Installation Guide

Installing the CoroSoft Managed Server System

Installation of the Corosoft software is performed on the Director, IPVS Load Balancer, and each application server.

Installation

• Requirements
• Before You Begin
• Preinstallation Worksheet
• Network Architecture
• Installing IPVS
• Installing Director
• Installing the Software on the Application Servers

Requirements

The following hardware and software must be available in order to install the CoroSoft components:

• One server for the Director. Minimum hardware requirements for the Director:
  • 1.4 GHz Pentium III
  • 30 GB HDD (more if you want to save log files longer)
  • 512 MB RAM
  • 100 MB/s Ethernet Interface
  • Local CD-ROM drive
• One server for IPVS with bootable CD-ROM OR F5 BigIP Load Balancer
• As many application servers as needed.
• Red Hat Linux 7.3 and application to be automated (such as Apache HTTP or BIND DNS) installed on all application servers.
• Three CoroSoft CDs: CoroSoft JumpStart™ for IPVS, CoroSoft Director™ (including the CoroSoft Automation Modules™), and CoroSoft Foundation™ for Linux.
• Network interface addresses for the IPVS, Director and application servers.
• Mouse, keyboard, and monitor connected to the Director and IPVS servers for installation.
• Network connectivity between all servers.

Before You Begin

Before starting the installation process:

• Have the Corosoft CDs ready.
• Have at least two servers available for use with the new system: these will become the Director server and the Load Balancer (IPVS).
• The completed preinstallation worksheet.

Preinstallation Worksheet

Use this sheet to organize the network information you need to install the CoroSoft system.

Network Architecture

The figure below shows the basic structure of the network system. The basic system requires at minimum the servers sectioned in the dotted area. The minimum configuration is a Director and Load Balancer. Application servers are added run specific applications as needed and shown outside the dotted area.

CoroSoft software supports a separate management network for security and service configuration. Although a separate management network is not required to achieve full functionality, it is strongly recommended.

All application servers must have Red Hat Linux 7.2, 7.3, 8.0, or Advanced Server 2.1 installed, and all application software properly installed.

The basic managed system requires at minimum the servers shown within the dotted line. As long as no application servers are required to run, the Director is functional with only the two servers. As many application servers must be added as are required to run a specific application. These are shown outside the dotted area.

Note that a management network is shown here. This is not required, but is strongly recommended in order to isolate management traffic and provide additional security.

IMPORTANT: Security Requirement

Director must sit on a secure network, and the Management network also needs to be secure. CoroSoft does not provide this: you are responsible for providing this security element. This allows the administrator to log in to Director. On a clean installation of Director, the ports 22:ssh, 80:http, and 443:https are all open.

Installing IPVS (Optional Component)

The first step is to install IPVS—and the required CoroSoft files for it—onto the load balancer:

1. Insert the CoroSoft JumpStart™ for IPVS CD into the CD drive of the server you have decided to use as your load balancer.
2. Reboot the server (using reboot or shutdown -r). Once the server has restarted, you will see a graphical user interface (GUI) screen.
3. The GUI screens are a series of information requests. Enter all required information, or select the option specified.
   
   • Select Autopartition.
     
   • From the Autopartioning screen, choose Remove all partitions on this drive. A warning screen appears.
     
   • Select Yes. Note that all data will be destroyed.
     
   • In the Partitioning window, /dev/hda is selected. Select OK.
     
   • In the Network Configuration for Eth1 screen, select the Service network interface first. If your servers on this network typically use dhcp, select that option.
     
   • In the same screen, select Activate on boot. Enter the server addresses the IP address, netmask, default gateway, and nameserver. Note: The default gateway and nameserver will automatically be displayed. If you are using two network interfaces, one should be configured to be the service interface and one should be the management interface. Click OK.
     
   • In the Network Configuration for Eth1 screen, enter the information for the management interface (if using two interfaces). This is the same information as is required in the step above.
     
   • In the Hostname Configuration screen, enter the name you want to give your hosts. For simplicity, consider naming the servers Director and IPVS. Enter the fully qualified domain name. If you do not enter the FDQN, an empty search string will occur, and all hosts will have to be fully specified. Once you have entered a name, click OK.
     
   • In the Timezone Selection screen, choose the timezone in which your network is active, then click OK.
     
   • In the Root Password screen, enter a password to use when logging on as root. Type the password a second time to confirm. Click OK. All of the required CoroSoft or Director files are now installed onto the load balancer.
     
4. If requested, reboot the server.
5. All further configuration is performed by Director, as described in the next section.

Installing Director

Installing the CoroSoft Director™ is accomplished in a similar manner as installing the IPVS:

1. Select the server to become the CoroSoft Director™ and have all IP address and other network information ready.
   
2. Insert the CoroSoft Director™ CD into the CD drive.
   
3. Reboot the server (using reboot or shutdown -r). Once the server has restarted, you will see a GUI screen.
4. As requested by the screens that appear, include the configuration information for Director. Enter the fully qualified domain name when you enter the hostname. If you do not enter the FDQN, an empty search string will occur, and all hosts will have to be fully specified. The GUI screens are a series of information requests. Enter all required information, or select the option specified.
   
   • Select Autopartition.
     
   • From the Autopartioning screen, choose Remove all partitions on this drive. A warning screen appears.
     
   • Select Yes. Note that all data will be destroyed.
     
   • In the Partitioning window, /dev/hda is selected. Select OK.
     
   • In the Network Configuration for Eth1 screen, select the Service network interface first. If your servers on this network typically use dhcp, select that option.
     
   • In the same screen, select Activate on boot. If you did not select dhcp, you must enter the server addresses the IP address, netmask, default gateway, and nameserver. Note: The default gateway and nameserver will automatically be displayed. If you are using two network interfaces, one should be configured to be the service interface and one should be the management interface. Click OK.
     
   • In the Network Configuration for Eth1 screen, enter the information for the management interface (if using two interfaces). This is the same information as is required in the step above.
     
   • In the Hostname Configuration screen, enter the name you want to give your hosts. For simplicity, consider naming the servers Director and IPVS. Enter the fully qualified domain name. If you do not enter the FDQN, an empty search string will occur, and all hosts will have to be fully specified. Once you have entered a name, click OK.
     
   • In the Timezone Selection screen, choose the timezone in which your network is active, then click OK.
     
   • In the Root Password screen, enter a password to use when logging on as root. Type the password a second time to confirm. Click OK. All of the required CoroSoft or IPVS files are now installed onto the load balancer.
   
   
5. Once the installation is complete on the Director server, log in as root.
   
6. Run /usr/sbin/configureDirector to complete the configuration. This launches a script-based set of questions that gather the information for and set the configuration of the final Director and Load Balancer.
7. Just before the configureDirector script finishes, /usr/sbin/configureLBControl is started, which lets you configure the Load balancers for IP addresses and passwords.
8. When requested by the configuration script, supply all necessary information. You should have this information from the settings you defined in the preinstallation worksheet.

Important: Infrastructure Requirements

• NTP needs to run properly on Director.
• Sendmail needs to work correctly on Director. CoroSoft recommends configuring a Mail Relay into the sendmail configuration. This will permit email alerts to be queued to the configured mail relay and eliminates some dependencies on other network infrastructures.
• If using HTTPS, CoroSoft recommends that you install a self-signed certificate on Director.

Installing CoroSoft Automation Modules™

After CoroSoft Director™ is installed, one or more Automation Modules™ must be installed on the Director machine to enable service automation. CoroSoft currently offers the "CoroSoft Automation Module™ for Apache HTTP" and the "CoroSoft Automation Module™ for BIND DNS".

To install an Automation Module™ :

1. Place the Automation Module CD in the Director machine's CD-ROM drive.
2. On the Director machine, type the following commands:
3. mount /dev/cdrom (This will mount the Automation CD at /mnt/cdrom.)
4. cd /mnt/cdrom
5. ./install (This runs a script to install the Automation Module .)
6. umount /dev/cdrom (Unmounts the cdrom so that it may be removed from the machine.)

You can install multiple Automation Modules on a single Director. It is not necessary to stop Director in order to add Automation Modules.

Installing CoroSoft Foundation on Application Servers

You must now install the Corosoft intelligent agent, part of the CoroSoft Foundation, on each application server. This allows the Director to discover server resources and manage them.

Log in as root to each application server being configured for use as a managed, automated server. Begin installation for each application server:

1. Make sure that the Director and optionally the IPVS servers are both installed and running.
   
2. Insert the CoroSoft Foundation™ CD into the CD drive. Mount the drive using the mount command, for example: mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom.
   
3. The CD contains two RPMs (Red Hat Package Managers): install these onto each application server. These RPMs install the configuration and agent software.
   
4. From the Director, copy /etc/corosoft/agent.conf to the application server at /etc/corosoft/agent.conf.
   
5. Run /usr/sbin/configureAgent which configures and starts the agent on the server.
   
6. To ensure that the rcx.d links are handled properly, configureAgent should be run after installing the agent RPM.

You can now open any supported browser and connect to the Director, using http(s):\\hostname_or_ip_address, where hostname is the hostname you gave the Director during installation. The Director's Administration Console is launched, from which you can set your policy. See the User's Guide for details about policies.

Getting Help

If you have unresolvable problems with the installation, contact CoroSoft at:

Phone 408.865. 6950
Fax 408. 865.6999
support@corosoft.com

Copyright 2003 CoroSoft, Inc. All rights reserved.