Linux Base Pack PowerPack Release Notes, version 113

Version 113 of the "Linux Base Pack" PowerPack updates the PowerPack for Python 3.11 compatibility, uses the latest gevent library, and introduces two new Dynamic Applications.

  • Minimum Required SL1 Version: 12.3.1

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 12.3.1 or later of SL1 before installing the "Linux Base Pack" PowerPack.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the relevant SL1 Platform Release Notes.

If you are upgrading from version 110 or earlier, you must align the "Linux: SSH Cache Worker" Dynamic Application to the devices, which acts as cache producer for all other Dynamic Applications in the PowerPack For more information, see Monitoring Linux Systems with SSH.

Installing or Upgrading the PowerPack

If you are currently using the Dynamic Applications in this PowerPack to monitor devices, collection errors might occur for one or two polling cycles during the installation of a new version. To prevent collection errors during an upgrade, you can optionally disable collection for monitored devices before performing the following steps and re-enable collection after the upgrade.

To install this PowerPack:

  1. Search for and download the PowerPack from the PowerPacks page (Product Downloads > PowerPacks & SyncPacks) at the ScienceLogic Support Site.
  2. In SL1, go to the PowerPacks page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
  3. Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. The Import PowerPack modal appears.
  4. Click Browse and navigate to the PowerPack file from step 1.
  5. Select the PowerPack file and click Import. The PowerPack Installer modal displays a list of the PowerPack contents.
  6. Click Install. The PowerPack is added to the PowerPack Manager page.

By default, installing a new version of a PowerPack will overwrite all content in that PowerPack that has already been installed on the target system. You can use the Enable Selective PowerPack Field Protection setting in the Behavior Settings page (System > Settings > Behavior) to prevent the new version of the PowerPack from overwriting local changes for some commonly customized fields.

For more information about using the PowerPack, see the Monitoring Linux Systems with SSH manual.

Features

This release includes the following features:

  • Dynamic Applications that discover and collect configuration and performance data for Linux systems
  • Internal Collection Dynamic Applications that collect inventory and performance data for Linux systems
  • Event policies and corresponding alerts that are triggered when Linux systems meet certain status criteria

    • Many of the Event Policies included in this PowerPack are disabled by default. You must manually enable the Event Policies that you want to use. To do so, go to the Event Policy Editor page (Registry > Events > Event Manager > create or edit) and change the Operational State to Enabled.

  • Device classes for each type of Linux system monitored
  • A run book action and automation policy to assign the proper device classes to Linux systems

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included in this release:

  • Updated the PowerPack for Python 3.11 compatibility and to use the latest gevent library.
  • Addressed an issue that prevented the "Linux: ICDA Cache" and "Linux: Interface Cache" Dynamic Applications from processing interfaces without MAC addresses.
  • Added the following new Dynamic Applications:
    • "Linux Memory Pressure Performance" Dynamic Application.
    • "Linux: Large Open Files Configuration" Dynamic Application.

    • After you update to version 113, the "Linux: Memory Pressure Performance" and "Linux: Large Open Files Configuration" Dynamic Applications will not automatically align. If you want to monitor memory pressure or Open files, ScienceLogic recommends that you align them manually or use the template.

  • Added a new "CPU Work Utilization %" presentation object to the "Linux: CPU Performance" Dynamic Application.

Known Issues and Workarounds

The following known issues affect version 113 of the "Linux Base Pack" PowerPack:

  • If your SL1 version is 12.3.x and your Linux devices show the error "No authentication methods succeeded, password is empty" despite confirming that the credential is correct, verify if the Enterprise Key Management System (EKMS) is enabled in the Security page (System > Settings > Security > Enterprise Key Management System (EKMS)). If it is enabled, the issue might be related to EKMS rather than the PowerPack.
  • A platform issue might affect Linux devices using a PEM key in the SSH credential after upgrading to SL1 versions prior to 12.2.4. If a Linux device with a PEM key stops collecting data after upgrading, go to the SSH credential used by the affected devices and click Save to resolve the issue.
  • If the Linux server monitored by the PowerPack  reports "CLI-SSH with empty message", ScienceLogic recommends checking the device, as this is likely a timeout issue with the end device.
  • Version 22.04 of Ubuntu and earlier may have problems discovering devices with a PEM key. ScienceLogic recommends that you use a password in this situation.
  • Parsing might fail with some commands if the device contains are custom images.
  • If you use the default timeout in the "Linux Example Credential" credential and continue to experience timeout and login errors on a limited number of servers, create a copy of the credential, and edit the timeout value to 10 seconds, then align your new credential to the servers that hadlogin errors.
  • Modifying any of the Internal Collection Dynamic Applications will change the value of the Collector Affinity setting from Assigned collector to Default. If you make any changes to the configuration of these Dynamic Applications, run the following query on the Database Tool (System > Tools > DB Tool):

SELECT ppguid FROM master.powerpack WHERE name = "Linux Base Pack"

Save the result of ppguid as <LBP PPguid>

UPDATE master.dynamic_app SET cu_affinity="2" WHERE ppguid = <LBP PPguid>