Control Node: Installing Red Hat ELAS

Intended for use with Cassatt Active Response Standard Edition, Premium Edition and Data Center Edition V5.1.

Installing Red Hat ELAS is accomplished within the larger procedure to set up control node(s) for Cassatt Active Response:

• Single control node
• Dual control nodes

Overview

Cassatt Active Response requires the 32-bit version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4 on the control node(s). You must install the Red Hat operating system on each control node according to the directions in this document.

These procedures document the Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 installation. If you are installing another update, use this procedure as a guideline, as some of the specific installation prompts may vary from one update to another.

Be careful to enter the Cassatt Active Response-specific installation settings where directed. This procedure involves:

• Installing Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 with Cassatt Active Response-required parameters on the control node(s).
• Configuring the host name.
• Configuring DNS.
• Modifying NFS daemons.
• Using third-party products to restrict root access.
• Verifying network connectivity.

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Installing Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5

To install Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 on the control node(s), use the following procedures. These describe the Cassatt Active Response-specific input parameters for Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5. If you need more detail on use of the Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 installation program, consult the Red Hat documentation available at http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/.

1. Insert the first Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 CD into the control node CD-ROM drive and power on the control node.
   
   When the node boots from the CD-ROM drive, the Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 installation program begins.
2. At the graphical/text mode installation prompt, press Enter to accept the graphical installation option.
3. Accept or skip the prompt to test the media.
4. Complete each screen in the Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 installation according to the following guidelines, which follow the major screens you see in the installation program.
   
   Note that the order of these steps in another update may vary slightly.

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Welcome

Click Next.

Language Selection

1. Select English.
2. Click Next.

Even if your application nodes will be configured in a language other than English, the control nodes must be configured in English to operate correctly.

Keyboard Configuration

Click Next.

Upgrade Examine

If the Red Hat installation program detects a previous version of the operating system, the installation program prompts you to either Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux or to Upgrade an existing installation. Select Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS.

Even if you are loading the Red Hat operating system on an already configured Cassatt Active Response control node, you should perform a full installation and not just an upgrade. A full installation is required to install the correct packages for Cassatt Active Response.

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Disk Partitioning Setup

In this step, you partition disk space on the control node’s local disk. Refer to the setup document for your Cassatt Active Response Edition for partition and size recommendations (single control node, dual control nodes). You can create a partition using any remaining disk space as a spare disk space area.

To partition the local disk, follow these steps.

1. Select “Manually partition with Disk Druid.”
2. Click Next.
3. Locate the control node’s local disk in the list of devices (the disk name will be specific to your site.)
4. Select the local disk.
5. Repeat these steps for each new partition; select only the local drive in the Allowable Drives box:
   1. Click New.
      
      This displays the Add Partitions dialog.
   2. Use the Add Partitions dialog to add the partitions on the local drive according to the recommendations from your setup document. For more detail about disk partitioning, refer to the Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 documentation available at http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/.
6. When you have completed creating the partitions, click Next.

If Disk Druid prompts you to format the partition, click Format.

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Boot Loader Configuration

On the Boot Loader Configuration screen, follow these steps:

1. Select “Configure advanced boot loader options.”
2. Click Next.
3. Click “Change Drive Order.”
4. In the popup window, locate the control node’s local disk in the list of devices and move it to the top of the list.
5. On the “Edit Drive Order” dialog, click OK.
   
   On the Advanced Boot Loader Configuration screen, verify that the Master Boot Record is set to the control node’s local disk.
6. Click Next.

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Network Configuration

On the Network Configuration screen, follow these steps to enter a static IP address for the control node:

1. On the Network Configuration screen, click Edit.
   
   This displays the Edit Interface dialog.
2. Unselect the Configure using DHCP checkbox.
   
   This activates the IP Address and Netmask fields.
   
   Note that the “Activate on boot” checkbox should remain selected.
3. Enter a static IP address from the start or end of the Cassatt Active Response IP address pool and netmask for this control node.
4. Click OK.
   
   The Network Devices display shows the new IP address and netmask.
5. In the Hostname display, manually enter a fully qualified domain name.
6. In the Miscellaneous Settings display, enter Gateway and DNS addresses according to your site network addressing strategy.
7. Click Next.

Keep a record of the network settings you enter at this step, as you will be prompted for this information by the Cassatt Active Response installation program in a subsequent step.

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Firewall Configuration

On the Firewall Configuration screen,

1. Select No firewall.
2. In the Enable SELinux dropdown menu, select disabled.
3. Click Next.

Cassatt Active Response installation will reset any firewall information you specify during the Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 installation.

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Additional Language Support

Select your language and click Next.

Time Zone Selection

Select your time zone and click Next.

Set Root Password

Set your root password and click Next.

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Package Defaults

On the Package Defaults screen, follow these steps:

1. Select “Customize software packages to be installed.”
2. Click Next.
   
   This displays the Package Group Selection screen.
3. Scroll to the Miscellaneous section at the bottom of the screen and select Minimal.
4. Click Next.

About to Install

Click Next.

This begins the installation, which takes approximately 15 minutes.

Congratulations screen

Remove the CD and click Reboot. Verify that the control node boots properly and brings up Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5.

If you see swap errors during the boot process, or you see processes are being killed after the control node is up and running, it is possible that the swap is unavailable. This condition can occur if your site uses a SAN, and the SAN is for some reason unavailable when the control node boots. The swap file system on the control node’s local disk will also be unavailable. If you encounter this problem, use the swapon command to specify the swap file system on the control node’s local disk.

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Add Other Required Packages

You will now need to manually add RPMs required by Cassatt Cassatt Active Response. Follow these instructions. (You can ignore any DSA signature warning messages resulting from the rpm commands.)

1. Insert Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 disc 2 into the CD-ROM drive.
2. At the Linux command line, change to the RPMs directory:
   
   cd /media/cdrecorder/RedHat/RPMS
3. Mount /dev/cdrom and change directory to the mounted device.
   Use the following commands:
   
   rpm -i ntp-4.2.0.a.20040617-6.el4.i386.rpm \
   
   compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-47.3.i386.rpm
   
   

   rpm -i apr-0.9.4-24.5.i386.rpm

   apr-util-0.9.4-21.i386.rpm

   httpd-2.0.52-32.ent.i386.rpm

   httpd-suexec-2.0.52-32.ent.i386.rpm
   
   rpm -i php-4.3.9-3.22.4.i386.rpm \
   
   php-mysql-4.3.9-3.22.4.i386.rpm \
   
   curl-7.12.1-11.el4.i386.rpm \
   
   libidn-0.5.6-1.i386.rpm \
   
   php-pear-4.3.9-3.22.4.i386.rpm \
   
   mysql-4.1.20-2.RHEL4.1.i386.rpm \
   
   perl-DBI-1.40-8.i386.rpm
   
   rpm -i distcache-1.4.5-6.i386.rpm \
   
   mod_ssl-2.0.52-32.ent.i386.rpm
   
   rpm -i perl-XML-Parser-2.34-5.i386.rpm \
   
   perl-URI-1.30-4.noarch.rpm \
   
   perl-HTML-Tagset-3.03-30.noarch.rpm \
   
   perl-libwww-perl-5.79-5.noarch.rpm \
   
   perl-HTML-Parser-3.35-6.i386.rpm

To take advantage of the network time protocol (NTP), you will need to edit the /etc/ntp.conf file after installation and specify your time server.

4. Change to the root directory:
   
   cd /
5. Eject Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 disc 2.
6. Insert Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 disc 3 into the CD-ROM drive.
7. In a shell, change to the RPMs directory:
   
   cd /media/cdrecorder/RedHat/RPMS
   
   Mount /dev/cdrom and change directory to the mounted device.
8. Use the following command:
   
   rpm -i expect-5.42.1-1.i386.rpm
9. Change to the root directory:
   
   cd /
10. Eject Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 disc 3.
11. Insert Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 disc 4 in the CD-ROM drive.
12. Change to the RPMs directory:
    
    cd /media/cdrecorder/RedHat/RPMS
    
    Mount /dev/cdrom and change directory to the mounted device.
13. Use the following commands:
    
    rpm -i tftp-server-0.39-2.i386.rpm \
    
    dhcp-3.0.1-59.EL4.i386.rpm \
    
    bind-9.2.4-24.EL4.i386.rpm
    
    mysql-server-4.1.20-2.RHEL4.1.i386.rpm \
    
    perl-DBD-MySQL-2.9004-3.1.i386.rpm
14. Change to the root directory:
    
    cd /
    
15. Eject Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 disc 4.

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Configuring the host name

Prior to running Cassatt Active Response, you must configure the host name in the /etc/hosts and /etc/sysconfig/network files according to strict specifications.

Set the host name and IP address in /etc/hosts according to the following format:

IP Fully-Qualified-Domain-Name hostname

For example:

192.168.0.5 dell1850.mydomain.com dell1850

If you are using Data Center Edition and have two control nodes, set the power controller name as well, for example:

192.168.0.6 power-dell1850.mydomain.com powerdell1850

You must also set the HOSTNAME=line in the /etc/sysconfig/network file to a server host name in the /etc/hosts file.

For example:

NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=dell1850.mydomain.com
GATEWAY=192.168.0.5
NOZEROCONF=yes

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Configuring DNS

Cassatt Active Response acts as a domain name server. Prior to installing Cassatt Active Response, you need to configure DNS on one of the control nodes as described in this section.

Setting up a subdomain

To support DNS operations, you need to configure the control node as follows:

1. Set up a new DNS subdomain on this control node.
2. Create a slave name server on the control node from existing name servers.

Setting up DNS forwarding

If the applications you expect to run in the Cassatt Active Response environment require host name resolution, set up DNS forwarding appropriately on the control nodes. For example, edit the /etc/resolv.conf file on each control node and add the lines:

search domain_name1 domain_name2 domain_name3...domain_name_n
nameserver external_dns_server_IP_1
nameserver external_dns_server_IP_2

where domain_name is a qualified domain name.

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Modifying NFS daemons

Skip this step for Standard Edition.

If you use a SAN or dual-ported disk to house Cassatt Active Response storage, you may need to modify the number of NFS daemons running to serve images from the Cassatt Active Response image matrix to your application tiers. By default, Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 creates 8 NFS daemons. (If you use a NAS for Cassatt Active Response shared storage, you need to configure it to reliably serve images from the Cassatt Active Response image matrix.) Cassatt Active Response increases the number of NFS daemons to 100, which provides sufficient support for a Cassatt Active Response environment with up to 50 application nodes. However, if your implementation varies significantly from 50 application nodes, you should modify the number of NFS daemons accordingly.

While this document does not give exact directions on how to determine this number, consider these guidelines. When determining the correct number of NFS daemons to use, the more application nodes in use, the more NFS daemons required. In general, you can use two NFS daemons per active application node, with a lower bound of 16, and an upper bound of 64. Increase the number of NFS daemons if the application node system logs show messages similar to the following:

Nov 10 19:22:16 collage0035 kernel: nfs: server 10.20.55.100 not responding, still trying
Nov 10 19:22:18 collage0035 kernel: nfs: server 10.20.55.100 not responding, still trying

To create or modify the number of NFS daemons running, use this procedure:

1. Log in to the control node.
2. Create or, if it already exists, modify the /etc/sysconfig/nfs file.
3. Add or, if it already exists, modify the following line:
   
   RPCNFSDCOUNT=n
   
   where n is the number of NFS server daemons.

The kernel limits the maximum number of daemons based on memory size.

4. On the control node, restart the Cassatt Active Response service using the following commands:
   
   /opt/cassatt/bin/cccoreservice stop
   /opt/cassatt/bin/cccoreservice start

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Using third-party products to restrict root access

If your site uses a third-party product to restrict root access or control the commands that can be run as root, consider the following guidelines when setting up the third-party product. The third-party product must grant privileged access to:

• The admin user, which is the default Cassatt Active Response user.
• The following components of the PATH environment variable:
  
  /bin, /usr/bin, /usr/sbin, /opt/cassatt/bin, /sbin, /mnt/cdrom, /etc/init.d
• The following commands:
  
  cccapture
  cccoreservice
  ccdiagnostic
  ccexport
  ccfwupdate
  ccgetlogs
  ccimport
  ccpower
  ccservice
  ccsetauthkey
  ccuninstall
  ccupdateinitrd
  ccinstall
  clusvcad
  clustat
  ccwaminstall
  ccpasswd
  ccserviceconfigure
  ccservicecapture
  ccserviceremove
  ccsetauthkey
  ccgovernor
  ccwamuninstall
  vi

vi needs privileged access to modify Cassatt Active Response properties files. However, this normally only occurs when a patch is being applied.

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Verifying network connectivity

After installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4 it is good practice to verify the Cassatt Active Response control node’s network connectivity. To do so, log in to a console and follow this procedure for each control node:

1. Ping the gateway via its IP address.
   
   Pinging the gateway verifies connectivity from the control node through the network switch to the router.
2. If you are running a dual–control node configuration, ping each control node’s power controller via its IP address.
   
   Pinging the power controller verifies switch operation, validating the communication between the two ports.
3. Ping the DNS server via its IP address.
   
   Pinging the DNS server verifies connectivity from the control node through the network switch and out the router.
   
   This procedure tests if the router is configured properly for access from the Cassatt Active Response environment to the external network.
4. If your site uses a network attached storage (NAS), ping the NAS via its IP address.

If you encounter any problems, check the gateway and DNS addresses you supplied during the Red Hat ELAS 4 Update 5 installation.

This completes the Red Hat ELAS installation procedure.

Return to:

Installing Cassatt Active Response and Control Node Setup: Single Control Node
Installing Cassatt Active Response and Control Node Setup: Dual Control Nodes

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