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Installing Under Windows

Note: As of Cacti 1.2.31, PHP 8.1 is required and PHP Composer is required. Composer will be used to ensure all libraries are installed and up to date.

BSOD2600, one of the long-term users of Cacti, provides an installer for Windows. We recommend using that installer. You can obtain it under the Windows section of the Cacti forums. If you prefer to install Cacti manually, follow the instructions below.

  1. (Optional) Apache - This software is optional if running Windows Internet Information Server.

  2. Cacti - Install from the zip distribution into the web root of your choice. Many choose to install into a Cacti subfolder.

  3. Spine - Install from the zip distribution into the c:\cacti directory. Ensure spine.conf.dist is located in that directory as well.

  4. RRDtool - Install from the Cacti website into the c:\cacti directory.

  5. PHP 8.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 its binaries in Cacti.

  6. MySQL 8.x or MariaDB 10.5+ - Install into the default locations. For MySQL this is typically:

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

    For MariaDB it is typically:

    c:\Program Files\MariaDB

    After the database is confirmed running, apply the following settings to the my.ini file:

    [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 = 32M      # Per-session buffer; keep small to avoid OOM under load

# sql_mode: NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER was removed in MySQL 8.0; omit it on MySQL 8+
sql_mode = NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION

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

# innodb_file_format and innodb_large_prefix removed in MySQL 8.0 /
# MariaDB 10.3+; omit those settings on newer releases.

# for SSDs on a multi-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 installer, Cacti will recommend better values for your hardware.

    Write down your MariaDB/MySQL root password and keep a backup copy in a safe place.

  7. (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.

  8. (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, which closely aligns with Linux and Unix install paths.

Common OS Changes

The following changes are required regardless of your selected web server.

  1. Add the following directory to the existing Windows System PATH environment variable: c:\php. The Windows PATH can be accessed via: Control Panel → System → Advanced → Environment Variables → System Variables.

  2. Add a new Windows System environment variable PHPRC set to c:\php.

  3. Add a new Windows System environment variable MIBDIRS set to c:\php\extrasmibs.

  4. Rename c:\php\php.ini.dist to php.ini, and make the following changes. The Cacti installer will guide you through enabling additional modules.

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

    Note: php_mysql.dll (the old mysql_* extension) was removed in PHP 7.0. Use php_pdo_mysql.dll instead.

  5. In earlier PHP installation guides, moving certain DLLs to c:\winnt\system32 was recommended. If you followed those guides, remove those files. Review the PHP installation documentation for instructions.

  6. To allow template importing, uncomment the following line:

    file_uploads = On

  7. Give the user running the scheduled task modify rights to the .index file in the location pointed to by the MIBDIRS environment variable.

Web Server Configuration

  1. Ensure you have stopped any IIS web servers before proceeding with Apache installation, or configure Apache on an alternate port.

  2. If using Apache 2.x with PHP 8, add the following lines. Adjust values for 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

PHP 8.0 removed ISAPI support. For IIS with PHP 8, use the FastCGI handler instead of ISAPI.

  1. Install the IIS FastCGI module if it is not already present (available via Windows Server roles or Web Platform Installer).

  2. Open IIS Manager. At the server level, open FastCGI Settings and add a new application:

    • Full Path: C:\php\php-cgi.exe
    • Set InstanceMaxRequests to 10000

  3. In the site or server Handler Mappings, add a new module mapping:

    • Request path: *.php
    • Module: FastCgiModule
    • Executable: C:\php\php-cgi.exe

  4. Under the Default Document feature, add index.php to the list.

  5. Give the IIS application pool identity (or IUSR) read and execute permissions on %windir%\system32\cmd.exe, and read/write/execute on the Cacti directories:

    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)"

  6. Completely stop and start the IIS service:

    net stop iisadmin
net start w3svc

Cygwin Installation Steps for Spine and RRDtool

  1. Installing a single instance of Cygwin and using it for all applications is recommended. Multiple Cygwin installations can have conflicting DLL versions.

  2. Run the setup-x86_64.exe you downloaded previously.

  3. At the Select Packages step, install the following packages (version 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

  4. Add c:\cygwin\bin to your Windows System PATH environment variable.

  5. Move setup-x86_64.exe to c:\cygwin for future use. Update this binary periodically, as it is updated from time to time.

RRDtool Download and Installation

  1. Obtain Windows-compatible builds of RRDtool from https://rrdtool.org and install to C:\rrdtool.

  2. Create the MariaDB/MySQL database:

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

  3. Import the default Cacti database:

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

  4. 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

  1. If you plan to use SNMP v2c and are using early versions of PHP, download and install the Net-SNMP libraries. Net-SNMP provides an installer.

    If you use long directory names, note that Cacti requires 8.3 notation:

    Format Path
    Original c:\Program Files\Net-SNMP\bin
    8.3 notation c:\progra~1\net-snmp\bin

Cacti Spine Installation

  1. Extract the Spine zip file to c:\spine and edit spine.conf.dist with your database details:

    DB_Host      127.0.0.1
DB_Database  cacti
DB_User      cactiuser
DB_Password  cactiuser
DB_Port      3306

    Note: Use 127.0.0.1 rather than localhost for the DB host on Windows.

  2. Spine is distributed as a binary. We strongly recommend installing Cygwin and removing all DLL files and sh.exe from c:\spine, keeping only spine.exe and spine.conf.

Finishing Your Setup

  1. Edit cacti_web_root/cacti/include/config.php and specify the database connection details:

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

  2. Browse to http://your-server/cacti/ and log in with admin/admin. You will be prompted to change the password immediately.

  3. Go to Settings → Paths and verify/update all paths to point to the correct locations. If using Spine, all paths must use forward slashes.

    • PHP Binary Path: c:/php/php.exe
    • RRDtool Binary Path: c:/rrdtool/rrdtool.exe
    • SNMP Binary Paths: c:/usr/bin/snmpget.exe, c:/usr/bin/snmpwalk.exe, etc.
    • Cacti Logfile Path: c:/mycacti/website/cacti/log/cacti.log
    • Spine Path: c:/spine/spine.exe

  4. If you enabled automation, once the Cacti poller starts it will discover compatible devices using your SNMP settings and default automation rules. A Localhost device is created automatically at install time.

  5. Log into the account you will use for the scheduled task and verify a polling cycle works:

    php c:/cacti_web_root/cacti/poller.php

    Expected output includes lines like:

    OK u:0.00 s:0.06 r:1.32
10/28/2005 04:57:12 PM - SYSTEM STATS: Time:4.7272 Method:cmd.php ...

    After the first run, cacti.log will appear in /cacti/log/ and RRD files in /cacti/rra/.

  6. Schedule a recurring task to run poller.php every 5 minutes:

    Note: The following instructions apply to most Windows versions.

    1. Open Task Scheduler (Control Panel → Scheduled Tasks).

    2. Click Add Scheduled Task and then Next.

    3. Browse to c:\php and select php.exe. Choose Daily and click Next.

    4. Click Next without changing the time or date settings.

    5. Ensure the task account has the correct permissions on:

      • cacti_web_root/cacti/rra
      • cacti_web_root/log
      • c:\php
      • c:\phpsapi

    6. Click Next and Finish to close the wizard.

    7. Right-click the task and select Properties.

    8. On the Schedule tab, confirm Daily is selected and click Advanced.

    9. Check Repeat, set to 5 minutes, and set duration to 24 hours.

    10. Click OK.

    11. In the Run field, enter:

      c:\php\php.exe c:\mycacti\website\cacti\poller.php

      Set Start in to c:\mycacti\website\cacti.

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