Is Cacti Dead?

[scottb]

Every few months or so I look here for some sign that something is actually happening with Cacti but I'm beginning to think this project is now dead. People were talking about releasing 0.9 at the end of last summer, it is now more than a year later and the only information we have on the next version is that it will be released when it is done.

The problem with releasing something "when it's done" is that more often than not, it's never done: the duke nukem forever effect. This is especially true when the goals of the project are quite vast such as the goals for the new version.

The problem is there is no information on the homepage about the status for any of the features in 0.9, everything on the web page references 0.8.6g when 0.8.6h was released 8 months ago, and there are no posts in the forums suggesting that any work is actually being done on this project other than a few patches.

How about we call a dead project exactly what it is?

[rony]

I regret to inform you that Cacti is not Dead.

It seems that we have a much slower development schedule than some people, including yourself, care for.

I assure you Cacti is not dead, and we are approaching a 0.8.6i release shortly. I admit we could move faster, but we are making sure the 0.8.6i is stable before we release it, as patches after the fact are annoying.

Concerning 0.9.0, I can only say two words, "Feature Creep". We are currently working on 0.9.0 and unfortunately, I'm personally tired of giving a release date and watching it past. Right now, we are hashing out some major UI changes to 0.9.0, we still have plugins and user authenication to complete among other items. Check out the roadmap: http://www.cacti.net/roadmap.php

This year in August all the Cacti developers met, for the first time, in person at Linuxworld in San Francisco, CA, USA. We discussed not only current bugs and 0.8.6, but we mostly discussed 0.9.0. We are now attempting to organize the tasks that are left in 0.9.0 and if needed add more developers to the team.

We believe (The Cacti Group) that developing good software slowly is better than developing bad software fastly.

Concerning time, all of us that work on Cacti have day jobs. We do this because we enjoy it. Calling Cacti dead does not serve to modivate us, it only serves to piss us off. Personally, if it's no longer fun, I'm not going to continue to do it.

Tony Roman
Cacti Developer

[TheWitness]

Hmm, one post. Please be advised, Cacti 0.8.6i tentative release notes:

-bug#0000188: Add Ability to Sort Columns by Selecting column headers
-bug#0000199: Exported thumb graphics shows limited time range only
-bug#0000207: Wrong unit size displayed in 'Localhost - Memory Usage'
-bug#0000286: Exported graphs all contain same total bandwidth figures
-bug#0000313/#0000561: Dont print menu/titlebar by using CSS class noprint
-bug#0000316: unit_value is not taken into account
-bug#0000395: Advanced graph export FTP function not working in Unix environment
-bug#0000430: Manual Sorting Interface Enhancement
-bug#0000433: Unable to acquire Data from php script with cmd.php
-bug#0000488: Lack of User-Agent HTTP header generates error
-bug#0000527: Cannot adjust RRA for graph default view
-bug#0000584: Barometer does not display decimal
-bug#0000624: Generate DEFs for graph items other than AREA, STACK, and LINE
-bug#0000643: host.php tweak (correct display of a device's uptime)
-bug#0000665: Invalid index error on empty or 0 return set from rrdfetch with Nth Percentile
-bug#0000672: When creating a device, the Host Template was not properly validated
-bug#0000678: Can't graph export to subdir
-bug#0000681: poller_item arg1, arg2, arg3 fields too small
-bug#0000692: Tree graph export fails
-bug#0000693: Export Tree corrupt when using the "Expand Hosts" option
-bug#0000698: Make arguments to 'df' more compatible with FreeBSD 6.0 in the "Get Unix Partitions" data query.
-bug#0000705: Fix problem with the current selected data source item and SIMILAR_DATA_SOURCES_NODUPS (again).
-bug#0000709: Configuration => Settings => Graph Export:: Problem using FTP (remote) export with Tree Presentation.
-bug#0000720: undefined variable in script_server.php line 177
-bug#0000721: SNMPv2 Query has issues with ifAlias & ifName when none present
-bug#0000727: Graph Export runs long and can not take a users graph permissions into account
-bug#0000730: Non-standard port ignored
-bug#0000731: Add Host to Tree from Device page incomplete
-bug#0000739: "Unit value" parameter in template options ignored
-bug#0000741: Links get mismatched after using Zoom on graph
-bug#0000746: Clearing Cacti log file from web interface does not preserve Cacti log file permissions
-bug#0000752: Problem with OID truncation with cactid and from within the database structure one limitation is that reindex table must be limited to 255 characters
-bug#0000758: LDAP user with non-Alphanumeric characters in the password fail to authenicate
-bug#0000761: RRA Input fields timespan and rows do not match the field size in the database
-bug#0000766: graph_tree_items ID field need to change to mediumint
-bug#0000769: Graph Export Is Not Sensitive to Actual RRA Used By Graphs
-bug#0000775: View SNMP Cache display nothing
-bug#0000779: When Viewing Thumbnails, Graph Text Should be Scaled Down
-bug#0000781: Add a "enabled" filter status item in device management
-bug#0000785: Issue with Graph Tree View and Data Query Index Sorting showing "Non Indexed" even if empty
-bug#0000786: different port numbers
-bug#0000789: Use of Action In Image Button Incompatible with Newer Opera Browsers and HTML4
-bug#0000797: Graphs and Data Sources Dont Allow Filter to Search Multiple Fields
-bug#0000809: Add an option to "purge" the user_log table
-bug#0000814: If Database Permissions Are Not Correct Apache Segfaults
-bug#0000815: Viewing the Log File Can Be Problematic Due to Large Log Size
-bug#0000821: Missing file include/menuarrow.gif
-bug#0000823: Creating data template destroys input methods of data sources
-bug: Use of the Data Source filter on the Graph Items Editor can clear the selected Data Source
-bug: SQL Query in Graphs was not set write causing graph failures in preview mode and other modes.
-bug: Setting a host template filter in devices, followed by moving off and then back on the page generated an error.
-bug: PHP 5.1 snmpwalks utilize the bulk method by default. Therefore, prefer them over the bulkwalk binary.
-bug: Allow read_config_option to force a database refresh when one is wanted.
-bug: Fix issue with the script server where a function called where a data query without the <extra_args> does not work.
-bug: Make load average script compatible with Mac OS X systems.
-bug: Correct an issue where under certain circumstances, |query_ifSize| was being implemented as the maximum value for an rrd
-bug: Correct issue where dhtml caching was not working with expand hosts enabled
-bug: Add snmp retries to cacti's snmp functions
-bug: Once Graph Export has been enabled, cacti attempts to continue to run even after it has been disabled
-bug: Correct alphabetic sorting to be more natural
-bug: Meta Refresh Tags using improper syntax for the url
-bug: The Graph Settings Page was using the graph refresh interval, which caused it to refresh while the user is inputting data

Cactid 0.8.6i Change Log

0.8.6i
-bug: Only output as much as MySQL can handle in 1 insert
-bug: Faulty Script Server shutdown was causing race condition
-bug: Allow ICMP or UDP ping to work if host begins with either "TCP:" or "UDP:"
-bug: Change assert logging to HIGH to more closely match cmd.php
-bug: Allow Cactid to make on 64bit x86 Platforms - thanks to Reuben Farrelly
-bug: Changing syntax from "insert into to replace into" for reindex inserts
-bug: Don't perform a reindex a check for a data query if you already have to reindex
-bug: Make sure to log FATAL to stderr
-bug: Do not re-index a host if the re-index value is a "No Such Instance" result.
-bug#0000682: Allow storing of each hosts polling start time
-bug#0000691: Cactid fails with custom snmp port
-bug#0000699: Tick counts not being detected
-bug#0000706: Cactid didn't start PHP scripts when host didn't answer SNMP (but icmp is ok)
-bug#0000710: cactid.conf doesn't allow for no mysql password
-bug#0000716: Don't attempt to save output for a host if there is none.
-bug#0000717: Allow numeric double results to start with '+', '-', '.'
-bug#0000724: cactid truncate script command when reindex
-bug#0000736: Solaris 8 : Alarm Clock message
-bug#0000745: cactid: search path for mysql and snmp does not include /usr/pkg
-bug#0000748: cactid doesn't handle special charectors
-bug#0000749: Cactid 0.8.6g won't accept special characters from data template
-bug#0000750: poller doesn't check for snmp if udp ping fails
-bug#0000752: Problem with OID truncation with cactid
-bug: add kstat checking for Net-SNMP v5.3.x
-bug: get more intelegent. move cactid.conf.dist to /etc during install
-feature: add Net-SNMP Library vs. Header check prior to execution
-feature: enabled signal handling in cactid

Not dead. Not quite. If there is something that is bothering you, you should let us know what's missing. As Tony mentioned, it's just a hobby. We hope you enjoy.

TheWitness

[sauron]

A suggestion - I think it would be good if the developers posted a list of small tasks somewhere on the website that people could contribute patches for. Something a bit like the kernel janitors list, so people with some coding skills but little knowledge of the Cacti codebase could offer something useful if they had a few spare hours. I had some grief with Cactid that made me go digging in the code a while ago, and it all seemed readable and understandable - I could see maybe having the time to add a patch here or there, but I don't have the time to become seriously involved. If you get a few of your users contributing little bits, it might ease the load somewhat, and speed up the development of the project.

Anyway, thanks for a great monitoring framework - it's invaluable.

[Hiney]