Install Cacti on CentOS 5

This page summarizes how to perform a basic installation of Cacti on CentOS 5. This tutorial assumes you have root/sudo access and have SELinux set to permissive or disabled.

If you notice a problem with this How-To or would like to provide feedback, please email Matt.

Install

Add RPMForge Yum Repository

• For x86 (32-bit) systems
  • rpm -Uhv http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/i386/rpmforge/RPMS/rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
    • From Dag Wieers

• For x64 (64-bit) systems
  • rpm -Uhv http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/x86_64/rpmforge/RPMS//rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.x86_64.rpm
    • From Dag Wieers

Install & Configure Prerequisites

• Install Apache
  • yum install httpd

• Configure Apache to start on boot
  • /sbin/chkconfig --levels 345 httpd on

• Configure iptables to allow Apache traffic
  • /sbin/iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
  • /etc/init.d/iptables save
  • /etc/init.d/iptables restart

Install & Configure Cacti and MySQL

• Install Cacti & Required Dependencies
  • yum install cacti mysql-server mysql php-mysql net-snmp net-snmp-utils php-snmp liberation-fonts

• Configure mysqld to start on boot
  • /sbin/chkconfig --levels 345 mysqld on

• Start mysqld
  • /etc/init.d/mysqld start

• Set the password for the MySQL root user
  • /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'PASSWORD-GOES-HERE'

• Create the MySQL cacti database (Note: The password you will be prompted for is the one you just set.)
  • /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root -p create cacti

• Log into the MySQL database and grant the cactiuser access to the cacti database
  • /usr/bin/mysql -u root -p

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 46
Server version: 5.0.77 Source distribution

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.

mysql> GRANT ALL ON cacti.* TO 'cactiuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'CACTIUSER-PASSWORD-GOES-HERE';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> quit
Bye

• Populate the cacti database (Note: You will use the password you created for cactiuser here)
  • /usr/bin/mysql cacti -u cactiuser -p < /var/www/cacti/cacti.sql

• Modify /var/www/cacti/include/config.php to have the correct password for the cacti database

$database_password = "CACTIUSER-PASSWORD-GOES-HERE";

• Modify root's crontab to update Cacti every five minutes
  • crontab -e

# Used to update Cacti
*/5 * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/cacti/poller.php >> /var/log/cacti 2>&1

• Modified /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf to fix url and allow access from anywhere

Alias /cacti /var/www/cacti/
<Directory /var/www/cacti/>
    DirectoryIndex index.php
    Options -Indexes
    AllowOverride all
    AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
    php_flag magic_quotes_gpc on
    php_flag track_vars on
</Directory>

• Start Apache
  • /etc/init.d/httpd start

• Go to http://servername/cacti/ & go through the following screens

Verify Install

• Try logging into your new Cacti installation by going to http://servername/cacti/ and logging in with the default user (admin) and the default password (admin).