How do I install Cacti?

Question

I'd like to use Cacti, but I'm not entirely sure how to install it.

I have a 10.04 Server that I'm installing this on.

Answer 1

This has been tested on 10.04 and 12.04 LTS.

It's as simple as installing the cacti package.

To do that, run sudo apt-get install cacti and then follow the prompts. It will ask you to set a password for the root MySQL user.

However, one thing that catches people is that it gives you a choice of which HTTP server you want to have it run under.

Unless you have good reason to do otherwise, select "Apache2" and hit enter.

Now it will go and install all the packages.

When it asks you if you want to have the database configured with dbconfig-common, select yes.

And then it will ask you for the password of the root user.

And then it will ask you to set a MySQL application password specifically for cacti.

Enter one in, and then repeat it in the confirmation dialog.

Once the install is done, head over to your-ip/cacti follow the prompts there.

Click next if you agree to the license.

Now you need to tell it what kind of installation - we're assuming you're doing a new install here, so just click "Next".

Now here is the important part.

It will try and find all the various tools it needs - by default, they should be all green, but if it isn't, you'll need to do some digging to find where that tool is.

Click next.

Now you're at the login screen. The default username is admin, and the default password is admin as well.

Now it will have a forced password change. Change your password to whatever you want it to be.

Hit next after that, and you're in!

Have fun with Cacti!