There are numerous techniques to monitor devices, including switchport, span port, and netflow. Today I’ll go through how to use SNMP and Cacti to monitor routers and switches’ bandwidth, CPU, and other parameters.
An “Internet-standard protocol for managing devices on IP networks” is known as the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Routers, switches, servers, workstations, printers, modem racks, and other devices frequently support SNMP. The majority of the time, network management systems employ it to keep an eye on network-attached devices for issues that demand administrative intervention. According to the Internet Engineering Task Force, SNMP is a part of the Internet Protocol Suite (IETF). It comprises of a set of protocols for the application layer, a database schema, and a number of data items for network management.
Cacti is a comprehensive network graphing solution created to take advantage of the data storing and graphing capabilities of RRDTool. Fast polling, sophisticated graph templating, a variety of data collecting techniques, and user management tools are all included with Cacti right out of the box. All of this is included within a logical, simple-to-use interface that works for deployments as small as LANs up to intricate networks with hundreds of devices.
Click “Add link” after selecting “Management” and “Graph Trees.” Fill out the “Name field, then press “Create.
Select “Management,” “Devices, and then “Add from the menu. Add up the “Description,” “Hostname,” and “SNMP Community sections, choose the “Cisco Router Host Template, and then click “Create.”
Select the data you wish to track by clicking “Create Graphs for this Host,” then hit the “Create” button. I have chosen to monitor Fastethernet0/0, Fastethernet0/1, Dialer1, and CPU in this lesson.
Go to “Management,” “Devices,” check the box next to the device, and then under “Choose an action,” choose “
Place the object on a tree and press the button.
The graph is available in the “graph tab” after 15 minutes. You didn’t notice anything earlier.
Below is a Cacti configuration tutorial video:
Plugins like these might be helpful:
- thold: data discovered in any graph alerting
- monitor: uses tiny symbols to show the host’s status. Blue for healing, Red for falling, and Green for rising
- a way to display Cacti graphs in real-time that has a resolution of up to 5 seconds.
- Weathermap is a network visualization tool that uses data you already have to provide you with a map-based overview of your network.
What distinguishes Nagios from Cacti?
A monitoring and alerting system with graphing capabilities is called Nagios (if you pay for it).
When I last used Cacti, years ago, it did not have alerting features, and the Cacti website makes no mention of them either. Cacti is a graphing system.
The two are connected (and frequently used in tandem to avoid purchasing the commercial Nagios implementation), although their primary purposes are different: Cacti examines the long-term past, while Nagios (without graphing) focuses on the Now (present conditions and alarms).
How does Cacti track network activity?
The Round-Robin database tool’s time series data are visualized using the free network graphing program Cacti (RDD tool).
The utility uses SNMP to poll network equipment like switches and routers, then plots the output. CPU load, temperature, uptime, and network bandwidth utilization are some of the statistics that are polled.
Here, we’ll concentrate on how you can use the cacti graphs to track your internet usage.
As seen below, you may see your current consumption in the preview mode for both inbound and outbound traffic.
By altering the time and date using the dropdown and textboxes next to present, you can also see your previous consumption.
All associated graphs can be seen in list form in the list view, and when you click on a specific graph, all the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly graphs are shown. In the first graph, you can see your current utilization. The incoming displays traffic entering the LAN through a certain interface, whereas the outbound displays traffic leaving the LAN.
If you subscribe for 101Mbps, the graph will become flat and stop at 101Mbps when you are utilizing all of your available bandwidth. The bandwidth you subscribe for would also be equivalent to your inbound or outgoing value.
In the next post, we will discuss how to install and configure Cacti on your network if your service provider does not grant access to the Cacti graph.
Can Cacti keep an eye on servers?
Simple Network Management Protocol, or SNMP, is used to collect information about a device’s internal operations, including load, hard disk states, and bandwidth. Network monitoring technologies like Cacti create graphs for monitoring purposes using these data.
One or more SNMP-enabled devices and a separate monitoring server are common components of a Cacti and SNMP implementation. Cacti receives SNMP feeds from the monitoring server. Please keep in mind that SNMP must be enabled on all devices that need to be monitored. For demonstration purposes, we’ll configure Cacti and SNMP on the same Linux server in this tutorial.
Is Cacti a server for syslog?
I discovered last week that utilizing the Syslog-NG plugin for Cacti is not completely documented. Despite not using Cacti, I’m constantly looking for web interfaces to pair with syslog-ng. So I decided to experiment with Cacti and its syslog plugin while documenting my progress. Re-implementing the published example configuration for Syslog-NG and using it seemed to be the only thing that needed to be done. In reality, it was more complicated, and I ultimately had to give up for lack of time. I continue to share my findings in the hopes that they will assist others in getting syslog-ng to work. If you are able to make it work and if my post was helpful to you, kindly let me know!
Syslog plugin in a nutshell
First, a brief explanation of the syslog plugin’s purpose and operation. It is a Cacti plugin that may display log messages on the Cacti web interface and deliver warnings when specific conditions are met. It expects a MySQL database to contain log messages. This typically indicates the presence of a central syslog server, which gathers logs from other networked devices and pushes the log messages into a MySQL database. The same database that Cacti uses may be used, or a separate database just for syslog messages may be used.
Insert logs into database
The installation documentation explains how to use syslog-ng to gather messages and send them to a central place, but it doesn’t explain how to use it to put logs into a MySQL database. So, the following is an example of an experimental syslog-ng configuration:
What is the cactus spine?
Spinal Details Spine is a multi-threaded data collector for Cacti with the capacity to extract data at massive scale from network attached devices. It is the mechanism that enables Cacti deployments to scale into systems with tens of thousands of hosts per.
Is Zabbix preferable to Cacti?
Based on user preference data, compare Cacti vs Zabbix. With 17 reviews, Cacti has a rating of 3.9/5. Zabbix, in contrast, has 145 reviews and a rating of 4.3/5.
Nagios vs. Zabbix: Which is superior?
It is obvious that Zabbix is superior after comparing the two. While NagiosCore has the fundamentals in place to operate efficient network monitoring, it just lacks Zabbix’s expertise and flexibility. Zabbix is a free network monitor that functions as well as anything costing much more. With the exception of the absence of an autodiscovery capability, Zabbix is a pretty complete solution.
Despite lacking Nagios Core’s autodiscovery functionality, it consistently delivers excellent performance. Zabbix outperforms NagiosCore in the vast majority of important differentiators. This product contains everything, including an alarm system with automatic escalation to clear graph generation.
The capabilities of Zabbix work together to create a very straightforward and satisfying monitoring experience. The amount of manual configuration required to see your network is reduced by monitoring templates. Customized messages and the escalation chain make event response incredibly effective after a problem has been identified. When important events occur, the program automatically relays information to important participants.
Nagios Core provides a good monitoring experience, although it isn’t as good as Zabbix. The lack of convenient customizing options and default visualization greatly detract from the user interface, which also has an old appearance. Nagios Core does, however, have the clear advantage of a web-based GUI and extra plugins.
Zabbix is the preferable tool to utilize in the majority of business scenarios. We firmly advise that you give Zabbix serious consideration if you’re thinking about deploying a network monitoring solution in your company. In spite of the fact that it may be simple to overlook in a market this crowded, it is unquestionably something you have to take into account if you value premium configuration and lightweight deployment.
Nagios XI is it free?
Small environments can be monitored for nothing using Nagios XI. Depending on their needs and qualifications, students may qualify for higher or unlimited monitoring restrictions.
- only capable of keeping an eye on seven hosts (nodes)
- A maximum of 100 host and service checks
- License is self-sustaining.
- Wizards for Simple Configuration
- Configuring the GUI
- Superior Reporting
- Better Visualizations
- Individual User Dashboards
- Individual User Views
- Report’s executive summary
- Specific Actions
- Dashboard Installation
- Escalations of Notification
- $1095 for a 10-Call Pack
- Five-Call Pack: $1,955
Each license/edition comes with email assistance and twelve months of maintenance (upgrade entitlements).
- features of the Standard Edition plan are included, plus
- Planned Reports
- Reports on capacity planning
- Web-Based Access to the Server Console
- Tools for Bulk Modification
- Logging audits
- Deployment of Notification
- Reports SLA
- Planned Pages
- Host Decommissioning Automated
Disclaimer: The pricing information was last updated from the vendor website on 11/08/2021 and may not reflect current prices. Before making a purchase, kindly check the vendor website.
What is Cacti?
You can enter data and information feeds to the platform using Cacti, an opensource RRDTool (Round Robin Database Tool), and Cacti will automatically create precise graphs and diagrams based on the feeds. Downloading Cacti is free, and it includes frequent patch updates and mods. To support the Cacti developers, go to their website.
Key benefits of using Cacti
- Displays and graphs: By providing Cacti with data and information, the platform automatically interprets the codes and generates dynamic charts and displays that accurately depict the data.
- Open source and free downloads: Cacti is completely free to download and is used to receiving frequent patch updates and integrations, both of which are available for free download.
- Data sources and gathering: You can edit and update any Cacti feed as needed. You are able to view exactly what Cacti shows in the final product because to the code’s complete transparency.
- User management and displays: Cacti lets you govern data flow and completely customize your graphs. In just a few minutes, Cacti generates the data, providing you with precise graphs and visualizations.
How are cactus implemented?
The appropriate repositories must first be added to apt. To accomplish this, use the command sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cacti.list to create a new file and add the following information:
Save and close the file, then use the following commands to update and upgrade Ubuntu:
On Windows, how do you utilize a cactus?
On the computer you wish to install Cacti on, download the Windows installer. Visit http://forums.cacti.net/viewtopic.php?t=14946 to get the most recent copy. and click the download button at the first post’s end. Installer should be saved to desktop. Click the setup file twice.