Cacti -- How to get Collection/Polling Started ?

[AhLek]

Hi,
I am very new to Cacti -- just managed to get that installed and configured on a SUN Aparc Solaris 8.

I have also read the User's manual, not throughly I msut admit.

With that, I have created Users, added devices, and configure new graphs for the devices. Those are all done from the Console Menu.

My Questions are:
-- how I get collection of data started.
I cannot see any thing I can run from the "Console" menu to do that.

-- Also, when setting up a graph, can I have more than 1 metric ?
Thank you in advance for any assistance.
Regards
AhLek

[gandalf]

Data polling is done via crontab (at least for unix flavour of OSses). The docs at http://www.cacti.net/downloads/docs/htm ... _unix.html describe in step 7 how to do that.
If you have installed from rpm, please have a look at /etc/cron.d/cacti. If this file exists, you may wish to take it instead of /etc/crontab. Please take only one!
You may run the command at cli to have a look, whether it's running fine. Polling output is logged typically at <path_cacti>/log/cacti.log, though you may configure this entry freely.
Reinhard

[AhLek]

Ivm,
thank you for responding.
I looked at the doc you pointed you.

This is the Step I found that is most apt.
+++++++++++++++
7. Add a line to your /etc/crontab file similar to:

*/5 * * * * cactiuser php /var/www/html/cacti/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1

Replace cactiuser with the valid user specified in the previous step.

Replace /var/www/html/cacti/ with your full Cacti path.
-----------------------------

I am running on a SUN Solaris 8 system. That crontab entry do not look syntaxically good.

If I want to run the poller every 5 minutes, and the user i s"nsm" how can I code the crontab entry ?

Thank you
AhLek

[gandalf]

Sorry, not a Solaris guy. Please try man crontab
Reinhard

[AhLek]

Hi,
I know how a Solaris crontab entry should be.

What I am not clear is:
Does that Step 7. just want me to run 'php fullpath-poller.php' every 5 minutes ?

-- using poller.php's full pathname and when logged in as user "nsm".
My system do not have a UNIX accounjt call "cactiuser".
In my configs -- I used user nsm.

This is what I tried ran:
0,5,10,,15,20,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * * php
/usr/local/home/nsm/.profile-cacti/poller.php

That cron job was ran by user "nsm".
-- instead of cacti user, I am using "nsm"

In poller.php, there are two statements to run the db_execute commands.
The first one is:

/* Update web paths for the poller */
db_execute("replace into settings (name,value) values ('path_webroot','" . addsl
ashes(($config["cacti_server_os"] == "win32") ? strtolower(substr(dirname(__FILE
__), 0, 1)) . substr(dirname(__FILE__), 1) : dirname(__FILE__)) . "')");

ran fine.

The 2nd db_execute statement in poller.php
db_execute("replace into settings (name,value) values ('date',NOW())");

-- spits out the following error message:
sh: /usr/local/home/nsm/Root/php-5.0.4/usr/local/php/bin: cannot execute


Any ideas ?
Q: what is the statement:
"db_execute("replace into settings (name,value) values ('date',NOW())");"
trying to do ?

Q: what is the syntax of db_query command ?

Thanks again
AhLek

[gandalf]

What I am not clear is:
Does that Step 7. just want me to run 'php fullpath-poller.php' every 5 minutes ?

-- using poller.php's full pathname and when logged in as user "nsm".
My system do not have a UNIX accounjt call "cactiuser".
In my configs -- I used user nsm.

This is what I tried ran:
0,5,10,,15,20,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * * php
/usr/local/home/nsm/.profile-cacti/poller.php

Yes, crontab must run poller.php every 5 min (what about the double comma at "10,,15"?). It should pipe the output either to /dev/null or to <patch_cacti>/log/poller.log (I prefer the last one to keep track of the output of the last polling cycle).
It is recommended to define a specific userid for cacti, e.g. for security reasons. It is not a must AFAIK. Then you have to pay attention to the ownership of <patch_cacti/log and .../rra accordingly as describe in the docs.
As to the rest of your last post, sorry, I can't help
Reinhard

[AhLek]

Oops,
yup there is too many ".." in the entry.Should be
0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * php ....

My problem is not the crontab entry syntax.

It is the db_execute statements and php that I am not familiar.

Can someone please assist ?
Thanks
AhLek

[TheWitness]

http://www.cacti.net/downloads/docs/con ... laris.html

TheWitness

[AhLek]

Hi Witness,
I actually have read that linnk. Thanks anyway.
Also, I put the execution ogf the poller in a wrapper; this is to ensure I have all the the correct environment vaqriables ( like LD_LIBRARY_PATH ) set up.

Here's the wrapper:
++ ++++++++++
#!/bin/sh
. /usr/local/home/nsm/.profile-cacti
fnmLog=$ALC_CACTI/log/poller.log

ECHO() { echo "$*" >> $fnmLog ; }
ECHO "Poller started at `date`"
ECHO " Poller pathname is: \"$ALC_CACTI/poller.php\""
ECHO " Log filename, fnmLog = \"$fnmLog\""

$ALC_PHP/php/bin/php $ALC_CACTI/poller.php >>$ALC_CACTI/log/poller.log 2>&1
------------------

As I have previously mentioned, my problem is with the db_execute statements in the poller.php script.

The following statement works fine:
+++++++++

/* Update web paths for the poller */
db_execute("replace into settings (name,value) values ('path_webroot','" . addsl
ashes(($config["cacti_server_os"] == "win32") ? strtolower(substr(dirname(__FILE
__), 0, 1)) . substr(dirname(__FILE__), 1) : dirname(__FILE__)) . "')");

-----------------

However this db_execute statement fails:
++++++++++++++
/* insert the current date/time for graphs */
db_execute("replace into settings (name,value) values ('date',NOW())");
------------------------
The error message displyed by the above command is:
sh: /usr/local/home/nsm/Root/php-5.0.4/usr/local/php/bin: cannot execute


I have read most I can on Cacti, mysql and php -- just cannot figure out wht that db_execute command do not work.

Any assistance will be appreciated.

ps: I actually ran that wrapper manually with same results.

Thanks
AhLek

[rony]

I enjoy your enthusiasm, but please post your question in only one place. You have posted this basic question 3 times.

Also, for us to help you, please post the errors you are getting, not an analisys of the code lines that are causing the errors.