Request for recommendation for any existing combination of Linux and Cacti

[mclane]

Hi,

my history: I'm working for 8 years or more with Cacti on a Linux platform in a professional environment. I'm no Cacti specialist but I am monitoring about 1000 WAN routers, some switches, some servers etc. with a combination of OpenSUSE 12.3 and Cacti 0.8.8h which I installed manually. This installation works wihout any system related errors and needs about 10s every minute to poll these devices. Yes, Linux and Cacti are outdated but I will not touch this because of - see below.

Now I would like to monitor my home network with a small virtual installtion but would like to do it with modern versions - at least concerning Linux because I'll use it with other applications like nextcloud etc. and don't want to install x Linux machines, one for every application.

First I tried with Xubuntu (18.04) because my Home Computer runs with it. Then I tried Xubuntu 20.04, then 22.04, then OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I tried the binary packages for these Distributions, and I tried manual installations. No combination worked from the start. The binary Packages produced several errors in the Cacti Log which indicated (among other things) that Cacti wouldn't work with PHP 8.1 but it didn't work with PHP 7.2 either. The manual Installations failed on such things that the MySQL version didn't know "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cacti.* TO 'cacti'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'cacti';" (official Cacti Manual). I can work around those errors but end up with an installation that seems to work generally but produces several scrips errors.

My question: Is there *any* combination of any Linux dist together with any cacti version which works out of the box? I would like to use a binary package as part of the distribution but if I have to install it manually this would be fine given the installation instructions simply are working. I don't care whether this is cacti 0.8.8 or 1.2.x. The possibilties of 1.2.x which seems to inherit former plugins are great but I do know the 0.8.8x version and can work with it.

My last alternative would be to copy an image of my Cacti server at work and use it at home but this would be sad somehow .

Thank you!

cu - mclane

[Osiris]

I just use CentOS 7 on most things and Rocky 8.x for newer. Cacti is so easy to install these days. It's a no brainer. If you use CentOS 7, it's important to use the REMI PHP repos. He is a cacti user too, and he maintains a great collection of PHP versions. I'm using both 7.4 (stable), and 8.1.x for testing.

[mclane]

Ok, can you tell me the exact versions of CentOS or Rocky Linux and Cacti you use? I have thought about using CentOS but the further development seems to be unsure. You did add some device to poll and there is no error in the Cacti Log? Do you use spine or cmd.php?

[Osiris]

Any CentOS 7, otherwise, just use Rocky. Debian/Ubuntu is fine too. Spine always. 1.2.21 is good, 1.2.22 should be released soon and is almost bug free from a community perspective.

If you use Debian/Ubuntu, you can install Cacti from a repo, but that takes all the fun away.

[macan]

instal 1.2.22, released today. Many bugs from 1.2.21 are fixed

[mclane]

Hi Osiris,

> Cacti is so easy to install these days. It's a no brainer.

unfortunately not, as described. But I tried the next one, Debian 11.4 with Cacti 1.2.16 from the packet sources, and there are no more system errrors. Debian installs PHP 7.4.30 insted of 8.1. Some inconsistencies (eg in the device templates) but nothing that can't be fixed within Cacti. The only thing is: I can't increase the Processes and Threads in the Main Poller ("Save Failed due to field input errors (Check red fields)." without showing any red fiels). I think I can work around this in writing this directly into the DB. As far as I understood the parameters in Settings/Poller have no impact any more, and the Log confirmes that.

> If you use Debian/Ubuntu, you can install Cacti from a repo, but that takes all the fun away.

Yes it did on Ubuntu - because it installed a non-working combination (at least not without script errors) of Cacti and PHP. - Well, I know what you mean but in this case I just want it to work.

cu - mclane

[mclane]

instal 1.2.22, released today. Many bugs from 1.2.21 are fixed

Ok, I'll give it a try in the near future after doing a snapshot of the VM - which distribution do you recommend for this?

[Osiris]

Debian has a oureist approach to how third party packages are incorporated into cacti that does break things from time to time and they impose LSB standards, but that's not a bad thing.

Relative to help installing Cacti, just see the Cacti Group YouTube page. Sean Mancini does a good job making it look easy.

[camerabob]

I second CentOS7. Piece of cake. Yum install cacti...

[mclane]

Ok, thank you all for your recommendations! I understand that CentOS 7 or RockyLinux 8.x is your suggestion with Cacti 1.2.22 (which is not included in any distribution, i think). Meanwhile I installed Debian 11 with Cacti 1.2.16, and it runs ok so I will not change it until problems occur.

Thanks anyway! Perhaps this will help newbies a bit.

cu - mclane