Chapter 3 Installing and Configuring an OS on the Management Server

This chapter provides the procedures for installing and configuring an operating system on the Sun N1 System Manager management server.

This chapter discusses the following topics:

• Installing the Solaris OS on the Management Server

• Installing the RedHat Enterprise Linux OS on the Management Server

• Management Server Configuration

To ensure that you select the correct operating system for the management server, see Table 2–2.

Installing the Solaris OS on the Management Server

This section provides procedures for installing and configuring the Solaris OS on your management server. The Solaris OS must be installed on the management server before you can install the N1 System Manager system software.

This section discusses the following topics:

• Solaris OS Disk Drive Considerations

• Solaris OS Installation Requirements

Solaris OS Disk Drive Considerations

The Solaris OS must be installed on an empty hard drive that contains no partitions or data. If the hard drive contains partitions, delete the partitions before installing the Solaris OS.

The following table provides the partitioning information for SPARC and x86 architecture management server, based on the minimum requirement of a 72–gigabyte hard drive.

Table 3–1 Solaris-based Management Server Partitioning

Partition	Mbytes
swap	Two to three times total system RAM, or 4 Gbytes, whichever is greater
/	All remaining space

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Note –

Allocate 3 Gbytes of free space for each distribution you plan to provision. If needed, upgrade the management server to a larger hard drive before continuing.

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Solaris OS Installation Requirements

Install the entire Solaris distribution on the management server. For a list of qualified Solaris operating systems, see Management Server Requirements.

When installing the Solaris operating system on the management server

• Ensure the partitions on all disks on the management server have been deleted before installing the Solaris operating system.

• When prompted for the Type of Install, choose Custom Install.

• When prompted to provide the Ethernet port selections, assign the IP addresses, netmask, and gateway values according to your chosen reference architecture.

• When prompted for the Software Group, choose Entire Group Plus OEM.

• When prompted for disk selection, choose all available disks.

• When prompted to lay out file systems:

  • Remove all partitions except swap and / (root).

  • Ensure that the swap partition is two to three times total system RAM or 4 Gbytes, whichever is greater.

  • Assign all remaining free space to / (root).

After you have installed Solaris 10 on your management server:

• If you have chosen to install a mail service on the management server for management of your ALOM-based manageable servers instead of using the internal N1 System Manager mail service:

  • Install package SFWimap from the Solaris OS installation Complementary CD-ROM.

  • Configure the mail service as described in Configuring the Management Server Mail Service and Account in Sun N1 System Manager 1.2 Site Preparation Guide.

  For information about which manageable servers are ALOM-based, see Table 2–5.

• If you plan to manage SPARC-based manageable servers, enable FTP as described in Enabling FTP on the Management Server. For information about which manageable servers are SPARC-based, see Table 2–5.

• If you do not plan to manage SPARC-based manageable servers, update the /etc/hosts file as described in Updating the /etc/hosts File.

Installing the RedHat Enterprise Linux OS on the Management Server

This section provides procedures for installing and configuring the Linux OS on your management server. The Linux OS must be installed on the management server before you can install the N1 System Manager system software.

This section discusses the following topics:

• Linux OS Disk Drive Considerations

• Linux OS Installation Requirements

Linux OS Disk Drive Considerations

Linux must be installed on an empty hard drive that contains no partitions or data. If the hard drive contains partitions, delete the partitions before installing the Linux OS.

The following table provides the partitioning information for the management server, based on the minimum requirement of a 72–gigabyte hard drive.

Table 3–2 Linux-based Management Server Partitioning

Partition	Size
/boot	102 Mbytes
swap	Two to three times system total RAM, or 4 Gbytes, whichever is greater
/	All remaining space

If your hard drive is larger than 72 Gbytes:

• Do not change the assigned space for swap.

• Allocate the space shown above for /boot.

• Allocate the remaining space to / (root).

Linux OS Installation Requirements

Install the entire Linux distribution on the management server. For a list of qualified Linux operating systems, see Management Server Requirements.

When installing Linux on the management server:

• Ensure the partitions on all disks on the management server have been deleted before installing the Linux operating system.

• If you are installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4.0 Update 1 or later, when prompted whether to enable SELinux, choose Disable. N1 System Manager does not support SELinux fully enabled.

• When prompted for the boot loader, choose Grub.

• When prompted for partitioning information:

  • If you are installing using the graphical installation mode, choose , choose Automatically Partition.

  • If you are installing using the text installation mode, choose , choose Autopartition.

  You are prompted to choose whether to remove all Linux partitions, remove all partitions, or keep all partitions. Choose Remove all partitions. The partitioning values are displayed.

  • Remove all partitions except boot, swap and / (root).

  • Ensure that the swap partition is two to three times total system RAM or 4 Gbytes, whichever is greater.

  • Assign all remaining free space to / (root).

• When prompted to provide the Ethernet port selections, assign the IP addresses, netmask, and gateway values according to your chosen reference architecture.

• When prompted for the firewall configuration, choose No firewall.

• When prompted for package installation:

  • If you are installing using the graphical installation mode, choose Customize the set of packages to install.

  • If you are installing using the text installation mode, choose Customize software selection.

• When prompted for the set of packages to install, choose Everything.

Management Server Configuration

This section provides the post-operating installation configuration procedures that must be performed before you can install the N1 System Manager 1.3 software.

• Installing the Internationally Compliant Perl Module

• Enabling FTP on the Management Server

• Updating the /etc/hosts File

Installing the Internationally Compliant Perl Module

N1 System Manager requires Perl version 1.5.3–16 or above to ensure correct functioning in any locale. This section provides the procedure for downloading and installing the internationally compliant Perl module.

To Download and Install the Internationally Compliant Perl Module

Steps

1. Log in as root on the N1 System Manager management server.

2. Open a web browser and find a site that provides the perl-5.8.3-16.i386.rpm file for download.

3. Download the perl-5.8.3-88.4.i386.rpm file to a directory on the management server.

4. In a terminal window, change directory to the location where you saved the RPM file.

5. Type rpm -i --force perl-5.8.3–16.i386.rpm to install the Perl module.

Next Steps

Ensure port 162 is not in use on the management server as described in the next section.

Ensure Port 162 is not in Use

N1 System Manager requires exclusive use of port 162 for SNMP trap notifications. To determine if port 162 is assigned to any process, proceed as follows:

To Determine Whether Port 162 is in use

Steps

1. Log in as root on the management server.

2. Type grep 162 /etc/services to determine whether port 162 has been assigned to a process.

   • If only the command prompt is returned, then port 162 has not been assigned to a process. No further action is required.

   • If port 162 is assigned to a process on the management server, then results similar to the following are displayed:

     • Solaris:

       # grep 162 /etc/services snmpd 162/udp daemon name #daemon description

     • Linux

       # grep 162 /etc/services snmp 162/TCP #Simple Net Mgmt Proto snmp 162/UDP #Simple Net Mgmt Proto

     You must disable the daemon or application that is using port 162. To disable a daemon, refer to the operating system documentation. To disable an application that is using the port, refer to the application documentation.

Next Steps

Enable FTP on the management server as described in the next section.

Enabling FTP on the Management Server

If you plan to manage SPARC-based manageable servers, you must enable the FTP service on the management server.

To Enable FTP on a Solaris Based Management Server

Steps

1. Log in to the management server as root.

2. Type the command svcadm -v enable network/ftp.

   The FTP service is enabled, and starts when the management server is rebooted. After the system is rebooted, you can verify whether the FTP service has start using the inetadm command:

   # inetadm enabled online svc:/network/telnet:default enabled online svc:/network/nfs/rquota:default disabled disabled svc:/network/echo:dgram disabled disabled svc:/network/time:stream enabled online svc:/network/ftp:default

Next Steps

Update the /etc/hosts file as described in Updating the /etc/hosts File

To Enable FTP on a Linux Based Management Server

Steps

1. Log in to the management server as root.

2. Create symbolic links to the /etc/init.d/vsftpd file in the /etc/rc3.d and /etc/rc5.d directories.

   For example:

   # ln -s /etc/init.d/vsftpd /etc/rc3.d/S99vsftpd # ln -s /etc/init.d/vsftpd /etc/rc5.d/S99vsftpd

   The FTP service is enabled, and starts when the management server is rebooted. After the system is rebooted, you can verify whether the FTP service has started by using the ps and grep commands:

   # ps -eaf | grep ftp root 3035 1 0 16:27 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/vsftpd /etc/vsftpd/vsf

Next Steps

Update the /etc/hosts file as described in the next section.

Updating the /etc/hosts File

The IP address and the name of your management server must be added to the /etc/hosts. Failure to add the IP address and name will cause Sun N1 System Manager installation to fail.

To Update the /etc/hosts file

Steps

1. Log in as root to the Sun N1 System Manager management server.

2. Verify that the /etc/hosts file has entries for loopback and the management server.

   1. Make certain that either of the following loopback entries is in the /etc/hosts file.

      127.0.0.1    localhost

      or

      127.0.0.1    localhost.localdomain    localhost

   2. Make certain that an entry exists for the management server and its IP address. For example:

      111.11.111.11 n1mgmt.domain n1mgmt.domain

      where 111.11.111.11 is the IP address of the management server, and n1mgmt is the name of the management server and domain is your company domain name.

      Your /etc/hosts should be similar to the following example:

      127.0.0.1    localhost.localdomain    localhost
      10.5.157.123 n1mgmt.company.com
      

   3. Save and close /etc/hosts.

3. Reboot the N1 System Manager management server.

Mail Server Considerations

ALOM-based manageable servers use mail services to send host event notifications to the N1 System Manager.

If you plan to manage ALOM-based manageable servers, you must decide whether to use the secure N1 System Manager internal mail service, or install. configure, and use a full mail service.

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Caution –

Using an external mail server for event notifications exposes the N1 System Manager to man in the middle attacks, denial of service attacks, and other external security risks.

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• The secure N1 System Manager embedded mail service does not require configuration or installation. The only requirement is that port 25 must be available and that port 25 is not in use on the management server.

• If you choose to use a mail service, configure the mail service as described in Configuring the Management Server Mail Service and Account in Sun N1 System Manager 1.2 Site Preparation Guide.

For information about which manageable servers are ALOM-based, see Table 2–5.