Preparing a Linux server for BMC Digital Workplace Catalog installation

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.

yum install xmlstarlet

To install the Linux system dependencies

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

yum install -y glibc nspr libgcc libstdc++ unzip tar compat-libstdc++-33 compat-libstdc++-33.i686 glibc.i686 libgcc.i686 libstdc++.i686 net-tools python-setuptools php-pear

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.

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:

# df -k /tmp

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.

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.