Thursday, November 5, 2015

Installing TNPM 1.4.1 - Part 1 - Motivation

Every time I have to install TNPM the first thing I do is to ask myself: Do I have all I need? This looks a simple question, but if you consider that you need to download at least 10 different installation packs (yes 13GB), and match the compatible versions, this can take some time.

Another important question for me, especially when a new version is released: Are the installation instructions correct? Are they guiding me to the correct way of installing TNPM?

Unfortunately, this question proves to be more pertinent than I would like it to be. For instance, I already raised a very important issue when installing TNPM 1.3.2 about using the root user to install the TIP portal. TNPM 1.3.2 did that without fear and even finished with a chmod -R 777 <portal_home> in the end...very smart. IBM recognized the issue included some instructions on how to install the portal as non-root.

Well, how surprised I was, while reading the instructions for TNPM 1.4.1, to see that we have to install the portal (now called JAZZ) as the root user and do a chmod -R 777 <portal_home> as the post installation step. This is not necessary or even mandatory and absolutely not recommended for a public portal.

So, I hope the following posts will help you to do the it in a better way.

One important remark!!
Despite I will use only official IBM tools to install the different packages and no tricks, it always comes back to you to decide on the consequences of not following the official instructions (even if they are not good). It is your call, not mine, to make sure everything works on your environment. IBM support can eventually deny their support if they see your public portal is not running as root and all application files do not have the 777 permission.  
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4 comments:

  1. PrashanthDecember 3, 2015 at 12:19 PM

    Hi Danilo,

    I am facing an issue in tnpm which is not related to this post. But I couldn't find a suitable post to my issue, hence commenting here. Apologies for that....
    Coming to the issue, we have recently installed new dataloaders in our tnpm system and assigned some devices to collect the data. We have tested the snmp connectivity of these devices and it was fine. But when the inventory is running on this profile, all the devices are logged as "unidentified agents" where those devices are actually reachable from the collectors. Can there be any reason for these devices not responding during inventory run.....Can it be the issue be with tnpm or at network end?
    Thanks in advance!!

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    Replies
    1. Danilo LunaDecember 3, 2015 at 12:52 PM

      Hi Prashanth,

      This error is directly related to the SNMP connection. Basically, the discovery process can ping the devices but cannot connect/identify the SNMP data. It can be many things, like:
      1) the read community is not defined in the SNMP config
      2) no valid sysObjectID defined in the "inventory_subelements.txt" file
      3) ACL in the device
      4) etc.

      Please try to use the snmpGet command to query those devices from the new dataload servers to make sure it works. The binary should be at /bin and it uses the SNMP configuration data as stored in TNPM to do the query. If the command works and the discovery not, then you have to check further.

      Kind Regards

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    2. K.C (chenke@raysdata.com)February 12, 2016 at 10:04 PM

      Hi Danilo,
      When will Part 2 be released :)
      Actually I've been dealing with V1.4.1 installation for a few times but it is still resisting me. I've found a few possible misleading instructions of installation. For example,
      1) prerequisite packages missing in instruction, e.g. gtk2.i686 glib2.i686 PackageKit-gtk-module.i686 libcanberra-gtk2.i686, and both i686 & x64 version of libXp/libXpm/libXmu/libXt/libXtst/openmotif/openmotif22
      2) it's instructed to use DB2_db2 in /etc/service as SVCENAME, but DB2_db2 is actually reserved for FCM, instead db2c_db2 should be defined and used.
      3) when using JazzSM 1.1.2.1 to host DataView, the tech pack installation fails to discover DASH. I decompiled the ProvisoPackInstaller.jar and found that 1.1.2.1 versioned JazzSM/WAS stops including "Server" field in the response headers, which cause the failure of discovery. But JazzSM 1.1.0.3 is ok.
      4) V1.4.1 requires DB2 10.1.0.4 in redbook and 10.1.0.3 in cheatsheet, I used 10.1.0.5 and get 1 go-through install but 3 failed install during DBConfig steps. During which I found that DBConfig_Step_5_3 completed successfully but actually failed.
      5) In my only success install, the DataView is still not giving me anything but empty. 5-inch away and it stops me...
      6) I can never get through minimal deployment, it always stops at the first few steps.

      Hope you have something that can share with me. I'm working on a project with a bunch of tivoli products and TNPM does really slow me down.

      Thanks and best regards.

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    3. Danilo LunaFebruary 18, 2016 at 10:04 AM

      Hi K.C

      Indeed, TNPM installation is never easy :) I already did it multiple times and every time I encounter a different problem (I even joke with my colleagues that the installer should have some random error generator inside :)
      Anyway, I have the step by step procedure with me and I will try to publish it as soon as possible (probably during this weekend)

      KR

      Danilo

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