MyGeekProject

Just recently I downloaded the ISO from torrent and setup a new Cacti server. This is one of my favorite monitoring systems which is free. If you recently set one up you notice a bit of frustration in that it did not work right out the gate. Here is what I had to change in order to get the poller running and a few tip and tricks.

First the poller. Log into the console or from ssh as “root”. Once you have logged into the server then do the following TWO command.

cd /var/www/html/poller.php
vi poller.php

If you’re not use to the VI console then read on otherwise skip to this section..

VI QuickTips

Navigating the code: Use the arrows to skim through the code.
Typing: Once you found your place to start typing just start typing, escape to navigate using arrows.
Exiting and Saving: press escape key if you have been typing, then :wq

Ok about a page or two into the code you will find the line that look like this..

$force = FALSE

Change it to TRUE and then save the code. You will need to run the poller manually in the web interface and then come back and follow the steps after running it manually back to FALSE. This should kick the poller to start to collect stats for you.

NOTE:

Couple of other things you might want to get running on the machine. Run these command as root from the terminal window.

Changing the network options

netconfig

Synching the Time

ntpdate -u 0.pool.ntp.org

Nightly updates – if you run into a lot of log problems with the server shut off updates.

service yum stop
chkconfig yum off

Changing the timezone

yum install system-config-date
system-config-date

That should about do it. I love working with this software and it will certainly help you figure out where most of your problems reside.

Here is a great plugin for the APC Masterview Switch. Just load in the XML document to keep track of the power consumption in the co-location or server room. It does report 4 units at a time.

Download plugin: cacti_host_template_apc_masterswitch_vmxml

I came across another complete Cacti ISO yesterday and began working with it. I was very impressed with everything that is comes with and how easy it was to get it up and running. I had to post this link for anyone who wants a complete all in one package that they can install on a VM or an old PC in the office.

CactiEZ – http://cactiez.cactiusers.org/

I would highly recommend that you take a look at this release.