Cacti

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Overview

Cacti is an open-source network monitoring and graphing platform built on RRDtool.

It provides a scalable framework to collect, store, and visualize time-series data from network devices, servers, and applications.

Core capabilities include:

• Automated device discovery
• Local and remote data collection
• Graph, data source, and RRA templating
• SNMP polling (v1/v2/v3) and IPv6 support
• Role-based access control (RBAC)
• Plugin framework
• Dynamic graph viewing and export options

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Release Branches

Cacti maintains two primary branches:

Branch	Purpose
1.2.x	Stable long-lived release series
develop	Active development toward Cacti 1.3.x

For the latest published version, see GitHub Releases.

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System Requirements

Minimum supported dependencies by branch:

Dependency	Cacti 1.2.x	Cacti develop (1.3.x)
MariaDB	5.6+	10.2.x+
MySQL	5.6+	8.0+
PHP	8.1+	8.3+
RRDtool	1.4+	1.8+
Net-SNMP	5.5+	5.8+

Notes:

• RRDtool 1.9+ is recommended for newer dynamic graph features in 1.3.x.
• Net-SNMP 5.9+ is recommended for broader SNMPv3 protocol coverage.
• A web server with PHP support is required.
• PHP should be available as CLI or CGI for scheduled polling and maintenance scripts.
• php-snmp is optional; validate behavior carefully if you depend on IPv6 and SNMPv3.
• To force the Net-SNMP binaries while php-snmp remains installed, set $php_snmp_support = false; in include/config.php.

Operating system guidance:

• 1.2.x: RHEL/Rocky/Alma 8+ (or equivalent) is a common baseline.
• 1.3.x: RHEL/Rocky/Alma 9+ or CentOS Stream 9+ is preferred for modern PHP packaging.
• Debian and Ubuntu are also well supported.

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Installation (Source Checkout)

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/Cacti/cacti.git
cd cacti

Dependency management:

• For a source checkout on both 1.2.x and develop, install dependencies with Composer before serving Cacti. Composer-managed packages under include/vendor are generated and intentionally not committed; the remaining legacy libraries in that directory are not Composer-managed and remain in the repository.
• On develop, composer install uses the committed lock file resolved against Cacti's PHP 8.3 floor.
• Use composer update only in an intentional dependency-update change, and commit the resulting composer.lock update.
• Release packages must build include/vendor from the lock with composer install --no-dev and verify the real build host with composer check-platform-reqs --no-dev.
• Tags under release/* build a deterministic archive, SHA-256 checksum, CycloneDX SBOM, and GitHub provenance attestation through the release-artifact workflow.

Install dependencies:

composer install

Windows users may need:

composer install --ignore-platform-req=ext-pcntl --ignore-platform-req=ext-posix

Run nmp install within Cacti installation directory so that to install the required cacti-frontend-assets:

sudo -u <cacti user> npm install
e.g.
sudo -u www-data npm install

Then configure your database and web server, and complete setup using the official docs:

https://github.com/Cacti/documentation

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Database Upgrades and Schema Checks

When running from source (especially develop), schema updates may be required after pulling changes.

Upgrade the database schema:

sudo -u cacti php -q cli/upgrade_database.php --forcever=`cat include/cacti_version`

If needed, force a re-upgrade from an earlier version:

php -q cli/upgrade_database.php --forcever=<older_version>

Audit schema consistency:

php cli/audit_database.php --report

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Data Collection and Polling

Cacti collects data through data sources, which can use:

• SNMP
• Scripts
• Command output
• Databases
• Custom input methods

Polling engines:

Poller	Description
PHP Poller	Built-in polling engine
Spine	High-performance C-based poller

Spine supports SNMPv1/v2 and SNMPv3 with IPv6, with some advanced protocol support depending on how Net-SNMP is compiled on your platform.

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Features

• Device discovery and automation workflows
• Reusable templates for graphs and data sources
• Distributed remote data collectors
• Plugin architecture for extensibility
• Dynamic graph interactions (time navigation, realtime view, CSV export)
• Fine-grained user and group permissions using RBAC
• Broad RRDtool graphing support (including VDEFs and stacked lines)

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Documentation

Official documentation is maintained in a separate repository:

https://github.com/Cacti/documentation

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome.

1. Fork this repository.
2. Create a branch for your change.
3. Submit a pull request.

You can also help improve docs in:

https://github.com/Cacti/documentation

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Community

Community support is available on the Cacti forums:

https://forums.cacti.net

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Contributors

Thanks go to these wonderful people (emoji key):