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Annotated edit history of Cacti version 10 showing authors affecting page license. View with all changes included.
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3 DanielLawson 1 [Cacti | http://www.cacti.net/] is a [PHP]/[MySQL] frontend to [rrdtool]. It handles the storage of all the information required to create and populate [rrdtool] graphs. Along with being able to maintain Graphs, Data Sources, and RoundRobin Archives in a DataBase, [Cacti] handles the data gathering also. There is also [SNMP] support for those used to creating traffic graphs with [MRTG].
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3 You can use [Cacti] to gather any sort of data, or fetch information from [SNMP] capable hosts.
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5 To "manually" handle data gathering, you can feed [Cacti] the CommandLine for any external script/command along with any data that the user will need to "fill in" ([IP] addresses etc). [Cacti] will then gather this data in a cron job and populate a [MySQL] database/the RoundRobin Archives.
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7 Data Sources can also be created, which correspond to actual data on the graph. For instance, if a user wants to graph the ping times to a host, they could create a data source, choosing a script that pings a host and returns it's value in milliseconds. After defining options for [rrdtool] such as how to store the data you will be able to define any additional information that the data input source requires, such as a host to ping in this case. Once a data source is created, it is automatically mantained at 5 minute intervals.
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9 For people who are used to creating traffic graphs in [MRTG], this process has become much simplier in [Cacti]. An [SNMP] interface allows you to enter [SNMP] capable hosts and [Cacti] will display that host's interfaces, all of which can be graphed with once click from that point.
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11 Once one or more data sources are defined, an [rrdtool] graph can be created using the data. [Cacti] allows you to create almost any imaginable [rrdtool] graph using all of the standard [rrdtool] graph types and consolidation functions. A color selection area and automatic text padding function also aid in the creation of graphs to make the process easier.
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13 [Cacti] has a user management system so you can allocate people various levels of access to the program and their own settings.
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15 See the notes on setting up:
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10 AristotlePagaltzis 17 * CactiDataInput~s
18 * CactiDataSource~s
19 * CactiGraph~s
20 * [CactiLMSensors]
21 * CactiSmart
22 * [CactiUPS]
6 JamieCurtis 23
24 -----
10 AristotlePagaltzis 25 Part of CategorySystemAdministration, CategoryNetworking