13.1.3 Linux installation

PVSR can be installed on supported Linux operating system using the command-line installer.

13.1.3.1 Generic information

Input parameters

The installer has to be run with the root user. In case of an upgrade PVSR has to be stopped before running the installation. To begin the installation you have to run the PerformanceVisor.vVERSION.en.bin application. The application has several input options:

• -h or -help: displays the different input options
• -d or -debug: the installer application displays different log messages. The DEBUG level logging can be turned on with this option. However: even if the option is not given the DEBUG messages do appear in the log file /tmp/pvsr.install.log
• -c or -compatible: displays the different operating system / Oracle versions supported by the installer
• -s or -silent: the installer asks several questions during the installation. If the silent mode is turned on and the installer asks a question other than a yes-no question, for which it knows a default answer then it continues automatically, so the user doesn’t have to accept the default answer manually. However even in silent mode the installer doesn’t accept automatically the default answer when it asks a yes-no question. There are only a handful exceptions to this, but only when the yes-no question was answered during a previous installer running. This behavior will be noted at the particular yes-no questions later.
• -force_silent: accept default values for every question. The -accept_licence_silent must be specified as well. If there is any error during the install/upgrade then the installer exits with the exit code 1
• -accept_licence_silent: accept the licence agreement without user input
• -collector_install: the installer assumes that the user is installing/upgradeing a collector installation. In this case:
• It will not look for the Apache server nor for the Oracle SQLLDR utility
• It will not test the database connection using tnsping
• It will not test the database connection using the SID or the SERVICE_NAME parameters
• It will not ask whether the installation is a collector installation or not
• -do_not_use_system: the installer won't use the Oracle SYSTEM user. If this is the install step then the Oracle user and tablespaces MUST exist before running the installer
• -a=file_name: the installer takes the default answers from the specified file. The installer writes the answers always to the /var/pvsr/answer file (except the passwords) and it reads them from that file by default too
• -p=path: it uses the given value as the PATH environment variable during the installation

Canceling the installation

In order to cancel the installation you have to press the Ctrl-C keyboard sequence. If the installer is waiting for an answer to a question then after the Ctrl-C you have to answer the original question before you can cancel the installation. If during the installation you cannot or do not want to move forward, then the installer offers the uninstallation of those components which were installed during this last installer running. You may choose to retain those components, since the installer can be run more than once without a problem. Moreover: if a previous PVSR is detected, then the installer takes the default values from that installation and switches to upgrade mode automatically. Important: if you are running an upgrade and you choose to abort the installation and to undo the changes made then this does not mean that the installer would restore any PVSR file, nor does it mean that the installer would undo the changes made in the database schema!

Messages, questions and answers during the installation

The application saves the log messages in the /tmp/pvsr.install file during the installation. The DEBUG messages appear in this file even if the -d or -debug option wasn’t specified. The application uses the following log levels: ERROR, WARNING, INFO, DEBUG and QUESTION. In case of a question the application displays the default answer between square brackets - [ and ] - if such answer exists. If the installer asks for a password and such a default answer exists then it displays asterisks instead of the actual value.

Differences in the installation process on different operating systems

The installation process is slightly different when running on different operating systems. The major differences are the following:

• It checks for different package requirements on different operating systems
• The installer creates symbolic links in the operating system dependent run-level directories so that it can be started and stopped automatically

The questions and answers represented to you during a Linux 8 installation are used and explained in the next section. If you are running the installer on an already installed PVSR then it switches automatically to upgrade mode and it will asks even less questions.

13.1.3.2 Installation

1. Basic checks

The installer checks several things at the beginning: it checks the version of the operating system, the required packages, the version of Perl and the options which were used to build the Perl binary, etc… The installer looks for three different types of installed packages:

·       Mandatory packages which are always required by PVSR

·       Optional packages, needed only by some of the data collectors

·       Optional packages, which might come in handy later when maintaining the PVSR installation. It is highly recommended to install these packages as well

If it detects an error during these checks then according to the level of the error it either terminates immediately or it asks whether it should continue or not.

2. License information

After the license information is shown the application waits for the user to accept them.

3. Creating the symbolic links, DNS and NTP checks

The installer creates symbolic links in the next step. By default you shouldn’t encounter any question during this process, except when the application detects that the link /usr/local/bin/perl already exists and it seems that the link isn’t the same as the Perl used during the installation. You should continue with the installation if you are absolutely sure that the /usr/local/bin/perl is the same as the Perl used during the installation.

After this the installer checks whether there are DNS servers configured or not. Mostly PVSR can work without a DNS server, but some collectors (for example the Windows and the Hyper-V collectors) might not work without them. Similarly, PVSR does not require a time server configuration, but without it the collected data might have a wrong timestamp. It can also cause a problem if there are multiple time synchronization methods configured (for example NTP and VMware), in this case it is recommended to modify the configuration so that only one time synchronization setting remains.

4. Basic Oracle parameters

The application asks for the operating system user used during the installation of Oracle. After it is given it tries to determine the value of the ORACLE_HOME environment variable using that user, but even if it successful it asks for confirmation. The installer detects if the Oracle Instant Client is installed and asks for permission to make the necessary modifications (TNSNAMES.ORA, sym links, …). If it cannot find the sqlldr Oracle utility then it gives a warning: if the user decides to continue then the installer will only do a collector installation.

5. PVSR operating system user parameters

The application asks for the operating system user name to be created, for the operating system group to be created, for the password of the user (it only asks for the password on Linux) and for the directory below the /opt directory to be used by PVSR. If the user already and the directory already exist but the installer cannot find a valid PVSR installation in the directory then it asks whether it should continue or not. If it finds a PVSR then it won’t continue until all PVSR modules are stopped.

6. Oracle parameters

The application asks for the Oracle TNS name, host, service name, SID and the password of the SYSTEM user or for another user name / password pair used for testing the Oracle connection parameters. If the user chooses to use a different Oracle user than SYSTEM and PVSR will want to create the necessary Oracle user later during the installation then it will ask for the SYSTEM’s password again. If one do not want to give the SYSTEM’s password to the installer then the necessary Oracle user for PVSR must exists before the installer is ran and the -do_not_use_system option has to be specified. If the given TNS name cannot be found in the TNSNAMES.ORA file then it can make the necessary modification as well. After this it checks them. If the installer cannot find the tnsping utility, then the first two checks are skipped.

7. Type of the PVSR installation and nice setting

After the PVSR files are installed, the installer whether we are installing a data collector server or not. Thanks to its architecture PVSR can run on more than just one machine. You should answer to this question with yes if you are installing a data collector on a new machine for an already installed PVSR. This question is among the few yes-no questions for which the installer stores the given answer and sets the default to your previous answer when running a second time, and can accept this default answer in silent mode automatically.

If you are installing a new data collector then it is important to notice that you have to configure the SSH manually after the installation so that the central server can log in. It is also important that the central server knows the same host name as the new host about itself and that you specify this host name when you register the server module on the PVSR GUI. If this requirement is not meet then PVSR won’t be started automatically when the machine starts.

PVSR also configures the operating system so that its module doing the ping measurements have a higher priority, thus enabling a more precise measurement.

8. Apache configuration

If you are not installing a data collector then the installer asks whether it should configure the Apache WEB server or you will configure it yourself later. This question is among the few yes-no questions for which the installer stores the given answer and sets the default to your previous answer when running a second time, and can accept this default answer in silent mode automatically.

If you answer with yes then it first asks for the TCP port to be used then it asks the places for different Apache files. The default answers to the file place questions represent the default Apache installation according to the operating system. Finally it asks the authentication method to be used, presenting the available options between the parenthesises. The description of the authentication methods is in the section 13.1.2 WEB authentication configuration. The installer then starts the Apache WEB server.

If we have chosen ldap, radius, cas or keycloak authentication method then the application asks further questions after the Apache configuration. Every question asks for a parameter described at the authentication method. When more than one value can be given then the installer asks as long as a non-empty value is given, i.e. the user must hit ENTER without giving a value to end the specification for that variable. The parameters asked for during the installations are the following in the same order (see the 13.1.2 WEB authentication configuration section for their descriptions):

·       LDAP

o   ldap_url

o   timeout

o   bind_dn

o   bind_pwd

o   base_dn

o   search_attr

o   auth_attr

o   admin_dn

o   group

o   user

o   dn

o   filter_attr

·       RADIUS

o   host

o   secret

o   timeout

o   admin

o   user

·       CAS

o   server

o   timeout

o   allow_logout

·       Keycloak

o   realm_url

o   timeout

o   client_id

o   client_secret

o   admin_username

o   create_pvsr_user

o   overwrite_pvsr_group

The installer shows the content of the pvsr_auth.cfg file without the first line after all the parameters were given and it also tests the given connection parameters in case of the LDAP and the Keycloak authentication engine. It is important to mention that even if the pvsr_auth.cfg file existed before the configuration, the installer will not parse it and will not display default values accordingly. However in this case it creates a pvsr_auth.cfg.backup copy in the same directroy where the pvsr_auth.cfg file is, before starting the Apache configuration.

9. Automatic starting and stopping

The installer application places scripts in the appropriate folder so that PVSR can be automatically started and stopped or in the case of OS version 8 or later the installer uses the systemctl to create a so-called service. If you are not installing a data collector server then the installer asks whether the Oracle has to be automatically started and stopped by the same script as well. You should only answer with yes if the Oracle server is running on the same machine and there isn’t any other script to start and stop Oracle. If the Oracle server is running on the same machine but such a script already exists then you have to make sure that PVSR starts after the Oracle server and stops before the Oracle server. This question is among the few yes-no questions for which the installer stores the given answer and sets the default to your previous answer when running a second time, and can accept this default answer in silent mode automatically.

10. Creating the PVSR tablespaces and the Oracle user

If you are not installing a data collector and the Oracle schema isn’t created yet - i.e. you are installing a new PVSR - then the installer asks the name, file name and size parameters for its configuration tablespace then asks the same parameters for its data tablespace and at last the name and password for its Oracle user. The installer creates the tablespaces according to its needs, but you can also create them manually and give their names to the installer. If you decide to create the tablespaces manually then please refer to the section 13.1.5.2.

11. Finishing the installation

Finally the installer exists.

13.1.3.3 Uninstallation

To uninstall PVSR run the UninstallPerformanceVisor application in its directory. You have to stop every PVSR modul before running the application. You have to run the application as root.

Before actually beginning with the uninstallation the application asks whether the given parameters are correct.

After this it asks whether the Oracle user should be deleted or not. If you answer with yes then it asks for the Oracle operating system user and for the value of the ORACLE_HOME environment variable then asks a second confirmation before actually dropping the user. If the user is dropped then it asks whether you want to drop its tablespaces.

It asks whether you want to roll back the Apache configuration.

Then it asks whether to delete the installation directory and if yes then whether to delete the operating system user as well.