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Merged
netniV merged 5 commits into from
Sep 5, 2026
Merged

docs: fix harmful FAQ password reset, dead link, and removed PHP/MySQL features in Windows guide #214

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3203e22
docs: fix harmful FAQ password reset and removed PHP/MySQL features
somethingwithproof Mar 10, 2026
e91c4e6
docs(faq): fix password-reset procedure
somethingwithproof Jul 22, 2026
ec06772
docs: prefer SHA2 for emergency password resets
somethingwithproof Aug 23, 2026
764fb17
docs: force password change after admin reset
somethingwithproof Aug 24, 2026
1efa215
docs: use the mariadb client in the password reset example
somethingwithproof Sep 3, 2026
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33 changes: 22 additions & 11 deletions Frequently-Asked-Questions.md
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Expand Up @@ -68,18 +68,30 @@ installation documents included that may also help.

**Q:** I have forgotten my 'admin' password to Cacti, how do I reset it?

**A:** To reset the admin account password back to the default of 'admin',
connect to your Cacti database at the command line.
**A:** Reset the password directly in the database. Connect to the Cacti
database and set the `admin` account's password to the SHA-256 hash of the new
value:

```sql
shell> mysql -u root -p cacti
```console
shell> mariadb -u root -p cacti
MariaDB> UPDATE user_auth
-> SET password = SHA2('newpassword', 256),
-> password_change = 'on',
-> must_change_password = 'on',
-> lastchange = UNIX_TIMESTAMP()
-> WHERE username = 'admin' AND realm = 0;
```

Now execute the following SQL:
On MySQL, the `mysql` client takes the same arguments.

```sql
MySQL> update user_auth set password=md5('admin') where username='admin';
```
Use a unique temporary value in place of `newpassword`. The local administrator
will be required to replace it at the next login, and the reset timestamp keeps
the account subject to any configured password-expiration policy.

> **Note:** On an older database server without `SHA2()`, use
> `MD5('newpassword')` instead. Cacti accepts either legacy bootstrap hash and
> transparently re-hashes the account with its current password algorithm on
> the next successful local login.

## Monitoring

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -244,9 +256,8 @@ change between the new small counter value and the large previous value. One way
to combat this issue is to specify realistic maximum values for your data
sources. RRDtool will ignore any value that is larger than the maximum value.

If you already have a spike on one or more of your graphs, there is a really
[useful Perl script](http://cricket.sourceforge.net/contrib/files/killspike2)
that will remove them for you.
If you already have a spike on one or more of your graphs, Cacti includes a
built-in Spikekill utility. See [Spikekill](Spikekill.md) for usage.

---

Expand Down