Another post in this forum, with helpful replies from Gandalf
http://forums.cacti.net/viewtopic.php?f ... 7&start=45
Lead to solving the issues:
The essential procedure is as I stated before.
The last key was picking an index to iterate over, even if it had duplicate entries, position in the list seemed sufficient to let the Create New Graph form display all of the index choices and then create a graph by picking a row and checking a box.
Overall I think the most confusing thing about the Cacti web user interface is the seemingly random sorting of the Template form; element, datasource and then item sections. Some of which are automatically filled in for you after creating items. They are there so you can override them if needed, but only advanced users with confidence would have any notion of why they are there.. they are not mandatory.
Also the practice of {check this box} to enable "Per-Data Source Value (Ignore this Value)" -- which then adds a new option row to a section on a different setup page (customizing the setup sections on the fly) is "loopy" and hard to understand. The persistence of memory just isn't there in the beginning to help a user with expectations and navigation.
The tutorials and guides are helpful, if you "trust them" as exercises and just perform them through rote repetition.. because they then encourage "expectatory memory" to develop.. but the learning curve is long and not intuitive.
A dependency graph might help to guide a first time user in understanding what the minimal requirements are to generate a first graph.. and from there evolve their understanding of additional capabilities. I get that's what the "exercises" are trying to do.. but its hard to "see" the Big picture and trust the method in the beginning.
The choices between SNMP methods get or bulk and Script or one off Cmd to collect data is also a dizzingly confusing number of data collection methods. All good, just hard to grasp without a task in mind apriori "knowing" it can be accomplished using one of the methods.. and then there are efficencies to deciding between them.. which I guess only experience can bring to bare on the choosing.