Device Management

This section will describe Device management in Cacti.

Adding a Device to Cacti can be done in a few different ways, either via the Web GUI, Cacti's Automation, or the Command Line Interface (CLI).

Web GUI Option

To add a device via the Web GUI first click on Console > Management > Devices and you will see the below device console window which will show existing devices if any

Device Console

You will now select the + on the top right hand corner

Add Device Button

Once you select the + otherwise known as the add device button you will see the below screen which will ask you for device specific information

Some of the most important information about the device will be required in this window which includes

Add Device Info Screen

Cacti requires this basic information to be able to monitor the device and once entered, click save on the bottom right corner. With the device created you will need to add graphs for the device by clicking Create graphs for this device on the top right hand corner.

Availability/Reachability Settings

Cacti prefers to use the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) to communicate with Devices. Therefore, when creating a Device, you need to provide SNMP credentials to obtain information about the Device in order to collect data from it. Before Cacti will query the Device for data, it first verifies that the Device is up and responding. When doing so, you have several options. They include:

SNMP Credentials

When providing the SNMP credentials, Cacti currently supports the following versions:

When providing the SNMP Credentials, Cacti will warn you if you have provided incomplete information depending on the SNMP Version and SNMP Security Level you have specified.

Additional Important Options

There are some additional options that you should note before starting to use Cacti. They include the following:

Plugin Behavior

Many Cacti Plugins can and do add additional columns to the Device table in Cacti. Depending on the Plugin you have installed, you will find other information that you can provide about the device including things like:

Creating devices via CLI script

You can also create device by using the CLI script located at /cactidir/cli/

usage: add_device.php --description=[description] --ip=[IP] --template=[ID] [--notes="[]"] [--disable]
    [--poller=[id]] [--site=[id] [--external-id=[S]] [--proxy] [--threads=[1]
    [--avail=[ping]] --ping_method=[icmp] --ping_port=[N/A, 1-65534] --ping_timeout=[N] --ping_retries=[2]
    [--version=[0|1|2|3]] [--community=] [--port=161] [--timeout=500]
    [--username= --password=] [--authproto=] [--privpass= --privproto=] [--context=] [--engineid=]
    [--quiet]

Required:
    --description  the name that will be displayed by Cacti in the graphs
    --ip           self explanatory (can also be a FQDN)

To add a device using the bare minimum information would look something like this

$ php add_device.php --description=test --ip=192.168.1.15
Adding test (192.168.1.15) as "Cacti Stats" using SNMP v3 with community "public"
Success - new device-id: (45)

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