vSTREAM Embedded on Linux

Introduction

 

 

 

This is a simplified installation procedure that has been thoroughly tested by our engineers.  It meets most customer's needs and can be trusted for installation of vSTREAM Embedded on any Linux-based host.  The complete and detailed installation guide can be found on MyNetscout.  We've installed vSTREAM Embedded with success on both physical and virtual servers.

We kept the overhead and comments to a minimum.  Please, READ the ENTIRE article BEFORE starting the installation.

 

Solution

Before you install

Some considefrations before you start:

• We do not want to use most of the default communication ports because they are too common and may be in use by other processes on the target host
• We want to display a name for the vSTREAM Embedded in Device Configuration on nGeniusONE Server that differs from the uuid; most customers want to use the hostname or FSDN of the target host.
• We know the IP address of the nGeniusONE server before we start installation of vSTREAM Embedded.

All these modifications can be automatically configured if we create a couple of text files.  It will make the installation silent and ready to be scripted !

 

Pre-configuration files

Login as root or sudo to root.

Create a file /tmp/nsagent_config.cfg with the following content. Replace A.B.C.D with the IP address of the nGeniusONE (Local) Server.

# vi /tmp/nsagent_config.cfg

export NSCOMM_PORT=395
export NSCONSOLE_PORT=7501
export HTTP_PORT=7080
export HTTPS_PORT=7443
export NSCONFIG_SERVER_IP=A.B.C.D 

(save and exit with ":wq")

You MUST specify all four communication ports in this file.  Respect the syntax.  Failure to do so will make the installation return to its default values. 

Create the file /tmp/nsprobeid with the following content. Replace HOSTNAME with the actual hostname or any string value you need to proper identify this vSTREAM Enbedden in nGeniusONE. The name can be up to 127 characters long.  It can only contain alphanumerical characters, period (.) and hyphen (-), NO SPACES, NO UNDERSCORE (_), NO SPECIAL CHARACTERS !

# vi /tmp/nsagent_config.cfg

HOSTNAME

(save and exit with ":wq")

Both files MUST have "0644" rights and be owned by "root:root".  This should already be the case.

 

Installation

Copy the most recent version of the rpm to the /tmp directory on the target host. It is recommended to keep the original file name for reference.

# cd /tmp
# wget https://comcert.box.com/shared/static/something.rpm
# mv something.rpm is-6110-668-vSTREAM_EMB.x86_64.rpm
# md5sum is-6110-668-vSTREAM_EMB.x86_64.rpm

Run the rpm. There are no dependencies to be installed. If you omit the --prefix argument, the installation directory will be /usr/lib/NetScout/.  If you specify for example "--prefix=/opt" vSTREAM Embedded will be installed in /opt/NetScout/

# yum localinstall is-6110-668-vSTREAM_EMB.x86_64.rpm --nogpgcheck --prefix=<target directory>

 

Clean-up

Remove all installation and configuration files from the /tmp directory immediately after verifying if the vSTREAM Embedded is working properly.

 

Firewall

If there is a firewall enabled on the target host, the installer will try to open those ports specified in <target directory>/NetScout/rtm/config/nsagent_config.cfg.  You may have to configure additional security software to keep these ports from closing again.

 

Service

Check if the vSCOUT-Emb service is running:

# systemctl status vstream-emb

Stop/Start/Restart the service with the following commands:

# systemctl stop vstream-emb
# systemctl start vstream-emb
or
# systemctl restart vstream-emb

 

Clean-up

We recommend removing all the files from the /tmp direcotory immediately after verification.

 

Modifying the configuration

If for any reason the configuration needs to be modified, edit this file and restart the agent.

# vi <target directory>/NetScout/rtm/config/nsagent_config.cfg

(save and exit with ":wq")