Install RRDTool on Red Hat Enterprise Linux

by Vivek Gite [Last updated: July 28, 2008]

This FAQ is part 16 of 2 in the series RRDtool

Q. I've downloaded RRDTool package called rrdtool-1.3.1.tar.gz. But ./configure command giving out lots of error messages. How do I install RRDTool on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.x - 64 bit version?

A. RRD is the Acronym for Round Robin Database. RRD is a system to store and display time-series data (i.e. network bandwidth, machine-room temperature, server load average). It stores the data in a very compact way that will not expand over time, and it presents useful graphs by processing the data to enforce a certain data density. It can be used either via simple wrapper scripts (from shell or Perl) or via frontends that poll network devices and put a friendly user interface on it.

Installing RRDTool on RHEL

In order to install RRDTool on Red Hat Enterprise Linux / CentOS Linux 64 bit version you need to install few development tools and libraries.

Step # 1: Install required dependencies

Login as root and type the following command:
# yum install cairo-devel libxml2-devel pango-devel pango libpng-devel freetype freetype-devel libart_lgpl-devel
Sample output:

Loading "rhnplugin" plugin
Loading "security" plugin
rhel-x86_64-server-vt-5   100% |=========================| 1.4 kB    00:00
rhn-tools-rhel-x86_64-ser 100% |=========================| 1.2 kB    00:00
rhel-x86_64-server-5      100% |=========================| 1.4 kB    00:00
Setting up Install Process
Parsing package install arguments
Package libxml2-devel - 2.6.26-2.1.2.1.x86_64 is already installed.
Package libxml2-devel - 2.6.26-2.1.2.1.i386 is already installed.
Package pango - 1.14.9-3.el5.i386 is already installed.
Package pango - 1.14.9-3.el5.x86_64 is already installed.
Package freetype - 2.2.1-20.el5_2.i386 is already installed.
Package freetype - 2.2.1-20.el5_2.x86_64 is already installed.
Resolving Dependencies
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libart_lgpl-devel.x86_64 0:2.3.17-4 set to be updated
---> Package pango-devel.i386 0:1.14.9-3.el5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libXft-devel for package: pango-devel
--> Processing Dependency: libXrender-devel for package: pango-devel
--> Processing Dependency: libXext-devel for package: pango-devel
--> Processing Dependency: libX11-devel for package: pango-devel
--> Processing Dependency: fontconfig-devel >= 2.0 for package: pango-devel
---> Package pango-devel.x86_64 0:1.14.9-3.el5 set to be updated
---> Package freetype-devel.x86_64 0:2.2.1-20.el5_2 set to be updated
---> Package libpng-devel.i386 2:1.2.10-7.1.el5_0.1 set to be updated
---> Package cairo-devel.x86_64 0:1.2.4-5.el5 set to be updated
---> Package libpng-devel.x86_64 2:1.2.10-7.1.el5_0.1 set to be updated
---> Package cairo-devel.i386 0:1.2.4-5.el5 set to be updated
---> Package libart_lgpl-devel.i386 0:2.3.17-4 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libart_lgpl_2.so.2 for package: libart_lgpl-devel
---> Package freetype-devel.i386 0:2.2.1-20.el5_2 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
---> Package libXrender-devel.i386 0:0.9.1-3.1 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: xorg-x11-proto-devel for package: libXrender-devel
---> Package libXft-devel.i386 0:2.1.10-1.1 set to be updated
---> Package libX11-devel.i386 0:1.0.3-9.el5 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: libXdmcp-devel for package: libX11-devel
--> Processing Dependency: libXau-devel for package: libX11-devel
---> Package fontconfig-devel.i386 0:2.4.1-7.el5 set to be updated
---> Package libart_lgpl.i386 0:2.3.17-4 set to be updated
---> Package libXext-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-2.1 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
---> Package xorg-x11-proto-devel.i386 0:7.1-9.fc6 set to be updated
--> Processing Dependency: mesa-libGL-devel for package: xorg-x11-proto-devel
---> Package libXdmcp-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-2.1 set to be updated
---> Package libXau-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-3.1 set to be updated
--> Running transaction check
---> Package mesa-libGL-devel.i386 0:6.5.1-7.5.el5 set to be updated
--> Finished Dependency Resolution

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 libart_lgpl-devel       x86_64     2.3.17-4         rhel-x86_64-server-5   21 k
 libart_lgpl-devel       i386       2.3.17-4         rhel-x86_64-server-5   21 k
 pango-devel             i386       1.14.9-3.el5     rhel-x86_64-server-5  280 k
 pango-devel             x86_64     1.14.9-3.el5     rhel-x86_64-server-5  281 k
Installing for dependencies:
 cairo-devel             x86_64     1.2.4-5.el5      rhel-x86_64-server-5  131 k
 cairo-devel             i386       1.2.4-5.el5      rhel-x86_64-server-5  130 k
 fontconfig-devel        i386       2.4.1-7.el5      rhel-x86_64-server-5  168 k
 freetype-devel          x86_64     2.2.1-20.el5_2   rhel-x86_64-server-5  151 k
 freetype-devel          i386       2.2.1-20.el5_2   rhel-x86_64-server-5  151 k
 libX11-devel            i386       1.0.3-9.el5      rhel-x86_64-server-5  665 k
 libXau-devel            i386       1.0.1-3.1        rhel-x86_64-server-5   11 k
 libXdmcp-devel          i386       1.0.1-2.1        rhel-x86_64-server-5  7.6 k
 libXext-devel           i386       1.0.1-2.1        rhel-x86_64-server-5   57 k
 libXft-devel            i386       2.1.10-1.1       rhel-x86_64-server-5   16 k
 libXrender-devel        i386       0.9.1-3.1        rhel-x86_64-server-5  8.9 k
 libart_lgpl             i386       2.3.17-4         rhel-x86_64-server-5   76 k
 libpng-devel            i386       2:1.2.10-7.1.el5_0.1  rhel-x86_64-server-5  182 k
 libpng-devel            x86_64     2:1.2.10-7.1.el5_0.1  rhel-x86_64-server-5  186 k
 mesa-libGL-devel        i386       6.5.1-7.5.el5    rhel-x86_64-server-5  465 k
 xorg-x11-proto-devel    i386       7.1-9.fc6        rhel-x86_64-server-5  247 k

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install     20 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       0 Package(s)         

Total download size: 3.2 M
Is this ok [y/N]: 

Downloading Packages:
(1/20): libXext-devel-1.0 100% |=========================|  57 kB    00:00
(2/20): freetype-devel-2. 100% |=========================| 151 kB    00:00
(3/20): libXau-devel-1.0. 100% |=========================|  11 kB    00:00
(4/20): libart_lgpl-devel 100% |=========================|  21 kB    00:00
(5/20): libart_lgpl-2.3.1 100% |=========================|  76 kB    00:00
(6/20): cairo-devel-1.2.4 100% |=========================| 130 kB    00:00
(7/20): libpng-devel-1.2. 100% |=========================| 186 kB    00:00
(8/20): cairo-devel-1.2.4 100% |=========================| 131 kB    00:00
(9/20): fontconfig-devel- 100% |=========================| 168 kB    00:00
(10/20): mesa-libGL-devel 100% |=========================| 465 kB    00:01
(11/20): libXdmcp-devel-1 100% |=========================| 7.6 kB    00:00
(12/20): libpng-devel-1.2 100% |=========================| 182 kB    00:00
(13/20): libX11-devel-1.0 100% |=========================| 665 kB    00:02
(14/20): freetype-devel-2 100% |=========================| 151 kB    00:00
(15/20): libXft-devel-2.1 100% |=========================|  16 kB    00:00
(16/20): pango-devel-1.14 100% |=========================| 281 kB    00:01
(17/20): pango-devel-1.14 100% |=========================| 280 kB    00:01
(18/20): libXrender-devel 100% |=========================| 8.9 kB    00:00
(19/20): libart_lgpl-deve 100% |=========================|  21 kB    00:00
(20/20): xorg-x11-proto-d 100% |=========================| 247 kB    00:01
Running rpm_check_debug
Running Transaction Test
Finished Transaction Test
Transaction Test Succeeded
Running Transaction
  Installing: libart_lgpl                  ####################### [ 1/20]
  Installing: freetype-devel               ####################### [ 2/20]
  Installing: fontconfig-devel             ####################### [ 3/20]
  Installing: libpng-devel                 ####################### [ 4/20]
  Installing: libXau-devel                 ####################### [ 5/20]
  Installing: libart_lgpl-devel            ####################### [ 6/20]
  Installing: libart_lgpl-devel            ####################### [ 7/20]
  Installing: libpng-devel                 ####################### [ 8/20]
  Installing: freetype-devel               ####################### [ 9/20]
  Installing: xorg-x11-proto-devel         ####################### [10/20]
  Installing: libX11-devel                 ####################### [11/20]
  Installing: libXrender-devel             ####################### [12/20]
  Installing: libXft-devel                 ####################### [13/20]
  Installing: cairo-devel                  ####################### [14/20]
  Installing: libXext-devel                ####################### [15/20]
  Installing: pango-devel                  ####################### [16/20]
  Installing: pango-devel                  ####################### [17/20]
  Installing: libXdmcp-devel               ####################### [18/20]
  Installing: mesa-libGL-devel             ####################### [19/20]
  Installing: cairo-devel                  ####################### [20/20] 

Installed: libart_lgpl-devel.x86_64 0:2.3.17-4 libart_lgpl-devel.i386 0:2.3.17-4 pango-devel.i386 0:1.14.9-3.el5 pango-devel.x86_64 0:1.14.9-3.el5
Dependency Installed: cairo-devel.x86_64 0:1.2.4-5.el5 cairo-devel.i386 0:1.2.4-5.el5 fontconfig-devel.i386 0:2.4.1-7.el5 freetype-devel.x86_64 0:2.2.1-20.el5_2 freetype-devel.i386 0:2.2.1-20.el5_2 libX11-devel.i386 0:1.0.3-9.el5 libXau-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-3.1 libXdmcp-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-2.1 libXext-devel.i386 0:1.0.1-2.1 libXft-devel.i386 0:2.1.10-1.1 libXrender-devel.i386 0:0.9.1-3.1 libart_lgpl.i386 0:2.3.17-4 libpng-devel.i386 2:1.2.10-7.1.el5_0.1 libpng-devel.x86_64 2:1.2.10-7.1.el5_0.1 mesa-libGL-devel.i386 0:6.5.1-7.5.el5 xorg-x11-proto-devel.i386 0:7.1-9.fc6
Complete!

Step # 2: Download latest rrdtool tar ball

Type the following commands:
# cd /opt/
# wget http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/pub/rrdtool-1.3.1.tar.gz
Untar tar ball, enter:
# tar -zxvf rrdtool-1.3.1.tar.gz

Step #3: Compile and install rrdtool

You need to set PKG_CONFIG_PATH, enter:
# export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/lib/pkgconfig/
Type the following commands:
# ./configure
Sample output:

config.status: executing default-1 commands
config.status: executing intltool commands
config.status: executing default commands
config.status: executing po/stamp-it commands
checking in... and out again
ordering CD from http://tobi.oetiker.ch/wish .... just kidding ;-) 

----------------------------------------------------------------
Config is DONE!

          With MMAP IO: yes
       Static programs: no
          Perl Modules: perl_piped perl_shared
           Perl Binary: /usr/bin/perl
          Perl Version: 5.8.8
          Perl Options: PREFIX=/usr/local/rrdtool-1.3.1 LIB=/usr/local/rrdtool-1.3.1/lib/perl/5.8.8
          Ruby Modules:
           Ruby Binary: no
          Ruby Options: sitedir=$(DESTDIR)NONE/lib/ruby
    Build Tcl Bindings: no
 Build Python Bindings: yes
          Build rrdcgi: yes
       Build librrd MT: yes
     Link with libintl: yes

             Libraries: -lxml2 -lcairo -lcairo -lcairo -lm  -lcairo -lpng12   -lpangocairo-1.0 -lpango-1.0 -lcairo -lgobject-2.0 -lgmodule-2.0 -ldl -lglib-2.0  

Type 'make' to compile the software and use 'make install' to
install everything to: /usr/local/rrdtool-1.3.1.

       ... that wishlist is NO JOKE. If you find RRDtool useful
make me happy. Go to http://tobi.oetiker.ch/wish and
place an order.

                               -- Tobi Oetiker 
----------------------------------------------------------------

Now compile and install RRDTool on RHEL:
# make
# make install
# cd /usr/local/
# ln -s rrdtool-1.3.1/ rrdtool/
# cd rrdtool
# ls -l

How do I verify my installation?

Now RRDtool is installed and ready to use. You can go to /usr/local/rrdtool/share/rrdtool/examples/ directory and run them to see if your installation has been successful or not:
# cd /usr/local/rrdtool/share/rrdtool/examples/
# ./stripes.pl
# ls -l
# cp stripes.png /var/www/html/

Fire a web browser and see a graph for yourself by typing the following url:
http://your-domain.com/stripes.png

(Fig.01: Sample RRDTool Graph)

Optional compile time settings

By default RRDTool will get installed at /usr/local/rrdtool-1.3.1/ directory. To change default installation directory use following command:
# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/rrdtool
# make install
To see all compile configuration option enter:
# ./configure --help

Further readings:

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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Tobias Oetiker 07.28.08 at 9:31 am

there is no dependency to libart anymore …

since yum does dependency tracking and pango requires cairo and freetype and they require all the rest, I guess you could get away with just typing (not tested)

yum install pango-devel

cheers
tobi (nice tutorial)

2 vivek 07.28.08 at 11:39 am

Tobias,

Thanks for comment and wonderful tool.

3 Jakub Hrozek 07.29.08 at 8:37 am

I would like to point out that rrdtool is included in EPEL which is a collection of add-on software for RHEL and CentOS (and other RHEL derivatives).

Installing software from source is usually a worse idea than from repo b/c you have to check for bugs/security alerts yourself. If the maintainer does his job, you get all this from repo automagically.

Cheers,
Jakub

4 Lawson 08.04.08 at 6:53 pm

Currently using 64-bit RH5.

Having problems with “could not find a working copy of pangocairo” error.
checking for pango_cairo_context_set_font_options in -lpango-1.0… no

Installed all dependencies and have both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of pango and pango-devel.

libpango-1.0.so.0.1400.9 exists in both /usr/lib and /usr/lib64

What gives here? It is as if pango 1.14 does not contain pango_cairo_context_set_font_options !

Pls help! Thanks.

5 vivek 08.04.08 at 7:05 pm

Do you have pkgconfig and fontconfig packages installed? It will read the configuration file and outputs the necessary compiler and linker flags for each library.

6 Lawson 08.04.08 at 8:37 pm

Yes, I have the 32 and 64 bit versions of fontconfig-2.4.1-7.el5 and fontconfig-devel-2.4.1-7.el5

I also have the 64 bit version of pkgconfig-0.21-2.el5

/usr/lib/pkgconfig contains a number of .pc files as well as libpango-1.0.so.

7 Frits 08.07.08 at 3:06 pm

I have a same problem of Lawson how i resolve it? Thanks

8 Marcos 08.08.08 at 12:28 pm

Hi Vivek,

I have a same problem of Lawson, I’ve install all packages of this tutorial but when execute ./configure in my rhel5 output this message:

configure: WARNING:
—————————————————————————-
* I could not find a working copy of pangocairo. Check config.log for hints on why
this is the case. Maybe you need to set LDFLAGS and CPPFLAGS appropriately
so that compiler and the linker can find libpango-1.0 and its header files. If
you have not installed pangocairo, you can get it either from its original home on

http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/pango/1.17

You can find also find an archive copy on

http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/pub/libs

The last tested version of pangocairo is 1.17.

LIBS=-lcairo -lcairo -lcairo -lm -lcairo -lpng12 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lpango-1.0 -lcairo -lgobject-2.0 -lgmodule-2.0 -ldl -lglib-2.0
LDFLAGS= -L/usr/lib -L/usr/lib -L/lib
CPPFLAGS= -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/libpng12 -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/libpng12

—————————————————————————-

But I have installed this lib, look:
Package pango - 1.14.9-3.el5.i386 is already installed.
Package pango - 1.14.9-3.el5.x86_64 is already installed.
Package pango-devel - 1.14.9-3.el5.x86_64 is already installed.
Package pango-devel - 1.14.9-3.el5.i386 is already installed.

What’s happened??
Thanks for advice.

9 vivek 08.08.08 at 1:40 pm

This error only occurs if you spiked the following statement:
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/lib/pkgconfig/
Type the above followed by ./configure.

10 Lawson 08.08.08 at 4:13 pm

What do you mean by “spiked”?

Well, I never did find a solution to this problem.
I am continuing to use rrdtool 1.2.23, which someone made an RPM for and I had no problems installing. 1.2.x lacks MANY of the hard drive access enhancements made in 1.3.x, which is why I was trying to upgrade to 1.3.x.

Found another solution though. 1.2.23 works fine as long as you have enough RAM. Take the total size of all of your RRDs (10GB for me) and add 2GB….. that is how much RAM you need.

Once I moved up to 16GB of RAM, rrdtool no longer needed efficient hard drive access and cacti (what I am using rrdtool for) works perfectly.

Good luck!

11 Marcos 08.08.08 at 5:05 pm

Vivek, before run ./configure, I was exec. export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/lib/pkgconfig/, but ./configure fails and I see this message.

Find 3rd-Party Libraries
checking for cairo_font_options_create in -lcairo… yes
checking cairo.h usability… no
checking cairo.h presence… no
checking for cairo.h… no
checking for pkg-config… pkg-config
checking for cairo_font_options_create in -lcairo… yes
checking cairo.h usability… yes
checking cairo.h presence… yes
checking for cairo.h… yes
checking for cairo_svg_surface_create in -lcairo… yes
checking cairo-svg.h usability… yes
checking cairo-svg.h presence… yes
checking for cairo-svg.h… yes
checking for cairo_pdf_surface_create in -lcairo… yes
checking cairo-pdf.h usability… yes
checking cairo-pdf.h presence… yes
checking for cairo-pdf.h… yes
checking for cairo_ps_surface_create in -lcairo… yes
checking cairo-ps.h usability… yes
checking cairo-ps.h presence… yes
checking for cairo-ps.h… yes
checking for pango_cairo_context_set_font_options in -lpango-1.0… no
checking for pkg-config… (cached) pkg-config
checking for pango_cairo_context_set_font_options in -lpango-1.0… no
configure: WARNING:
—————————————————————————-
* I could not find a working copy of pangocairo. Check config.log for hints on why
this is the case. Maybe you need to set LDFLAGS and CPPFLAGS appropriately
so that compiler and the linker can find libpango-1.0 and its header files. If
you have not installed pangocairo, you can get it either from its original home on

http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/pango/1.17

You can find also find an archive copy on

http://oss.oetiker.ch/rrdtool/pub/libs

The last tested version of pangocairo is 1.17.

LIBS=-lcairo -lcairo -lcairo -lm -lcairo -lpng12 -lpangocairo-1.0 -lpango-1.0 -lcairo -lgobject-2.0 -lgmodule-2.0 -ldl -lglib-2.0
LDFLAGS= -L/usr/lib -L/usr/lib -L/lib
CPPFLAGS= -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/libpng12 -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/pango-1.0 -I/usr/include/cairo -I/usr/include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -I/usr/include/freetype2 -I/usr/include/libpng12

—————————————————————————-

The curious is the cairo.h can’t find by ./configure.
Thanks for advice.

12 Les Dunston 10.29.08 at 10:31 pm

Thanks, I was writing up my own install instructions until I ran across this. This was a huge time saver.

13 Alessandro Nakamuta 12.09.08 at 4:28 pm

When I execute stripes.pl, i’ve got this error:
./stripes.pl
No fonts found; this probably means that the fontconfig
library is not correctly configured. You may need to
edit the fonts.conf configuration file. More information
about fontconfig can be found in the fontconfig(3) manual
page and on http://fontconfig.org

Somebody help me?

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