Using Redline on Linux to Monitor GroupWise/Netware Agents

  • 7020928
  • 12-Sep-2007
  • 07-Aug-2017

Environment

Redline on Linux

Situation

Installation

Resolution

Getting Started

1.     Install Redline on the Linux box.  This can be accomplished using the RPM, or the manual installation.  It is recommended that you use the RPM installation.

2.     Once Redline is on the Linux box, then proceed to the configuration section.  

RPM installation

Redline now offers an automated Linux installation process.  Do one of the three.

1.      From the Linux directory in the Redline folder, double click the RPM file. You will then be asked to confirm the installation request. From this point on, the RPM file launches every script contained within the file on its own.T

2.     To launch this file from the command line, type rpm – U and then the package name.

3.     A tarball is also included in the directory for administrators wishing to install Redline in a Linux environment manually, with instructions below.

RLCENTER and RLAGENT startup scripts will automatically be copied to /etc/init.d and set up with the appropriate runlevel symbolic links.

Manual installation

The main Redline files are stored in /opt/beginfinite/redline. Shared libraries must be located in /lib or /usr/lib. Every time a library is copied to the /lib directory or /usr/lib directory the administrator has to inform the system about the change. The command ldconfig accomplishes this. Redline has one shared library, called libredline.so.2.5.0. Copy this file to /lib and execute the command ldconfig to avoid rebooting.

On Linux, applications are started and stopped with scripts located in /etc/init.d. Redline has a script for the agent and the control center. The script can be used with parameters modified to meet the needs of your installation. If you type /etc/init.d/rlagent or .../rlcenter without a command line parameter, all possible parameters will be listed.

1. Unzip the Redline package on your Linux desktop

2.  Open the linux.kernel26 folder

3.  You will find a Redline folder inside. Under the Redline folder is a redline.tar.gz (tarball). Extract it. (with KDE desktop this is a matter of right clicking, Actions/Extract here or use a command line (tar -zxvf redline.tar.gz).

4.  There are three subdirectories, lib, opt, and etc

A.      etc/init.d ..... there are two scripts rlcenter, rlagent that can be copied to the corresponding to /etc/init.d on your server.  You must also create the appropriate symbolic links in the run level directories for Redline to automatically run on at startup on your Linux  system.

B.      /lib .... copy this library to /lib on the server

C.      /opt/beginfinite .... copy this folder and its contents to /opt/beginfinite on the server. Make sure you have backed up your CONF files, if you are installing over a previous install, and then restore them.

5.  Finally, create a symbolic link by typing: ln -s /lib/libredline.so.2.5.0 /lib/libredline.so.2 and run ldconfig to register the shared object library

Using a Linux RLCENTER to monitor NetWare or Windows servers

Normally in this situation, you simply install RLCENTER on the Linux box, and RLAGENT on each of the NetWare or Windows boxes. However, some customers have requested a ‘unified’ approach, with only a single RLCENTER and a single RLAGENT installation. This is possible, since Linux servers can mount Windows and NetWare volumes as well as native Linux volumes.

Redline 2.5 supports full monitoring of a NetWare or Windows server by mounting the volumes via SAMBA, CIFS or NCPMount. Then adding the paths to the pathtab. This allows the monitoring of GroupWise systems via a Linux installation.

Configuration

1.     Create a directory on the Linux server representing the volume of the server to be monitored.

A.    cd / (change directory to root)

B.     md gwvolmnt (you may call it what you wish)
 

2.     Create the following entry in /etc/pathtab (if the file does not exist, create it) using the following syntax:

                        /mount_folder server_name/gw_volume_name:

(ex. /gwvolmnt NW65_SERVER1/gw7vol:) - don't forget the semi-colon.

3.     Mount the NetWare volume in the folder created in your Linux box via NCP or CIFS. DO NOT use NFS.  Refer to the section “Mounting a NetWare volume on a Linux box”

4.     Using the installation manual, perform the following steps:

A.     Configure all of the GroupWise agents with an HTTP username and password

B.     Setup Redline Scheduled tasks

C.     Configure Logging to verbose

D.    Set MTA message logging to full and verbose

5.      Start the Agent on your Linux server (See instruction below).

Mounting a NetWare volume on a Linux Box

To mount NetWare volume on a linux box, you may use the following ncpmount.  CIFS type mount also works, but is not provided as an example here.  You may add more variables to this mount command (type ncpmount -h to get a list of all varibles), this is the simplified version.  You will be asked for a password to be allowed to access and mount volume.

ncpmount -A 10.1.1.1 -S NW65SERV -U admin.context -V gw7vol /gwvolmnt

-A         IP Address

-S          Server Name

-U         User name + context

-V         Volume/path to desire directory to mount

/           Mount location

-P         (optional) Password to server mounting to.  If not included it will prompt.
 

***NOTE:  This mount command is a not a permanent mount.  Once the Linux server is reset, this mount will not exist, and the volume will need to be re-mounted.  Volume mounts can be made permanent.  Refer to your Linux man pages, or a search on the Internet can assist with setting up a permanent mount point.

Starting and Stopping Redline in Linux

            To start RLCENTER           type /etc/init.d/rlcenter start at the command line

To start RLAGENT            type /etc/init.d/rlagent start at the command line

To stop RLAGENT            type /etc/init.d/rlcenter stop at the command line

To stop RLCENTER           type /etc/init.d/rlcenter stop at the command line

 

Appendix A

How the Linux mount and /etc/pathtab work with Redline

This section explains the purpose of the Linux mount and /etc/pathtab file.  The following examines why the mount and pathtab entry are necessary.

To start the gathering of information for Redline, a Redline Agent polls a GroupWise agent.  In this example will use the POA and the log path varible.

1.     Redline Agent polls the POA to gather registration information. (http://MTA_IP:7181/snmp, for example). This contains varibles which Redline uses to form alerts, status, etc.

example: poaCurrentLogFile   NW65_SERVER1/gw7vol:\grpwise\gwpo\wpcsout\ofs\0612poa.001  

2.     The information is collected by the RL Agent, and now there is a path that the system must go to in order to get the log file.  Redline now must find where this path to the log file is on the Linux server.

3.     Linux looks in the /etc/pathtab file if one exists, in order to resolve where to go to get the information in this path.

Example:  /gwvolmnt NW65_SERVER1/gw7vol:

4.     Linux now knows that the volume gw7vol: (or the root of the GroupWise volume) resolves to /gwvolmnt on it's filesystem.

5.     Linux goes to the /gwvolmnt directory which is mounted back to the NetWare volume and using mount copies the file that is required.

Additional Information

This article was originally published in the GWAVA knowledgebase as article ID 155