How to Install Cacti on FreeBSD 13.0

Cacti is an open-source network monitoring tool that monitors network traffic using the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). It can monitor traffic on multiple network devices such as routers, switches, and servers and stores the data to create performance management graphs in a database. This article explains how to install Cacti on a FreeBSD 13.0 cloud server.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you:

Deploy a FreeBSD 13.0 server on Vultr.
Point a subdomain to the server.
Access the server as a non-root user with sudo privileges.
Install FAMP (FreeBSD, Apache, MySQL, PHP).

1. Install Required Packages

Install the RRDTool and SNMP.
```
  $ sudo pkg install rrdtool net-snmp
```
Install your preferred text editor.
```
  $ sudo pkg install nano
```

Install required PHP extensions.

  $ sudo pkg install php74 php74-mysqli php74-mbstring php74-json php74-snmp php74-gd php74-gmp php74-ldap php74-zip php74-xml php74-ctype php74-openssl php74-simplexml php74-sockets php74-zlib php74-posix

Edit the php.ini-production configuration file.

  $ sudo nano /usr/local/etc/php.ini-production

Locate the [Date] section.

  [Date]
  ; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
  ; http://php.net/date.timezone
  ;date.timezone =

Uncomment the date.timezone directive, and enter your timezone. For example Europe/London.
```
  date.timezone = Europe/London
```
Locate the memory_limit directive, and change it from 128M to a value above 400MB.
```
  memory_limit = 500M
```
Locate max_execution_time, and change it from 30 to 60 or more.
```
  max_execution_time = 60
```
Save and close the file.
Make a copy of the edited php.ini-production file and rename it to php.ini
```
  $ sudo cp /usr/local/etc/php.ini-production /usr/local/etc/php.ini
```
Start PHP-FPM.
```
 $ sudo service php-fpm start
```
Restart Apache.
```
 $ sudo apachectl restart
```

2. Setup the Database Server

Import system timezones to the MySQL database.

  $ sudo mysql_tzinfo_to_sql /usr/share/zoneinfo | mysql -u root mysql

Create a new Cacti database.

  CREATE DATABASE cactidb DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci ;

Create the Cacti database user secured with a strong password.

  CREATE USER 'cacti_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'password';

Grant the user full privileges to the Cacti database.
```
  GRANT ALL on cactidb.* TO cacti_user@localhost;
```

Grant the user read access to the MySQL TimeZone database.

  GRANT SELECT ON mysql.time_zone_name TO cacti_user@localhost;

Refresh MySQL privileges.
```
  FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
```
Exit the MySQL console.
```
  EXIT
```

Edit the main MySQL configuration file.

  $ sudo nano /usr/local/etc/mysql/my.cnf

Locate the following configurations at the bottom of the file.

 innodb_write_io_threads         = 8
 innodb_read_io_threads          = 8

Change the directive values as below:

 innodb_write_io_threads         = 16
 innodb_read_io_threads          = 32

Save and close the file.

Restart the MySQL database server.
```
 $ sudo service mysql-server restart
```

3. Install Cacti

Create the Cacti document root directory.
```
  $ sudo mkdir /usr/local/www/cacti
```

Download the latest Cacti release file.

  $ wget https://files.cacti.net/cacti/linux/cacti-latest.tar.gz

Extract files.
```
  $ tar -xvf cacti-latest.tar.gz
```

Move extracted files to the Cacti directory.

  $ sudo mv cacti-1.2.20/* /usr/local/www/cacti

Import the Cacti database.

  $ sudo mysql -u root cactidb < /usr/local/www/cacti/cacti.sql

Edit the Cacti configuration file.

  $ sudo nano /usr/local/www/cacti/include/config.php

Find the following section.

  $database_type     = 'mysql';
  $database_default  = 'cacti';
  $database_hostname = 'localhost';
  $database_username = 'cactiuser';
  $database_password = 'cactiuser';
  $database_port     = '3306';
  $database_retries  = 5;
  $database_ssl      = false;
  $database_ssl_key  = '';
  $database_ssl_cert = '';
  $database_ssl_ca   = '';
  $database_persist  = false;

Change the values to reflect your database server, user, and password.

  $database_type     = 'mysql';
  $database_default  = 'cactidb';
  $database_hostname = 'localhost';
  $database_username = 'cacti_user';
  $database_password = 'password';
  $database_port     = '3306';
  $database_retries  = 5;
  $database_ssl      = false;
  $database_ssl_key  = '';
  $database_ssl_cert = '';
  $database_ssl_ca   = '';
  $database_persist  = false;

Save and close the file.

Grant Apache read and write permissions on the directory.
```
  $ sudo chown -R www:www /usr/local/www/cacti
```

4. Configure Apache

Create a new Apache Virtual Host configuration file.

  $ sudo touch /usr/local/etc/apache24/Includes/cacti.conf

Edit the file.

  $ sudo nano /usr/local/etc/apache24/Includes/cacti.conf

Add the following configurations to the file.

  <VirtualHost *:80>

  ServerName cacti.example.com

  DocumentRoot "/usr/local/www/cacti"

  DirectoryIndex index.php index.html

  Alias /cacti /usr/local/www/cacti/

  <Directory /usr/local/www/cacti>

  AllowOverride None
  Order Allow,deny
  Allow from all
  Require all granted

  </Directory>

  </VirtualHost>

Save and close the file.

Test the Apache Configuration.
```
  $ sudo apachectl configtest
```
Restart Apache.
```
  $ sudo apachectl restart
```

5. Setup SSL

Edit the main Apache configuration file.

  $ sudo nano /usr/local/etc/apache24/httpd.conf

Locate the following module directives.

  #LoadModule ssl_module libexec/apache24/mod_ssl.so

  #LoadModule rewrite_module libexec/apache24/mod_rewrite.so

Uncomment them by removing #.

  LoadModule ssl_module libexec/apache24/mod_ssl.so
  LoadModule rewrite_module libexec/apache24/mod_rewrite.so

Save and close the file.

Test the Apache configuration file.
```
  $ sudo apachectl configtest
```

Install the Apache Certbot agent.

  $ sudo pkg install py38-certbot-apache py38-certbot

Request a Let’s Encrypt SSL certificate.
```
  $ sudo certbot --apache -d cacti.androidcomet.com
```
Enter your email address and agree to Let's Encrypt terms.
Restart Apache to load changes.
```
  $ sudo apachectl restart
```