Install

Create an RMM instance to install RMM and then provide the license information. RMM software runs on any RHEL based 7.x Linux operating system. RMM has marketplace listings on major clouds like OCI where you can deploy the instance with a single click.

Create an Instance

Follow these steps to create an RMM instance:

Log into Compute Cloud@Customer or Private Cloud Appliance in your tenancy.
In the Dashboard, click Compute.
Create a new instance.
In the Create Instance window, do the following:
1. Enter an instance name.
2. Select an appropriate compartment with access to the endpoints.
3. In the Source Image section, select the Source Type as Platform Image.
4. In the OS Version column's dropdown list, in the Oracle Linux operation system row, select 7.9.
Provision the VM as a flex shape with 4 CPUs, 48GB of memory, and a boot volume size of 150GB.
Move on and provision networking such that the VM will have full access to both endpoint networks. In our case, this is an external network on a shared internet gateway VCN and we request the assignment of a public facing IP.
Once you provision networking, provide a hostname, upload your public keys for ssh, and create the instance.
Once the instance is done provisioning and is marked Running, log in using ssh, download and configure RMM.

Note:
Add a block volume to the RMM server for temporary storage. For this example, create and attach a 1TB block storage unit.
Once the volume is created and provisioned, attach it to the instance. You don't need to mount it.

Install RMM

Installing RMM over an existing installation is supported and is the mechanism for installing a new version. In this case there will be an existing CMDB, and by default the installation process retains that information. After installation all existing resources continue to reside in the CMDB.

You can install RMM on Oracle Linux 7.9. However, you can run it on any RHEL-based 7.X instance. You must first create an Oracle Linux 7.9 instance on Compute Cloud@Customer.

Follow these steps to install RMM:

Once the VM is up and running, log in.

Download the installer file which has the format rackware-<VERSION>-x86_64.sh. Ensure this file allows for execution. If not, modify it using chmod 755. On platforms, where such listings are not available, Rackware provides an installation file.

[opc@rmm ~]$ scp myself@source.example.com:/nfs/rackware/rackware-v7.4.3.17-x86_64.sh .
myself@source.example.com's password:
rackware-v7.4.3.17-x86_64.sh 100% 5409MB 40.2MB/s 02:14
[opc@rmm ~]$ ls -l rackware-v7.4.3.17-x86_64.sh
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 opc opc 5671832853 Dec 17 22:04 rackware-v7.4.3.17-x86_64.sh
[opc@rmm ~]$ chmod 755 !$
chmod 755 rackware-v7.4.3.17-x86_64.sh
[opc@rmm ~]$ ls -l
total 5538900
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 opc opc 5671832853 Dec 17 22:04 rackware-v7.4.3.17-x86_64.sh
[opc@rmm ~]$

Run the installer by running the following command as root user:

root@ovh-rmm01:[~]# ./rackware-<VERSION>-x86_64.sh
Verifying archive integrity...

Read and accept the EULA and the Microsoft licenses by entering yes.

The RMM software is dependent on various libraries and utilities. The installer checks for these dependencies, and automatically installs any that are missing. The simplest and safest option to ensure that all the correct packages are on the server is to have temporary access to the internet for the server prior to running the installer. Specifically, ports 80 and 443 should be open in the outbound direction on RMM and any firewalls. This step utilizes the standard distribution package manager and requires internet access.

Internet access can be disabled immediately after installation.

[opc@rmm ~]$ sudo -s
[root@rmm opc]# ./rackware-v7.4.3.17-x86_64.sh
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing RackWare Software Package...........
You must accept the terms of the license agreement to install and use this software.
END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR RACKWARE.
<some text deleted for clarity>
upon you in addition to the terms of this EULA or any other agreement you have with RackWare.
Please type 'yes' then [enter] to accept the terms of the license agreement,
or simply press [enter] to abort installation.
Enter your acceptance: yes
Beginning installation ...
You must accept the terms of the license agreement to install and use this software.
MICROSOFT SOFTWARE LICENSE TERMS
<deleted for clarity>
Please type 'yes' then [enter] to accept the terms of the license agreement,
or simply press [enter] to abort installation.
Enter your acceptance: yes
Beginning installation ...
Checking the free space under /opt...Done
Checking the free space under /srv...Done
Checking the free space under /tmp...Done
Installing RackWare Software Package.
Please wait this may take several minutes . . .

Answer the prompts with default values, yes.
1. perl-CGI
2. EPEL package installation
3. Modify iptables
Download ISO for Linux vCenter Auto-Provision.
```
Download ISO for linux vcenter autoprovision (Y/N) [N]:
Manually download iso for templateless autoprovisioning.
Please download systemrescecd-x86-5.2.2.iso from: https://souceforge.net/projects/systemrescuecd/files/sysresccd-x86/5.2.2/systemrescuecd-x86-5.2.2iso/download and place it in /opt/iso/
```
This file is needed when auto-provisioning Linux machines into a vCenter. If you are planning on using RMM to auto-provision Linux machines into a vCenter, then answer Y. Otherwise, accept the default of N.

Log Rotate maintains the sync job logs for a set number of days. The default is 15 days but it can be set depending on the length of the project.

Configuring iscsi target
Warning: Could not load preferences file /root/.targetcli/prefs.bin.
Parameter auto_save_on_exit is now 'false'.
Configure: iscsitarget: Done.
Configuring logrotate
Number of days log files are retained [15]? [15]:

Unless you are using the RMM-Hub feature, accept the default of N for this prompt.

When prompted for the RMM GUI type, select [L] (default) for RMM Lite.

Enter and confirm a password for the admin user, which is the default user for the GUI.

Select GUI type: RackWare Management Module [R]
RMM Lite [L]
Hybrid Cloud Management Platform [H]
Self Service Portal (Softlayer) [S]
Self Service Portal (Azure) [Z] [L]: L
Installed RMM Lite GUI.
Creating mainbox file: File exists
Changing passowrd for user admin.
New passwork:
Retype new password:
passwd: allauthentication tokens updated successfully.
Configuring http web servicer
Changing permission of /opt/rackware/www/cgi-bin/ to executable
Saving original config
Generating a 2048 bit RSA private key
…...+++
….….….….….….….….…....+++
writing new private key to '/opt/rackware/www/certificates/RackWare_SSL.key'
–---
Note: Forwarding request to 'systemctl enable httpd.service'.
Stopping: httpd … Done.
 * stopped: httpd
Starting: httpd … Done.
 * running: httpd[199979]
Configure: httpd: Done.

RMM requests users to input a passphrase to encrypt the onboard CMDB using 128-bit AES.

Changing password for user admin.
New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.
Please enter your secret passphrase. This passphrase will be used to encrypt all sensitive information stored in the cmdb.
Please re-enter your secret passphrase for validation.

Configure a Storage Pool using ZFS. Rackware uses unformatted or unpartitioned block devices attached to RMM to configure its storage pool using ZFS. RMM Storage Pool using ZFS can be reconfigured any time using the rwadm zfs configure command.

ZFS is currently not installed on this system
Proceeding with ZFS installation...
Configuring ZFS compression RMM...
Installing ZFS packages, please be patient as this may take a while...
<intermediate text deleted for clarity>
Existing devices in the system which can be added to RMM Storage Pool are:
=====================================================================
| EXISTING DEVICES |
=====================================================================
/dev/sda (in-use)
/dev/sda1 (in-use)
/dev/sda2 (in-use)
/dev/sda3 (in-use)
/dev/sdb (free)
=====================================================================
Please make sure you have all below criteria met before continuing further:
* You have at least one disk/partition/volume free which can be added to RMM storage pool/volume.
* Old images WILL NOT have Sync Backup and Data Retention features. User will have to re-capture images to avail those features.
[A]dd disks, [R]emove disks or [F]inished [F]: A
You have 3 chance(s) to enter a valid device. Check by executing "parted -l"
Warning: Device will get formatted after adding to RMM Storage pool.
Enter device name/path to be configured as RMM Storage pool. [ONE AT A TIME]: /dev/sdb
=====================================================================
Please make sure you have all below criteria met before continuing further:
<Intermediate text deleted for clarity>
Final Configuration:
=====================================================================
| RMM STORAGE POOL |
=====================================================================
Pool Name : "rwzpool"
Total Size : 1016G
Pool Free : 1016G
RMM Storage Pool Compression Algorithm: "lz4"
=====================================================================
Configuring samba service...
Note: Forwarding request to 'systemctl enable smb.service'.
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/smb.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/smb.service.
Note: Forwarding request to 'systemctl enable nmb.service'.
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/nmb.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/nmb.service.

Note:

RMM Storage Pool using ZFS can be reconfigured any time using the

rwadm zfs
                            configure

command.

Configure Network Interfaces when prompted for the interfaces on which RMM listens, add each of the interfaces RMM uses to communicate with the source hosts.

Configuring Rackware Management Module (rmm)
Done.
Configure: rmm: configure listening interfaces:
Available: ens3
Selected: none
[A]dd, [R]emove interfaces for rmm to listen on, or [F]inished [F]:A
Enter interface name, or 'all' [all]: all
Available: ens3
Selected: ens3
[A]dd, [R]emove interfaces for rmm to listen on, or [F]inished [F]: F
Configure: rmm: listening on: ens3 :: 172.20.0.48

When the network configuration is complete, configure NTP. OCI, Compute Cloud@Customer and the Private Cloud Appliance X9-2 have built in NTP services at IP address 169.254.169.254. This service is redundant, so you need only set up the single NTP server. If you wish to use NTP services within your data center, you may provide them here. For the RMM to come up properly, the RMM must have access to an NTP server, unless a professional services license is installed. The default value of N to this prompt means that the RMM will use as the NTP server the default of pool.ntp.org. If you choose to configure NTP server (enter Y at the prompt), you must also provide the name of the NTP server for RMM to use. If the NTP server being used by RMM is not reachable from RMM then RMM's license will be temporarily disabled and RMM will not come up.
```
Do you want to configure NTP SERVER?
This can be skipped in case of PS License type [N]: Y
RMM requires to communicate with the NTP Server to sync system time.
Anytime RMM cannot access the NTP Server, the license would be invalidated.
For that either some NTP daemon needs to be configured or NTP Server needs to be provided here.
Do you want to setup custom NTP Server? Default is pool.ntp.org and requires internet access (Y/N) [N]: Y
Enter NTP Server [pool.ntp.org]: 169.254.169.254
Configure : rmm: configure NAT IPs for the rmm host:
Configured: none
[A]dd, [R]emove NAT IP, or [F]inished [F]: F
```
Note:
It is common practice to always provide one, three or more NTP servers, never only two.

The next prompt asks if a NAT IP needs to be added. Unless otherwise instructed by Rackware, accept the default value of [F].

Configure : rmm: configure NAT IPs for the rmm host:
Configured: none
[A]dd, [R]emove NAT IP, or [F]inished [F]: F
Creating sudoers file for GUI.
Stopping: rmm ... Done.
* stopped: rmm
License not found in /etc/rackware/. Generating the preinstall file
PreInstall file generated at /etc/rackware/rwlicense_preinstall_1702860496. Please email this file to licensing@rackwareinc.com to get the license.
Configure: rmm: creating default options file ... Done.
Configure: rmm: Done.
WARNING: No license file found for rmm. Cannot start RMM Process.
Skipping loopback device limit configuration ...
Configure: systemd/journal: Done.
Configure: SSL configurations...
SSL configuration complete.
Reboot required for changes to take effect.
Do you want to reboot now [Y/n]? [Y]:

After installation, reboot the server for the installation to complete.

Post installation, the server will need to be rebooted once for the installation to complete. Enter Y and wait for the system to reboot.
Do you want to reboot now [Y/n]? [Y]:
Shutdown scheduled for Mon 2023-12-18 00:51:15 GMT, use 'shutdown -c' to cancel.
Broadcast message from root@rmm (Mon 2023-12-18 00:50:15 GMT):
Rebooting...
The system is going down for reboot at Mon 2023-12-18 00:51:15 GMT!
[root@rmm opc]#

Provide RMM License

The RMM service does not start until a valid license is placed under /etc/rackware.

For an initial installation, following messages are displayed:

License not found in /etc/rackware/. Generating the preinstall file. Preinstall file
      generated at /etc/rackware/rwlicense_preinstall_xxxxxxxx. Please email this file to licensing@rackwareinc.com to get the
    license.

After receiving the license from Rackware, place the license file under /etc/rackware.
You can now run '** rwadm start rackware'**.