In this tutorial, we will be covering how to install Cacti on a server running Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
Cacti is supported on any type of virtualization platform (OpenVZ/XEN/KVM), so you can run
your monitoring server on a Low End VPS!

Step​ ​1:​ It’s always good practice to first make sure everything on your Ubuntu system is up to
date.

sudo apt-get update

Step​ ​2:​ ​Install LAMP (Linux, Apache, MariaDB, PHP) server.

Please​ ​keep​ ​in​ ​mind​ ​that​ ​Cacti​ ​only​ ​supports​ ​MySQL​ ​5.6,​ ​whereas​ ​the​ ​current​ ​version​ ​in
the​ ​Ubuntu’s​ ​default​ ​repository​ ​is​ ​MySQL​ ​5.7.​ ​In​ ​order​ ​to​ ​install​ ​this​ ​older​ ​version​ ​of
MySQL,​ ​follow​ ​the​ ​below​ ​steps:

nano /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu trusty universe
apt-get update

Now​ ​install​ ​the​ ​following​ ​packages​ ​for​ ​Cacti​ ​setup​ ​on​ ​your​ ​Ubuntu​ ​server​ ​with​ ​the​ ​help​ ​of
given​ ​below​ ​command:

apt-get install apache2 mysql-server-5.6 php libapache2-mod-php -y

Start​ ​the​ ​web​ ​server​ ​and​ ​MySQL​ ​server.​ ​Set​ ​them​ ​to​ ​automatically​ ​start​ ​up​ ​on​ ​server
boot:

systemctl start apache2.service
systemctl enable apache2.service
systemctl start mysql.service
systemctl enable mysql.service

Step​ ​3:​ ​Installing​ ​the​ ​Cacti​ ​packages.

Install​ ​SNMP​ ​and​ ​SNMP​ ​and​ ​RRDtools:

apt-get install snmp snmpd rrdtool -y

Now​ ​use​ ​the​ ​following​ ​command​ ​to​ ​install​ ​Cacti:

apt-get install cacti cacti-spine -y

During the installation process you will be prompted to configure Cacti with few options to select
from available options. Choose the web server that you wish to use. I would recommend
Apache, which is what we will be using in this particular tutorial.

Next it will ask to configure the Cacti database, select Yes.

Once​ ​the​ ​installation​ ​process​ ​is​ ​complete,​ ​you​ ​will​ ​have​ ​to​ ​restart​ ​all​ ​services​ ​to​ ​reflect
the​ ​changes​ ​made:

systemctl restart apache2.service
systemctl restart mysql.service
systemctl restart snmpd.service

Step​ ​4:​ Accessing cacti.

Cacti will be accessible on port 80 by default, this can be changed within your web server
configuration. As installation is now successful, you may proceed to navigate to
http://server-ip/cacti or http://server-hostname/cacti and complete the required the steps to finish
the installation. (replace server-ip with your server IP, or server-hostname to your server
hostname if you have set up a hostname that resolves back to your server IP)

Congrats! You have successfully installed Cacti. If you have any questions or comments,
comment below!

Special thanks to Julian Jin from AlphaRacks for sponsoring this tutorial.  

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