If you name your switch interfaces (which i find very useful to do on uplink ports for example), it makes sense to also bring that name into cacti when graphing a port.

It makes for easier identification of the port when you actually need the information on the graph (since that may often be during stressful situations, its worth the effort).

There are 3 steps, the options below are in the main menu to the left.

  1. Under “Data Queries” -> “SNMP - Interface Statistics” -> “In/Out Bits”, add an entry each under the data and graph sections:
|host_description| - Traffic - |query_ifDescr| (|query_ifAlias|)

with the field name values “name” and “title” respectivly.

  1. Under “Graph Templates” -> “Interface - Traffic (bits/sec)” (or whatever template you want to change), add the same value under “title” and uncheck the box “Use Per-Graph Value (Ignore this Value)”, assuming you only want default values (i do).

  2. Do the same for “Data Templates”.

Im not sure how to apply this to old graphs, but I’f you have that problem, i do believe i have read somewhere that its doable. Just google abit and im sure you will find it. If you still get no interface names after doing this, its a fair bet your switch does not support the standard OIDs procurve switches does and you will have to mess around with SNMP querys to get the names into cacti.