Cacti is one of the best tools for both network and system monitoring solution. It is very popular and well-known tool so there are many people have known and used it I believe. It of course has very strong ability to provide complete network graphing so that you can see the amount of data usage, CPU and Memory capacity as well as number of prefixes from routing protocols. It is completely free which has been released under GNU General Public License with no string attached. The GUI is simple and very easy to use which suitable from small to very large network that contains hundred of network devices. RRDTool is the main part of the backend that creates and populate graph by using required information of network devices that are stored in MySQL database. PHP is the main part to play role for frontend side. It is mainly used to maintain Data Source, Graph and Round Robin Archive of the database. Also, you can use a pre-graph template or define a new custom one by yourself. There is option that you can change any color of graph as you want.
The Installation
You can get Cacti installed and running on any web server that supports PHP such as Apache and IIS. It requires some mandatory services to function correctly – MySQL, PHP, RRDTool and net-snmp. In conclusion, below bullet points are needed:- RRDTool 1.0.49 or greater, 1.4+ recommended
- MySQL 5.x or greater
- PHP 5.1 or greater
- Web Server that supports PHP e.g. Apache or IIS
For Linux/Unix
Required Packages for RPM-based Operating Systems- httpd
- php
- php-mysql
- php-snmp
- mysql
- mysql-server
- net-snmp
For Windows
Software Components Required- (Optional) Apache – This software is optional if running Windows Internet Information Server.
- Cacti – Install from the zip distribution and install in the web root or your choice. Many choose to install into a “Cacti” sub folder.
- Spine – Install from the zip distribution into the c:\cacti directory. Make sure your spine.conf.dist is located in that directory as well.
- RRDTool – Install from the Cacti website. Install it into the c:\cacti directory.
- PHP 5.x – Install into the c:\php folder. If you choose to install into c:\Program Files\php, you will have to use 8.3 filenames to reference it’s binaries in Cacti.
- MySQL 5.x – Install into the default location. This is typically c:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server X.XX.
- (Optional) Cygwin – Download and execute setup.exe from the Cygwin website. Keep the setup.exe file for later use.
- (Optional) Net-SNMP – Install to the c:\net-snmp directory. If you choose to use c:\Program Files\net-snmp you will have to use 8.3 filenames to reference it’s binaries in Cacti.
The Support
If you have any problem with Cacti itself, there are over 160 000 posts and 200 000 users in the discussing forum so you can find solution easily there.
The Screenshot
Download Cacti
The current version of Cacti is 0.8.8h which has been released on May 08, 2016. You can get this latest version via below download button. As described above, it is available for both Linux and Windows version.[button color=”blue” size=”medium” link=”http://www.cacti.net/downloads/cacti-0.8.8h.tar.gz” icon=”” target=”false”]Download For Linux/Unix[/button] [button color=”blue” size=”medium” link=”http://www.cacti.net/downloads/cacti-0.8.8h.zip” icon=”” target=”false”]Download For Windows[/button]
Wait!! The latest version is not what you are looking for?? Check HERE or via below button for older version of Cacti.
[button color=”blue” size=”medium” link=”http://www.cacti.net/downloads/” icon=”” target=”true”]Cacti Older Version[/button]
Need More Info?
Please visit Cacti official site for more information about its detail features and function as well as the installation process. Also, there are tone of plugin you can play with.
Have fun and drop us comment for feedback or help!
[button color=”gray” size=”medium” link=”http://www.cacti.net/” icon=”” target=”true”]Cacti Official Website[/button]