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Cacti vs Nagios: What are the differences?

Introduction

Cacti and Nagios are both popular open-source network monitoring tools. While they serve a similar purpose, there are several key differences between the two. In this article, we will explore these differences and highlight the unique features of each tool.

  1. Data Collection: Cacti primarily focuses on graphing and data visualization. It uses SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to collect data from network devices and creates visually appealing graphs and charts based on the collected data. On the other hand, Nagios is more focused on monitoring the availability and status of network services and resources. It uses various monitoring plugins to actively check the status of services and provides alerts when issues are detected.

  2. Interface and User Experience: Cacti provides a user-friendly web-based interface with intuitive graphing and visualization capabilities. It offers a drag-and-drop graph creation feature, making it easy to create custom graphs. Nagios, on the other hand, has a more complex and technical interface. It uses a configuration-based approach, where users define hosts, services, and monitoring checks in configuration files. While this may require more technical knowledge, it offers granular control and flexibility in defining monitoring parameters.

  3. Alerting and Notification: Nagios is known for its robust alerting and notification capabilities. It allows users to define various escalation levels and dependencies for alerts. It supports multiple notification methods, including email, SMS, and custom scripts. Cacti, on the other hand, has limited built-in alerting capabilities. It primarily focuses on data collection and graphing, and lacks the advanced alerting features provided by Nagios.

  4. Plugin Ecosystem: Nagios has a vast plugin ecosystem, allowing users to extend its functionality and monitor a wide range of devices and services. It supports both official and community-contributed plugins, providing extensive monitoring capabilities. Cacti, while it supports plugins, has a more limited ecosystem compared to Nagios. It may require more effort to find and configure plugins for specific monitoring requirements.

  5. Templates and Pre-built Configurations: Cacti provides a wide range of pre-built templates and configurations for common network devices and services. These templates simplify the initial setup process and allow quick deployment of monitoring for popular devices. Nagios, on the other hand, focuses more on customization and flexibility. It does not provide extensive pre-built configurations but allows users to define their own monitoring checks and configurations from scratch.

  6. Scalability and Resource Usage: Nagios is known for its scalability and can efficiently handle large-scale monitoring environments. It is designed to be highly efficient and optimized for minimal resource consumption. Cacti, while scalable to some extent, may not perform as well as Nagios in extremely large environments. Its focus on data visualization and graphing may require more system resources compared to Nagios.

In summary, Cacti is a data visualization and graphing tool with SNMP data collection capabilities, providing a user-friendly interface. Nagios, on the other hand, is a more comprehensive monitoring tool focused on service availability, with a complex interface and robust alerting features. The choice between the two depends on the specific monitoring needs and preferences of the users.

Decisions about Cacti and Nagios
Matthias FleschĂĽtz
Teamlead IT at NanoTemper Technologies · | 2 upvotes · 123.8K views
  • free open source
  • modern interface and architecture
  • large community
  • extendable I knew Nagios for decades but it was really outdated (by its architecture) at some point. That's why Icinga started first as a fork, not with Icinga2 it is completely built from scratch but backward-compatible with Nagios plugins. Now it has reached a state with which I am confident.
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Pros of Cacti
Pros of Nagios
  • 3
    Free
  • 3
    Rrdtool based
  • 2
    Fast poller
  • 1
    Graphs from snmp
  • 1
    Graphs from language independent scripts
  • 53
    It just works
  • 28
    The standard
  • 12
    Customizable
  • 8
    The Most flexible monitoring system
  • 1
    Huge stack of free checks/plugins to choose from

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What is Cacti?

Cacti is a complete network graphing solution designed to harness the power of RRDTool's data storage and graphing functionality. Cacti provides a fast poller, advanced graph templating, multiple data acquisition methods, and user management features out of the box.

What is Nagios?

Nagios is a host/service/network monitoring program written in C and released under the GNU General Public License.

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