RedHat / CentOS Install and Configure Cacti Network Graphing Tool

17 Feb 2023Best/Tutorial

Cacti is a popular network graphing tool that allows you to monitor and graph various metrics about your network devices. Here's how to install and configure Cacti on RedHat and CentOS:

Install the necessary packages using the yum package manager:

sudo yum install cacti cacti-spine httpd mariadb-server php php-mysqlnd net-snmp net-snmp-utils php-snmp -y

Start the mariadb service and configure it to start automatically on boot:
```
sudo systemctl start mariadbrnsudo systemctl enable mariadb
```
Run the mysql_secure_installation script to secure the MariaDB installation and set the root password:
```
sudo mysql_secure_installation
```

Create a new MySQL database for Cacti:

mysql -u root -p
CREATE DATABASE cacti;
GRANT ALL ON cacti.* TO cacti@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;

Replace 'password' with a strong password of your choice.

Import the default Cacti database schema into the new cacti database:
```
sudo mysql -u cacti -p cacti < /usr/share/doc/cacti/cacti.sql
```
Enter the password you set for the cacti MySQL user in step 4 when prompted.

Edit the Cacti configuration file /etc/cacti/db.php and set the MySQL database credentials:

sudo vi /etc/cacti/db.phprn$database_type = "mysql";
$database_default = "cacti";
$database_hostname = "localhost";
$database_username = "cacti";
$database_password = "password";

Replace 'password' with the password you set for the cacti MySQL user in step 4.

Edit the Apache configuration file /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf and add the following lines to allow access to the Cacti web interface from the local network:
```
<Directory /usr/share/cacti/>
 Options +FollowSymLinksrn AllowOverride None
 Order allow,denyrn Allow from 192.168.0.0/24
</Directory>
```
Replace 192.168.0.0/24 with the IP address range of your local network.
Edit the Cacti configuration file /etc/cacti/cacti.conf and set the timezone:
```
sudo vi /etc/cacti/cacti.conf
date_default_timezone = "Europe/London"
```
Replace Europe/London with your timezone.

Start the Cacti and Apache services and configure them to start automatically on boot:

sudo systemctl start cactirnsudo systemctl enable cactirnsudo systemctl start httpdrnsudo systemctl enable httpd

Open your web browser and go to http://<cacti-server>/cacti/ to access the Cacti web interface. The default login credentials are admin / admin.

rnThat's it! You should now be able to use Cacti to monitor and graph various metrics about your network devices.