sfw/bin/snmpget, snmpbulkwalk Binary Path -> /usr/sfw/bin/snmpbulkwalk, snmpgetnext Binary Path -> /usr/sfw/bin/snmpgetnext, RRDTool Binary Path -> /opt/csw/bin/rrdtool, PHP Binary Path -> /usr/local/bin/php
  - Poke around and figure out how it works, I loaded a solaris template from 
http://forums.cacti.net/about11634-0-asc-15.html, but unfortunately I don't know if that works, at this time I only have graphs for Unix - Load Average and Unix - Logged in Users
  - TODO - usage, setup, etc...