From cmd.php to Spine: A Comprehensive Guide to Enhancing Cacti Polling and Scalability

Cacti is a powerful and widely used open-source network monitoring and graphing tool. By default, Cacti often utilizes the cmd.php poller, which, while functional, can become a bottleneck in larger environments or those requiring more frequent data collection. Spine is a C++ based poller for Cacti that offers significant performance improvements and scalability compared to cmd.php.

Important Note: Before you begin this procedure, it is highly recommended to perform a comprehensive backup of your Cacti installation. This includes your Cacti configuration files (such as /etc/cacti/db.php and spine.conf), your Cacti database, and if you are running Cacti in a virtual machine (VM) environment, consider taking a complete VM snapshot backup. These backups will provide a critical safety net, allowing you to revert to a working state if any unforeseen issues arise during the process.

This guide provides a comprehensive, step-by-step process for installing Spine (if necessary) and seamlessly switching your Cacti poller type from the default cmd.php to the more robust and efficient Spine poller. By following these instructions carefully, you can enhance the data collection capabilities of your Cacti installation, leading to more responsive and detailed network monitoring. This guide walks you through the installation of Spine, its integration with Cacti, and the configuration of the poller system for improved performance and scalability.

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📦 Phase 1: Installing Spine (We recommend installing via Package Manager)

Spine is a high-performance poller for Cacti, written in C, and is significantly faster than the default PHP-based poller (cmd.php). You can install it via a package manager or compile it from source. But we recommend installing it via the package manager.

1. Open Terminal with Root Privileges

To perform system-level changes, you need administrative access. Either log in as root or prefix commands with sudo.

2. Update Your System’s Package Index

This ensures you’re installing the latest available versions of packages.

# apt update      # Debian/Ubuntu
# yum update      # CentOS/RHEL
# dnf update      # Fedora

3. Install Spine

Install the Spine package. The package name may vary depending on your distribution.

# apt install cacti-spine            # Debian/Ubuntu
# yum install cacti-spine            # CentOS/RHEL
# dnf install cacti-spine            # Fedora

4. Verify Installation

Ensure the spine binary is installed and accessible:

# which spine

This should return a path like /usr/bin/spine or /usr/local/bin/spin

5. Configure spine.conf

Spine requires a configuration file with database credentials.

# nano /etc/spine.conf

Edit the file to include:

• DB_Host localhost
• DB_Database cacti
• DB_User cactiuser
• DB_Pass cactiuser
• DB_Port 3306

Verify that the SPINE command is connecting to the DB and running without any errors:

# spine
SPINE: Using spine config file [/etc/spine.conf]
Version 1.2.30 starting
Time: 11.7618 s, Threads: 1, Devices: 16

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🖥️ Phase 2: Configure Spine in the Cacti Web Interface

1. Log in to Cacti

Open your browser and go to your Cacti URL (e.g., https://your_cacti_server/). Log in with an admin account.

2. Access Settings

From the left menu:

• Click Console
• Under Configuration, click on Settings

3. Open the “Paths” Tab

Ensure the following fields are correctly filled, and Click on “Save“:

• Spine Binary File Location: /usr/bin/spine
• Spine Config File Path: /etc/spine.conf

4. Change Poller Type

• Click the “Poller” Tab
• Change the “Poller Type” from cmd.php to spine using the dropdown
• Click Save

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Note:

If you’ve already configured Cacti to use Spine via the web interface, you do not need to change the cron job. The cron job still calls poller.php, but Cacti internally uses Spine as the poller engine. So the cron job configuration below in /etc/cron.d/cacti is still valid:

*/5 * * * *	root	/usr/bin/php /usr/share/cacti/poller.php > /dev/null 2>&1

No need to replace it with a direct call to spine — Cacti handles that internally once you’ve selected Spine in the UI.

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✅ Phase 3: Verify Spine is Working Fine

1. Monitor Cacti Logs

Check for successful polling and Spine execution:

# tail -f /var/log/cacti/cacti.log

Look for entries like:

SPINE: Poller[0] is running

2. Check Graph Updates

Return to the Cacti web interface and confirm that graphs are updating with fresh data.

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Congratulations! You’ve successfully navigated the process of installing Spine and configuring your Cacti installation to use this powerful poller. By making this transition, you’ve significantly upgraded your Cacti’s data collection capabilities, moving from the potentially resource-intensive cmd.php to the highly optimized C++ based Spine poller.

You should now be experiencing faster polling cycles, more reliable data collection, and ultimately, more accurate and up-to-date graphs within your Cacti web interface. Remember to regularly monitor your Cacti logs (/var/log/cacti/cacti.log) for any new warnings or errors, and keep an eye on your system resources to ensure optimal performance.

A Critical Consideration for Existing Cacti Installations:

From experience, it’s important to note that activating the Spine poller after cmd.php has been in use for a long time and has collected a significant amount of data can sometimes distort your existing graphs, especially aggregate graphs. This is due to subtle differences in how cmd.php and Spine might process and store data. For this reason, it is highly recommended to activate the Spine poller from day one of your Cacti installation. This helps avoid the potential pain of graph distortion and ensures consistent data collection from the outset. Embracing Spine is a key step towards maintaining a robust and scalable monitoring solution, allowing you to keep a sharper eye on your network infrastructure with enhanced performance.

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