Preparing Virtual Machines for SL1

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This section describes how to prepare virtual nodes or appliances before installing SL1.

Use the following menu options to navigate the SL1 user interface:

  • To view a pop-out list of menu options, click the menu icon ().
  • To view a page containing all of the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon ().

Virtual Machine Specifications

For details about supported hypervisors and the requirements and specifications for each SL1 appliance, see the System Requirements page on the ScienceLogic Support Site.

NOTE: You must have already allocated an IP address for each SL1 appliance.

Build Nodes or Appliances in This Order

For ease of configuration, create nodes or appliances in this order:

  1. Database Server
  2. Administration Portal (if applicable)
  3. Data Collectors
  4. Message Collectors (if applicable)

NOTE: The following instructions describe how to configure a ScienceLogic virtual machine in VMWare. If you are looking for resources and support for VMWare, see the VMWare Marketplace: https://marketplace.cloud.vmware.com/.

Deploying a Node or Appliance on a VMware System

To deploy an SL1 node or appliance on a VMware system:

  1. If you have not already done so, download the ISO file for SL1.
  2. Using the vSphere client, connect to your VMware system as a user that has permissions to deploy a new virtual machine and use the Create New Virtual Machine wizard to create a new virtual machine.
  3. In the Create New Virtual Machine wizard, select the configuration options that are appropriate for your environment and the current recommended specifications for the appliance type you are installing. For details about requirements and specifications, see the System Requirements page on the ScienceLogic Support Site.

  4. On the Guest Operating System page, select Linux as the Guest Operating System, and then select the appropriate version in the Version drop-down list based on your SL1 version:

    • For SL1 12.1.x and higher, select Oracle Linux 8 (64-bit).
    • For SL1 11.3.x, select Oracle Linux 7 (64-bit).
  5. On the Network page, you must select VMXNET 3 in the Adapter field.
  6. After completing the Create New Virtual Machine wizard, edit the settings for the virtual machine:
  • Set the CPU and memory allocation to the values recommended on the System Requirements page on the ScienceLogic Support Site.
  • Configure the CD/DVD drive to use the SL1 ISO file.

  1. Turn on the virtual machine and boot from the CD/DVD drive.

  2. Repeat these steps for each node or appliance in your SL1 system.

Installing VMware Tools

You must install VMware Tools on each Database Server, each Data Collector, and each Message Collector. You can install VMware tools in two ways:

  • If your appliance can connect to the Internet, use the yum utility to install the necessary packages.
  • If you have an appliance that is not able to reach the Internet, you can retrieve the required packages from a similar appliance that does have Internet access.

When you install SL1, the installer checks if you are installing on a VM in a vSphere environment. If true, the installer will automatically install VMware Tools.

Installing VMware Tools Using Yum

To install VMware tools using the yum utility:

  1. Log in to the appliance as the em7admin user using the console or SSH.

  2. Execute the following command:

    sudo yum install open-vm-tools

  3. Type the password for the em7admin user when prompted.
  4. When prompted to confirm the installation, type "y".

  5. Execute the following commands:

    sudo systemctl start vmtoolsd.service

    sudo systemctl enable vmtoolsd.service

    sudo systemctl status vmtoolsd.service

    6. If the installation was successful, the "Active" line in the output indicates VMware tools is "active (running)".

Installing VMware Tools Manually

If the libtool-ltdl and libxslt packages were already installed on the host where you run the yum downloadonly command in step 1, below, then those dependent packages will be listed as missing and prevent you from installing VMware Tools. To work around this, remove those two packages from the host before running the following procedure.

To install VMware tools manually:

  1. Retrieve the required packages from an appliance that has Internet access with the following command:

    sudo yum install open-vm-tools --downloadonly --downloaddir="/var/tmp/vmtools"

  2. Once the download is complete, gather the downloaded RPM files into an archive file by running the following command, where "vmtools.tgz" can be any filename you choose:

    cd /var/tmp && tar cvfz vmtools.tgz vmtools

  3. Transfer the archive file to the appliance that does not have Internet access, and extract the RPMs by running the following command:

    tar zxvf [name of the archive file]

  4. Install the files with the following command:

    sudo rpm -ivh vmtools/*.rpm

  5. Start the vmtoolsd service with the following command:

    sudo systemctl start vmtoolsd

  6. To ensure that vmtoolsd starts automatically after a reboot, run the following command:

    sudo systemctl enable vmtoolsd

  1. Execute the following command:

    sudo systemctl status vmtoolsd.service

    2. If the installation was successful, the "Active" line in the output indicates VMware tools is "active (running)".

Deploying a Node or Appliance on a Hyper-V System

To deploy an SL1 node or appliance on a Hyper-V system:

  1. Follow the instructions from Microsoft:

    2. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/create-virtual-machine#create-a-virtual-machine-with-hyper-v-manager

  2. When prompted to select a Generation for the VM:
    • Generation 1. Fully supports Oracle Linux and SL1.
    • Generation 2. To support Oracle Linux and SL1, you must disable the "secure boot" feature.
  3. When prompted to Assign Memory and Connect Virtual Hard Disk, enter the hardware requirements as specified on the System Requirements page on the ScienceLogic Support Site.
  4. In the Installation Options wizard, select Install an operating system later
  5. Click Finish.
  6. If you selected a Generation 2 virtual machine, open a PowerShell session on the Hyper-V Manager host and execute the following PowerShell cmdlet to disable secure boot on the VM:

    7. Set-VMFirmware "Test VM" -EnableSecureBoot Off

  7. Follow the steps specified here to install the Operating System (Oracle Linux 64 bit):

    8. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/virtualization/hyper-v-on-windows/quick-start/create-virtual-machine#complete-the-operating-system-deployment

  8. Repeat these steps for each node or appliance in your SL1 system.
  9. To install SL1 on the Hyper-V virtual machines, see Installing SL1 on Hardware Appliances and Virtual Appliances.

Ports for Virtual Appliances

See the section on ports to configure firewalls to allow traffic to and from the SL1 appliances.