Cacti 0.8Beginner's Guide -- Table of Contents -- Cacti 0.8Beginner's Guide -- Credits -- About the Author -- About the Reviewers -- www.PacktPub.com -- Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more -- Why Subscribe? -- Free Access for Packt account holders -- Preface -- What is Cacti? -- System architecture of Cacti -- Cacti is more than performance measurement -- What this book covers -- What you need for this book -- Who this book is for -- Conventions -- Time for action - heading -- What just happened? -- Pop quiz - heading -- Have a go hero - heading -- Reader feedback -- Customer support -- Errata -- Piracy -- Questions -- 1. Installing Cacti -- Preparing the system-basic prerequisites -- Web server -- PHP -- MySQL database -- NET-SNMP package -- Installing Cacti on a CentOS 5 system -- Preparing the system -- Time for action - installing the missing packages -- 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 -- Collection methods section -- Templates section -- Import/export section -- Configuration section -- Utilities section -- The Graphs tab -- Before we continue -- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 1 -- Summary -- 2. Using Graphs to Monitor Networks and Devices -- An introduction to Cacti graphs and the RRDtool -- Creating graphs with the 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 -- Further reading -- Have a go hero - creating a yellow warning area -- Adding devices to Cacti -- Creating a device -- Time for action - creating a new device in Cacti -- What just happened? -- Selecting host templates for the device -- Time for action - adding a host template to the device -- What just happened? -- Adding graphs to the device -- Time for action - adding graphs to the device -- What just happened? -- Adding interface graphs to a device -- Time for action - adding interface graphs to a device -- What just happened? -- Adding devices to the Cacti tree -- Creating a tree -- Time for action - creating a Cacti tree -- What just happened? -- Sub-tree items -- Time for action - adding a sub-tree -- What just happened? -- Adding a device to the tree -- Time for action - adding a device to the Cacti tree -- What just happened? -- Before we continue -- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 2 -- Summary -- 3. Creating and Using Templates -- An introduction to templates -- Data templates -- Data input methods -- Graph templates -- Host templates -- Data queries -- Defining a data template.

Time for action - defining a data template -- What just happened? -- Have a go hero - template for currently established TCP connections -- Defining a graph template -- CDEF definition -- Time for action - defining a CDEF in Cacti -- What just happened? -- Defining the graph template -- Time for action - defining the graph template -- What just happened? -- Adding the threshold line -- Time for action - defining a graph template -- What just happened? -- Adding the green, yellow, and red areas -- Time for action - adding the color areas -- What just happened? -- Adding a legend to the graph -- Time for action - adding a legend -- What just happened? -- Back to basics-rrdtool graph command -- Defining a host template -- Time for action - defining a host template -- What just happened? -- Assigning a host template to a device -- Importing/exporting templates -- Importing templates -- Time for action - importing a template -- What just happened? -- Exporting templates -- Time for action - exporting a template -- What just happened? -- The template repository -- Before we continue -- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 3 -- Summary -- 4. User Management -- An introduction to Cacti user management -- Users -- Groups -- Permissions -- Creating a user -- Time for action - creating the first Cacti user -- What just happened? -- General user settings -- Graph Options -- Authentication Realm -- Realm and graph permissions -- Realm permissions -- Management permissions -- Collection methods permissions -- Template permissions -- Import/export permissions -- Configuration permissions -- Utilities permissions -- Time for action - setting realm permissions -- What just happened? -- Graph permissions -- Time for action - setting graph permissions -- What just happened? -- Graph settings -- The template user -- Time for action - installing the missing packages.

What just happened? -- Copying permissions - the Batch Copy mode -- Time for action - the Batch Copy -- What just happened? -- Integrate LDAP/Active Directory authentication -- External user management -- Time for action - setting up Active Directory authentication -- What just happened? -- Managing users with the Cacti CLI -- Importing a list of users -- Time for action - importing users from the CLI -- What just happened? -- Input validation -- Check the existence of the template user -- Reading the import file -- Before we continue -- Pop quiz - a few questions about Chapter 4 -- Summary -- 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 -- Time for action - creating a data input method - Step 1 -- What just happened? -- Time for action - creating a data input method - Step 2 -- What just happened? -- 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 -- What just happened? -- Time for action - creating a data query - Step 2 -- What just happened? -- Create 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 PuTTY Key Generator -- What just happened? -- Creating the data input method -- Time for action - creating the data input method -- What just happened? -- 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 -- 6. Cacti Maintenance -- An introduction to Cacti maintenance -- Database -- RRD files -- The Cacti directory structure -- docs -- include -- install -- log -- resource -- rra -- scripts -- Backup and restore procedures -- The MySQL database -- Time for action - backup your Cacti database -- What just happened? -- Enhancing the database backup -- Automatic file naming -- Removing old backup files -- The database backup -- Compressing the backup -- The whole script -- The Cacti files -- Building the backup file list -- Time for action - backup your Cacti files -- What just happened? -- Enhancing the database backup script -- Time for action - enhancing 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 -- Time for action - restoring all Cacti files -- What just happened? -- Restoring a single file from the backup -- Time for action - restoring the Cacti config.php file -- What just happened? -- 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? -- Automating the orphaned RRD file check -- A short overview of the Cacti CLI functionality -- Repairing templates -- Repairing the database -- Pop Quiz - a few questions about Chapter 6 -- Summary -- 7. Network and Server Monitoring -- An introduction to network and server monitoring -- Network devices -- VMware ESX.

Linux server.