- Login as an admin user to your new Cacti installation.
- Click on the Devices link under the Management menu. This will open a table with all devices added so far. For a new installation there should only be the localhost device showing its status as Up.
- On the top right of the new page click on Add. This is the default position for this Add link.
- You will now be presented with the Devices [new] screen. Have a look at this screen and make yourself comfortable with the different fields.
- Enter a Description and Hostname (or IP address).
- If you add an SNMP-enabled device, select SNMP as the Downed Device Detection method. Otherwise select Ping. When selecting Ping you can choose the protocol type and port to use.
- Enter the SNMP community and select the correct version (some additional fields will show up when you choose SNMP Version 3). If the device is not SNMP compatible, you can select Not used.
- You can also add some notes. Click on the Create button once you are finished.
You just created your first device within Cacti by providing some basic information such as an IP address and SNMP management options. With this information Cacti is now able to poll the device. However, it still does not have any graphs associated with it.
You may have noticed the Host Templates field, but what is a host template? A host template is a predefined package of graphs or data queries which can be assigned to a device. Using a template for complex devices reduces the administrative task for adding devices. Here you are going to assign a template to the device. Host templates can also be selected once the device has been created. Cacti comes with some very basic host templates such as Cisco Router Windows 2000/XP Host or Generic SNMP-enabled Host. All of these contain predefined graphs or data queries for these hosts.