Using silent mode to install BMC Server Automation components (Linux or UNIX)

You can perform an unattended (silent) installation of the Application Server and other components on a Linux or UNIX system.

You can install all of the following components or a subset.

• Application Server
• RSCD agent
• Network Shell
• PXE server
• TFTP server

Before you begin

• This installation does not install the BMC Server Automation Console. To view the console, you must install it. For information, see Using silent mode to install the BMC Server Automation Console (Linux and UNIX). 
• Application Server Component
  • Performing a silent installation of the application server creates a UNIX user called bladmin and a UNIX group called bladmin. The BMC Server Automation Application Server runs as the bladmin user. 
  • If a user wants to use BMC Server Automation and does not have root privileges, the user must first be added to the bladmin group to gain access to essential configuration files. 
  • This installation does not set up a Network Shell Proxy Server. For instructions on setting up and customizing a Network Shell Proxy Server, see Setting up a Network Shell proxy server. 
  • The application server will still need to be configured using blappconf or blasadmin after a silent install.
• Network Shell Component
  • The NSH installation does not install the blcli or blcred utilities.  For those utilities you must install the Application Server or the BMC Server Automation Console. For information, see Using silent mode to install the BMC Server Automation Console (Linux and UNIX).
• If the host computer on which you are installing the Network Shell has:
  • • A supported version of Perl installed — The Network Shell installation automatically installs the Network Shell Perl module. (For information about the Perl versions that BMC Server Automation supports, see Perl support.)
    • An unsupported version of Perl installed — The installation copies files that allow you to install the Perl module after you have installed the supported version of Perl.
• RSCD Component
  • For information about installing an agent on a VMware ESX server, see Adding and configuring an agent-based vCenter server. 
  • As of vSphere 5.0, VMware supports only installation of ESXi, which is an appliance OS, and does not support installing an RSCD agent. All management of ESXi must be done via an RSCD agent on the vCenter Control server, as described in Setting up a VMware vSphere environment.

To install the BMC Server Automation components in silent mode

 The installer will take silent install parameters via environment variables, a file named nsh-install-defaults in /tmp and arguments passed to the installer.

1. On the target server, create a text file named nsh-install-defaults in the /tmp directory. The file must be readable by the user running the install.

   1. In the file, create an entry for each variable you want to set. Then for each variable you enter in the file, create another entry to export the variable. For example:
      COMPONENT_CHECKED=23
export COMPONENT_CHECKED
NSH_INSTALL_SKEL=1
export NSH_INSTALL_SKEL

      Note

      Ensure that the file is in UNIX format (a format in which a line feed (not a carriage return) specifies the end of a line), otherwise the install will fail.

      The following table describes how to set each variable or argument. If there is an overlap between the argument and variable, the argument will override the variable.

      Variable/Argument	Component	Description
      INSTALL_DIR	All	Specifies an installation directory other than the default installation directory of /opt/bmc/bladelogic.
      CERT_PASSWORD	Application Server	(Required) The BMC Server Automation Application Server installation program needs a certificate password to generate a self-signed X.509 certificate. Communication between BMC Server Automation and servers being provisioned and between the Application Server and the process spawner uses the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol and X.509 certificates. The password must be at least 6 characters. For more information about certificates and the TLS protocol, see Authentication.
      COMPONENT_CHECKED	All	By default, running a silent installation installs all possible components in the installation. To override the default, set the COMPONENT_CHECKED variable. The components that you install can be any combination of values. For example, to install a PXE server, TFTP server, Network Shell, and RSCD agent, you would specify COMPONENT_CHECKED=13PT. You can specify the following values: 1 — RSCD agent, 2 — Application Server, 3 — Network Shell, P — PXE server, and T — TFTP server.
      IS_SECURE_AGENT_LOGS	RSCD	Set this variable to 1 to enable secure agent logging. When secure agent logging is enabled for an agent, agent logs are periodically rolled and digitally signed as they are rolled.
      IS_KEYSTROKE_LOGS	RSCD	Set this variable to 1 to enable keystroke (nexec) logging on an agent. When keystroke logging is enabled on an agent, remote commands run against the agent using nexec are captured and logged in an encrypted manner in keystroke logs. These logs are periodically rolled and digitally signed as they are rolled.
      INSTALL_BLPRNG -random	All	Set this variable to 1 to install the BladeLogic Pseudo Random Number Generator Daemon (PRNGD). BMC Server Automation uses random data to encrypt communication securely. Most systems already have a random number generator device; you might not need this setting. However, if a server on which you are performing a silent installation does not include a hardware device for generating random numbers, the installation program installs the PRNGD.
      NSH_ROOT_HOST -root	RSCD	Set this value to identify a client on which users are granted root privileges for this server. This option sets the root= flag in the exports configuration file. By default, no clients are specified.
      NSH_USER_FROM NSH_USER_TO -map	RSCD	Set these values to configure a default user mapping in the users.local file. By default, no users are mapped. The values set with this variable create an entry in the users.local file that says: NSH_USER_FROM rw,map=NSH_USER_TO or -map NSH_USER_FROM NSH_USER_TO For example, by defining values for these variables, you can create an entry in users.local similar to the following example: betty rw,map=root For information about the users.local file, see Configuring the users or users.local files.
      NSH_INSTALL_SKEL -skel	NSH	By default, a silent installation does not include the .nsh/etc/skel files. Set this variable to 1 to install those files.
      TMP_DIR	RSCD	Specifies a location where the installer should decompress the sysinfo installation file before the file copy.
      INSTALL_FILES_TEMP	All	Temporary directory location to extract the installation files, otherwise the INSTALL_DIR/install_dir will be used. For more information, see Methods for reducing installation space on Linux and UNIX.
      STARTUP_AIX	RSCD	Specifies the type of startup script used for silent installation of the RSCD agent on AIX. You can specify these values:  1 – At system bootup, use the /etc/rc.tcpip file  2 – Manually (I will do it myself)  3 – At system backup, use the /etc/rc.d/init.d/rscd file
      KEEPLOCAL -local	All	Perform a self-contained installation. All installation files are stored in a single directory. For more information, see Installing components in non-default installation paths using the local flag. Set the KEEPLOCAL variable to 1 or pass -local to perform a local install.
      -silent	All	Perform a silent install.
      -port	RSCD	Set the default port on which the RSCD agent listens on.
      -start	RSCD, Application Server	Define the startup type as: manual or auto.
      -autostart	RSCD, Application Server	Set the start up type to automatic.
      -protocol	RSCD, NSH	Set the protocol used by NSH and RSCD agent. See the Configuring the secure file for more information on the protocol value.
      -noyum	RSCD	Do not install blyum.

2. Save /tmp/nsh-install-defaults.
3. To run the silent installation, enter the following command:
   sh <Installer-platform.sh> -silent
   For example:
   sh RSCD89-LIN64.sh -silent -port 5750