Setting up for installation on a Linux server

(Optional) Creating a user account on a Linux server

The TrueSight Network Automation installation on a Linux server requires a non-root user account (for example, bcan). This account is referred to as the BCAN_USER account. You can create this account either before installation or during installation.

To create a user account on Linux and assign the required permissions

1. Log on as root.
2. Create the BCAN_USER account.
3. Assign a password to the BCAN_USER account. Make a note of the group to which the user account belongs. You would be asked for this group name by the installer.
   BMC recommends not using the at sign (@) in the password because some device file transfers might fail because they use the user:password@host/file format. So if the password contains an at sign, the file transfer thinks all characters after the at sign is the host.
4. Create a home directory that is owned and writable by that user.
5. Ensure the shell associated with the BCAN_USER account is the Bourne shell (/bin/sh). Also ensure the entry in /etc/passwd is similar to the following example:
   bcan:x:800:800:BCA-Networks User:/export/home/bcan:/bin/sh
6. Execute the umask 022 command.
   This ensures that files and directories created by the installer are usable by the BCAN_USER account.
7. Endure that the BCAN_USER account has access to the FTP and SCP directories.

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Checking required disk space on a Linux server

Perform the following steps to check the required disk space on a Linux server:

1. Confirm that the drive where you plan to install the Network Automation application server has at least 1.2 GB of free disk storage. Do not install the software on a network or NFS mounted drive. You must install the software on a local drive.
2. Confirm that the /tmp directory has at least 450 MB of free space.
3. If the /tmp directory does not have sufficient free space, you can run the following commands before installing to make the installation use an alternate temporary directory. The directory specified in this command must have at least 200 MB of free space available.
   $ IATEMPDIR=/your/free/space/tmp_directory
   $ export IATEMPDIR
4. Verify that the server host computer has sufficient disk space, as discussed in System-requirements.
   The installation uses /var/bca-networks-data as the default for the location of the dynamic data for the application.
   As an alternative, you can install the BCA-Networks-Data directory into a separate partition that meets the disk space requirements.

5. Configure the following permissions:

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Confirming installation of FTP or SCP

Ensure that the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP), FTP, and Secure Shell (SSH) or Secure Copy (SCP) services are installed, configured, and enabled (depending on which file transfer protocols you plan to use between the server and your network devices).

You can configure the location of the TFTP, FTP, and SCP directories later in the Device Agent Editor, Admin > Device Agents.

For TFTP, verify that the directory (usually /tftpboot or /var/lib/tftpboot) has user, group, and world read, write, and execute permissions.

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Configuring the hosts file

Confirm that the /etc/hosts file has at least two entries.

• Assign 127.0.0.1 to localhost.

  Warning

  If 127.0.0.1 is not assigned to localhost, installation would fail.

• Assign the static IP address of the server to the server hostname.
  
  

  127.0.0.1 localhost
  10.1.2.3 ena-server-01

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Library requirements

This section discusses the library requirements.

Confirming the availability of libXtst.so and libXrender.so

If you are installing on a 64-bit version of Linux, confirm that both 32-bit and 64-bit version of the following libraries are available:

• libXtst.so: Confirm that the library is available by executing the following command:
  

  locate libXtst.so

  The following output is seen if both 32-bit and 64-bit version of the library are available:

  [root@bna tmp]# locate libXtst.so
  /usr/lib/libXtst.so.6
  /usr/lib/libXtst.so.6.1.0
  /usr/lib64/libXtst.so.6
  /usr/lib64/libXtst.so.6.1.0
  

  If the library is not available and yum is configured on a Red Hat Linux system, you can install 32-bit and 64-bit version of the library by using the following command:

  yum install libXtst libXtst.i686

• libXrender.so: Confirm that the library is available by executing the following command:
  
  locate libXrender.so
  The following output is seen if both 32-bit and 64-bit version of the library are available:

  [root@bna tmp]# locate libXrender.so
  /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib32/libXrender.so.1
  /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib32/libXrender.so.1/libXrender.so.1
  /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libXrender.so.1
  /usr/lib/vmware-tools/lib64/libXrender.so.1/libXrender.so.1
  /usr/lib64/libXrender.so
  /usr/lib64/libXrender.so.1
  /usr/lib64/libXrender.so.1.3.0
  

  If the library is not available and yum is configured on a Red Hat Linux system, you can install 32-bit and 64-bit version of the library by using the following command:

  yum install libXrender libXrender.i686

Other library requirements

Ensure that the nslookup library is available by executing the following command:

If not installed, and yum is configured on a Red Hat Linux system, then install the library by executing the following command:

Creating and configuring databases for Network Automation installations on Linux

Network Automation installer is bundled with the PostgreSQL executables. If you choose to use the bundled (also called embedded) PostgreSQL during installation, the installer creates the database for you.In case you don't want to use the embedded PostgreSQL, you can create external databases. The following sections provide instructions to create and configure external PostgreSQL, SQL Server, and Oracle databases for the Network Automation installation.

Creating and configuring a PostgreSQL database

If you don't want to use the embedded PostgreSQL database, create an external PostgreSQL database. When creating the external database, specify the -encoding UTF-8 option to initialize the database with the UTF-8 encoding.

Creating and configuring an SQL Server database

You have the following options for creating an SQL Server database and a user account:

• Before installation, ask your database administrator to create the SQL Server database and user account
• The installer creates the SQL Server database and user account during installation, provided you have the administrator credentials for the database.

Create and configuring an SQL Server database and a user account

Do the following:

1. Create an SQL Server database and a user account. Also, ensure that the user login properties are mapped to a user-defined schema.

   ImportantNetwork Automation strictly prohibits using the sa user account.

   RecommendationWe recommend creating a user account for use only by Network Automation. 
2. Ensure that the SQL Server user account has the following privileges:
   • Create, alter, or drop tables
   • Create, alter, or drop indices
   • Create, alter, or drop constraints
   • Create, alter, or drop views
   • Insert, update, or delete rows
3. On SQL Server, set the READ COMMITTED SNAPSHOT isolation level of the Network Automation database to ON using the following statements:

   ALTER DATABASE <databaseName>
   SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION ON
   
   ALTER DATABASE <databaseName>
   SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON

Creating and configuring an Oracle user

You have the following options for creating an Oracle user and schema:

• Before installation, ask your database administrator to create the database and schema.
• The installer creates the database and schema during installation, provided you have the administrative permissions.

Creating an Oracle user

Create an Oracle user with the following naming conventions:

• User names contain upto 30 characters.
• User names contain only alphanumeric characters from your database character set and the underscore (_), dollar sign ($), and pound sign (#).
• User names do not contain hyphens (-).
• Oracle Database reserved words are not used as user names.

For more information about naming database users, see the guidelines and rules stated for the non-quoted identifiers in the Schema Object Names and Qualifiers section in the Oracle documentation.

Setting the Oracle RAC data file path

If your database is an Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) using Automatic Storage Management (ASM) to manage the data file, the path to the data file must use the following format:orFor example, if the data space name in your Oracle RAC environment is named DATA, you would enter +DATA.Oracle RAC databases that are not using ASM should use the standard format, the absolute file path to the database data file.

Starting the pluggable database (Oracle 12c)

When performing a fresh installation with Oracle 12c, you must execute one of the the following commands to ensure that the pluggable database is started if the Create New User option is selected.alter pluggable database all open; or alter pluggable database <pluggable_db_name> open;

Checking IPv6 configuration on Linux

If you are installing the Network Automation application server or remote device agent on a host computer that has both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols, or only the IPv6 protocol, confirm that the DNS is properly configured.

To confirm, run the nslookup command on the local host name and confirm that both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are configured, as shown in the following example:

 Linux nslookup to verify IP addresses

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