#CACTI VMWARE IMAGE HOW TO#
The instructions below will include how to install this. A template for the PowerConnect 6200 line of switches can be found here. In the case of the PowerConnect switches, the template will assist in providing information on CPU, memory, and temperature. Templates are an option that extend the functionality in Cacti. vim, ssh, ntp, etc.) for convenience or functionality. Go ahead and install the typical packages (e.g. While it is a single purpose built VM, you still have to live with it, so no need to punish yourself by leaving it bare bones. Otherwise, your production LAN will be fine. Assign it a static address on your network management VLAN (if you have one). Any distribution will work, but my instructions will cater toward the Debian distributions – particularly Ubuntu, or a Ubuntu clone like Linux Mint (my personal favorite).
#CACTI VMWARE IMAGE FREE#
One would think there would be a free Virtual Appliance out on the VMware Virtual Appliance Marektplace for this purpose, but if there is, I couldn’t find it. The first thing to do is to build a simple Linux VM for the purpose of SNMP management. At a very affordable price (free), Cacti will work just fine in helping with these visibility gaps. It can monitor a number of different types of systems supporting SNMP, but switchgear provides the best example that most everyone can relate to. Cacti leverages RRDTool’s framework to deliver time based performance monitoring and graphing. In this example, I will be setting up a general purpose SNMP management system running Cacti to monitor the performance of some Dell PowerConnect switchgear. This post will provide what you need to know to get started.
But there are simple options to help provide better visibility even for the smallest of shops. SNMP can be used to monitor switchgear and other types of devices, but it’s use is almost always absent in smaller environments. Switchgear is a great example of a resource that can be left in the dark. However, i n many cases you still need to look at performance trending data of devices that may not inherently have that ability on it’s own. It does a good job of integrating side-band management and event driven alerting inside of vCenter. The Dell Management Plug-in for VMware vCenter is a great example of that.
Partners in the VMware ecosystem are able to take advantage of the extensibility by offering useful tools to improve management and monitoring of other components throughout the stack. Fortunately, virtualization has changed much of that nonsense, and performance trending data of VMs and hosts are a given. Horribly underutilized hardware running happily along side overtaxed or misconfigured systems, and it all looked the same. One near the top of the list is a general lack of visibility for each and every system. There are a number of things that I don’t miss with old physical infrastructures.
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