Multiple Cacti instances/pollers on same Server

[PaulG]

Does anybody know if there are problems on running two independent cacti installations on same server? The reason is a security issue, some firewalls should be monitored in a completely separate cacti instance whereas the first cacti instance own 552 hosts (3615 graphs) and the second instance own 84 hosts (401 graphs). Right now, both Cactis are running on different servers but they shall be migrated to a single server.

By now, I installed the two instances on a testsystem:
- Windows 2003 SP1
- ISS V6.0
- cacti-0.8.6g (two of it in different directorys, reachable due to different network ports on webserver)
- cacti-cactid-0.8.6e (two of it in different directorys because each has it own db settings in config.php)
- mysql 4.1.12a (one db for each installation (cacti1 and cacti2))
- net-snmp-5.2.1 (one for both installations)
- perl 5.8.7.813 (one for both installations)
- php-5.0.4 (one for both installations)
- rrdtool-1.2.10 (one for both installations)
The polling of the second instance is timed to start 3 min after the polling of the first (much bigger) instance. It works well but I just have one testnode (with 200 loopback interfaces ) to monitor so it's far away from being close to reality.

I wonder if anyone already have experience on running two cactis on same server. I assume there might be problems with poller settings, timeout settings and some more tricky things. I appreciate any infos or hints.

thanks,
paul

[BSOD2600]

A few problems come to mind:

1) Using the same mysql database. Unless you modify code, I thought cacti didn't give you the option to use a different database name.
2) CPU and Disk I/O will obviously be a lot higher with both cacti installations pretty much running 24/7. Could cause a bottleneck.

[fmangeant]

Hi

you can specify the database name in include/config.php :

Code: Select all

$database_type = "mysql";
$database_default = "cacti";      <---
$database_hostname = "phoenix";
$database_username = "cactiuser";
$database_password = "cacti";
$database_port = "3306";

I'm running 3 Cacti instances on a test system (clean install, copy of my production server and a checkout from SVN).

[BSOD2600]

Ah, learn something new every day...

I don't have access to my Cacti server, so have to do stuff from memory .

[TheWitness]

There are absolutely no issues, you simply need different database names as previously mentioned. You also have to think of load, although the scenario above does not look like a large system.

TheWitness

[PaulG]

There are absolutely no issues, you simply need different database names as previously mentioned. You also have to think of load, although the scenario above does not look like a large system.

That's great to read.

Regardings the load and I/O:
We want to add the "small" cacti (84 hosts 401 graphs) to the already existing bigger cacti system (552 hosts 3615 graphs). It's a server which have 4 Intel Xeon 3,6GHz CPUs, 2GB Ram, SCSI HDDs (I'm not sure if they are in RAID mode) and two gigabit NICs running in teaming mode. Hopfully this server can handle the load, but I'll keep you updated what's coming out.

thanks for your statments

[PaulG]

One thing seems to be a problem: I can't be logged in to both cacti installations at same time. If I login to one cacti I become logged out the other cacti.

I think this is because of the session cookie. I never looked at it befor but I'll have to do it right now so it may take a while.

[fmangeant]

I have the same problem : the only solution I found is to use IE for the 1st Cacti instance, and Firefox for the 2nd one...

[TheWitness]

Send a PM to Rony to fix this. He know's why it's happening and knows how to fix it.

TheWitness

[rony]

Send a PM to Rony to fix this. He know's why it's happening and knows how to fix it.

TheWitness

I know what the problem is, the solution has to be thought out.

[PaulG]

I know what the problem is, the solution has to be thought out.

hehe, due to busy weekend I had no time to figure it out but this evening I'll spend all my time for it (it would be great if you could tell me the problem in a short sentence so that I don't loose time on it )

thanks and have a nice day,
paul

[phrawzty]

I know what the problem is, the solution has to be thought out.

I don't suppose you've thought of a solution, eh?

[rony]

It will not be fixed in 0.8.6....

I might be persuaded to write a patch... My wishlist is getting to big on Amazon..

But it will be in 0.9.0.