Installing Cacti on Red Hat 6

Prerequisite

Upgrade GCEMS to the version 10.5.3 software or above. Cacti is new to software version 10.5.3.
 

Note: Cacti is not supported in RHEL 6.x in any versions of software below 10.5.3.

 

Related Topics:

An Overview of Cacti Watcher

Upgrade from MRTG to Cacti

 

Installation of Cacti:

  1. If this is the first time using Cacti then a variable in the Defaults file will need to be added. Within Linux, open a terminal window and go to /opt/dialogic/IMG/GateControlEMS.

  2. Open the Defaults file using either vi editor or a text editor like gedit, add the following line to the end of the file:

    CACTI_SUPPORT:1

  3. Once done, the Defaults file should look like the following with the CACTI_SUPPORT:1 variable added.

    LOG_DIR:/opt/dialogic/common/log
    STATS_DIR:/opt/dialogic/common/stats
    CONFIG_DIR:/opt/dialogic/common/config
    LICENSE_DIR:/opt/dialogic/common/license
    BACKUP_DIR:/opt/dialogic/common/backup
    LLC_SWITCHBACK_MODE:1
    LOG_LEVEL:1
    STATS_FREQUENCY:5
    FILE_MAX_SIZE:25
    APP_DISABLED_TIMEOUT:1200
    PRODUCT:IMG
    CACTI_SUPPORT:1
     

Note: The variable CACTI_SUPPORT:1 in the Defaults file informs you that the Cacti functionality is enabled. In order to disable Cacti change the variable to CACTI_SUPPORT:0. Once variable is set it remains set in the Defaults file unless it is manually deleted. Even when installing a newer build, the variable will stay set.

  1. Once the variable is set then the Cacti dependencies must be installed.

Note: If user will modify any parameter of httpd service’s configuration at any time, then this service should be restarted again.

 

Verify Installation of Cacti:

  1. In order to verify that the installation worked, you must log into your system from a separate browser on a different PC. From the second PC, open a browser like Internet Explorer and enter the following:

    http://<ip address>/cacti  -  See screen capture below.
     

Note: The IP address entered is the IP address of the GCEMS server that cacti is being installed to.

 

sc_cacti_verify_from_browser.png
 

  1. Once the browser negotiates to the correct IP address the following screen will appear. Select "Next" button.

    sc_cacti_install_guide_rh6.png

  2. Select New Install at the type of installation and click "Next" button.

    sc_cacti_install_new_install_rh6.png

  3. Read each of the installation screens and choose the installation for your system. When you get to the following screen below, some changes must be made. Select "Finish" button when done.

    sc_cacti_change_path_rh6.png
     

Note: Any of the above settings can be changed at any time by going to Cacti Settings from within the Cacti Application.

  1. The next screen that appears is the login screen. Enter the user and password.

    sc_cacti_user_login.png

    UserName: admin
    Password: admin

  2. A password reset screen will appear. Reset the password to cactipw.

    sc_cacti_user_login.png

Note: The password can be set to anything you would like. Support personnel will need to be informed if the password is not cactipw.

  1. Once password is set the following page will appear. If you get into this screen, you have successfully installed and are now logged into Cacti.

    sc_cacti_loggedin_screen_rh6.png
     

  1. Cacti is installed and user is logged in. Cacti is a very powerful tool and there are many different settings etc. that can be configured. Below are a few basic aspects of Cacti, what they are, and how are they configured.
     

Threshold Plugin:

  1. On the left side of the Console screen under the Configuration Heading, there is a field named Plugin Management. Click on it. A screen like the following will appear:

    sc_cacti_plugin_screen1_rh6.png
     

  2. Press Actions icons on the left and then press the green icons to install these plugins.

    sc_cacti_plugin_screen2_rh6.png
     

  3. Once the plugins are installed, the Thresholds screen appears.

    sc_cacti_plugin_screen3_rh6.png
     

Using and Configuring Cacti:

  1. On the left side of the Console screen under the Management Heading, there is a field named Data Sources. Click on it. A screen like the following will appear:

    sc_cacti_data_sources_rh6.png

  2. The screen above shows all the Data Sources that are available in Cacti by default for the localhost. These are all Data Sources for the GCEMS server you are logged on to.
     

  3. In order to get the IMG data to be part of this list, you must start GCEMS.
     

  4. Once GCEMS is started then all the information from the /opt/dialogic/common/stats directory will now be sent to the RRDTool and from there will be sent to cacti to graph. In the above left corner of the screen above under "Select a Host", choose Any and the graphs set up for the IMG and the GCEMS will appear. See below.

    sc_cacti_datasource_allgraphs_rh6.png
     

Note: The stats file is queried every 5 minutes which is the default set up in GCEMS. It may take up to 5 minutes for the graphs to appear in the menu above. The interval in which the stats file is updated is configured in the Defaults file located at either.

 

/opt/dialogic/IMG/GateControlEMS.  (Software 10.5.1+)

Edit the line STATS_FREQUENCY:5 to change the interval

  1. Click on the graphs tab at the top of the page. All the graphs from the screen shot above will appear in graphical form. On the left side of the screen is a graph tree and on the right side are the graphs.
     

  2. Each of the graphs in the Data Source field can be configured individually. The email alerts and threshold values can be configured for each graph. In the Data Sources screen above, double click on one of the graphs under the Template Name field and a screen like below will appear.

    sc_cacti_datasource_rh6.png

  3. Thold is Cacti's alerting modules that integrates with Cacti's graphing engine. See below for features.

Cacti Settings Field:

  1. One other field that should be mentioned is the Settings field under Configuration. If you click on the Settings field and then the Alerting/Thold tab, the following screen below will appear.

    sc_cacti_alert_threshold_tab_rh6.png

  2. This is the global screen for setting email alerts and thresholds. From this page, an alerting email will be sent if any of the thresholds are exceeded. Also, the Base URL is the address of the GCEMS server. Verify this is correct or alerting will not work correctly.
     

Overview:

The above procedure explains how to install Cacti onto a GCEMs server and also gives a high level view on how to configure the application to start graphing data from the IMG. Cacti is a very powerful tool and can do much more than explained above. Refer to the documentation section at http://docs.cacti.net.