Time for action – installing the missing packages

The default CentOS installation is missing several important packages. So, we are now going to install these.

1. Install the RPMForge repository. For a 32bit CentOS installation this can be achieved by executing the following command (all on one line):

   rpm -Uhv http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/i386/rpmforge/RPMS/rpmforge-release-0.3.6-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
   

2. The RPMForge repository includes an RRDtool version for CentOS.

3. Issue the following command to install all required packages:

   yum install mysql-server php-mysql net-snmp-utils rrdtool php-snmp
   

What just happened?

You just gave the system a location to find the remaining packages needed for the Cacti installation and then installed them; therefore, you are now ready to start the next installation phase.

Downloading and extracting Cacti

Go to http://www.cacti.net and download the latest version of Cacti. In the top-left corner, under Latest Files, right-click on the tar.gz file and save the link address to the clipboard. You are going to need this link later. For simplicity we're assuming that your server has an Internet connection.