How to Install Graphite on OpenBSD

Graphite is a highly scalable and powerful visualization platform used for monitoring and graphing the performance of computer systems. In this tutorial, we will learn how to install Graphite on OpenBSD.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure that you have the following:

• OpenBSD installed on your system
• Root access to your OpenBSD machine

Step 1: Update the System

The first step is to update your OpenBSD system. This can be done with the following command:

sudo sysupgrade -s

Step 2: Install Python and Dependencies

Graphite requires Python and certain Python modules to run. To install, run:

sudo pkg_add python py-cairo py-pip

Step 3: Install Carbon Backend

The Carbon backend is responsible for receiving metrics and storing them in a database. Run the following command to install it:

sudo pip install carbon

Step 4: Install Graphite Web UI

The Graphite web UI provides a dashboard where you can view and graphs real-time data. Install it using the following command:

sudo pip install graphite-web

Step 5: Configure Graphite

Now that we have installed the necessary packages, we need to configure Graphite to work with Carbon.

Configuring Carbon

Edit the carbon.conf configuration file located at /opt/graphite/conf/carbon.conf.

sudo nano /opt/graphite/conf/carbon.conf

Ensure that the following lines are not commented out and have the listed values:

[cache]
# The directory to store cached datapoints.
CACHE_DIR = /opt/graphite/storage/whisper/

[line_receiver]
# Enable this and the pickle receiver below to receive plaintext metrics.
ENABLE_UDP_LISTENER = True

Save and exit the file.

Configuring Graphite

Edit the local_settings.py configuration file located at /opt/graphite/webapp/graphite/local_settings.py.

sudo nano /opt/graphite/webapp/graphite/local_settings.py

Scroll down to the database settings section and update it as follows:

DATABASES = {
    'default': {
        'NAME': '/opt/graphite/storage/graphite.db',
        'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.sqlite3',
        'USER': '',
        'PASSWORD': '',
        'HOST': '',
        'PORT': ''
    }
}

Save and exit the file.

Step 6: Start Carbon and Graphite

Start Carbon and Graphite using the following commands:

sudo /opt/graphite/bin/carbon-cache.py start

sudo /opt/graphite/bin/run-graphite-devel-server.py /opt/graphite

Step 7: Accessing Graphite

With your web browser, navigate to http://localhost:8080 to access Graphite's web interface.

Great! You have now successfully installed Graphite on OpenBSD. You can now start monitoring and graphing real-time data.

If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!