Status Page

Network - Acorn

2026-06-17	Status	Description
10:13 AM		ACORN/ISINet is in the process of deploying a new statistics database and frontend, to replace Cacti. This is being done due to concerns about the future of Cacti, as well as frustrations with Cacti and its (in)ability to gather complicated statistics such as Cisco-style traffic policies. The new implementation is a Grafana frontend with a Prometheus time series database backend. Grafana is far more modern and interactive, and the Prometheus database is non-lossy and has an easier and more predictable stats-gathering protocol. The Grafana interface is up and running at https://graf.its.dal.ca/ , and uses the existing Dalhousie Active Directory for authentication just as Cacti does. Unfortunately, permissions to access graphs can't be assigned before the user first logs in. When you have a spare moment, please attempt to log into the Grafana interface with your normal username and password. If the login fails, please let us know roughly when you tried and we'll investigate. If the login succeeds, please remember that there will likely be no visible graphs right away. We will be monitoring new logins on our side and will assign proper permissions as new users appear, so you should be able to see your traffic graphs by the day afterward. At the moment we are trying to make the new graphs emulate the old Cacti graphs as much as possible, but if you have ideas on how you'd like the data to be presented, feel free to let us know and we'll attempt to make it happen if Grafana is capable of accommodating it. Please contact brandon.hume@dal.ca if you run into any login problems, or for any customization requests.