C H A P T E R 1 - Planning the Installation

C H A P T E R 1

Planning the Installation

You can install the Data Manager Module (DMM) on the Sun Control Station CC Edition framework to aggregate the message traffic for your Sun^SM Net Connect monitored systems.

Sun Net Connect is a no-cost web-based system that provides tools to help you manage your system assets on storage devices and Sun servers, and monitor system performance and hardware status. The reports can help you identify system events and do comparative and change analysis to identify issues and resolve problems before they occur. Access to all Sun Net Connect data and reports is available through a secure Web portal. See the Sun Net Connect 3.2.1 Customer Planning Guide and the Sun Net Connect 3.2.1 Customer Installation Guide for more information on Sun Net Connect. You can also use Sun Net Connect as a collaboration tool with Sun to help maximize system availability and reliability.

The Sun Control Station CC Edition, henceforth referred to as the Sun Control Station, is a software package that is designed to help you manage your systems. It is the framework for the Configuration and Service Tracker server software, the Local Patch Server (LPS), and the DMM modules.

The DMM is an optional module available for the Sun Control Station. It is a data aggregation, filtering, and infrastructure management point that is installed on your server and is designed to perform the following functions:

Provides a secure Internet connection to access and deliver system performance data to a password-protected web portal.

Aggregates and filters Sun Net Connect data at your site

Reduces the number of Internet connections through your firewall

Reduces the amount of Internet traffic

Reduces network traffic by caching bulk download files to help manage bulk data distribution

Handles data encryption and decryption, allowing decrypted data to flow within your intranet, and encrypted and authenticated data to flow out of your intranet

You have the following options for connecting a Sun Net Connect monitored system with the Sun Net Connect Data Center:

Option 1 - Direct Internet connection between the monitored system and the Sun Net Connect Data Center.

FIGURE 1-1 Direct Internet Connection to the Sun Net Connect Data Center

Direct connection to the Sun Data Center.

Option 2 - The monitored system is assigned to the DMM. Only the DMM is required to have an Internet connection to the Sun Net Connect Data Center. You can assign up to 255 monitored systems to each DMM.

FIGURE 1-2 Indirect Connection to the Sun Net Connect Data Center

Indirect connection to Sun Data Center using the DMM.

FIGURE 1-3 shows how data flows between the monitored system and the DMM and the DMM and the Sun Net Connect Data Center.

FIGURE 1-3 Data Flow Without and With the Data Manager Module

Data flow options 1 and 2.

Option 1 - Each monitored system has an Internet connection to the Sun Net Connect Data Center. All data flowing to and from the monitored system is encrypted and a heartbeat is sent from the monitored system to the Sun Net Connect Data Center.

Option 2 - Up to 255 monitored systems are linked to a single DMM. By default, all data flowing between the monitored systems and the DMM is encrypted. You can change the encryption level so that decrypted data flows between the monitored systems and the DMM. The DMM encrypts the data before sending it to the Sun Data Center. The DMM authenticates and decrypts data received from Sun. All monitored systems send their heartbeats to the DMM. The DMM sends a heartbeat to the Sun Net Connect Data Center and reports any missed heartbeats from the monitored systems. By default, a heartbeat is sent every five minutes. See Understanding the Heartbeat Function for more information on the heartbeat. In addition, the DMM is a bulk download repository. When the proxy requests bulk download files, such as software updates, the files are cached on the DMM to reduce network traffic.

By default, encryption is set to the 128-bit cipher key and a heartbeat is sent every five minutes. You can edit the encryption level and heartbeat level for each monitored system. See Sun Net Connect Software Alarms for more information on the heartbeat. See Edit the Message Encryption Level for the steps to change the encryption level.

Dependencies, Requirements, and Limitations

The DMM has the following dependencies and limitations:

Sun Control Station must be installed before installing the DMM.

Do not install Sun Net Connect 3.2.x or a CST agent on the same system as the Sun Control Station and DMM. A compatible version of Sun Net Connect 3.2.1 is automatically installed when you install the DMM.

The Sun^SM Connection Shared Shell Remote Access (Shared Shell) and Sun Connection Shared Web Remote Access (Shared Web) applications are designed to work with the DMM. Shared Shell and Shared Web use a dedicated SSL connection to Sun. However, when the DMM is used, you must open outgoing port 9004 or use an http proxy to connect to Sun. See the "Remote Access Applications" chapter in the Sun Net Connect 3.2.1 Customer Operations Guide for more information on Shared Shell and Shared Web.

Meeting System Requirements

The DMM is an optional module on the Sun Control Station. After you install the Sun Control Station on your system, you can download and install the DMM.

The system on which you install the DMM must meet the following minimum requirements:

UltraSPARC® architecture-based system running the following Solaris OS:

Solaris 9 OS with Perl 5.00.5

Solaris 10 OS with Perl 5.8.4 or higher

Note - The Solaris 9 OS requires Linker patch 112963-08 or higher.

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 1.4.2 or higher.

An Internet connection to the Sun Net Connect Data Center.

Note - Do not link the DMM to another DMM.

The Sun Control Station must be installed as specified in the Sun Control Station CC Edition Software Installation Guide before the DMM is installed.

By default, the DMM uses port 8000 for inbound traffic and 443 for outbound traffic. The Sun Control Station uses port 8080. See Changing the Inbound Port Used by the DMM for the steps to change the inbound port. The outbound ports are not configurable.

You must have a standard browser. Browsers that use 56-bit encryption are not supported. Standard browsers include the following:

Solaris OS - Netscape Navigator 6.0 and Mozilla 1.2.1 or higher

Windows environment - Netscape 6.0, Mozilla 1.3, and Internet Explorer 5.0.1 or higher

Approximate disk space for the following:

DMM software - 21.9 Mbytes

Bulk download - Depends on your monitored systems. Approximately 50-100 Mbytes per monitored system.

Required patches. Go to http://www.sunsolve.sun.com to obtain the latest recommended patches. Follow the installation instructions (including prerequisites).

Installation Overview

The following is an overview of the steps needed to complete the DMM installation and registration:

1. Download Sun Control Station software for your OS version (Solaris 9 OS or Solaris 10 OS) from the Sun Download Center.

2. Install and configure the Sun Control Station according to the instructions in the Sun Control Station CC Edition Software Installation Guide.

3. Verify that your monitored system meets the requirements listed in Meeting System Requirements.

4. Download the DMM software (dmm.001.001.000.tar) from the Sun Net Connect portal.

5. Run the DMM installation script. A compatible version of the Sun Net Connect software is installed with the DMM.

6. Install Sun Net Connect on the systems you want to monitor, and direct these systems to report through the DMM. See the Sun Net Connect 3.2.1 Customer Installation Guide for instructions on installing Sun Net Connect.

Note - See the Sun Net Connect 3.2.1 Customer Planning Guide for more information on the Sun Net Connect architecture, monitored system, and components.

The DMM software contains the following components:

Monitored system software - Formats, queues, and encrypts data from the DMM monitored system and sends it through port 8000 using HTTPS to the Sun Net Connect Data Center.

Encryption support - Provides encryption for security certificates. The DMM requires a random number generator in order to perform Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) operations for encryption. If your DMM system uses a /dev/random file or device, the DMM uses it for random number generation. If your DMM does not use a /dev/random file or device, the DMM uses an internal random number generator.