Cacti Beginner's Guide
Leverage Cacti to design a robust network operations center
2nd Edition
Published on 13. January 2025
420 pages
978-1-78829-348-8 (ISBN)
Description
No detailed description available for "Cacti Beginner's Guide".
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Thomas Urban
Cacti Beginner's Guide, Second Edition
Book
12/2017
Packt Publishing
€57.10
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Content
- Intro
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Credits
- About the Author
- About the Reviewer
- www.PacktPub.com
- Customer Feedback
- Table of Contents
- Preface
- Chapter 1: Installing Cacti
- Preparing the system - basic prerequisites
- Web server
- PHP
- MySQL database
- NET-SNMP package
- Installing Cacti on a CentOS 7 system
- Preparing the system
- Time for action - installing the missing packages and preparing the system
- What just happened?
- Downloading and extracting Cacti
- Time for action - downloading Cacti
- What just happened?
- Creating the database
- Time for action - creating the database
- What just happened?
- Configuring Cacti
- Time for action - configuring Cacti
- What just happened?
- Creating the poller cron entry and Cacti's system user
- Time for action - creating the poller's cron entry and Cacti's system account
- What just happened?
- Installing the Spine poller
- Time for action - installing Spine
- What just happened?
- Differences between source and APT/yum installations
- Have a go hero - remote server for database hosting
- Installing Cacti on a Windows system
- The community-built Windows installer
- Time for action - starting the Windows setup
- What just happened?
- Installing the Spine poller under Windows
- Upgrading Cacti
- Time for action - upgrading Cacti
- What just happened?
- Using Cacti for the first time
- Time for action - configuring Cacti
- What just happened?
- The Cacti web interface explained
- The Console tab
- Create section
- Management section
- Data Collection section
- Templates section
- Automation section
- Presets section
- Import/Export section
- Configuration section
- Utilities section
- The graphs tab
- The nectar tab
- The clog tab
- Before we continue
- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 1
- Summary
- Chapter 2: Using Graphs to Monitor Networks and Devices
- An introduction to Cacti graphs and RRDtool
- Creating graphs with RRDtool
- Basic RRDtool graph creation
- Advanced RRDtool graph creation
- Adding a label and title to the graph
- Adding a legend to the graph
- Adding a threshold line to the graph
- Adding threshold breaches to the graph
- Variable definition (VDEF)
- Further reading
- Have a go hero - create your own visual warnings
- Adding devices to Cacti
- Creating a new site
- Time for action - creating a new site in Cacti
- Creating a device
- Time for action - creating a new device in Cacti
- Selecting host templates for the device
- Time for action - adding a host template to the device
- Adding graphs to the device
- Time for action - adding graphs to the device
- Adding interface graphs to a device
- Time for action - adding interface graphs to a device
- Adding devices to the Cacti tree
- Creating a tree
- Time for action - creating a Cacti tree
- Sub-tree items
- Time for action - adding a sub-tree
- Adding the device to the tree
- Time for action - adding a device to the Cacti tree
- Before we continue
- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 2
- Summary
- Chapter 3: Creating and Using Templates
- An introduction to templates
- Data Source templates
- Data input methods
- Data queries
- Graph templates
- Device templates
- Defining a data source template
- Time for action - defining a data source template
- What just happened?
- Have a go hero - create your own TCP connections template
- Defining a graph template
- CDEF definition
- Time for action - defining a CDEF in Cacti
- Defining the graph template
- Time for action - defining the graph template
- Adding the threshold line
- Time for action - Adding new graph template items
- Adding the green, yellow, and red areas
- Time for action - adding the color areas
- Adding a legend to the graph
- Time for action - adding a legend
- Back to the basics - rrdtool graph command
- Defining a device template
- Time for action - defining a host template
- Assigning a host template to a device
- Importing/exporting templates
- Importing templates
- Time for action - importing a template
- Exporting templates
- Time for action - exporting a template
- The template repository
- Before we continue
- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 3
- Summary
- Chapter 4: User Management
- An introduction to Cacti user management
- Users
- Groups
- Permissions
- Creating a user
- Time for action - creating the first Cacti user
- General User Settings
- Graph Options
- Login Options
- Authentication Realm
- Permissions tabs
- Permissions
- Normal User permissions
- Template Editor
- General Administration
- System Administration
- External Link Permissions
- Plugin Permissions
- Group Membership
- Graph Permissions
- Device Permissions
- Template Permissions
- Tree Permissions
- User Settings
- Time for action - setting general permissions
- Tree Permissions
- Time for action - setting Tree Permissions
- User Groups
- Time for action - creating a User Group for Customer A
- The template user
- Time for action - installing the missing packages
- Copying permissions - the Batch Copy mode
- Time for action - Batch Copy
- Integrate LDAP/Active Directory authentication
- External User management
- Time for action - setting up Active Directory authentication
- Managing users with the Cacti CLI
- Importing a list of users
- Time for action - importing users from the CLI
- Input validation
- Checking the existence of the template user
- Reading in the import file
- Before we continue
- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 4
- Summary
- Chapter 5: Data Management
- An introduction to Cacti data management
- Data input methods
- Data queries
- Creating data input methods
- Preparation - creating the script
- Gathering the data
- Preparing the data for output
- Installation of the script
- Modifying the secure log permissions
- Time for action - creating a data input method - step 1
- Time for action - creating a data input method - step 2
- The data template
- Creating data queries
- Building the XML data file
- XML header
- XML input
- XML output
- Installing the XML file
- Creating the data query within Cacti
- Time for action - creating a data query - step 1
- Time for action - creating a data query - step 2
- Creating a remote SSH data input method
- Preparation
- The remote script
- The local script
- Input variables
- The SSH command execution
- Preparing the data
- SSH public key authentication
- Time for action - create SSH keys with ssh-keygen tool
- Creating the data input method
- Time for action - creating the data input method
- Creating the data template
- Creating the graph template
- Adding the graph to the device
- Alternative methods
- Have a go hero - remote command execution using SNMP
- Before we continue
- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 5
- Summary
- Chapter 6: Cacti Maintenance
- An introduction to Cacti maintenance
- Database
- RRD files
- The Cacti directory structure
- The cache directory
- The cli directory
- The docs directory
- The include directory
- The install directory
- The lib directory
- The locales directory
- The log directory
- The mibs directory
- The plugin directory
- The resource directory
- The rra directory
- The scripts directory
- Backup and restore procedures
- The MySQL/MariaDB database
- Time for action - backup your Cacti database
- What just happened?
- Enhancing the database backup
- Automatic file naming
- Remove old backup files
- The database backup
- Compress the backup
- The whole script
- The Cacti files
- Building the backup file list
- Time for action - backup your Cacti files
- Enhancing the database backup script
- Time for action - enhancing the backup script
- What just happened?
- Adding remote transfer with SCP
- Time for action - Adding SCP to the backup script
- What just happened?
- Creating the cronjob - automating the backup
- Time for action - creating a cronjob
- What just happened?
- Restoring from a backup
- Restoring the Cacti database
- Time for action - Restoring the Cacti database
- What just happened?
- Restoring the Cacti files
- Restoring all Cacti files
- Restoring a single file from the backup
- Log file management
- Time for action - configuring logrotate
- What just happened?
- Cacti maintenance
- List RRD files with no associated host
- Time for action - finding orphaned RRD files
- What just happened?
- A short overview of the Cacti CLI functionality
- Repairing templates
- Repairing the database
- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 6
- Summary
- Chapter 7: Network and Server Monitoring
- An introduction to network and server monitoring
- Network devices
- VMware ESX
- Linux server
- Windows WMI monitoring
- Monitoring a network device
- Configuring SNMP access on Cisco Switch
- Time for action - setup SNMP on Cisco devices
- What just happened?
- Adding Cisco Switch to Cacti
- Time for action - adding a Cisco Switch to Cacti
- What just happened?
- Configuring SNMP access on a Cisco PIX firewall
- Time for action - setting up SNMP access on Cisco PIX
- What just happened?
- Adding Cisco PIX firewall to Cacti
- Time for action - adding a Cisco PIX firewall to Cacti
- What just happened?
- Monitoring VMware ESX servers
- Preparing the SNMP access for VMware ESXi 6/6.5
- Time for action - enabling SSH access on a ESXi 6/6.5 server
- What just happened?
- Enabling the SNMP service on a VMware ESXi 6/6.5 server
- Time for action - enabling the SNMP service on a VMware ESXi host
- What just happened?
- Adding VMware ESX servers to Cacti
- Time for action - adding a VMware ESX host to Cacti
- Windows monitoring
- Windows SNMP setup
- Time for action - enabling the SNMP server feature
- What just happened?
- Configuration of the Windows SNMP service
- Time for action - configuring the Windows SNMP service
- WMI setup
- Time for action - setting up a Windows WMI user
- What just happened?
- Installing the CactiWMI add-on
- Installing the wmi.php Cacti interface
- Time for action - installing the CactiWMI add-on - Part 1
- Installing the wmic command
- Time for action - installing the CactiWMI add-on - Part 2
- What just happened?
- Performance measurement with CactiWMI
- Time for action - measuring performance with CactiWMI
- What just happened?
- Linux monitoring
- Linux SNMP setup
- Time for action - enabling SNMP on a Linux server
- What just happened?
- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 7
- Summary
- Chapter 8: Plugin Architecture
- Introduction to the plugin architecture
- Why plugins?
- Plugin features
- Common plugins
- MAC Track plugin
- Network Weathermap
- Thold
- Configuring the plugin architecture
- Time for action - configuring the plugin architecture
- What just happened?
- Downloading and installing plugins
- Plugin architecture (PIA) directory structure
- Pre-Cacti 1.x plugins
- The plugin repository
- The Graph Export (gexport) plugin
- Time for action - installing the gexport plugin
- What just happened?
- Removing a plugin
- Time for action - removing the gexport plugin
- What just happened?
- Updating a plugin
- Adding plugin permissions
- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 8
- Summary
- Chapter 9: Plugins
- Plugin design
- Plugin hooks
- Plugin settings
- The cycle_config_settings function
- Displaying plugin data within Cacti
- The cycle_show_tab function
- Commonly used plugins
- Creating a new plugin
- File structure
- Concept and design
- PIA hooks
- The tree_after hook
- The draw_navigation_text hook
- The config_arrays hook
- The config_settings hook
- The config_form hook
- The api_device_save hook
- The plugin setup
- The plugin_cbEnhancedInfo_install function
- Time for action - adding the realm permission functions
- What just happened?
- The cbEnhancedInfo_draw_navigation_text function
- The cbEnhancedInfo_config_form function
- The cbEnhancedInfo_api_device_save function
- The cbEnhancedInfo_setup_table_new function
- Time for action - adding additional fields to the host table
- What just happened?
- The cbEnhancedInfo_config_settings function
- The cbEnhancedInfo_config_arrays function
- Data presentation
- Retrieving data from the database
- Time for action - retrieving data from the database
- What just happened?
- Presenting data on the tree view page
- Time for action - presenting data on the tree view page
- What just happened?
- Creating the table list web page
- The action section
- Deleting data
- What just happened?
- The data retrieval section
- Time for action - sorting and retrieving data
- What just happened?
- Data presentation
- Time for action - presenting the data
- What just happened?
- Creating the add items form
- The form_display function
- The data retrieval section
- The data presentation section
- The form_save function
- Time for action - retrieving data from the form post
- What just happened?
- Time for action - creating a new database item
- What just happened?
- Time for action - updating an existing item
- What just happened?
- Installing the plugin
- Publishing
- Pop Quiz - A few questions about Chapter 9
- Summary
- Chapter 10: Threshold Monitoring with Thold
- Threshold monitoring
- Thold
- Installing Thold
- Downloading and installing Thold
- Time for action - installing Thold
- What just happened?
- Configuring Thold
- General options
- Default alerting options
- Default email options
- Default baseline options
- Syslog and SNMP notification
- Using Thold
- Assigning permissions and setting up an email address
- Time for action - giving permission to a user
- What just happened?
- Creating a notification list
- Time for action - creating a notification list
- What just happened?
- Creating a threshold
- Time for action - creating your first threshold - Part 1
- What just happened?
- The threshold creation page
- Template and General Settings section
- Threshold setup section
- Other Settings section
- Time for action - creating your first threshold - Part 2
- Testing the threshold
- Time for action - creating an artificial load
- Viewing threshold breaches
- Time for action - viewing breached thresholds
- What just happened?
- Creating threshold templates
- Time for action - creating your first threshold template
- What just happened?
- Assigning threshold templates
- Time for action - assigning a threshold template
- What just happened?
- Thold daemon
- Time for action - enabling the thold daemon
- What just happened?
- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 10
- Summary
- Chapter 11: Enterprise Reporting
- Overview of Nectar and CereusReporting
- Nectar
- CereusReporting
- Nectar
- Report generation
- Time for action - create your first Nectar report
- What just happened?
- Time for action - adding report items
- What just happened?
- CereusReporting
- Installation
- Time for action - installing CereusReporting
- What just happened?
- Plugin configuration
- Time for action - configuring CereusReporting
- What just happened?
- Report generation
- On-demand report generation
- Time for action - creating an on-demand report
- Pre-defined report generation
- Time for action - creating a pre-defined report
- Scheduling a report
- Time for action - scheduling a pre-defined report
- What just happened?
- Report backup and restore
- Time for action - backing up and restoring a pre-defined report
- What just happened?
- Report scheduling and polling performance
- Time for action - setting up cron-based report generation
- What just happened?
- Advanced reporting features of CereusReporting
- TCPDF report engine
- Cacti Data Source Statistics (DSSTATS) reports
- Availability reports
- SmokePing reports
- Report templates
- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 11
- Summary
- Chapter 12: Cacti Automation for NOC
- Overview of Cacti automation
- The Cacti CLI
- Users
- Permissions
- Trees
- Devices
- Graphs
- Overview of automation
- Trees
- Graphs
- Using the Cacti CLI
- Adding permissions
- Time for action - adding permissions to a user
- What just happened?
- Adding a Cacti tree
- Time for action - adding a Cacti tree
- What just happened?
- Adding a device
- Time for action - adding a single device to Cacti
- What just happened?
- Importing a list of devices into Cacti
- Adding a graph to a device
- Automation - true Cacti automation
- Automation rules
- Tree rules
- Time for action - adding a new tree rule
- Time for action - applying an automation rule to devices
- Graph rules
- Time for action - adding a graph rule
- Further information
- Pop quiz - Let's test your knowledge about Chapter 12
- Summary
- Chapter 12: Migrating Cacti to a New Server
- Overview of a Cacti migration
- The Cacti files
- The database
- RRD files
- The poller
- Firewall/network settings
- Differences between a 32-bit and 64-bit system
- Cacti files
- Enhancing the backup script
- Time for action - enhancing your Cacti backup
- What just happened?
- Time for action - removing RRD files from your Cacti backup
- What just happened?
- The RRD files
- Time for action - dumping and loading an RRD file
- What just happened?
- Enhancing the backup script to dump RRD data
- Time for action - enhancing your Cacti backup
- What just happened?
- Creating the initial cacti backup
- Time for action - creating the complete Cacti backup
- What just happened?
- Preparing the target system
- Restoring the Cacti files
- Time for action - restoring Cacti files
- What just happened?
- Restoring the database
- Time for action - restoring the Cacti database
- What just happened?
- Restoring the RRD files
- Time for action - restoring the RRD files
- What just happened?
- Updating the Cacti configuration
- Time for action - updating the Cacti configuration
- What just happened?
- Further information
- Pop quiz - let's test your knowledge
- Summary
- Chapter 14: Multiple Poller with Cacti
- Overview of the remote poller architecture
- The master server
- The remote poller server
- The network
- The database
- Firewall/network settings
- Setting up the master system
- Time for action - configuring the master system
- What just happened?
- Setting up the remote poller system
- Time for action - setting up the remote poller system
- What just happened?
- Prepare the remote poller
- Time for action - setting up the remote poller system
- What just happened?
- Final configuration of the master poller
- Time for action - setting up the remote poller system
- What just happened?
- Adding devices to the remote poller
- Time for action - setting up the remote poller system
- What just happened?
- Further information
- Pop quiz - let's test your knowledge about Chapter 14
- Summary
- Appendix A: Online Resources
- Cacti website
- Spine
- Plugin architecture hook API reference
- Cacti documentation
- Cacti forum
- Cacti GitHub page
- Cacti bug reporting
- Cacti GitHub plugin repository
- Howie's stuff
- RRDTool
- Tobi Oetiker
- RRDTool, Cacti, and time zones
- Xing German Cacti group
- LinkedIn Cacti group
- NMID plugins and CereusReporting
- Appendix B: Further Information
- The Round Robin database tool
- The RRD file architecture
- SNMP - the Simple Network Management Protocol
- The Management Information Base
- SNMPv1
- Security
- SNMPv2/SNMPv2c
- Security
- SNMPv3
- SNMP support in Cacti
- MRTG - Multi Router Traffic Grapher
- Where to get support?
- Cacti forums
- Mailing list
- Commercial support
- Appendix C: Pop Quiz Answers
- Chapter 1 - Installing Cacti
- Chapter 2 - Using Graphs to Monitor Networks and Devices
- Chapter 3 - Creating and Using Templates
- Chapter 4 - User Management
- Chapter 5 - Data Management
- Chapter 6 - Cacti Maintenance
- Chapter 7 - Network and Server Monitoring
- Chapter 8 - Plugin Architecture
- Chapter 9 - Plugins
- Chapter 10 - Threshold Monitoring with Thold
- Chapter 11 - Enterprise Reporting
- Chapter 12 - Cacti Automation for NOC
- Chapter 13 - Migrating Cacti to a New Server
- Chapter 14 - Multiple Poller with Cacti
- Index
