Setup OS Requirements RHEL

This section describes how to perform the setup for Red Hat Linux Server 7.4. The Attune platform is designed to run on Linux.

Please read through all of the documentation before commencing the installation procedure.

Installation Objective

This Installation Guide contains specific Red Hat Linux Server 7.4 operating system requirements for the configuring of synerty-attune.

Required Software

Some of the software to be installed requires internet access. For offline installation some steps are required to be installed on another online server for the files to be packaged and transferred to the offline server.

Below is a list of all the required software:

  • Python 2.7.x

  • Postgres 9.x.x

Suggested Software

The following utilities are often useful.

  • rsync

  • git

  • unzip

Installation Guide

Follow the remaining section in this document to prepare your RHEL operating system for to run the Attune Platform.

The instructions on this page don’t install the attune platform, that’s done later.

Install Red Hat Linux Server 7.x OS

This section installs the Red Hat Linux Server 7.x 64bit operating system.

Create VM

Create a new virtual machine with the following specifications

  • 2 CPUs

  • 2gb of ram

  • 100gb of disk space

Install OS

Download the RHEL ISO Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x Binary DVD from:

Download RHEL

Mount the ISO in the virtual machine and start the virtual machine.

Note

Run through the installer manually, do not let your virtual machine software perform a wizard or express install.

Starting Off

At the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x installer boot menu screen, select:

Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x

At the language selection screen, select:

English

Next you will see a screen that lets you jump to any area to configure. The areas that need attention are numbered and explained in the following sections.

../../../_images/config_menu1.png ../../../_images/config_menu2.png

#1 Goto the DATE & TIME screen, select the appropriate time location.

../../../_images/rhel_date_and_time.jpg

#2 Goto the SOFTWARE SELECTION screen, select Minimal Install or Server with GUI if you’d like a GUI.

../../../_images/rhel_software_selection.jpg

#3 Goto the INSTALLATION DESTINATION screen

The following partitioning is recommended for DEV attune virtual machines.

Select:

I will configure partitioning.
../../../_images/rhel_installation_destination.jpg

Select Done.

Partition Table

We’ll be creating three partitions, /boot, / and swap. For a heavily used production server you may want to create more virtual disks and separate out /var, /home, and /tmp. With one file system per disk.

Having one file system per disk allows VM software to easily expand the disk and filesystem as required.

Select Standard Partition

Again, This is to allow the virtual machine software to expand the DEV server disks more easily.

../../../_images/rhel_standard_partitioning.png

Add the partitions, for each partition, click the plus.

../../../_images/rhel_new_partition.png

Set the Mount Point to /boot

Set the size to 1g

Click Add mount point

../../../_images/rhel_new_mount_boot.png

Set the Mount Point to swap

Set the size to 8g

Click Add mount point

../../../_images/rhel_new_mount_swap.png

Set the Mount Point to /

Set the size to 100%

Click Add mount point

../../../_images/rhel_new_mount_root.png

You should have a partition layout as follows, Click Done

../../../_images/rhel_example_partition.png

Click Accept Changes

../../../_images/rhel_confrm_partition.png

#4 Goto NETWORK & HOST NAME screen,

../../../_images/rhel_network_hostname.jpg

  1. Enter your desired hostname, for example

    attune.localdomain

  1. Turn on the Ethernet connection, this will get a DHCP IP Address.

Note

Make note of the DHCP IP Address

Otherwise, Configure a static IP address,

  1. Goto IPv4 Settings tab,

  2. Set Method to Manual,

  3. Add static IP address,

  4. Save.

../../../_images/rhel_network_static_ip.jpg

Select DONE review the SUMMARY OF CHANGES

Click BEGIN INSTALLATION

../../../_images/rhel_begin_installation.png

While RHEL is installing, further installation steps need to be completed.

Configure the ROOT PASSWORD and the **USER CREATION*

../../../_images/rhel_installing_root_user_config.png

Configure the root password of the new RHEL VM.

Enter the root password twice, then click Done

../../../_images/rhel_config_root_pass.png

Create the attune user as follows.

../../../_images/rhel_create_user.png

Click Finish configuration

../../../_images/rhel_finish_configuration.png

Click Reboot

../../../_images/rhel_install_reboot.png

After the server has rebooted, disconnect and remove the RHEL ISO from DVD drive in the VM software.

The OS installation is now complete.

Login as Attune

Login to the RHEL VM as the attune user, either via SSH, or the graphical desktop if it’s installed.

Important

All steps after this point assume you’re logged in as the attune user.

Registering RHEL

The RHEL server must have access to the redhat repositories at rhn.redhat.com to install the required packages.

This section describes one way of registering a new RHEL server to a Redhat subscription. This is a paid subscription.

Run the following command to register the system. Replace MY_RHN_USERNAME with your redhat network username.

sudo date
# enter the password for attune

sudo subscription-manager register --username MY_RHN_USERNAME
# Enter the password for the RHN account
List the subscriptions, and select a pool.
sudo subscription-manager list --available | grep Pool

Subscribe to the pool. Replace POOL_ID_FROM_ABOVE_COMMAND with the Pool ID from the last command.

sudo subscription-manager subscribe --pool=POOL_ID_FROM_ABOVE_COMMAND
Test the subscription with a yum update, this will apply the latest updates.
sudo yum update -y

Note

If you want to remove the server from the pool, and unregister it, run the following.

sudo subscription-manager remove --all
sudo subscription-manager unregister

Configuring the OS

Removing IPv6 Localhost

Run the following command to ensure that localhost does not resolve to ::1 as this effects the PostGreSQL connection.

sudo sed -i '/::1/d' /etc/hosts

Installing OS Prerequisites

This section installs the OS packages required.

Note

Run the commands in this step as the attune user.

To begin, make sure that all the packages currently installed on your RHEL system are updated to their latest versions:

sudo yum update -y

Install the C Compiler package, used for compiling python or VMWare tools, etc:

PKG="gcc gcc-c++ kernel-devel make"
sudo yum install -y $PKG

Install utilities:

PKG="rsync"
PKG="$PKG unzip"
PKG="$PKG wget"
PKG="$PKG bzip2"
PKG="$PKG net-tools"

sudo yum install -y $PKG

Install the Python build dependencies:

PKG="curl git m4 ruby texinfo bzip2-devel libcurl-devel"
PKG="$PKG expat-devel ncurses-libs zlib-devel gmp-devel"
PKG="$PKG openssl openssl-devel"
sudo yum install -y $PKG

Install C libraries that some python packages link to when they install:

# For the cryptography package
PKG="libffi-devel"

sudo yum install -y $PKG

Install C libraries for the lxml:

PKG="libxml2 libxml2-devel"
PKG="$PKG libxslt libxslt-devel"

sudo yum install -y $PKG

Install C libraries that the oracle client requires:

PKG="libaio libaio-devel"

sudo yum install -y $PKG

Install C libraries required for LDAP:

PKG="openldap-devel"

sudo yum install -y $PKG

Install C libraries required for Pillow / Imaging:

PKG="libjpeg-turbo-devel"
PKG="$PKG zlib-devel"
PKG="$PKG libtiff-devel"
PKG="$PKG libwebp-devel"
PKG="$PKG openjpeg-devel"
PKG="$PKG libtiff-devel"
PKG="$PKG freetype-devel"
PKG="$PKG lcms2-devel"

sudo yum install -y $PKG

Install python packages needed for the virtual python environment:

PKG="python-virtualenv"
PKG="$PKG python-wheel"

sudo yum install -y $PKG

Cleanup the downloaded packages:

sudo yum clean all

Installing VMWare Tools (Optional)

This section installs VMWare tools. The compiler tools have been installed from the section above.

In the VMWare software, find the option to install VMWare tools.

Mount and unzip the tools:

sudo rm -rf /tmp/vmware-*
sudo mount /dev/sr0 /mnt
sudo tar -xzf /mnt/VM*gz -C /tmp
sudo umount /mnt

Install the tools with the default options:

cd /tmp/vmware-tools-distrib
sudo ./vmware-install.pl -f -d

Cleanup the tools install:

sudo rm -rf /tmp/vmware-*

Reboot the virtual machine:

sudo shutdown -r now

Note

Keep in mind, that if the static IP is not set, the IP address of the VM may change, causing issues when reconnecting with SSH.

Install PostGreSQL

Install the relational database Attune stores its data in. This is PostGreSQL 10.

Note

Run the commands in this step as the attune user.

Install PostGreSQL:

PKG="postgresql"
PKG="$PKG postgresql-server"
PKG="$PKG postgresql-contrib"
PKG="$PKG postgresql-devel"
PKG="$PKG postgresql-libs"
sudo yum install -y $PKG

Create the PostGreSQL cluster:

sudo postgresql-setup initdb

Allow the attune OS user to login to the database as user attune with no password

F="/var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf"
if ! sudo grep -q 'attune' $F; then
    echo "host    attune    attune    127.0.0.1/32    trust" | sudo tee $F -a
    sudo sed -i 's,127.0.0.1/32            ident,127.0.0.1/32            md5,g' $F
    sudo sed -i 's,::1/128                 ident,::1/128                 md5,g' $F
fi

Configure PostGreSQL to auto start:

sudo systemctl enable postgresql
sudo systemctl start postgresql

Setup vCenter API Support

Powershell v6.x.x can be downloaded from github

`https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases`_

—

Install the Powershell RPM

sudo yum install 'https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/releases/download/v6.2.4/powershell-6.2.4-1.rhel.7.x86_64.rpm'

—

Install the Powershell VMWare.PowerCLI module

sudo pwsh -Command "Install-Module VMware.PowerCLI"

Note

You can download this module for an offline install with the following command

sudo pwsh -Command “Save-Module -name VMware.PowerCLI -Path /root/vmmod”

Setup Boot ISO Support

Boot ISOs are simply made by using ISO utils.

—

Install the mkisofs/isoinfo utils

sudo yum install -y genisoimage

Update Firewall

Allow Attune through the firewall and port forward to the non-privileged port

sudo firewall-cmd --add-forward-port=port=80:proto=tcp:toport=8000
sudo firewall-cmd --add-forward-port=port=443:proto=tcp:toport=8001
sudo firewall-cmd --runtime-to-permanent

Disable SELinux

The Attune service fails to write files to /home/attune/attune.home/tmp with SELinux enabled.

sudo sed -i 's/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=permissive/g' /etc/sysconfig/selinux
sudo sed -i 's/SELINUX=enforcing/SELINUX=permissive/g' /etc/selinux/config
sudo setenforce permissive

What Next?

Install Attune