Installing an eG Agent on Solaris
There are two approaches to installing an eG agent on Solaris:
- The eG agent software for Solaris is available in the eG web site as a standard Solaris package called eGagent - one each for Solaris SPARC and AMD. You can download the eGagent package that corresponds to the type of processor (SPARC/AMD) used by the target Solaris host from the eG web site, and manually run the eGagent program on that host to install the eG agent. This approach is ideal if you want to deploy eG for a single organization - i.e., for the Enterprise deployment of eG.
- The eG agent software for Solaris is provided as a packaged application - one each for Solaris SPARC and AMD. You can download the agent package that corresponds to the target Solaris host from the eG manager console, extract the contents of the package to any folder in the target host, and silently run the setup program in the extracted contents to install and configure the agent on that host at one shot - i.e., to install the agent and also to configure agent-manager communication. If you are deploying eG Enterprise for SaaS, then it is mandatory that your tenants use this approach to install and configure the eG agents in their environment.
Both these approaches are discussed in this section.
Installing Solaris Agents for an Enterprise Deployment of the eG Manager
An Enterprise deployment of an eG manager is typically used to monitor only a single organization's IT infrastructure. In this case, it is recommended that the following procedure be used to install eG agents on Solaris hosts:
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The eG agent software for Solaris is provided as a standard Solaris package called eGagent. You can download this package from the eG web site. The package for Solaris AMD, will be available in the Solaris AMD folder, and the same for Solaris SPARC, will be available in the Solaris SPARC folder.
If you want to install an eG agent of version 7.2.10 (or above), then login to the target HP-UX Itanium host, and download the package from the Solaris folder that is appropriate for your environment in the URL, https://www.eginnovations.com/releases/v<version_number>/. For instance, https://www.eginnovations.com/releases/v7210/.
Likewise, if you want to install an eG agent of a version below v7.2.10, then download the package from the Solaris folder that suits your environment in the URL, https://www.eginnovations.com/eval<version_number>/. For instance, https://www.eginnovations.com/eval724/.
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After downloading the package to the Solaris host, login to that host, and type the following command at the command prompt.
pkgadd -d <path of the package eGagent>
Note:
Only a super-user can execute the above command.
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The list of packages available are displayed next as shown below:
The following packages are available: 1 eGagent eG Agent (Sparc/AMD64) version 7
Select package(s) you wish to process (or ‘all’ to process
all packages). (default: all) [?,??,q]:
Choose the all option to install all the packages pertaining to the eG agent.
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Next, decide the user account used for executing the eG agent. First enter the name of the eG user. The default value taken is “egurkha”.
Enter the name of the eG user [egurkha]:
Note:
If the agent is being installed on the same system as the manager, the eG user configured for the agent should be the same as that used for the manager.
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Next, enter the path to the directory in which the eG agent will be installed. The default base directory for the eG agent is /opt. A subdirectory name egurkha will be created under the base directory. If the base directory is not /opt, a symbolic link will be created from the egurkha subdirectory of the base directory to /opt/egurkha.
Enter the directory where the eG Agent should be installed [/opt]:
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Then, enter the group to which the eG user is to be associated with. The default value taken is “egurkha”. The installation will attempt to create the user account if it does not exist on the system. If you specify an existing user name, then this group prompt will not appear.
Enter the group to which the eG user is to be associated [egurkha]:
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The install process will now request the user to confirm installation of the auto-restart feature. This feature will enable the agent to start automatically every time the system hosting the agent reboots. Now, press y to install the auto-restart feature, or n to proceed without installing the same.
Would you like the eG Agent to auto-restart on system boot-up? y/n [n]
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If the agent is installed on the same system as the manager some common files need not be reinstalled. When the installation process seeks the confirmation regarding installing the conflicting files, specify n.
The following files are already installed on the system and are being used by another package. Do you want to install these conflicting files [y,n,?,q] n
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A message indicating that installing the package requires super user permission appears and now the user needs to inform whether the process can proceed. If the user does not have the super user permissions, he/she needs to login as the super user before proceeding with the installation.
This package contains scripts which will be executed with super-user permission during the process of installing this package.
Do you want to continue with the installation of <eGagent> [y,n,?] y
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The following message will be displayed depicting the success of the agent installation.
********************************************************************
The eG Agent has been successfully installed!
Please login as <user name> and run the script/opt/egurkha/bin/setup_agent
to configure the agent.Installation of <eGagent> was successful.
If you install an eG agent using the procedure discussed above, then you will have to run a setup procedure later to configure agent-manager communication. To know how setup the eG agent, refer to the Configuring the eG Agent on Unix
Installing Solaris Agents for a SaaS Deployment of the eG Manager
As stated earlier, where eG Enterprise needs to support multiple tenants - eg., MSP environments with multiple customers, enterprises with multiple departments/domains - the individual tenants should use only this approach to deploy the eG agent on the Solaris hosts in their specific environments.
A key pre-requisite of this approach is that the eG manager should already be deployed and running.
To enable a tenant to install eG agents, the administrator should first make sure that the agent packages that correspond to the tenant's environment are accessible to the tenant from the eG manager console. For that, the administrator should do the following:
- Login to the system hosting the eG manager.
- To install an eG agent of version 7.2.10 (or above), open a browser, and connect to the URL: https://www.eginnovations.com/releases/v<version_number>/AgentPackages. To install an eG agent of a version below v7.2.10, then open a browser, and connect to the URL: https://www.eginnovations.com/releases/eval<version_number>/AgentPackages
- In this location, you will find a set of zip files. Each zip file is an agent package that corresponds to every operating system on which an eG agent can be installed.
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Download the agent packages / zip files that correspond to the hosts in your tenant's environment, to any folder on the eG manager host. The Solaris-specific packages are as follows:
- Solaris_AMD, for Solaris hosts supporting the AMD processor
- Solaris_SPARC, for Solaris hosts supporting the SPARC processor
- Copy the downloaded packages to the /opt/egurkha/agents/Universal/Latest folder on the eG manager.
The tenant can now proceed to install the eG agent using the procedure discussed hereunder:
- Using a browser, connect to the URL of the eG management console.
- Login to the eG management console using the credentials you used (corporate email ID and password) to register with eG Enterprise for SaaS.
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Click the icon in the top, right corner of the page that appears to download eG agents.
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Doing so will invoke Figure 11, where you need to indicate if the eG agent you are downloading should communicate with the eG manager via a proxy server. If not, then pick the No option. If a proxy server is to be used for agent-manager communication, then select the Yes option.
Figure 11 : Indicating whether/not the eG agent being downloaded should communicate with the eG manager
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If the Yes option is chosen in Figure 11, then Figure 12 will appear. Here, you need to provide the details of the proxy server used for agent-manager communication.
Figure 12 : Configuring agent-manager communication via a proxy server
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Specify the following in Figure 12:
- Proxy Server IP/Hostname: Mention the IP address/hostname of the proxy server used for agent-manager communication.
- Proxy Server Port: Specify the port number at which the proxy server listens.
- Does the proxy server require authentication?: Indicate whether/not the proxy server requires authentication. Select the No option if authentication is required, and Yes if it is.
- Username, Password, and Confirm Password: If the proxy server requires authentication, then provide the credentials of a valid proxy server user against the Username and Password text boxes. Confirm the password by retyping it in the Confirm Password text box.
Finally, click the Submit button to confirm the proxy server specifications and proceed with the downloading of the eG agent.
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Figure 13 will appear. By default, Figure 13 lists the 'internal agent packages' that have been uploaded to the eG manager - i.e., agent packages to be used for monitoring components in an agent-based manner. If you want to deploy a remote agent, click the agentless monitoring link in Figure 13. Likewise, to deploy an external agent, click the external monitoring link in the page.
Figure 13 : eG's internal agent packages available for download from the eG manager console
Note:
Though the eG management console lists the packages meant for agent-less, agent-based, and external monitoring in separate pages, the procedure to download and install these packages remains the same across monitoring approaches.
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To download an agent package for Solaris, click on the Solaris option in Figure 13. Figure 14 will then appear.
Figure 14 : Choosing an Installation Method for installing an eG agent on Solaris
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Figure 14 allows you the flexibility to choose an Installation Method. An agent can be installed using any of the following methods:
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Using the Command line
The Installation Method you choose will determine the course of the installation process. The sub-sections below will discuss each of these methods in detail.
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Using ZIP/TAR Package for Agent Installation
To use this option, follow the steps below:
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Login to the eG management console as a user with administrative rights.
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If you want to install the eG agent on the same Solaris host to which the package has been downloaded, then login to that Solaris host. On the other hand, if you want to install the eG agent on a host different from the one on which the package has been downloaded, then first copy the agent package to any location on the target Solaris host. Then, login to that host.
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Then, from the command prompt of the target Solaris host, run the following commands one and after another:
chmod 750 eGAgent_Solaris_<ProcessorType>.tar.gz
gunzip eGAgent_Solaris_<ProcessorType>.tar.gz
For instance, to extract the contents of the eGAgent_Solaris_AMD.tar.gz package, your commands will be:
chmod 750 eGAgent_Solaris_AMD.tar.gz
gunzip eGAgent_Solaris_AMD.tar.gz
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Upon successful execution of the commands above, the contents of the zipped file are extracted. Consequently, the following files become available in the extract location:
- A tar file: The standard eG agent software for Solaris , eGAgent_Solaris_<ProcessorType>.tar, will be extracted from the zipped file. For instance, from the eGAgent_Solaris_AMD.tar.gz package, the tar file named eGAgent_Solaris_AMD.tar will be extracted.
- iAgent script: The iAgent_solaris script, which drives the installation, also gets extracted.
- setup.sh: This is the shell script that drives the silent installation of the eG agent. Running setup invokes the iAgent script and silently installs the agent on the target host.
- eg_uaid: In a multi-tenant setup, once a tenant - eg., a user representing a customer / a department / a domain - registers with eG Enterprise to use its monitoring services, eG automatically generates a unique UAID and assigns the same to that tenant. If that tenant later logs into the eG management console using the registered credentials (email ID and password) and downloads the agents, each agent so downloaded is automatically tagged with that UAID. The downloaded agents, once installed and configured, will automatically start discovering applications on their respective hosts. eG Enterprise auto-manages the discovered applications and auto-assigns them to the user who has the same UAID as the eG agent that discovered these applications. The eg_uaid file contains the UAID of the tenant who downloaded agent packages from the eG management console; this is the same UAID that will be assigned to each agent installed by that tenant.
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Now, proceed to untar the tar file by issuing the following command at the prompt:
tar -xvf eGAgent_Solaris_<ProcessorType>.tar
For instance, to untar the file eGAgent_Solaris_AMD.tar file, the command will be:
tar -xvf eGAgent_Solaris_AMD.tar
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Next, to install the eG agent on a Solaris host silently, from the Shell prompt, switch to the folder to which the files have been extracted. Then, run the setup.sh script by issuing the following command:
./setup.sh
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Running setup will automatically install an eG agent on the target Solaris host, and will also automatically configure agent-manager communication. This eG agent will automatically report metrics to the eG manager from which the agent package was downloaded. Also, the hostname of such an agent is automatically set as its nick name.
In a multi-tenant setup, a hostname may not be unique across tenant environments. To avoid nick name duplication, eG Enterprise automatically employs the following algorithm when assigning nick names:
- At the time of setting the hostname of an agent host as its nick name, eG first checks if that hostname has already been assigned to any existing agent.
- If it finds that the hostname has already been taken, then it will attempt to assign the FQDN - the fully qualified domain name - of the agent host as the nick name.
- In the process, if eG finds that the FQDN is also in use, then it will break-down the FQDN into smaller strings, and try to assign each of these strings, one after another, to the agent.
- If all these FQDN strings have already been assigned to other agents, then the eG agent will suffix the hostname of the agent host with the number 0, and try to assign this as the nick name of the eG agent. For instance, if the hostname of the eG agent host is solamd, then the nick name assigned to that agent will be solamd0.
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If this nick name is also taken, then eG will increment the number 0, which suffixes the hostname, by 1, and will try to assign the resultant string to the eG agent,. This way, eG will keep incrementing the number suffix until an unused string is found. Such a string will finally be assigned to the agent as its nick name.
Note:
- In a SaaS deployment, if a tenant manually adds components to be monitored by an eG agent, then you should only assign that agent's nick name to each of the components it monitors.
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In a SaaS deployment, if you are downloading an agent for installation on an imaging system (e.g. for Citrix Provisioning services), or on a snapshot (for Citrix Machine Creation Services), or on a VM template for virtual servers, then, make sure you first enable the Installation on a golden image / VM template flag in Figure 13 and then proceed with the downloading. If this is done, then after the agent so downloaded is installed, setup will stop that agent. Also, setup will auto-delete the eg_nick.ini file of that agent, so that no nick name is assigned to that agent.
On the other hand, if you download and install an agent on an imaging system / snapshot / VM template WITHOUT ENABLING the Installation on a golden image / VM template flag in Figure 13, then the installation will automatically start the agent and assign the hostname of the system as the nick name automatically. In such a case, you need to do the following:
- On the snapshot / golden image / master VM, open the eg_nick.ini file in the <EG_AGENT_INSTALL_DIR>\agent\config directory.
- Check to see if the Nick parameter in that file is set to any value. If this parameter has no value, it implies that no nick name was set for the eG agent on that snapshot / golden image / master VM. On the other hand, if the Nick parameter has a value, it indicates that a nick name was set for the eG agent. In this case, make sure that you delete the eg_nick.ini file on the snapshot / golden image / master VM before you proceed further.
- Likewise, delete the contents of the /opt/egurkha/agent/data folder and the /opt/egurkha/agent/logs folder are deleted.
- Also, stop the eG agent.
Using the Command Line to Install an eG Agent
For this, you can either execute the curl command or wget command that eG Enterprise provides from the command prompt of the target host. These commands will automatically install and start the eG agent on that host. Also, the agent will be automatically configured to report to the cloud manager.
To install the eG agent on Solaris using the eG-provided Curl command, do the following:
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In Figure 14, set Command Line as the Installation Method.
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Then, pick Solaris as the Operating System.
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The Curl command that corresponds to your specification will then be displayed, as depicted by Figure 15.
Figure 15 : Installing the eG agent on a Solaris host by running a Curl command on the target host
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Click on the Copy button below the command to copy it to the clipboard.
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Next, open the Shell prompt on the target host, paste the command therein, and run it with root user privileges.
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The command, upon execution, will automatically install and start the eG agent on the target host, and will also auto-configure the eG agent to report to the cloud manager. Later, the eG agent so installed, will also automatically discover the environment and auto-manage the discovered components.
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Repeat the steps above on each Solaris host to install the eG agent on it.
Note:
Before attempting to use the curl command for agent installation on a Solaris host, make sure that curl package exists on the target host.
To install the eG agent using the eG-provided wget command, do the following:
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In Figure 14, set Command Line as the Installation Method.
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Then, pick Solaris as the Operating System.
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Scroll down the command section below until you see the wget command (as highlighted in Figure 15).
Figure 16 : Installing the eG agent on a Solaris host by running a wget command on the target host
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Click on the Copy button below the command to copy it to the clipboard.
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Next, open the Shell prompt on the target host, paste the command therein, and run it with root user privileges.
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The command, upon execution, will automatically install and start the eG agent on the target host, and will also auto-configure the eG agent to report to the cloud manager. Later, the eG agent so installed, will also automatically discover the environment and auto-manage the discovered components.
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Repeat the steps above on each Solaris host to install the eG agent on it.
Note:
Before attempting to use the wget command for agent installation on a Solaris host, make sure that wget package exists on the target host.