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Comment: updated for 8.5.12G

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This document will use the <nmisdir> tag to refer to NMIS's installation directory (whose default is /usr/local/nmis8); the tag <version> stands for the full version of NMIS (at this time 8.5.10G12G).

The Installation Process

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If you can't access the NMIS web site check that there is no firewall keeping you from accessing your NMIS system (NMIS needs access to TCP port 80), that the apache web server on your NMIS server is running, and that there is no SELinux throwing a spanner in the works.
You may need  to check iptables -L on your NMIS server, as well as /etc/selinux/config and the exit code of selinuxenabled.

SNMPD, Net-SNMP and collecting stats of the NMIS server itself

 

NMIS8 ships with one default node configured for collection, primarily to prove it is all working. This node is called localhost and NMIS will collect statistics from your NMIS server using SNMP - if an SNMP agent is available, or just Ping statistics if not.

However, the installer does not automatically configure this local Net-SNMP daemon; if you would like to collect the NMIS server's statistics follow the instructions below - otherwise you're done with the installation.

You will likely want to consult and use the example configuration for Net-SNMP's snmpd, which ships with NMIS in the file <nmisdir>/install/snmpd.conf.

Because the installer has installed Net-SNMP for you already, you only need to backup its default config and move in the NMIS example one. You should very much modify this config to secure the SNMP read access according to your organisation's security policy!

 

Code Block
cd /usr/local/nmis8
mv /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf.orig
mv /etc/snmp/snmptrapd.conf /etc/snmp/snmptrapd.conf.orig
cp install/snmpd.conf /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf
cp install/snmptrapd.conf /etc/snmp
cp install/snmptrapd.options /etc/sysconfig/snmptrapd # for CentOS/Red Hat only

Debian/Ubuntu

 The last command in the list above will fail as there is no /etc/sysconfig directory on this platform.  Instead the snmptrap service is started by the snmpd service, and is enabled by updating the file /etc/default/snmpd:

Code Block
TRAPDRUN=yes

 

Auto Start SNMP Daemons

Ensure that you tell Linux to start SNMPD automatically

 

Code Block
/sbin/chkconfig snmpd on
/sbin/chkconfig snmptrapd on

Debian/Ubuntu

 

Code Block
sysv-rc-conf snmpd on
service snmpd start  

 

Run a Test Update

Once your local snmpd is running, you can run a test update operation:

 

Code Block
sudo /usr/local/nmis8/bin/nmis.pl type=update node=localhost info=true

 

The output will look similar to this example:

 

Code Block
Copyright (C) Opmantek Limited (www.opmantek.com)
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY;
This is free software licensed under GNU GPL, and you are welcome to
redistribute it under certain conditions; see www.opmantek.com or email
contact@opmantek.com

NMIS version 8.5.6G

14:42:47 runPing, INFO (localhost) PING min/avg/max = /0.01/ ms loss=0%
14:42:47 runPing, Finished with exit=1, nodedown=false
14:42:47 getNodeInfo, Starting
14:42:47 getNodeInfo, sysObjectId=1.3.6.1.4.1.8072.3.2.10, sysObjectName=_linux
...
14:42:47 Number of Data Points: 17, Sum of Bytes: 136, RRDs updated: 1, Nodes with Updates: 1
14:42:47 End of nmis-Config-update-localhost Processed 1 nodes ran for 1 seconds.

As the installer has already installed the default NMIS cron schedule NMIS will poll and collect all known nodes every 5 minutes. You can now either run a test collect or sit back and wait for NMIS to do the next one automatically:

 

Code Block
sudo /usr/local/nmis8/bin/nmis.pl type=collect info=true

After that collect operation has concluded you should see the newest data for your NMIS server on the NMIS dashboard.

Advanced Installer Use

If you want to read the installer source, or access the distributed files without actual installation, then simply pass the arguments –-keep --noexec to the run file invocation, e.g.

 

Code Block
sh ./nmis8.5.10g12G.run --keep --noexec

 

This tells the self-extracting installer to just  unpack the archive (into the directory nmis<version>) and to not start the interactive installer component.

If you want the installer to install NMIS into a non-standard directory, change to invocation to include site=<somepath> (after a -- separator), e.g.

 

Code Block
sh ./nmis8.5.10g12G.run -- site=/opt/nmis

 

If you don't want to perform the actual installation but only perform the software dependency resolution and check and install any prerequisites, use listdeps=true (after a -- separator), e.g.

 

Code Block
sh ./nmis8.5.10g12G.run -- listdeps=true

 

The installer creates a log of all the operations that it performs, which is saved in the main NMIS installation directory as install.log. Subsequent NMIS upgrades add extra information to that log file, but the installer always starts its work with an initial log message that indicates when an installation/upgrade was performed.

Historical Manual Installation Instructions

The old manual installation instructions are available for your perusal on this page. Please note that these old instructions are no longer updated and will definitely diverge more or less from current best practice! (which is to let the installer handle the installation intricacies on your behalf).