As in the preceding example, a template may not always consist of XML files, but may also have an associated script that needs to be added to the Cacti installation. The template you just imported contained such a script. You have downloaded, renamed, and extracted it into the scripts directory. This directory contains all the scripts being used within data input methods.

You then imported the XML file for the host template WebServer - Apache. The XML file contained all of the definitions for the necessary graph templates and input methods needed for Cacti to graph the data.

The imported host template can now be used and assigned to the devices. As with all external files, make sure you read and follow the corresponding readme files or installation instructions.

If you have done everything correctly, you should see the following graph after a few polling cycles:

Exporting a template allows users to share their hard work in creating these templates with the Cacti community. The export mechanism only exports the graph, host, or data template definitions, but not the scripts that are necessary for some of the data input methods. SNMP-based templates do not need scripts so these are exported complete.