Cacti Guide


  1. This is a relatively simple installation guide to install Cacti onto an Ubuntu 5.10 server.
  2. This guide is tested on Cacti 0.8.6f-2 and Ubuntu 5.10 server.
  3. NOTE - optional packages include: cron-apt & ntp-simple. These may be left out of the installation, but I recommend them.
  4. The "system time" is important for Cacti to provide reliable data...please use some sort of NTP package.
  5. Commands shown in a black box must be executed in the Putty terminal window.
  6. Text shown in the dashed boxes must be entered into the file mentioned in the instructions.
  7. "Copy" is accomplished by a left-click on the mouse and dragging to highlight text.
  8. "Paste" is accomplished by a right-click on the mouse. Pasted items appear below the cursor postion.


  1. Install Ubuntu 5.10 using "server" mode and chose appropriate settings to reflect your network requirements during the installation.

  2. This guide assumes a static IP address and the hostname is 'monitor'.

  3. Once the installation of Ubuntu is finished, login as the user created during the install.


  4. Allow remote access via SSH: 

      sudo apt-get install openssh-server

  5. From a remote workstation use Putty to open an SSH connection to the Ubuntu server. Use a full-screen shell to aviod any line-wrap problems. Login as the user created during the install and issue the following commands to update the sources.list file:

      6. sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
    • Remove the comment mark # in the following lines to read as shown below:
      • deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy universe

deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy-security universe
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu breezy-security universe
    • Save the file

  6. Update the system with new packages:

      7. sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
    • If necessary reboot the system to take advantage of any new kernel release: shutdown -r now

  7. Install some optional packages:

      8. sudo apt-get install ntp-simple cron-apt
    • Answer the Postfix configuration screens as shown:
      • Mail Delivery: local only
Mail Server Name: monitor

  8. Install the Apache2 and MySQL packages:

      9. sudo apt-get install apache2 mysql-server

  9. Install the Cacti package:

      10. sudo apt-get install cacti
    • Answer the Cacti configuration screens as shown:
      • Database Name: cacti
Database Username: cacti
Password: cacti
Webserver: Apache2

  10. Setup the MySQL privileges:

      11. mysql_install_db

  11. Create the cacti database:

      12. mysqladmin --user=root create cacti

  12. Grant privileges on the cacti database to the cacti user:

      13. mysql -u root -e "grant all privileges on cacti.* to cacti@localhost identified by 'cacti'; flush privileges;"

  13. Import the cacti database:

      14. zcat /usr/share/doc/cacti/cacti.sql.gz | mysql -u cacti --password=cacti cacti

  14. Finally add a password for the MySQL root user:

      15. mysqladmin -u root password (some-password)

  15. Restart Apache2:

      16. sudo apache2ctl restart

  16. Open a browser to: http://ip-address/cacti



At this point, you might want to restart the machine to ensure everything is working correctly. Links:


Cacti: