Enabling BMC Orchestrator to run commands

This topic provides instructions on enabling BMC Orchestrator to run commands on a BMC Discovery appliance. You can do this by installing the BMC Orchestrator Lightweight Activity Peer (LAP) 7.7.01 on the BMC Discovery appliance.

This is intended for executing long running operations, for example:

• Perform an appliance backup
• Perform an offline compaction of the datastore

To install BMC Orchestrator Lightweight Activity Peer

Executing the graphical installer does not work as it requires X which is not available on a BMC Discovery appliance. Rather, you must perform a silent install. A silent install relies on a file containing all of the installation options that would normally be set using the GUI install. See the LAP installation worksheet for more information.

The installation consists of the following major steps:

To create an installation options file

Copy the following sample file into a text editor and edit the options to suit your environment. The fields are described in the BMC Orchestrator silent installation documentation.

   -P installLocation=/usr/local/bmc/BAO/LAP
   -J AO_WEBSERVER_PROTOCOL=https
   -J AO_INSTALL_TYPE=install_new
   -J AO_INSTALLING_FEATURES=LAP,WEBSERVER
   -J AO_ENVIRONMENT_NAME=BAO Environment
   -J AO_GRID_NAME=MyGrid
   -J AO_GRID_TYPE=dev
   -J AO_GRID_LOGGING_LEVEL=debug
   -J AO_START_SERVER_ON_SUCCESS=true
   -J AO_OCP_DEPLOYMENT_CONTEXT=baoocp
   -J AO_GRAPH_DEPLOYMENT_CONTEXT=baograph
   -J AO_PEER_NAME=CDP
   -J AO_PEER_NET_CONFIG_CDP_CONTEXT=baocdp
   -J AO_PEER_NET_CONFIG_CDP_HOST=baohost.bmc.com
   -J AO_PEER_NET_CONFIG_CDP_PORT=38080
   -J AO_REPOSITORY_PORT=28080
   -J AO_REPOSITORY_USER_NAME=admin
   -J AO_REPOSITORY_PASSWORD=
   -J AO_PEER_NET_CONFIG_GRID_NAME=MyGrid
   -J AO_PEER_NET_CONFIG_PEER_NAME=CDP
   -J AO_PEER_NET_CONFIG_NEW_PEER_NAME=LAP
   -J AO_PEER_NET_CONFIG_PROTOCOL=https
   -J AO_SECURITY_ACTIVE=false
   -J AO_SECURITY_WEB_PROTOCOL=https
   -J AO_WEBSERVER_PORT=38080
   -J AO_WEBSERVER_SHUTDOWN_PORT=38050
   -J AO_PEER_COMM_PORT=61719
   -J AO_WEBSERVER_HOST=addm.bmc.com

Save this file onto the BMC Discovery appliance file system, for example, /usr/tideway/tmp/optionsFile.

To install BMC Orchestrator Lightweight Activity Peer

To proceed with the install, create the install directory as root and change its ownership to the tideway user:

1. Log in to the appliance command line as the tideway user.
2. Run screen. Enter: 
   [tideway@localhost ~]$ screen
3. Become the root user. Enter:
   [tideway@localhost ~]$ su 
Password:
[root@localhost tideway]#
4. Create the installation directory and change its ownership to the tideway user. Enter:
   [root@localhost tideway]# mkdir /usr/local/bmc
[root@localhost tideway]# chown tideway:tideway /usr/local/bmc
[root@localhost tideway]# exit
[tideway@localhost tideway]$
5. Open port 61721, or whichever port you intend to use for LAP communications. Use a text editor to add the following entries to the firewall configuration file /etc/sysconfig/iptables.

   1. After ":in_TIDEWAY_ntp_s8 - [0:0]" and before ":out_TIDEWAY - [0:0]" add the following:


      :in_TIDEWAY_bao - [0:0]

   2. After "-A in_TIDEWAY -j in_TIDEWAY_ntp_s8" and before "-A in_TIDEWAY -j in_TIDEWAY_all_c7" add the following:

      -A in_TIDEWAY -j in_TIDEWAY_bao

   3. After "-A in_TIDEWAY_ntp_s8 -p udp -m udp --sport 123 --dport 32768:61000 -m state --state ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT" and before the "-A out_TIDEWAY *" block of entries add the following:

      -A in_TIDEWAY_bao -p tcp -m tcp --sport 1024:65535 --dport 61721 -m state --state NEW,ESTABLISHED -j ACCEPT

6. Switch back to the tideway user:
[root@localhost tideway]# exit
[tideway@localhost tideway]$ 
7. Unset the Tomcat environment variables. Enter:
   [tideway@localhost tideway]$ unset CATALINA_BASE CATALINA_HOME

8. Run the installer in silent mode as the tideway user, passing it the options file:

   [tideway@localhost tideway]$ sh linux_bao_server_installer_7_7_01.sh -i silent -DOPTIONS_FILE="/usr/tideway/tmp/optionsFile" 
    Initializing blind certificate trust... 
    Composing URL from components: protocol=https, host=lon-vm-w2k12r2-bao.tideway.com, port=38080, file=baocdp/ws/install 
    Composed URL: [ https://baohost.bmc.com:38080/baocdp/ws/install ] 
    Creating config fetcher from [ https://baohost.bmc.com:38080/baocdp/ws/install ] 
    Composing URL from components: protocol=https, host=baohost.bmc.com, port=38080, file=baocdp 
    Composed URL: [ https://baohost.bmc.com:38080/baocdp ] 
    Composing URL from components: protocol=https, host=baohost.bmc.com, port=38080, file=baocdp/ws/install 
    Composed URL: [ https://baohost.bmc.com:38080/baocdp/ws/install ] 
    Creating config fetcher from [ https://baohost.bmc.com:38080/baocdp/ws/install ] 
    Apr 11, 2014 5:03:59 PM com.bmc.install.product.ao.utils.LocalCommandLineHelper 
    WARNING: LOG EVENT {Description=[Certificate stored in file <temp.cer>]} 
    Apr 11, 2014 5:04:01 PM com.bmc.install.product.ao.utils.LocalCommandLineHelper 
    WARNING: LOG EVENT {Description=[Certificate was added to keystore]} 
    [tideway@localhost tideway]$

9. Check that you have the following java process running for the LAP:
   /usr/local/bmc/BAO/LAP/jvm/bin/java -Djava.util.logging.config.file...

Configure LAP to run on boot

To configure LAP to run at boot time, use a text editor to edit the BMC Orchestrator start up bao.sh file.

1. Edit /usr/local/bmc/BAO/LAP/bin/bao.sh and set RUN_AS_USER=tideway
2. Remove the "-" from all of the "su -" commands in that file. This prevents the superuser inheriting the tideway user's environment variables. For example, the tideway user's Tomcat environment variables refer to the BMC Discovery Tomcat instance.
3. Become the root user. Enter:
   [tideway@localhost ~]$ su 
Password:
[root@localhost tideway]#
4. Create a symlink to the BAO startup script from the system startup scripts directory. Enter:
   [root@localhost tideway]# ln -s /usr/local/bmc/BAO/LAP/bin/bao.sh /etc/init.d/bao_lap
[root@localhost tideway]# chkconfig bao_lap on
[root@localhost tideway]# chkconfig |grep bao_lap
 bao_lap         0:off   1:off   2:on    3:on    4:on    5:on    6:off
[root@localhost tideway]# 

Timeout of long running processes

Long running processes have been observed to timeout with the following message: "A request was sent to a remote peer and a response was not received prior to the specified timeout". The following workaround prevents this occurring.

1. Create an XML file called tuning-config.xml using the following code:
   <config>
    <adapter-manager>
        <adapter-call-timeout>36000000</adapter-call-timeout>
            <!-- timeout in milliseconds. 36000000 is 10 hours -->
            <!-- must exceed the longest expected execution time of a process -->
    </adapter-manager>
</config>
2. Copy the tuning-config.xmlfile to the following locations:
   • On the BMC Discovery appliance -- /usr/local/bmc/BAO/LAP/config/
   • On the BMC Orchestrator CDP host -- C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BAO\CDP\config\ or /opt/bmc/BAO/CDP/config
   • On the machine running the Dev Studio GUI (if required)  -- C:\Program Files\BMC Software\BAO\Studio\config\

Known issue with current BMC Discovery versions

The firewall changes must be applied again if BMC Discovery is upgraded.