This document is intended for the System administrator that has the operational responsibility for the op5 system. You are expected to have good knowledge and understanding of computers but you don’t have to have any prior UNIX or Linux knowledge.
This document will try to give you a brief overview of the underlying system that is the base for the op5 appliance and it will cover most basic things that are needed to manage the day to day operation.
op5 utilizes CentOS 5 as the operating system. CentOS is an Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux sources. This means that CentOS 5 is binary compatible with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. The op5 System contain a basic but minimal CentOS server installation as a base. On top of that we add common tools and applications needed by op5 products. The op5 System also contain a number of custom, op5 made tools and applications.
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By HTTPS using a standard web browser
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The third way, HTTPS access, is used to access the web interfaces for op5 products and the op5 System portal page. You can use the portal page to configure your system, gather information about installed software and retrieve information regarding new patches from op5 Support web. You find the portal by directing your web browser to the op5 System,
https://<server-address>. The portal page also contains links to any installed op5 products.
You can also administer the system by SSH. SSH is much like telnet but it is encrypted so that nobody can see or interfere with what you are typing. To use SSH you must install a SSH client software at your computer. Most Linux distributions comes with a SSH client included and there are several SSH clients available free of charge for Microsoft Windows.
An other capable SSH client for Microsoft Windows can be found at http://www.ssh.com/. It is only free for non-commercial use though. This client also includes an interface to transfer files in a secure manner from and to the op5 server.
To change the configuration of a op5 System you need to log on. The root account is the superuser of the system and equal to the Administrator account in Windows.
Be aware that when you are logged on the system as root you have the power to literally wipe the system out, so be careful and if unsure take a backup before performing any changes (read more on backups below
Backing up the System).
To install a new op5 System you need the op5 Installation / Recovery CD. If you have not received the cd with the system you can download it as an .iso file from
www.op5.com/support/downloads/ and create a installation cd using your favorite cd-creation program.
Insert the op5 Installation / Recovery CD and reboot the system (read more in the
Shutdown or restart section). If the system already is powered off, simply power it on and insert the cd before the system bootup sequence has started.
The settings can be configure step by step in a similar way as the old wizard. On every object, except for the last one (Network), you can click on either
Apply & continue or
Skip & continue to either save the new settings or leave them with the old value and continue.
Type in the new server name in the NTP server textfield and click on
Add. Remember to click
Apply to save the new settings.
op5 have two types of modems. Depending on what modem type you have you should set the baud rate needed. The table below describes the diffrent settings.
Here you can set up static address on your interfaces or turn on DHCP instead. You can also add a bonding interface here and decide wich interfaces to bond.
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Click Static on the DNS settings.
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Click Apply and then Apply at the bottom of the page.
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Click Static or DHCP, in this case we use Static.
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Click on Static on the interface you like to configure.
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Fill in IP Address, Netmask, Gateway and click Apply. 
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Click Apply on the bottom of the page.
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Click DHCP on the interface you like to use DHCP.
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Click Apply on the bottom of the page.
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Click Create a new bond interface.
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Fill in IP Address, Netmask, Gateway and click Apply.
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Click on Bond on the interfaces you like to assign to this bonding interface.
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Click Apply at the bottom of the page.
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Here you configure automatic backup of your op5 system. A local storage path can also be set to a mount point for a mounted external file system, i.e. a shared folder at a remote server.
If you have any packages listed in Available updates select the one you like to install and click Install. During the update process you will not be able to start an other update.
The default backup type will backup up the same things that are backed up in the automated one.
The change arch backup is excluding things like binaries and other archetecture dependet stuff. This make the arch backup perfect to use if you are changing from op5 appliance system 32 bits to 64 bits.
The backupfile is actually a normal tar file but with .backup as extension instead and it can be used with the normal op5-restore utillities.
The file will be saved in the filesystem (/var/www/html/backups/) on your op5 Appliance system so you migth download it over
scp.
To save the newly created backupfile click download and save it where ever you like.
Sometimes you might want to stop, start or restart a service on you op5 Appliance system. Here you have the possibility to do that without loggin in to server over ssh or directly on the console.
Here you add your op5 license. Make sure that your license correspond to your usage. By adding your licence file you also gain access to updates using the 'yum update' command. Please see the sections
Update system or
YUM update manager , for more information.
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Click License Information in the main menu.
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Click Browse and chose the license file.
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op5 System contains a menu based configuration tool called setup. With this tool you can configure some of the system base settings. Configuration options not supported by the setup tool are covered in the “fdsa” section below.
Use the arrow keys to navigate the setup tool. When you are done configuring, check that all settings are correct and exit the program. Don’t forget to save.
This file sets options to modules (drivers) that is loaded into the kernel. You need to edit this file to configure duplex settings for the op5 System network cards or if you want to change or turn bonding support on or off.
This file configures which server that the op5 System shall use as Network Time Server. Edit the variable ‘server’ to change the server to synchronize against. It is possible to add several server entries to get time from several NTP servers.
If you are unsure about if you have a NTP server to synchronize against you can always use pool.ntp.org which is a large pool of, free to use, NTP servers on the Internet.
This file configures postfix which is the MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) that comes with op5 System. The MTA is used primarily to send out notification and report emails from your op5 products.
myhostname, set itto the FQDN of your op5 System
relay_host, set this to the hostname of your mail server. This variable is optional.
fallback_relay, set this to the hostname of your fallback relay, in case your primary mailserver is down. This variable is optional.
If you want to see whats happening you can issue the command ‘tail -f /var/log/smsd.log’ which will show you the conversation between the sms program and the gsm modem.
NRPE is the UNIX/Linux agent that op5 products use to gather information about the op5 System. To allow an op5 System to communicate with NRPE the ‘allowed_hosts’ variable needs to be edited.
op5backup is a simple but efficient backup utility for the op5 System. It can backup the configuration of op5 System, op5 Monitor, op5 Statistics and op5 Logserver. If you configure op5backup it is very easy to restore a failed system. Read more on
Backing up the System.
Persistent routes are configured by creating a file for each interface that you wish to route traffic out from. The file should be named
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/route-<ifname>
Example: /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/routes-eth0
The op5 System is RPM based, therefore all patches is distributed as RPM packages. Starting with op5 System version 3.0 the yum update manager is supported and the recommended method to update your system. More information regarding yum is found at:
Yum is an automatic updater and package installer/remover for rpm based Linux systems. Yum is the default method used to update a number of major rpm based distributions, including CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5. The op5 System is preconfigured to retreive all its updates via op5 repositories. To manage yum you need console access to the system or log on via SSH.
RPM is the package management software that op5 System utilizes. A RPM package consists of all files and information necessary to install or upgrade a software.
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Installs or upgrades a package
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removes an installed package
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Lists files that the package provides
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chkconfig can be used to control which programs that should be started during the boot sequence. It can also show you the current configuration.
List which programs that shall be started at boot time. This command first list the program name and then seven columns that represents different run-levels. All you have to care about is runlevel 3 which is the default runlevel for op5 System.
To restart the system issue the command reboot or press
Control-Alt-Delete on the console.
There are several ways to backup the system. Since op5 System is based on CentOS 5 most large providers of backup solutions has clients that can be installed on the op5 System.
For those cases where backup possibilities for linux systems does not exist we have created a backup utility called
op5backup that can create backups of system configuration data and op5 product configurations and data.
op5backup consists of a backup script and a restore script. The backup script op5-backup can be scheduled to run using cron and it can place the backups in a local or remote mounted directory or transfer the file to another server over FTP.
transfer=, set this to
ftp or
local
storagepath=, set this to where the backup should be placed
If you use ftp as transfer mode then configure following variables
backupserver=, set this to a FQDN or ipaddress to you ftp server
backuppath=, set this to the path where you want your backups. Leave blank if no path is needed.
backupuser=, username for the ftp account
backuppass=, password for the ftp account
If you have added software or data to your op5 System that you want to be included in the backup you should add this to the
/etc/op5-backup/modules/custom file.
If your op5 Appliance system has HTTP connection to the Internet you can perform your upgrades directly with the
yum command. Yum will get the files and data from the op5 repos.
If your op5 Appliance system hos no connection to the Internet you can still upgrade the system. All you have to do is to download the latest op5 Appliance system iso file.
pwd show current directory
ls list directory contents
rm delete file or directory
mv move or rename file or directory
tail show the 10 last rows in a file, useful for viewing logs, tail –f to follow/trace
less show the contents of a file