Ntopng, meaning the next generation of ntop, is a popular open-source network traffic monitoring tool which shows real-time network usage in an intuitive web interface. Almost every network administrator can benefit from its versatility, ease of use, and multiple-platform availability.
This tutorial will guide you through the process of installing ntopng (community version) on a Vultr CentOS 7 server instance.
Deploy a fresh Vultr CentOS 7 server instance.
Log in from your SSH terminal as a non-root sudo user. See how to create a sudo user in another [Vultr article](
https://www.vultr.com/docs/hot-backups-with-percona-xtrabackup-on-the-one-click-wordpress-app).
sudo yum install epel-release
sudo yum update
sudo reboot
After the reboot, use the same sudo user to log in again.
First, in order to install ntopng using YUM, the most convenient method on CentOS 7, you need to add a ntop repo to your system:
sudo vi /etc/yum.repos.d/ntop.repo
Populate the file with:
[ntop]
name=ntop packages
baseurl=http://www.nmon.net/centos-stable/$releasever/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://www.nmon.net/centos-stable/RPM-GPG-KEY-deri
[ntop-noarch]
name=ntop packages
baseurl=http://www.nmon.net/centos-stable/$releasever/noarch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=http://www.nmon.net/centos-stable/RPM-GPG-KEY-deri
Save and quit:
:wq
Now, install ntopng and its necessary dependencies:
sudo yum update
sudo yum --enablerepo=epel install redis ntopng hiredis-devel
Once ntopng and its dependencies have been installed, you need to start the redis service and the ntopng service one by one:
sudo systemctl start redis.service
sudo systemctl enable redis.service
sudo systemctl start ntopng.service
sudo systemctl enable ntopng.service
Check the status of the ntopng service:
sudo systemctl status ntopng.service
As you see, the ntopng service is active (running) along with a license error. You can fix the error by modifying the ntopng configuration file ntopng.conf:
sudo vi /etc/ntopng/ntopng.conf
Before:
-G=/var/tmp/ntopng.pid
After:
-G=/var/tmp/ntopng.pid\
--community
Save and quit:
:wq
Restart the ntopng service to put your modifications into effect:
sudo systemctl restart ntopng.service
Recheck the status of the ntopng service, you will no longer see the error notice:
sudo systemctl status ntopng.service
In order to allow accessing ntopng from a web browser, you need to allow traffic on port 3000, the default ntopng communication port:
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --permanent --add-port=3000/tcp
sudo firewall-cmd --reload
Now, you are ready to use a web browser to explore ntopng's web interface. Access the following URL:
http://[your-vultr-server-ip]:3000
Use the default username admin and the default password admin to log in.
You have finished configuring ntopng.
If you need a more detailed customization, you may edit the /etc/ntopng/ntopng.conf file.