Installing Cacti Network Monitoring Tool on Fedora 32 and Upwards

Summary:

Installing Cacti on Fedora 32

Server Architecture: x86_64 

Problem or Goal:

To install cacti monitoring tool on Fedora

Cause:

Cacti is a very important open source tool for network monitoring

Solution: 

1. Install Apache

[root@localhost ~]# dnf install httpd httpd-devel

2. Install MariaDB (MariaDB is the default implementation of MySQL in RHEL/CentOS 8/7 and Fedora 19 onwards.)

[root@localhost ~]# dnf install mariadb-server -y

3. Install PHP

# dnf install php-mysqlnd php-pear php-common php-gd php-devel php php-mbstring php-cli

4. Install PHP-SNMP

[root@localhost ~]# dnf install php-snmp

5. Install NET-SNMP

[root@localhost ~]# dnf install net-snmp-utils net-snmp-libs

 

6. Install RRDTool

[root@localhost ~]# dnf install rrdtool

7. Start Apache, MariaDB and SNMP Services

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl start httpd.service

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl start mariadb.service

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl start snmpd.service

8. Configure Apache, MariaDB and SNMP Services to start on boot.

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl enable httpd.service

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl enable mariadb.service

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl enable snmpd.service

9. Install Cacti

[root@localhost ~]# dnf install cacti

10. Configuring and Securing MySQL Server for Cacti Installation

#  mysql_secure_installation

MariaDB root passwd: xxxxxx

username to cacti DB: cacti

passwd to cacti DB: xxxxxx

11. Create MySQL Cacti Database

# mysql -u root -p

Enter password: 

Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.

Your MariaDB connection id is 17

Server version: 10.3.17-MariaDB MariaDB Server

Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

 

MariaDB [(none)]> create database cacti;

Query OK, 1 row affected (0.001 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL ON cacti.* TO cacti@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'xxxxx';

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.010 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH privileges;

Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.001 sec)

MariaDB [(none)]> quit;

Bye

12. Install Cacti Tables to MySQL

[root@localhost ~]# rpm -ql cacti | grep cacti.sql

/usr/share/doc/cacti/cacti.sql

(Now we’ve of the location of Cacti.sql file, type the following command to install tables, 

here you need to type the Cacti user password)

[root@localhost ~]# mysql -u cacti -p cacti < /usr/share/doc/cacti/cacti.sql   

NOTE:  -u specifies the user 'cacti' and -p specifies the db 'cacti', you will have to enter the passwd to cacti db "xxxxxx"

13. Configure MySQL settings for Cacti

[root@localhost ~] # vi /etc/cacti/db.php

14. Configuring Firewall for Cacti

[root@localhost ~]# firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http

[root@localhost ~]# firewall-cmd --reload

15. Configure Apache Server for Cacti Installation

# vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf

Alias /cacti    /usr/share/cacti

<Directory /usr/share/cacti/>

        <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>

                # httpd 2.4

                Require all granted

        </IfModule>

        <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>

                # httpd 2.2

                Order deny,allow

                Deny from all

                Allow from all

        </IfModule>

</Directory>

16. Restart the Apache service

[root@localhost ~]# systemctl restart httpd.service

17. Setting Cronjob for Cacti

[root@localhost ~]#  vi /etc/cron.d/cacti

Uncomment the following line. 

(The poller.php script runs every 5mins and collects data of known host which is used by Cacti application to display graphs)

*/5 * * * *    cacti   /usr/bin/php /usr/share/cacti/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1

18. Running Cacti Installer Setup in your browser

http://192.168.0.149/cacti/

Default login

User: admin

Password: admin

19. If you can't access the HTTP Service on your server, you might want to check your firewall and probably disable it for now.

[root@localhost ~]# service firewalld status

[root@localhost ~]# service firewalld stop

20. Accept the License agreement

21. Pre-installation Checks for Cacti installation

(please correct the suggested settings in your /etc/php.ini file as shown and restart Apache after making changes)

memory_limit = 800M

max_execution_time = 60

date.timezone = Africa/Juba

# timedatectl list-timezones

Africa/Juba

# timedatectl set-timezone Africa/Juba

22. Similarly, you also need to grant access to the MySQL TimeZone database for user Cacti, 

so that the database is populated with global TimeZone information

mysql> use mysql;

mysql> GRANT SELECT ON mysql.time_zone_name TO cacti@localhost;

mysql> flush privileges;

mysql> show variables like '%time_zone%';

23. To clear this ERROR: Your MySQL TimeZone database is not populated. 

Please populate this database before proceeding.

Run the following command

# mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root -p mysql 

Hit refresh and if the errors have cleared, you are good to proceed to next

24. Installation Type

25. Directory Permission Checks

Potential permission issues (ERROR!  /usr/share/cacti/log/ Not Writable)

Run the following commands to clear the error above

[root@localhost ~]# chown -R apache.apache /usr/share/cacti/log/

[root@localhost ~]# setenforce 0

26. Critical Binary Locations and Versions

27. Confirm Installation

Problem Solved?

You are welcome to ask questions in the comments section