Installing Under Windows

BSOD2600, one of the long term users of Cacti, provides an Installer on Windows. We recommend you use that installer for Cacti. You can obtain that installer under the Windows section of the Cacti forums. However, if you wish to install Cacti yourself, please follow the instructions below.

(Optional) Apache - This software is optional if running Windows Internet Information Server.
Cacti - Install from the zip distribution and install in the web root or your choice. Many choose to install into a Cacti sub folder.
Spine - Install from the zip distribution into the c:\cacti directory. Make sure your spine.conf.dist is located in that directory as well.
RRDtool - Install from the Cacti website. Install it into the c:\cacti directory.
PHP X - Install into the c:\php folder. If you choose to install into c:\Program Files\php, you will have to use 8.3 filenames to reference it's binaries in Cacti.

MySQL 8.x or MariaDB 10.5.x++ - Install into the default locations. This is typically for MySQL:

c:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server X.XX.

For MariaDB it is normally:

c:\Program Files\MariaDB.

After the Database is confirmed running, follow the steps to setup the correct settings to InnoDB in the my.ini file which include the following:

[mysqld]
character-set-server = utf8mb4
collation-server = utf8mb4_unicode_ci
max_heap_table_size = 770M  # Adjust for your OS memory size
max_allowed_packet = 500M   # Adjust for your OS memory size
tmp_table_size = 512M       # Adjust for your OS memory size
join_buffer_size = 256M     # Adjust for your OS memory size
sort_buffer_size = 200M     # Adjust for your OS memory size

# important for compatibility
sql_mode=NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER

innodb_flush_log_at_trx_commit = 2
innodb_flush_log_at_timeout = 3
innodb_file_per_table = ON

innodb_buffer_pool_size = 4500M # Adjust for your OS memory size

# for very large indexes
innodb_file_format = Barracuda
innodb_large_prefix = 1

# for SSD's on a 64 core server
innodb_doublewrite = OFF
innodb_read_io_threads = 32
innodb_write_io_threads = 16
innodb_io_capacity = 10000
innodb_io_capacity_max = 20000
innodb_flush_method = O_DIRECT

Restart MariaDB/MySQL after applying these settings. Once you start the install Cacti will recommend better values.

Ensure you write down your MariaDB/MySQL root password for later use. Keep a backup copy of it safe.

(Optional) Cygwin - Download and execute setup-x86_64.exe from the Cygwin website. Keep the setup-x86_64.exe file for later use. You will need Cygwin and its development packages for building RRDtool and spine.
(Optional) Net-SNMP - Install to the c:\usr directory. If you choose to use c:\Program Files\net-snmp you will have to use 8.3 filenames to reference its binaries in Cacti. The default installation location for Net-SNMP on Windows is c:\usr where closely aligns with Linux and Unix install paths.

Common OS Changes

The following changes will be required regardless of your selected Webserver.

Add the following directory to the existing Windows System PATH environment variable: c:\php. The Windows path can be accessed via the Control Panel at: System -> Advanced -> Environment Variables -> System Variables.
Add the following directory to a new Windows System environment variable called PHPRC: c:\php.
Add a new Windows System environment variable called MIBDIRS set it to c:\php\extrasmibs

Rename the file c:\php\php.ini.dist to php.ini, and make the following changes to it:

Uncomment the following lines. You will need more modules. The Cacti install process will guide you through this process.

extension_dir = c:\php\ext
extension=php_mysql.dll
extension=php_snmp.dll
extension=php_sockets.dll
cgi.force_redirect = 0
date.time_zone = America/Detroit
memory_limit = 800M
max_execution_time = 300

In earlier installation guides to PHP, they recommended moving certain DLL's to the c:\winnt\system32 directory. If so, you will have to remove those files. Please review the PHP installation documentation for instructions on removing those files.
If you want to allow template importing, uncomment the following line:
```
file_uploads = On
```
Give the user who will be running the scheduled task, modify rights to the .index file in the location pointed to by the MIBDIRS Windows System environment variable.

Web Server Configuration

Make sure you have stopped any IIS web servers before you proceed with Apache installation, or make sure Apache is configured on an alternate port.

If using Apache 2.x and PHP 8, then add the following lines. The values will change depending on your version of PHP and Apache.

LoadModule php_module "C:\php\php8apache2_4.dll"
AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.php
PHPIniDir "C:\php"

IIS Specific Steps

Start the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, right click on the Default Web Site (in most cases) and select Properties.
Under the Home Directory tab, select Configuration and click Add. Browse to the path of php8isapi.dll, and type in .php as the extension. Note: if using IIS6, Enable All Verbs and Script Engine.
Under the ISAPI Filters tab, click Add and browse to the php8isapi.dll file. Name the filter "php" and click OK.
Under the Documents tab, add index.php to the list.
If using IIS6, goto Web Service Extensions and add a new Web Service Extension. Name the extension "php", and click Add and browse to the php8isapi.dll file, enable Set Extension status to Enable, and click OK.

Give the IIS user read & execute permissions to the required files file %windir%\system32\cmd.exe. They will also need read permissions on cacti_web_root/cacti and it's subfolders. A anm example provided by one user included the following assuming the Cacti web root is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti:

icacls "C:\windows\system32\cmd.exe" /grant "IUSR:(OI)(CI)(RX,W)"
icacls "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\resource\snmp_queries" /grant "IUSR:(OI)(CI)(RX,W)"
icacls "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\resource\script_server" /grant "IUSR:(OI)(CI)(RX,W)"
icacls "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\scripts" /grant "IUSR:(OI)(CI)(RX,W)"
icacls "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\rra" /grant "IUSR:(OI)(CI)(RX,W)"
icacls "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\log" /grant "IUSR:(OI)(CI)(RX,W)"
icacls "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\cache" /grant "IUSR:(OI)(CI)(RX,W)"
icacls "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\include\config.php" /grant "IUSR:(RX,W)"
copy /b NUL "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\include\vendor\csrf\csrf-secret.php"
icacls "C:\inetpub\wwwroot\cacti\include\vendor\csrf\csrf-secret.php" /grant "IUSR:(RX,W)"

Completely stop and start the IIS service using the following commands:
```
net stop iisadmin
net start w3svc
```

Cygwin Installation Steps for spine and RRDtool

Installing a single instance of Cygwin, and using it for all applications that require it is recommended so you do not have different versions of the Cygwin dlls laying around on your system, which can cause conflicts.
Run setup-x86_64.exe you previously download.
Once you reach the portion of setup entitled Select Packages, install the following noting that the versions numbers may have changed:
- Base (include all items)
  - Libs
    - libcairo2
      - libcrypt0
      - libfontconfig-common
      - libfontconfig1
      - libfreetype6
      - libgcrypt20
      - libgd3
      - libglib2.0_0
      - libmariadb3
      - libssl1.0
      - libpango1.0_0
      - libpng16
      - libreadline7
      - zlib-devel
      - zlib0
    - Devel
      - autoconf
      - automake
      - binutils
      - clang
      - cygwin-devel
      - gcc-core
      - gcc-g++
      - libmariadb-devel
      - help2man
      - libargp
      - libltdl7
      - libtool
      - net-snmp-devel
      - patch
      - texinfo
      - w32api-headers
      - w32api-runtime
      - windows-default-manifest
    - Web
      - wget
Add c:\cygwin\bin to your Windows System PATH environment variable.
Move setup-x86_64.exe to c:cygwin for future use. This binary is updated from time to time, so it's recommended that you update it periodically.

RRDtool Download and Installation Instructions

You can obtain Windows compatible versions for RRDtool at https://rrdtool.org. Install them into C:\rrdtool directory.

Create the MariaDB/MySQL database:

shell> mysqladmin --user=root --password create cacti

Import the default Cacti database:

shell> mysql --user=root --password cacti < c:\apache2\htdocs\cacti\cacti.sql

Create a MySQL username and password for Cacti.

shell> mysql --user=root --password mysql

MySQL> CREATE USER 'cactiuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'cactiuser';
MySQL> GRANT ALL ON cacti.* TO 'cactiuser'@'localhost';
MySQL> GRANT SELECT ON mysql.time_zone_name TO 'cactiuser'@'localhost';
MySQL> ALTER DATABASE cacti CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
MySQL> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Net-SNMP Installation

If you plan to use any hosts with SNMP v2c support, and are using early versions of PHP, you must download and install the Net-SNMP libraries. Net-SNMP provides installers to install their product. However, caution must be taken if you choose to use long file names as Cacti does not see them as long file names. You will have to user 8.3 notation.

Type Name

Original c:\Program Files\Net-SNMP\bin

Becomes c:\progra~1\net-snmp\bin.

Type	Name
Original	`c:\Program Files\Net-SNMP\bin`
Becomes	`c:\progra~1\net-snmp\bin`.

Cacti spine Installation

Extract the Spine zip file to c:\spine and modify the spine.conf.dist file to include the following statements.
```
DB_Host  127.0.0.1 or hostname (not localhost)
DB_Database cacti
DB_User     cactiuser
DB_Password cactiuser
DB_Port     3306
```
All other pre 0.8.6 settings are obsolete.
Spine now comes with a binary distribution. However, we strongly suggest that you install Cygwin and then remove all the DLL files and sh.exe from the c:\spine directory. If you simply downloaded all the Cygwin components and compiled spine from source, the only two files you will require in the c:\spine directory will be spine.exe itself and spine.conf.

Finishing your Setup

Edit cacti_web_root/cacti/include/config.php and specify the MariaDB/MySQL user, password, database, and database port for your Cacti configuration.

$database_default = "cacti";
$database_hostname = "localhost";
$database_username = "cactiuser";
$database_password = "cactiuser";
$database_port = "3306";

Point your web browser to:

http://your-server/cacti/

Log in using the username and password of admin/admin. You will be required to change this password immediately.
From Cacti, go to Settings -> Paths and verify/udate your paths to point to the correct locations. Recommended examples are posted below. If you plan on using Spine, then it is very important that all paths include forward slashes instead of backslashes.
- PHP Binary Path:
  
  c:/php/php.exe
- RRDtool Binary Path:
  
  c:/rrdtool/rrdtool.exe
- SNMPGET, SNMPWALK, SNMPBULKWALK, SNMPGETNEXT Paths:
  
  c:/usr/bin/snmpget.exe c:/usr/bin/snmpwalk.exe c:/usr/bin/snmpbulkwalk.exe c:/usr/bin/snmpgetnext.exe
- Cacti Logfile Path:
  
  c:/mycacti/website/cacti/log/cacti.log
- Spine Path:
  
  c:/spine/spine.exe
If you chose automation, once the Cacti poller starts, it will create any compatible devices found on the network using the snmp settings and default automation rules. These are tuned specifically for Linux Cisco and Windows devices by default. A Localhost device will automatically be created for you at install time.

Log into the user account you'll be using for the scheduled task and verify starting a Cacti polling cycle works. Do this by running the following from the command prompt:

php c:/cacti_web_root/cacti/poller.php

The output should look something like the following:

C:\>php c:inetpubwwwrootcactipoller.php
OK u:0.00 s:0.06 r:1.32
OK u:0.00 s:0.06 r:1.32
OK u:0.00 s:0.16 r:2.59
OK u:0.00 s:0.17 r:2.62
10/28/2005 04:57:12 PM - SYSTEM STATS: Time:4.7272 Method:cmd.php Processes:1 Threads:N/A Hosts:1 HostsPerProcess:2 DataSources:4 RRDsProcessed:2

After this has ran once, you should have cacti.log in /cacti/log/ and RRDfiles in /cacti/rra/.

You are going to need to schedule a task while logged on as an Administrator. This task is required to you can run poller.php every 5 minutes. Make sure the Task Scheduler service is started and follow the steps below to begin.

*Note: The following instructions are based on most Windows installs.
1. Select Start -> Settings -> Control Panel and double click on Scheduled Tasks.
2. Double click on Add Scheduled Task.
3. Click Next and Browse on the following screen. Find c:php and select php.exe. Choose Daily on and click Next.
4. Click Next again without changing the time or date settings.
5. In the steps above, you should have granted access to the Cacti user, but if the poller encounters problems, make sure you have the correct permissions to the directories below:
  
  cacti_web_root/cacti/rra cacti_web_root/log
  
  Make sure the user has read, write, and execute access to the following directories:
  
  c:\php c:\phpsapi
6. Click Next and Finish to close the wizard.
7. Right click on the task you just created, and select Properties.
8. Select the Schedule tab.
9. Make sure Daily is selected and click the Advanced button.
10. Check the Repeat checkbox, set it for 5 minutes and set the duration for 24 hours.
11. Click Ok
12. In the Run textbox enter the following text making sure to use the appropriate paths.
  
  c:\php\php.exe c:\mycacti\website\cacti\poller.php
The start in box should say c:\mycacti\website\cacti.