860 NAZZURAHBINTISAPAR2014

1 PSZ 19:16 (Pind. 1/07)

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA DECLARATION OF THESIS / UNDERGRADUATE PROJECT PAPER AND COPYRIGHT

Author’s full name :

NAZZURAH BINTI SAPAR

Date of birth

:

05 AUGUST 1991

Title

:

Academic Session :

NETWORK MONITORING SYSTEM USING CACTI 2013/2014

I declare that this thesis is classified as :



CONFIDENTIAL

(Contains confidential information under the Official Secret Act 1972)*

RESTRICTED

(Contains restricted information as specified by the organization where research was done)*

OPEN ACCESS

I agree that my thesis to be published as online open access (full text)

I acknowledged that Universiti Teknologi Malaysia reserves the right as follows: 1. 2. 3.

The thesis is the property of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. The Library of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia has the right to make copies for the purpose of research only. The Library has the right to make copies of the thesis for academic exchange.

Certified by :

SIGNATURE

SIGNATURE OF SUPERVISOR

910805-14-6422

MR. ALIAS BIN MOHD

(NEW IC NO. /PASSPORT NO.)

JUNE 2014

Date :

NOTES :

*

NAME OF SUPERVISOR Date :

JUNE 2014

If the thesis is CONFIDENTAL or RESTRICTED, please attach with the letter from the organization with period and reasons for confidentiality or restriction.

2

“I hereby declare that I have read this dissertation and in my opinion this dissertation is sufficient in terms of scope and quality as a fulfillment for the award of

the degree of Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical - Telecommunication)”

Signature: _________________________________________________ Name of Supervisor: MR. ALIAS BIN MOHD Date: 20th JUNE 2014

i

NETWORK MONITORING SYSTEM USING CACTI

NAZZURAH BINTI SAPAR

A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical - Telecommunication)

Faculty of Electrical Engineering Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

JUNE 2014

ii

I declare that this thesis entitled “Network Monitoring System Using Cacti” is the result of my own research except as cited in the references. The thesis has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently submitted in candidature of any other degree.

Signature

……………………….... :

Name

Nazzurah : Binti Sapar

Date

20 : th JUNE 2014

iii

Dedicated with deepest love to:

My beloved mother, Pn. Laili, siblings and my family. Not to forget my dear friends for being there whenever I need them.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, Alhamdulillah praise to the mighty Allah for the guidance, strength and passion given to me for my final year project. Peace and blessing upon Prophet Muhammad S.A.W who has bring the light to all mankind.

This research project would not have been possible without the support of many people. First of all, I wish to express our gratitude to my supervisor, En. Alias Mohd who was abundantly help and offered invaluable assistance, support and guidance.

Special thanks to MYREN staff, Mr. Akmal and others for assist me to provide the facilities I needed. They also help in solving the problems in server.

Last but not least, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to my beloved family and friends for their understanding in the time to accomplish the given project and at the same time supported me for everything I do in my life. Thus, they have given me courage and strength to perform well in everything.

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ABSTRACT

Network monitoring system is a system that will continuously monitor the traffic and performance of servers. This system will alert the network administrator regarding the problem arises in a server via email, Short Message Service (SMS) or any other user defined method. In this project, a CACTI network monitoring system will be implemented to monitor servers in Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. CACTI is one of the popular open source network monitoring system. CACTI-based monitoring system is able to monitor the performance of the hard disk, memory, and CPU of the servers. The data collected by the system then will be represented in graphical form. This system will help the server’s administrator to monitor their server 24 hours a day, thus reduce the downtime of those servers efficiently.

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ABSTRAK

Sistem pemantauan rangkaian adalah satu sistem yang akan memantau trafik dan pretasi sesuatu pengkhidmat. Sistem ini akan menghantar isyarat kepada pentadbir rangkaian sekiranya sesuatu masalah berlaku melalui e-mel, perkhimatan pesanan ringkas (SMS) atau melalui kaedah-kaedah yang ditentukan oleh pentadbir rangkaian. Tujuan projek ini adalah untuk membangunkan satu sistem pemantauan rangkaian di Fakulti Kejuruteraan Elektrik UTM menggunakan CACTI. CACTI adalah antara salah satu sistem pemantauan rangkaian yang paling banyak digunakan. Sistem pemantauan berasaskan CACTI dapat memantau prestasi cakera keras computer, memori dan cpu milik pengkhidmat. Data yang dikumpul oleh sistem akan dilampirkan di dalam graf. Sistem ini akan membantu pentadbir rangkaian dalam memantau rangkaian selama 24 jam sehari sekali gus membantu mengurangkan kegagalan rangkaian dengan cekap.

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

1

2

TITLE

PAGE

DECLARATION

ii

DEDICATION

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

iv

ABSTRACT

v

ABSTRAK

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

vii

LIST OF TABLES

ix

LIST OF FIGURES

x

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

xii

INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction

1

1.2 Problem Statement

2

1.3 Objective of Project

2

1.4 Scope of Project

2

1.5 Work Contributions

3

1.6 Organization of Thesis

3

LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1

Introduction

4

2.2

Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Server Edition 4

2.3

Cacti Network Monitoring Tool

5

2.3.1 Data Retrieval

5

2.3.2 Data Storage

6

2.3.3 Data Presentation

6

viii

3

4

5

6

2.3.4 Benefits of Cacti

6

2.3.5 Cacti Plugins

7

2.4. Net-SNMP

8

2.5. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

9

METHODOLOGY 3.1

Introduction

10

3.2

Setting up Ubuntu as Apache Web Server

13

3.3

Installation of Cacti

14

3.4

Setting Up WordPress as Model Server

16

3.5

Setting Up SMTP for Mail Server

18

3.6

SNMP Polling on WordPress Server for Monitoring

19

3.7

Plugin Management

21

3.8

Summary

22

RESULT AND DISCUSSION 4.1

Introduction

23

4.2

Graphs on Performance of The Monitored Servers

23

4.3

Mail Setting Configuration

26

4.4

Threshold Setting Configuration

27

4.5

Nectar Plugin Configuration

28

4.6

Summary

30

PROJECT MANAGEMENT 5.1

Introduction

31

5.2

Work Schedule

32

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

REFERENCES

6.1 Introduction

34

6.2 Conclusion

34

6.3 Recommendation on Future Work

35 36

ix

LIST OF TABLES

TABLES NO.

TITLE

PAGE

2.1

Cacti Supported Plugins

7

2.2

Cacti User Plugins

8

2.3

Types of Communication Provided by Net-SNMP

8

5.1

FYP1 Work Schedule

32

5.2

FYP2 Work Schedule

33

x

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO.

TITLE

PAGE

2.1

Cacti Operation System

5

3.1a

Procedures on Implementing Cacti Server

11

3.1b

Procedures on Developing WordPress Server

12

3.2

Apache Web Service Works

13

3.3

Installation Guide for Cacti

15

3.4

Cacti Successfully Installed

16

3.5

Test Email System

19

3.6

SNMP Polling for WordPress Server at Cacti Website

20

3.7

Plugins Management System

22

4.1

Graph of Memory Usage of Cacti Server

24

4.2

Graph of Logged in Users of Cacti Server

24

4.3

Graph of Load Average of WordPress Server

25

4.4

Graph of Server Processes of WordPress Server

25

4.5

Mail Setting Configuration

26

4.6

Email of Cacti Test Message

26

4.7

Threshold Setting Configurations

27

4.8

Threshold Monitoring Page

27

4.9

Email Alert Sent by Threshold

28

4.10

Email On Normal Condition

28

xi

4.11

Nectar Configuration

29

4.12

Nectar Report

29

xii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CPU

-

Central Processing Unit

FKE

-

Faculty of Electrical Engineer

LAN

-

Local Area Network

LTS

Long Term Service

PIA

Plugin Architecture

RRD

Round Robin Database

SMS

Short Messaging Service

SMTP

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

SNMP

Simple Network Management Protocol

UTM

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

WAN

Wide Area Network

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Introduction

Computerization nowadays is very complex and in information technology field, there is a lot of communication system between computers.

These

communications type called networking that can be classified as LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network) and so on.

In the present of networking

infrastructure, devices such as routers, switches, hubs and so on are very complex and hard to maintain and monitor, so it not possible to monitor devices and servers manually at production level.

Network monitoring is the process of checking computers, systems, and services that comprise a network. This examination allows a network administrator to maintain a robust network and even improve the network.

Accident in networking such as power supply burn out, server going to crash, the network bandwidth drops or the router stops working may happen. Effective network monitoring will help to cope with such situations and minimize down-time. It will also help to collect periodic information about the network, which will help you to generate log files and performance charts of system capabilities and responses. With such data, you will be able to optimize your network infrastructure and performance.

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1.2

Problem Statement

Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FKE) Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) has several web servers such as www.fke.utm.my, web.fke.utm.my, and papers.fke.utm.my. Those servers are some of the critical servers in FKE, hence it cannot afford a long downtime. Cacti, a network monitoring tool are implemented in the FKE web server to monitor the traffic and performance of these critical servers. Once a downtime occurs at the server, network administrator will be alerted by automatic generated email by using email server through Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). Using Cacti, administrator may also view the historical data collected by the system in term of graphical view. Administrator also is able to manage the monitoring on the performance of the hard disk, memory, and CPU of the servers. This application will ease the work of the server administrator by alerting them on the downtime via email.

1.3

Objective of Project

Objective of this project is to build a network monitoring system using Cacti open source software for Faculty of Electrical Engineering’s critical servers that will monitor and alert the server administrator on the traffic status and performance of the server. This monitoring system also built to monitor the performance of the usage of hard disk, memory and CPU activities of the servers.

1.4

Scope of Project

Scopes of this project are to set up and implement a monitoring system that able to monitor the network traffic status for FKE servers using Cacti. The system should be able to accessed through computer and able to send alert to network administrator via email.

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1.5

Work Contribution

The contributions of this project are: 1.

Implementation of Cacti as the monitoring system.

2.

Network monitoring system to monitor uptime and downtime as well as the CPU status, memory and hard disk usage for FKE servers.

3.

Implementing a low cost solution for network monitoring system.

1.6

Organization of Thesis

The thesis has been divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 is introduction on monitoring system.

The problem statement, objectives, scope of study, work

contributions and the work schedule also explained in this chapter. In chapter 2, some background study and literature reviews focusing on Cacti were discussed. Some relevant information related to implementation of Cacti was also included. Chapter 3 briefly explains the review of methodology on how this system successfully implemented while chapter 4 consists of the results and discussion of the system development. Chapter 5 were explained on the project management in order for the project been completed. Lastly, the conclusion and recommendation for future works are describes in chapter 6.

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CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Introduction

This chapter provides background studies and literature reviews on Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Server Edition, Cacti Network Monitoring Tool, Cacti Plugins, Net-SNMP and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).

2.2

Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS (Precise Pangolin) Server Edition

In order to complete this project, a Ubuntu server has been set up to test the system as it has been used as an operating system for servers in FKE server room. Ubuntu server version 12.04.4 LTS been selected as a web server to implement Cacti monitoring system. It was been selected because of its feature which has long term support (LTS) for four years. This mean that if user end up with newer hardware that needs newer hardware support, the user still able to use an LTS release and have a stable user space [1].

Ubuntu is an operating system that can be edited by many people as it is Linux based. As an open source operating system, all packages developed for it are always release under free software licenses. Ubuntu server version 12.04.4 LTS support three major architectures which are Intel x86, AMD64 and ARM with minimum requirement of 300 MHz CPU with speed of 128 megabytes RAM.

5

Ubuntu server provides a common base for all sorts of server application. It is minimalist design providing a platform for the desired services, such as file or print services, web hosting, email hosting and many more [2].

2.3

Cacti Network Monitoring Tool

Cacti is an open source, network monitoring and graphing tool written in PHP/MySQL [3]. It uses the RRDTool (Round-robin database tool) engine to store data and generate graphics, and collect periodical data through Net-SNMP [4]. NetSNMP is an application to implement Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Cacti operation system are divided by three different tasks which are data retrieval, data storage and data presentation. Figure 2.1 shows the operation system of Cacti.

Data Retrieval

Data Storage

Data Presentation Figure 2.1

2.3.1

Cacti Operation System

Data Retrieval

Cacti retrieve data through poller. It is an application executed at a constant time interval as a schedule service under different operating system. It is set in the operating system scheduler. Networking systems contains a lot of different devices such as routers, switches, servers, different computer and network appliances. To retrieve data from these remote devices, Cacti use Simple Network Management

6

Protocol (SNMP) [3]. Devices that are capable of using SNMP can be monitored by Cacti.

2.3.2

Data Storage

Cacti used RRDTool to store data. RRD is a system to store and show time series data collected from different SNMP-capable devices [3].

It consolidates

historical data based on consolidation functions such as average, minimum, maximum and so on to keep the storage size minimum.

2.3.3

Data Presentation

Cacti used built-in graphing function, the main feature of RRDTool to deploy customized graphing reports based on time series data collected from different SNMP-capable devices.

This graphing function supports auto-scaling and

logarithmic y-axis.

2.3.4

Benefits of Cacti

There are several advantages of Cacti that make it being chosen. 1. Cacti is open source software which mean it is free of charge. 2. It is quick to set up and easy to configure. 3. Cacti can measure traffic availability, load, error and much more parameter with history [4]. 4. Cacti allows user to use all functionality of RRDgraph to define graphics and automate how they are displayed. 5. Cacti allows user to create own templates to reutilize graphics definitions, data and device sources [4].

7

2.3.5

Cacti Plugins Cacti have several plugins that are supported by Cacti’s developers release

under free software licenses. All the plugins that are created by the developers are categorized under supported plugins with updated version.

As a free licenses

software, Cacti allows user to create their own plugins and been categorized under user plugins which the plugins will be credited on their behalf. For installing the plugins, Plugin Architecture (PIA) is mandatory. PIA is a set of code changes to core Cacti. It was designed to be simple and user allows making changes on it. Current version of Cacti, version 0.8.8 has the PIA built-in with it which not included on previous version. Table 2.1 and Table 2,2 show some of the plugins under supported plugins category and user plugins category with the basic function.

Table 2.1 : Cacti Supported Plugins Supported Plugins setting

This plugin provide common infrastructure services for Cacti’s PIA

mobile

Modification to monitor hosts from mobile device in a simple display

monitor

Provide monitoring page with multiple graph in a page

nectar

Emails reports on selected node periodically

threshold

Alert on any data found in any graph in Cacti

autom8

Create new graph and tree entries automatically if Cacti handles lot of devices

rrdclean

RRDclean will analyze Cacti db structure and clean up unnecessary files found

8

Table 2.2 : Cacti User Plugins User Plugins murlin

Give permission for Cacti to monitor webpage

titlechanger

Change Cacti page title to own preferable

weathermap

Compute data from Cacti and generate ‘live’ diagrams to be more user-friendly

cereusreporting

Report on monitoring node created in PDF file

notices

This plugin editing the graph so that user can add notes to each graph

2.4

Net-SNMP

Net-SNMP is a bridge which allows communication between SNMP and server. It is a set of application to implement SNMP v1, SNMP v2c and SNMP v3 using both IPv4 and IPv6 [5, 6]. SNMP daemon is one of the long-running agents for Net-SNMP which respond for the management requests. It usually listens to port 161.

Table 2.3 shows some of the types of communication over the Internet

provided by Net-SNMP.

Table 2.3 : Types of Communication Provided by Net-SNMP Types of communication

Basic Description

snmpget

Retrieved single data from a host

snmpgetnext

Retrieved multiple data from a host at once

snmpwalk

Retrieved unknown indexed data

snmptable

Illustrate data in a table

snmpset

Carrying out write operations

snmpbulkget

Retrieved sub-trees of management values using SNMP GETBULK request

snmpbulkwalk

Communicates with a network entity using SNMP GETBULK request

9

2.5

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a set of telecommunication guideline that allows software to transmit electronic mail (E-mail) transmission across Internet Protocol (IP) networks. SMTP was first defined by RFC 821 (1982, eventually declared STD 10) and last updated by RFC 5321 (2008) which includes the extended SMTP (ESMTP) additions which is widely use nowadays [7].

Most email software is designed to use SMTP for communication purposes when sending email and it only works for outgoing messages. While setting up email programs, user-level client mail applications typically have to give the address of their Internet services provider’s SMTP server for outgoing mail [8]. There are two more protocols that work along SMTP which are Post Office Protocol (POP) and Internet Access Protocol (IMAP). These two protocols are used to retrieving and storing emails

SMTP is used as the common mechanism for transporting electronic mail among different hosts within the transmission control protocol or Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite. Located in the application layer protocol, SMTP client opens a TCP connection to a server SMTP process on a remote host and attempts to send email across the connection. The server SMTP listens for a TCP connection on a specific port 25 and the SMTP client process initiates a connection on that port [6].

The other purpose of SMTP is to set up communication rules between servers. Servers have a way to identifying themselves and announcing what kind of communication they are trying to perform. There are also ways to handle errors, including common things like incorrect email addresses.

In a typical SMTP

transaction, a server will identify itself and announce the kind of operation it is trying to perform. The other server will authorize the operation and the message will be sent. An error message will be replied by the receiving server if any problems detected. It makes SMTP more beneficial than other same function protocols.

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CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1

Introduction

This chapter describes about the process on implementation of Cacti in two servers in FKE. Figure 3.1a shows the procedures on implementing Cacti server. The process starts with setting up Ubuntu server as Apache web server. To develop Cacti server, some applications and protocols are compulsory. Cacti produced the graphs on the monitored servers at the end of the process. While procedures to develop a WordPress server shown in Figure 3.1b. The WordPress server was built up to be functioned as monitored server. The WordPress server condition then will be monitored through SNMP polling and graphs of the WordPress server were been plotted.

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Start

Set up Ubuntu server

Install and configure LAMP Server

Install and configure Cacti

Install and configure SMTP

Test email

SNMP polling

Show Graph

End

Figure 3.1a

Procedures on Implementing Cacti Server

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Start

Set up two Ubuntu server

Install and configure LAMP Server

Install and configure application as website e.g.: WordPress

Install and enable remote SNMP

SNMP polling

Show Graph

End

Figure 3.1b

Procedures on Developing WordPress Server

13

3.2

Setting up Ubuntu as Apache Web Server

Before setting up Ubuntu as Apache web server, a root user is needed to enable all installation and changes to the server [9]. To change to root user, the bash command is as the following:

$

sudo -i

To setting up Ubuntu as Apache web server, install LAMP package in both Ubuntu server [10]. LAMP is installation package consists of Apache2, MySQL and PHP5. The bash command is as following:

#

apt-get install lamp-server^

In order to ensure the Apache installed correctly, web browser Apache should be tested by typing the web address http://cacti.fke.utm.my in the web browser. Figure 3.2 shows the Apache web service is working.

Figure 3.2

Apache Web Service Works

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3.2

Installation of Cacti

There are few requirements installation needed before installing Cacti [3, 11]. Table 3.1 shows the applications needed with basic descriptions of its. Table 3.1 : Application required before installing Cacti Requirements

Basic Description

php5-cgi

common gateway interface

php5-cli

command-line interface

php5-mysql

Extensions files that work with MySQL

snmp

Internet standard protocol for managing devices on IP networks.

snmpd

Daemon to respond to SNMP request packets

libapache2-mod-php5

Provides PHP5 module for Apache2 web server

rrdtool

Handles time-series data such as network bandwidth. It also have tool to extract RRD data into graphical format

The bash command to install the required applications is as followed:

#

apt-get install php5-cgi php5-cli php5-mysql snmp snmpd libapache2-mod-php5 rrdtool rrdtoool

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After successfully installed all the requirements, then install Cacti with the following command.

#

apt-get install cacti cacti-spine

After successfully install Cacti, go to the cacti URL which is http://cacti.fke.utm.my/cacti to complete the installation process. Figure 3.3 shows the installation guide for Cacti.

Figure 3.3

Installation Guide for Cacti

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Figure 3.4 shows the successfully installed Cacti web page with version 0.8.7i. Graph for cacti server conditions then had been created.

Figure 3.4

3.4

Cacti Successfully Installed

Setting up WordPress Server as Model Server

This server has been set up as the server running WordPress. WordPress was installed in the second server as model for the monitored server. WordPress was downloaded in temporary folder. Open the folder and download latest version of WordPress using following command.

# # # # #

cd /tmp wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz tar –xzvf latest.tar.gz cp –R /tmp/wordpress /var/www/wordpress chown –R www-data /var/www/wordpress

17

MySQL database for WordPress then created to establish it. Username and password for WordPress database were determined before been used on next installation. The bash command is as the following:

#

mysql –u root –p

mysql> CREATE DATABASE wordpress; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.02 sec) mysql> CREATE USER wordpressnaz@localhost; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.04 sec) mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR wordpressnaz@localhost= PASSWORD (“nazura2010”); Query OK, 1 row affected (0.04 sec) mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON wordpress.*TO wordpressnaz@localhost -> IDENTIFIED BY ‘nazura2010’; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.04 sec) mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES; Query OK, 1 row affected (0.04 sec) mysql> Bye

Next,

EXIT

installation

continued

by

http://nazzurah.fke.utm.my/wordpress/ wp-admin/install.php.

browse

to

Installation were

completed by filling up the requirements needed using the username and password determined previous.

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3.5

Setting Up SMTP For Mail Server

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is needed in this system for Cacti to send alert email to network administrator [12]. This protocol was installed in Cacti server using following bash command.

#

apt-get install postfix

Internet site was selected in the selection pane and localhost was named for the system mail name during the installation. After installation completed, a few changes made in the main.cf file. The file opened by enters the following command and changes made on the myhostname and mydestination line.

#

vim /etc/postfix/main.cf

myhostname : cacti.fke.utm.my mydestination : cacti.fke.utm.my

#

service postfix reload

The postfix then reloaded using following command in order for the new changes takes place.

#

service postfix reload

19

The test email then been sent through Cacti mail system to test the function ability. The test email was sent to network administrator email account. Figure 3.5 shows the web page to test the mail system. The test mail is used to ensure the Cacti system able to send email to network administrator.

Figure 3.5

3.6

Test Email Systems

SNMP Polling on WordPress Server for Monitoring

SNMP polling is a process where Cacti server send request to WordPress server to cache data on server traffic performance and server condition. This process involved snmpd application which it is a daemon to respond to SNMP request packets in a system. The snmpd.conf file was opened using command below.

#

vim /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf

20

Under agent behavior column, line 3 was commented while line 5 was uncommented. These were needed to enable the system receive packets request from Cacti server.

# AGENT BEHAVIOUR # Listen for connections from the local system only #agentAddress udp:127.0.0.1:161

line 3

# Listen for connections on all interfaces (both IPv4 *and* IPv6) agentAddress udp:161,udp6:[::1]:161

line 5

Under access control column, the following line was uncommented and changed. This needed for daemon to recognize the request from community named public.

rocommunity public

Data from WordPress server then can be cache by the poller. The configuration of the device shown in Figure 3.6

Figure 3.6

SNMP Polling for WordPress Server at Cacti Website

21

3.7

Plugin Management

Three main plugins that needed for this project are setting, threshold and nectar. Setting plugin provides common infrastructure plugin services for Cacti's Plugin Architecture [3]. While, threshold plugin function as Cacti alert system. It has ability to trigger alert on data found within the graphs monitored by Cacti. Threshold able to leverage Cacti graph to generate alerts. It also has ability to notify network administrator of host up or down events. Nectar plugin allows both user and admin to email reports and graphs on a given and selectable interval. All plugins installation has been done in Cacti plugin folder. The bash command for the installation as followed.

#

cd /usr/share/cacti/site/plugins

# #

wget http://docs.cacti.net/_media/plugin:settings-v0.71-1.tgz tar –zxvf plugin:settings-v0.71-1.tgz

# #

wget http://docs.cacti.net/_media/plugin:thold-v0.5.0.tgz tar –zxvf plugin:thold-v0.5.0.tgz

# #

wget http://docs.cacti.net/_media/plugin:nectar-v0.35a.tgz tar –zxvf plugin:nectar-v0.35a.tgz

22

Next, go to plugin management in Cacti website. All plugins installed in server then uploaded in Cacti website. Configurations of the plugins then take place as shown in Figure 3.7.

Figure 3.7

3.8

Plugins Management System

Summary

In conclusion, Cacti were implemented successfully. It consists of six steps. The steps for implementing the system can be referred from section 3.2 until section 3.7. The build-up Ubuntu server as Apache web server is to enable implementation of Cacti under web server. The installation process of Cacti in web-based Ubuntu server is to develop server named Cacti. Next, WordPress server was set up as model server working similarly with FKE critical servers. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) then configured to enable the email system in Cacti. At the end of the process, data from the WordPress server will be read by the Cacti server to be represented in a graph for the monitoring system.

23

CHAPTER 4

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

4.1

Introduction

This chapter describes the results on the implementation of Cacti in FKE test server.

The result consists of monitoring and alerting process by Cacti server.

Besides that, mail setting configuration and monthly report on servers performance also discussed in this chapter

4.2

Graphs on the Performance of the Monitored Servers

Figure 4.1 shows the graph of memory usage by Cacti server. The resulting graph is a graph of memory usage by the Cacti within 24 hours. From the graph, the maximum value of the memory usage was 350 kilobytes. This shows that the server in a good condition as the memory size used for Cacti server is 1 megabytes.

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Figure 4.1

Graph of Memory Usage of Cacti Server

Figure 4.2 shows the graph of logged in users by the Cacti server. It shows the current, average and maximum value of logged in users which used as reference when determined the threshold level.

Figure 4.2

Graph of Logged in Users of Cacti Server

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Figure 4.3 and Figure 4.4 show the graph of load average and processes of the WordPress server. Figure 4.3 shows that the load or services run by the server were at a peak at certain times. By analyzing the graph, the network administrator may conclude whether the server is able to support the load or not. While Figure 4.4 shows that the processes running in the server are almost the same during the time. Monitored WordPress server has been named as FYP Test Site. This shows that SNMP polling by the Cacti server was successful.

Figure 4.3

Figure 4.4

Graph of Load Average of WordPress Server

Graph of Server Processes of WordPress Server

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4.3

Mail Setting Configuration

Figure 4.5 shows the email testing process to test the mail setting configuration. As a result, the sending message was successfully sent and an email of Cacti Test Message received by the network administrator as shown in Figure 4.6.

Figure 4.5

Figure 4.6

Mail Setting Configuration

Email of Cacti Test Message

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4.4

Threshold Setting Configuration

Figure 4.7 shows the threshold setting. The threshold for warning and alert level has been determined to trigger the alert when necessary.

Figure 4.7

Threshold Setting Configurations

Figure 4.8 shows the threshold monitoring page.

In a normal state, the

monitored data column will be in green color. The alerts triggered turn the green color into red and sent an alert email to the network administration.

Figure 4.8

Threshold Monitoring Page

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Figure 4.9 is one of the emails received by the network administrator on the server condition. It shows that the Cacti server which is localhost in a condition where alert need to be triggered. Once the Cacti detected the server turn into normal condition, an email sent to the network administrator for their attention as shown in Figure 4.10.

Figure 4.9

Figure 4.10

4.5

Email Alert Sent by Threshold

Email On Normal Condition

Nectar Plugin Configuration

Figure 4.11 shows the configuration of Nectar plugin. The reports as name new report were set to be sent daily to the network administrator for their recorded. The report also can be email to the network administrator anytime by clicking send report button.

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Figure 4.11

Nectar Configuration

Figure 4.12 shows the Nectar report received by network administrator through email. However, due to some misconfiguration on HTML reader in server, the report cannot be read by the email system.

Figure 4.12

Nectar Report

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4.6

Summary

In conclusion, the implementation of Cacti Monitoring System in FKE testing server were completed using above method. Every mail system needs to be tested and verified through network administrator email in order to ensure the system works efficiently.

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CHAPTER 5

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

5.1

Introduction

The purpose of project management is to predict the problems that possible to occur and to plan, organize and control activities, so that the project is completed successfully within the specified time period. The primary constraints in this project are the research scope, research time, and human resource to perform the required activity.

Based on the stated constraints, project schedule had been tabulated on Ganttchart which it gives a clear guideline in time management of this project. However, there is no cost in implementing Cacti monitoring system in FKE servers since Cacti is released under the GNU General Public License, meaning that it is completely free with no strings attached.

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5.2

Work Schedule

Table 5.1 and Table 5.2 show the work schedule for FYP1 and FYP2. The work schedule were planned to make sure the project completed according to final year project plan by FKE. Table 5.1 : FYP1 Work Schedule

The project started with FYP briefing by Dr. Rashidah Bt Arsat, Senior Lecturer of FKE on Week 2 of the semester. Then started with literature review and understanding on overall project throughout Week 4 until Week of 13. FYP 1 seminar being held on Week 16 to determine the suitability of the project for the student and FYP 1 report submitted to the supervisor on Week 17.

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Table 5.2 : FYP 2 Work Schedule WEEK

SUBJECT 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

1 Install and configure LAMP 2 Install and configure CACTI 3 Literature Review 4 Install and configure SMTP 5 Preparation for FYP 2 seminar 6 FYP 2 seminar 7 Submit thesis draft 8 Submit FYP 2 report

In semester 2, the project begins with configuring LAMP server. Then Cacti and SMTP were installed and configured to the server. Testing and troubleshooting been done in FKE servers in Week 12. FYP 2 seminar been done on Week 15. Thesis report then submitted on Week 18.

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CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

6.1

Introduction

For this chapter, the implementation of Cacti monitoring system on FKE servers will be concluded and future work will be recommended in order to improve the system.

6.2

Conclusion

As a conclusion, the network monitoring system for FKE servers has been successfully built using Cacti monitoring system. Linux Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS Server Edition is being used as operating system in FKE server room. Cacti is used as network monitoring software. It roles are to monitor network and servers performance, presenting the data collected in graph and provide updates on the performance of servers from time to time.

The email alert system will react

according to the monitoring results of the servers. The system has been implemented in FKE which substitute the existing network monitoring software used.

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6.3

Recommendation on Future Work

Although FKE network monitoring system was successfully built, there are still a lot of spaces for further improvement.

There a lot of potentials for

development of this system as Cacti is a very powerful but simple network monitoring program. The following are some suggestion for future development of the network monitoring system using Cacti in FKE servers:

1. Development of SMS alert system using Cacti. 2. Use Cacti to monitor FKE routers, switches and printers.

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