Cacti Primer

• Full doc: http://www.cacti.net/downloads/docs/html/

• http://sysadmin.miniconf.org/2006/andrew-mcmillan-using_cacti.html

• Cacti is based on rrdtool, which stores data in single database-like files, RRDs (round robin database).

• Cacti is a web frontend to make rrdtool create, rrdtool update, and rrdtool graph more user friendly

• On the fly graph creation and data zooming/panning

• Graphs can be created based on data from multiple data sources (DS), even stored across multiple RRD files.

• RRD files are based on DS definitions and RRA (round robin archives) data aggregation rules.

• Use DERIVE for DS (counter that can go down).

• Data stored in RRD files but config data stored in mysql.