Pre-Software Installation Checklist

Verify the operating system version:

hostnamectl>>>   Static hostname: pca-ue-ms.mydomain.com
         Icon name: computer-vm
           Chassis: vm
        Machine ID: 5460af00120b7f88ce9bdf2259f2ee4a
           Boot ID: 8373294e952c4210b1152cecab13bb67
    Virtualization: kvm
  Operating System: Rocky Linux 8.10 (Green Obsidian)       CPE OS Name: cpe:/o:rocky:rocky:8:GA
            Kernel: Linux 4.18.0-553.el8_10.x86_64
      Architecture: x86-64

Hostname Configuration

If the hostname was not configured during OS installation, set the hostname of the server. To do this run the following command:

Log into the server via SSH (ssh opanga@<hostname/IP>)

sudo hostnamectl set-hostname hostname.example --static

In order to validate that the hostname was set correctly for each server, type hostname into the command line; this command should return the hostname you have set in the corresponding command above.

DNS Configuration

NOTICE This must be done before installing the software RPMs and only needs to be done on the traffic processor server.

As part of the system health checks the management system software will communicate with the traffic processor(s) software using their Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDN). It will also identify the statistics from each product by their FQDN, therefore it’s important to assign each server a unique FQDN on the network and that each server can resolve the others FQDN using either DNS or using the static hosts file.

After a fresh installation the contents of the /etc/hosts file are:

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.
localdomain4::1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6

Log into the traffic processor server via SSH (ssh opanga@<hostname/IP>)

sudo vi /etc/hosts

On the 127.0.0.1 localhost line, add a space and the hostname of the management server to the end of the line.

Example:

127.0.0.1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost4 localhost4.
localdomain4 n2k.example.com
::1 localhost localhost.localdomain localhost6 localhost6.localdomain6
10.4.10.40 management-system.example.com

Save your changes.

Verification

Validate that the traffic processor can communicate with the management system via the hostname.

From the traffic processor server:

ping management-system.example.com

Time Zone Configuration

In order to have statistics timestamps appear in local time, configure the time zone of the server to the local time zone.

Log into the server via SSH (ssh opanga@<hostname/IP>)

timedatectl status

If the output shows that the current time zone is correct, then proceed to next NTP Configuration section.

If the output shows that the current time is incorrect, then continue with the following:

cd /usr/share/zoneinfo
tzselect

This command will prompt the system administrator to select the continent, then the country, then the time zone

Note the name of the time zone that is selected, for example “America/Punta_Arenas”

sudo rm -f /etc/localtime
sudo ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/*Selected Time Zone Name* /etc/localtime

Example:

sudo ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Punta_Arenas /etc/localtime

Re‑run timedatectl status and verify that the time zone shown matches what was just set

NTP Configuration

NOTICE This must be done before installing RPMs; otherwise license validation will be blocked and other issues described below will occur.

In order to keep events and statistics across the servers in sync it’s important that all the servers’ time is kept in sync. The typical tool used for this is the Network Time Protocol Daemon (chronyd) which can be installed and configured to use an internal or public NTP server. To set up the NTP follow these steps:

Since servers typically do not communicate with the internet, internal NTP servers should be set up and used. Once the NTP servers are set up, move to the next step.

Log into the server via SSH (ssh opanga@<hostname/IP>)

sudo vi /etc/chrony.conf

Replace the servers that are in chrony.conf with the ones in the local network.

Specifically change the rows that look like:

server 0.centos.pool.ntp.org iburst

Replace the value 0.centos.pool.ntp.org with the IP or hostname of the
local NTP server

Save your changes.

Ensure that the crhonyd service is enabled and started:

\$ systemctl status chronyd
chronyd.service - NTP client/server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/chronyd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)   Active: active (running) since Wed 2022-01-05 13:58:02 PST; 3min 38s ago
     Docs: man:chronyd(8)           man:chrony.conf(5)  Process: 860 ExecStartPost=/usr/libexec/chrony-helper update-daemon (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)  Process: 831 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/chronyd $OPTIONS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS) Main PID: 845 (chronyd)   CGroup: /system.slice/chronyd.service
           └─845 /usr/sbin/chronyd

If chronyd is not active, start it with the command:

sudo systemctl start chronyd

If chronyd is not enabled, enable it with the command:

sudo systemctl enable chronyd

Ensure the output of the ”timedatectl status” command shows that NTP is enabled and synchronized.

NOTICE It is extremely important for the NTP synchronization and enabled-status to be yes. If not
properly configured, statistics may arrive out of order and cause errors.

\$ timedatectl status
      Local time: Wed 2022-01-05 14:01:47 PST
  Universal time: Wed 2022-01-05 22:01:47 UTC
        RTC time: Wed 2022-01-05 22:01:46
       Time zone: America/Los_Angeles (PST, -0800)     # "NTP enabled" and "NTP synchronized" MUST be yes     NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: yes
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: no
 Last DST change: DST ended at
                  Sun 2021-11-07 01:59:59 PDT
                  Sun 2021-11-07 01:00:00 PST
 Next DST change: DST begins (the clock jumps one hour forward) at                  Sun 2022-03-13 01:59:59 PST
                  Sun 2022-03-13 03:00:00 PDT

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