Installing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with Cacti 0.8.8c

Ubuntu provides only Cacti 0.8.8b so we need to compile our own package with 0.8.8c after installing OS.


Install Ubuntu Server 14.04 x64 using defaults.
While not mandatory you probably want to enable OpenSSH server during install.

# Preparations, nothing to do with Cacti yet

# Login and switch to root
sudo su -

# Prevent useless questions from popping up
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

# Remove unwanted packages
apt-get -y remove resolvconf

# Fix broken DNS
cat<<'__EOF__'>/etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4
__EOF__

# We don't want IPv6 on this host
echo "net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1" >>/etc/sysctl.conf

# Enable zswap by adding extra kernel parameter
sed -i.bak /etc/default/grub -e's|^GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="|GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="zswap.enabled=1 |g'

# Activate new kernel parameters on next boot
update-grub

# Update distribution
apt-get update
apt-get -y dist-upgrade

# Install some extra packages we need and like
apt-get -y install openssh-server screen joe lftp curl wget htop iftop \
                   mtr zip ntp open-vm-tools build-essential fail2ban

# Reboot
reboot



# Now we can start setting up Cacti part

# Prevent useless questions from popping up
export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive

# Install some dependencies such as apache, mysqld and rrdtool
apt-get update
apt-get -y install apache2 php5 php5-mysql php5-snmp mysql-client mysql-server snmpd rrdtool

# Unfortunately Ubuntu version is outdated so we need to build our own package
# http://sourceforge.net/p/cacti/mailman/message/33072838/

# Get rebuild deps
apt-get -y install devscripts
apt-get -y build-dep cacti cacti-spine

# Create build environment
adduser bobbuilder --shell /bin/bash --disabled-password --gecos bobbuilder

# Switch to non-priviledged user for build
sudo su - bobbuilder

# Download ubuntu sources
mkdir -p ~/build/cacti
cd ~/build/cacti
apt-get -y source cacti

# Build 0.8.8c instead of Ubuntu version
wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/cacti-0.8.8c.tar.gz
cd cacti-0.8.8b+dfsg
uupdate ../cacti-0.8.8c.tar.gz -v 0.8.8c

# Remove patches not needed with 0.8.8c
cd ../cacti-0.8.8c/debian
sed -i.bak patches/series\
    -e'/replace_treeview_by_jquery.jstree.patch/d' \
    -e'/use_jquery_for_debian.patch/d' \
    -e'/loadavg_multi_locale_friendly.patch/d' \
    -e'/fix_php_strict_warning_in_ping.patch/d' \
    -e'/fix_COMMENT_in_graph_regression_from_CVE-2013-1435.patch/d' \
    -e'/fix_sql_injection_CVE-2013-5589.patch/d' \
    -e'/fix_cross_site_scripting_CVE-2013-5588.patch/d' \
    -e'/upgrade_script_misses_latest_releases.patch/d' \
    -e'/fix_four_CVE-2014_issues.patch/d'

# Build
debuild -i -us -uc -b -j2

# Next we do cacti-spine
cd ~/build/cacti
apt-get -y source cacti-spine

# Build 0.8.8c of spine instead of Ubuntu version
wget http://www.cacti.net/downloads/spine/cacti-spine-0.8.8c.tar.gz
cd cacti-spine-0.8.8b
uupdate ../cacti-spine-0.8.8c.tar.gz -v 0.8.8c

# Build
cd ../cacti-spine-0.8.8c/debian
debuild -i -us -uc -b -j2

# You should end up with something like this:
#
# -rw-r--r-- 1 bobbuilder bobbuilder 2413086 Dec 20 01:34 cacti_0.8.8c-0ubuntu1_all.deb
# -rw-r--r-- 1 bobbuilder bobbuilder   51064 Dec 20 01:34 cacti-spine_0.8.8c-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

# Switch back to root
logout

# We need gdebi to properly install local package that depends on packages in repository
apt-get -y install gdebi-core

# Install our customized version
cd ~bobbuilder/build/cacti
gdebi --non-interactive cacti_0.8.8c-0ubuntu1_all.deb
gdebi --non-interactive cacti-spine_0.8.8c-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb

# Prevent updates to cacti
echo "cacti hold"        | dpkg --set-selections
echo "cacti-spine hold"  | dpkg --set-selections

# We prefer empty front page rather than Ubuntu advertisement
rm -f /var/www/html/index.html
touch /var/www/html/index.html

# Turn off useless PHP warnings filling logs that are hardcode enabled even in latest cacti version (why??)
sed -i.bak /usr/share/cacti/site/include/global.php \
    -e's|error_reporting(.*|error_reporting(E_ALL \& ~E_DEPRECATED \& ~E_NOTICE \& ~E_STRICT);|g'
sed -i.bak /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini \
    -e's|^error_reporting.*|error_reporting = E_ALL \& ~E_DEPRECATED \& ~E_NOTICE \& ~E_STRICT|g'
sed -i.bak /etc/php5/cli/php.ini \
    -e's|^error_reporting.*|error_reporting = E_ALL \& ~E_DEPRECATED \& ~E_NOTICE \& ~E_STRICT|g'

# Restart apache to apply changes
service apache2 restart

# Change poller cycle from default 5 minutes to one minute
sed -i /etc/cron.d/cacti -e's|\*/5 \*|\*/1 \*|g'
service crond reload

# Rest is via Cacti web interface, see http://myserver.example.com/cacti/
# Install type: New install
# Paths should show all green, NET-SNMP is 5.x and RRDTool is 1.4.x
# Default username is "admin" and password is "admin" too
# You'll be forced to change admin password next

Select Console on top, then Configuration > Settings on left and Poller tab on top.
Change Poller Interval to Every Minute
Change Cron Interval to Every Minute
Click Save button hiding in lower right corner
Select Utilities > System Utilities on left and then click Rebuild Poller Cache

So, it seems we have server and cacti running. How about we add just something to see it's really working. Let's start easy with Cisco router/switch.

Click "Create devices for network" on Console tab

Click "Add" text on right corner of "Devices" box

Enter Description and hostname (or IP)

Set Host Template to "Cisco Router"

Set Downed Device Detection to "SNMP Uptime"

Set SNMP Version to v2

Enter your SNMP read-only community

Finally click Create on bottom right corner

Router information appears on top of the screen

Click "Create Graphs for this Host" on top right corner

Select interfaces we're interested from Data Query box

Change Graph Type in lower right corner from In/Out Bits to In/Out Bits (64-bit Counters)

Click Create on bottom right

Repeate above but set Graph Type to "In/Out Errors/Discarded packets"

Select Cisco - CPU Usage from Graph Templates box

Also add "ucd/net - Memory Usage" from dropdown menu in same Templates box

Click Create on bottom right

Change color of CPU chart - or don't default red should be fine

Click Management > Graph Trees on left and then Default Tree

Click Add on right side of Tree Items box

Change Tree Item type to Host and select router (Host) we just added

Set Graph Grouping Style to Graph Template

Click Create on right

While still on same screen set Graph Grouing Style to Data Query Index

Click Create on right

Click Graphs tab on top

Click our new host on left hand treeview

Wait for a while for data to populate from router. After you're confident it works we can finally proceed to ESXi part.