Preparing a Linux server for BMC Digital Workplace Catalog installation

Before you install BMC Digital Workplace Catalog on a Linux server, perform the following tasks as a system administrator with root user permissions. If you are installing BMC Digital Workplace Catalog for a high availability deployment, perform these tasks on each host Linux server.

Before you begin

Review the information in Installation-process-overview-for-BMC-Helix-Digital-Workplace-Catalog. Complete the Installation-worksheets-for-BMC-Digital-Workplace-Catalog.

Confirming the Oracle Java JRE location to include in the installation options file

Some BMC Digital Workplace Catalog features, such as the image processing library, will perform only when Oracle Java is installed. OpenJDK does not support these features, and can be safely removed unless it is required by other applications on the same server.

1. To check for existing Java installations, run the alternatives command as shown in the following example. On some Linux systems you can also use update-alternatives with the same syntax.
   

   Example

   # alternatives --config java
   
   There are 3 programs which provide 'java'.
     Selection    Command
   -----------------------------------------------
      1           java-1.7.0-openjdk.x86_64 (/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.7.0-openjdk-1.7.0.121-2.6.8.0.el7_3.x86_64/jre/bin/java)
   *+ 2           java-1.8.0-openjdk.x86_64 (/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.111-2.b15.el7_3.x86_64/jre/bin/java)
      3           /usr/java/jre1.8.0_144/bin/java
   
   Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number:

2. If multiple Java installations are present, select the most recent Oracle-labeled Java version as instructed.

   Example

   Enter to keep the current selection[+], or type selection number: 3

3. To locate the correct path to include in the installation options file, search for the Java path.

   Example

   # ls -al /usr/java
   
   total 12
   drwxr-xr-x   3 root root 4096 Aug  8 00:50 .
   drwxr-xr-x. 14 root root 4096 Jul 22 00:13 ..
   lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root   16 Aug  8 00:50 default -> /usr/java/latest
   drwxr-xr-x   7 root root 4096 Aug  8 00:50 jre1.8.0_144
   lrwxrwxrwx   1 root root   22 Aug  8 00:50 latest -> /usr/java/jre1.8.0_144

   By default, Oracle installs Java into a folder with a version number, such as /usr/java/jre1.8.0_144, and creates the /usr/java/latest symbolic link to point to the folder. When you edit the installation options file, specify the symbolic link rather than the versioned folder. When you update the server Java version, the symbolic link will remain consistent and keep your application running after the update.
   
   

4. If Oracle Java is not installed, download and install the latest release of Java version 1.8 according to the directions on  Oracle's website.

   Tip

   If your Linux server is connected to the internet, you can install Java directly after you find a link to the 64-bit RPM from Oracle's website. For example, to download and install Oracle Java 1.8.0_151, run the following command.

   Example

   rpm -ivh http://javadl.oracle.com/webapps/download/AutoDL?BundleId=227541_e758a0de34e24606bca991d704f6dcbf
   OR
   wget http://javadl.oracle.com/webapps/download/AutoDL?BundleId=227541_e758a0de34e24606bca991d704f6dcbf
   rpm -ivh AutoDL\?BundleId\=227541_e758a0de34e24606bca991d704f6dcbf
5. After you have installed Oracle Java, return to steps 1 and 2 to set the default Java version. Then follow step 3 to confirm that the location of the Java JRE folder is represented in the symbolic link /usr/java/latest.

Preparing a server for installation as a non-root user

If you will be installing BMC Digital Workplace Catalog as a non-root user, the system administrator with root user access must grant the non-root user account with permission to the folders and files indicated in the following tables. If a file or folder in the tables does not exist on the server, create the file or folder and set its ownership and permissions.

• Folder level permissions
• File level permissions
• To grant permission to a user based on Linux groups
• Install XMLStarlet

Folder level permissions

File level permissions

Grant the permissions in the following table to the non-root user until the installation is complete. Afterward, you can remove these permissions.

To grant permission to a user based on Linux groups

Your IT policy will determine whether you should grant permissions at the owner level or the group level. BMC recommends that a system administrator with root user permissions grants the permissions at the group level from the command line.

The following steps provide an example of one method for granting access from the command line.  

1. Create a group to assign the permissions that will be granted to all users who are part of the group.

   Example

   groupadd dwpcatalog

2. Create a non-root user in the newly created group.

   Example

   useradd -g dwpcatalog dwpuser

3. Assign a password to the newly created non-root user.

   Example

   passwd dwpuser
   
   Changing password for user dwpuser.
   New password: (create a secure password)
   Retype new password: (repeat the password)

4. For each file and folder specified in the tables, change the group ownership to the newly created group, and then change the mode to set the specified permissions for the group.

   For example, to assign group level permissions to the /opt/bmc folder, run the following commands.

   Example

   chown root:dwpcatalog /opt/bmc
   chmod g+rwx /opt/bmc

   After the non-root user account has been granted the required permissions to the specified files and folders, you can continue to the next procedure.
   

Install XMLStarlet

You can use the RPM Package Manager to install XMLStarlet. This installation might require installation of related dependencies.

Installing the Linux system dependencies

Before you install BMC Digital Workplace Catalog on a Linux server, use a user account with root level permissions to download and install the system dependencies, prerequisite libraries required by the installer.

• To install the Linux system dependencies
• To install libraries if the library package could not be found

To install the Linux system dependencies

Use the following yum command to install the prerequisite Linux system libraries.

After you issue the yum install command, check for console messages that indicate a library could not be installed, such as "No package compat-libstdc++-33.i686 available."

To install libraries if the library package could not be found

If the console shows libraries that could not be installed, you must find the missing libraries and issue the rpm command to install them. For example, some Linux repositories do not supply the 32-bit versions of the libraries, indicated by i686 in the package name.

1. Go to www.rpmfind.net and search for the missing library, such as compat-libstdc++-33.

2. Search the page for the most recent 32-bit version of the library for your Linux version and architecture, such as compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-72.el7.i686.rpm
3. Copy the link to the rpm file.

4. Install the library onto your server by running the rpm command. The following example shows a direct installation from a link to a public mirror that serves the library.

   Example

   # rpm -ivh ftp://195.220.108.108/linux/centos/7.3.1611/os/x86_64/Packages/compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-72.el7.i686.rpm
    ...
   Preparing...                          ################################# [100%]
   Updating / installing...
      1:compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-72.el7 ################################# [100%]
   
5. If the library installs successfully, then you can proceed to the next step. Otherwise, troubleshoot your environment with your system administrators.

Verifying space requirements and sticky bit permissions for the temporary folder

The BMC Digital Workplace Catalog installer stores logs and working files in a temporary folder that must have 1.5 GB of available space.

• To check the available space in the temporary folder
• To remove sticky bit permissions on the temporary folder

To check the available space in the temporary folder

Run the df -k command with the following syntax to read the amount of free space on a folder:

If the available space is less than 1.5 GB, a system administrator must increase the size of the temporary folder allocation.

To remove sticky bit permissions on the temporary folder

If you experience an issue where the installer fails to create a ARSystemInstalledConfiguration.xml file in the /tmp folder, you can try to install BMC Digital Workplace Catalog again after you remove the sticky bit permissions from the /tmp directory.

Configuring the server to improve performance

This section contains guidelines for modifying the server configuration to improve runtime performance.

• To set the limits on the number of processes and open files
• To increase the number of transactions and users using kernel tuning

To set the limits on the number of processes and open files

Verify the number of processes (nproc value) and the open files a process is allowed to run.

1. To review the currently allowed number of open files that a process can run, run the commands ulimit -Ha to review the hard limit, and ulimit -Sa to review the soft limit.

   Example

   # ulimit -Ha
   ...
   open files                      (-n) 4096
   
   # ulimit -Sa
   open files                      (-n) 1024

   In most cases, the value set by default is sufficient.

    

2. To maximize performance, set the number of open files allowed per process to 16,384, or to the maximum value allowed by your system administrator by running the command ulimit -n followed by the value to set.

   Example

   # ulimit -n 16384
   
   # ulimit -Ha
   ...
   open files                      (-n) 16384
   
   # ulimit -Sa
   open files                      (-n) 16384

If the system hangs, collect the Java heap dumps and thread dumps for troubleshooting. For information about collecting Java dumps and thread jumps, refer to KA00101754.

To increase the number of transactions and users using kernel tuning

Before you install BMC Digital Workplace Catalog, consider increasing the value of kernel parameters that affect the Linux server (or any other multithreaded server process). This increase ensures that BMC Digital Workplace Catalog can support the expected volume of transactions and users.

For example, consider increasing the following process features:

• Number of threads available to a process.
• Available memory—Some components require between 500 MB and 1 GB of memory to run.
• Number of associated files or process descriptors—Descriptors should be at least 2.5 to 3 times the number of expected concurrent connections or 1024 (whichever is greater). Examples of connections include user logons (client or browser) and custom application programming interfaces (APIs).

Contact your system administrator or operating system vendor for more information about kernel tuning.

Where to go from here

Set up only one of the following database engines: