How to Install Monit on Debian

As a system administrator, it's essential to monitor your servers and network devices to ensure they are running smoothly and efficiently. One of the most popular tools used for this purpose is Cacti, an open-source monitoring solution that provides real-time data about your network infrastructure. In this article, we will explore how to configure MariaDB for Cacti on a Debian 11 Bullseye server.

First, let's start by installing the required packages. Open the terminal and run the following commands:

```bash

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mariadb-server cacti

```

Once the installation is complete, we need to configure MariaDB for Cacti. To do this, we will add some specific lines to the `50-server.cnf` file using the nano editor.

Open the file using the following command:

```bash

sudo nano /etc/mysql/50-server.cnf

```

Add the following line at the end of the file:

```bash

innodb_file_format=Barracuda

```

Next, we need to comment out two lines by adding a `#` tag in front of them. These lines are:

```bash

character-set-server = utf8mb4

```

Save and exit the nano editor.

Now, let's check the status of MariaDB using the following command:

```bash

sudo systemctl status mariadb

```

Once confirmed that MariaDB is running, we can create a database for Cacti. Run the following commands:

```bash

sudo mysql -u root -p

CREATE DATABASE cacti DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_unicode_ci;

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON cacti.* TO 'cacti'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'strongpassword';

GRANT SELECT ON mysql.time_zone_name TO 'cacti'@'localhost';

ALTER DATABASE cacti CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

FLUSH PRIVILES;

EXIT

```

Finally, start and enable the MariaDB server using the following command:

```bash

sudo systemctl enable mariadb --now

```

Cacti uses a MySQL database to store its settings and an Apache webserver for interactive configuration and display of graphics. It also comes with ready-made templates for many systems (Linux/Unix computers, various router models) that can be easily customized using a browser.

With Cacti, you can manage templates for graphics, hosts, and data sources, which can be created using a browser. This open-source tool is suitable for monitoring servers running under Linux that query remotely maintainable network switches as well as recording and visualizing any other measurement data that occurs on a regular basis.

For those looking to install Cacti on their Debian 11 Bullseye server, you can refer to the quick steps given in this tutorial. With its numerous ready-made scripts and data templates, Cacti is an excellent choice for monitoring hosts in larger networks using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol).

Install monit on debian