From:	 announce-admin@opennms.org
To:	 announce@opennms.org
Subject: [OpenNMS-Announce] OpenNMS Update v2.29
Date:	 Tue, 17 Jul 2001 21:23:25 -0400 (EDT)

====================
   OpenNMS Update
====================
  Vol 2., Issue 29
====================
   July 17, 2001
====================

   In this week's installment...
     * Project Status
          + A Temporary Change
          + Installing OpenNMS 0.8.0
          + Coding Projects Underway
     * Upcoming Road Shows
     * The Wish List


==============
Project Status
==============

A Temporary Change:

     For the next few months, while we spit-polish 0.8.0 and get ready
     for a commercial offering surrounding the 1.0 release, the Update
     is being scaled back.

     Going forward, I'll be publishing one of these puppies once every
     so often, as compared to this rigorous and demanding schedule of
     once per week, and the content will be streamlined to include
     technical data only. This buys me a little more time to work on
     documentation (which you'll agree is sadly lacking) and an
     opportunity to run some of the doc past you, our throngs of
     supporters, for accuracy and usefulness.

     So every couple o' weeks, look for some technical insights that
     will prove not only helpful, but remarkably insightful as well.
     Sure, you'll still have the opportunity to pick up a bit of wisdom
     that will improve your quality of life, further your connection
     with the brotherhood of man, or remove those embarassing age spots,
     but they'll just be less frequent.

     Thanks for playing!



Installing OpenNMS 0.8.0:

     Or perhaps this should be entitled "Troubleshooting Installation of
     OpenNMS 0.8.0". Either way, hopefully this will prove helpful.

     First off, let's talk about minimum system requirements:

     * Pentium-class 500Mhz CPU

     * 256MB RAM (more is better, and memory is cheap!)

     * 1 GB disk space (allowing for log files and event logs to scroll),
       plus 10MB per interface that supports SNMP.

     * Mandrake 7.2/8.0 or RedHat 6.2/7.0

     * IBM's JDK 1.3 (We've had good luck with 1.3.8-0, and we've had
       tentative success with 1.3.9-0)

     * Postgres 7.1.2

     Next, how to install. The best way to do blow this stuff onto your
     box is via the web installer. Assuming you are using one of the
     distros listed above, execute (as root):

         lynx --source install.opennms.org |sh

     This will begin a multi-phase process, where the initial script
     will be downloaded to your box, as well as any additional utilities
     you may need. Then, we start checking things out to make sure you
     meet the minimum requirements (software dependencies only). We have
     a couple of requirements here as well:

     * "java" must be in your PATH.

     * PostgreSQL, if it needs to be upgraded, must be upgradeable. This
       means, basically, that you must have no old databases around for
       it to blow up whilst upgrading. In making this process
       "user-friendly", we've also gobbled up the nasty
       "I-can't-upgrade-this-while-I-have-old-databases-dumbass" message
       that Postgres spits out. For additional information, refer to
       /usr/doc/postgresql-7.1.2/README.rpm-dist, which will have made it
       on to your system by that point.

       The quick answer is to move your existing databases out of the way
       (an actual "mv" vs. "rm" is your decision). They will exist, by
       default, at /var/lib/pgsql/data/bases/, and you'll need to get rid
       of everything that's "old school" in that directory. The reference
       to the doc above will describe how to dump your existing data and
       re-insert it into the new-fangled Postgres tables.

     Once you've met these challenges, you may proceed, young Jedi.

     Then, we start automatically upgrading stuff for you. First comes
     Tomcat (our latest is tomcat4-4.0-b1.9onms), then the Perl DBI
     (perl-DBI-1.18-0.onms) and DBD-Pg (perl-DBD-Pg-1.01-0.onms)
     modules. Look out now, 'cuz here it comes: opennms-0.8.0-1,
     followed by opennms-docs-0.8.0-1.

     Note: there is a LOT of conditional processing that goes on as part
     of the RPM installation. This is not to be treated lightly. One of
     the main things to be aware of is that if we find configuration
     files that have been "configured", we won't automatically overwrite
     your configs with new, generic ones. Nor will we automatically
     migrate your configs to a new file format if it applies. We will
     flag the new files with a ".rpmnew" extension which indicates it
     was installed by the RPM process but is not being used by the
     application. IF THERE ARE NEW CONFIGURATION FILE FORMATS EXPECTED
     BY THE CODE AND YOU HAVEN'T MANUALLY MOVED THE .RPMNEW FILE INTO
     PLACE, THINGS WON'T WORK. An important critical step, before trying
     to run anything, is to migrate your configurations to the new
     files. In some cases, your old config files will work just fine,
     but if things don't work, don't say we didn't warn ya...

     OK. So now everything is installed. Cool. Let's talk about running
     these behemoth.

     We have certain dependencies which we are expecting from the
     system, and we don't necessarily check to see if they are there and
     warn if they aren't. A summary list of these expectations is
     included below:

     * portmap should be running

     * postgresql should be running, with the following parameters: 

          -i (so it is listening for IP connections), 
          -N 64 (so it can handle 64 concurrent connections), 
          -B 128 (so it has enough buffers to support the connections), and 
          -p 5432 (so we know which port to listen on).

     * You must have "libstdc++-devel" installed on your system. A key
       symptom here is if you get "auto_ptr undeclared" errors while
       compiling ICMPD (Thanks to Philippe for helping track this one
       down!)

     * You must begin work before 10:00am. This is of particular concern
       in Spain.

     * You must have met the minimum system requirements. While it may be
       possible to run in on a box less than this, you are subject to
       errors that could be difficult to trace.

     * Verify that you are NOT running a Win32 platform. If you are, take
       a look at the supported platform list and note the specific
       absence of Win32. It's not that we hate Win32, mind you. It's just
       that...well... OK. You got us.

     At this point, things should be working. "They're not", you say?
     Well now. That's a horse of a different color.

     How do we actually troubleshoot this process? Well, let's first
     define what our information sources are.

     First and foremost, take a quick glance at /var/log/messages. You
     will not likely find anything that has any immediate bearing on the
     problem at hand, but if you have larger system problems, it's
     better to get them solved first, before delving into
     application-related troubleshooting.

     Next, let's see how far we got. Try an "./opennms.sh scm status"
     and see if you get anything back. If some of the processes are
     started, you should have at least a problem domain in which to
     work. If you don't get any response back, take a look and see what
     log files have been created. Something in one of them should tell
     you something. The log files will be created en masse, but will
     start being populated in roughly this order:

     * ctrlmgr.log
     * vmmgr.log
     * eventd.log
     * uncategorized.log
     * trapd.log
     * actiond.log
     * dhcpd.log
     * icmpd.log
     * capsd.log
     * outage.log
     * rtc.log
     * discovery.log
     * Then here come the pollers...

     Depending on what's been populated, you can likely check the log of
     one of the latter processes to see if that's what's stumbled. And
     don't discount the importance of the uncategorized.log. It often
     contains a wealth of information, just somewhat less categorized
     than the others.

     So where, other than locally, can you find help in solving these
     problems. Aside from transferring funds to my "special" Swiss bank
     account, check out the [discuss] list (and even more importantly,
     the [discuss] list archives, at
     http://www.opennms.org/pipermail/discuss/). People are freely
     sharing the joy and pain (sunshine and rain) of their installation
     attempts. And as we move forward, we're updating the doc,
     populating the FAQ (which you can help with, by the way) and
     hopefully making this whole process a little more productive for
     everyone involved. Thanks for your time, your effort, and for
     giving us a whirl.



Coding Projects Underway:

     * CDP/L2/Mapping -- Pete, who's been waiting for 0.8.0, should be
       back underway in short order.

     * Snort Integration -- Nathan Carey is still scoping the effort, but
       is enlightening us (me, anyway) as to some of the more interesting
       options here, including IDXP and BXXP. I'm voting for "baby steps"
       here, and if we can get native events working, we'll move on from
       there. But Nathan's the man!

     * Solaris Port -- Fred's been tied up with work stuff. He too is
       waiting for 0.8.0.

     * NT/2K Port -- Need someone to build the new ICMPD stuff for Win32.

     * User Interfaces -- Check out the new features in 0.8.0!

     * New Pollers/Plug-Ins -- Port-level checks are in for MS SQL,
       Sybase, Informix, and MySQL. This is in addition to Oracle and
       Postgres. And not to be overlooked, there are new protocol-level
       pollers for IMAP and POP3. Woo-hoo!

     * NetSaint Agent Integration -- Still just a lark with no takers.

     * GET-BULK Support -- Jon Whetzel has bellied-up to the proverbial
       bar on this one. Good stuff ahead!

     * Bug Fixing, RTC-Style -- RTC has been optimized in preparation for
       a major re-work. Keep your eyes on this space for future
       developments.

     * JSDT Replacement -- Proof-of-concept testing looks good. Expect an
       aggressive move to OpenJMS.

     * DEB Building -- No word from Stefan. Craig - are you still
       interested?

     * JoeSNMP -- We're now at 0.2.6.

     * Building from CVS -- To make things easier on you, try building to
       RPM -- ./build.sh rpm -- this is Ben's new tweak.

     * Web Installer -- Soon to support TAR-bundle installs.


===================
Upcoming Road Shows
===================

   If you've seen a recent road show, remember that you can download the
   presentations from the web site. Go to the Downloads section and you
   can't miss.

     * July 25 - O'Reilly Open Source Convention, San Diego, CA (A bright
       shiny new presentation, complete with annoying animations!)

     * August 28-30 - Linux World Expo, San Francisco, CA (Now let's
       see...where could I have left my heart?)

     * October 31-November 1 - Linux World Expo, Frankfurt, Germany
       (Sprechen sie geek?)

   For additional details on these appearances and others, check out the
   web site at http://www.opennms.org/sections/opennms/events


=============
The Wish List
=============

   And now, on with the list...

     * Our new ICMPD needs to be compiled for Win32. Got an appropriate
       environment that you can help?

     * In the 0.8.x release (and CVS), checkout the TODO file

     * Want to build some bridges between NetSaint and OpenNMS?

     * Documentation and development your game? How about a white paper
       on how to extend OpenNMS with custom pollers, custom configs,
       and/or your own scripts/code.

     * Any additional help we can get proving our documentation either
       right or wrong is appreciated. Thanks.

     * Got any creative applications for OpenNMS that we haven't
       considered? Let us know!

     * A Security analysis of OpenNMS?

     * Got an environment that could stress test OpenNMS, from a
       scalability perspective? We'd love the feedback!

=============
Afterthoughts
=============

   Arguably, one must have "forethought" before one can have
   "afterthoughts".

Writin' doc and takin' names,

Shane O.
========
Shane O'Donnell
OpenNMS.org
shaneo@opennms.org
==================
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