############################################################################################################################
# NMIS - Network Management Information System Installation Instructions for 
the Newbie ( or in my case, the complete idiot) 
############################################################################################################################

This install is for NMIS version 3.00 on a Redhat 7.1 box.  I let the 
auto-installation process for a server do most of the work.  I did manually 
create the partitions versus letting them be done automatically.  The 
partitions I created were:

Name                    Size
/                       250 Meg
/boot                   55 Meg
/home                   2 Gig
/usr                    over 10 Gig
/var                    250 Meg
/swap                   128 Meg

In some cases that is overkill, but I had the space.  Since the application 
and databases are in /usr and based on my experiences, I am hoping this size 
is sufficient for 50 to 100 devices for some time.

################
# Applications #
################

An application I recommend to run

Ntp - network time protocol

Obviously you want reports with the right times.
Once installed, you can use the daemon.  I like cron, so I set it to run 
every hour (READ the Cron Note at the end).  The command line I used was 
ntpdate <time server address>.

Applications required on running Linux server

NMIS website states the following apps are required:
Perl 5.6.0
RRDTool 1.0.33
SNMP Session 0.77 ftp://ftp.switch.ch/software/sources/network/snmp/perl/
SNMP Simple <---NOTE: This is already included in the NMSI-3.00 download
Time::ParseDate 99.111701
Time::HiRes 1.20
Apache 1.3.11
Image Info 0.04

I also needed:
Libnet-1.0607
Net-ping (whatever newer version I could find)
Pdksh (whatever newer version I could find)
Statistics-Lite (whatever newer version I could find)
Traceroute (whatever newer version I could find)

#############################
# Preparing for the Install #
#############################

I did a mkdir /home/nmis and copied the files there to start.  I did a 
gunzip <filename> on each .gz file as I was ready to work with it.  I then 
did a tar -xf <filename> to extract it.  Look for README or INSTALL files to 
help you with the next section.

##############
# Installing #
##############

Going into the new directory, I looked for 1 of 2 files - either a 
makefile.pl or configure.  In most cases I used the default configurations 
for the install.  NOTE:  RRDTool is one I did change as noted below.

By default, Redhat 7.1 has Perl and Apache, so I didn't reinstall them.

I started with NMIS:

MIS is just a zipped and tarred file, no compiling.  So copy it to the 
/usr/local directory and unzip/expand it there to an /nmis directory NOT 
/nmis<version number>.  If you did, then just do an mv /nmis<version number> 
to /nmis (make sure you are still in the /usr/local directory - the full 
path is /usr/local/nmis).

Next was RRDTool:
mkdir /usr/local/rrdtool
sh configure --prefix=/usr/local/rrdtool
make
make install

The rest, as mentioned, were allowed to install to their default locations.

If it is a makefile.pl use the following commands to install:
perl Makefile.PL
make all
make install

If it is a configure, use the following commands to install:
./configure
make all
make install

NOTE: After installing all the apps listed, you may not have found 
SNMP_Simple_NMIS.  It is in the /usr/local/nmis directory.  Follow the same 
instructions as above to install it.

##################################
# Everything is on, so what next?#
##################################

First, I went through and changed any file the said 
<name-sample>.<extension> to <name>.<extension> buy opening each one in my 
favorite text editor, moving down a few lines, SPACE then BACKSPACE and then 
saving the changes as the new name.  I am sure there are quicker ways, but 
this worked.  Primarily, these files are in /usr/local/nmis/conf and 
/usr/local/nmis/cgi-bin.

Now do a which perl.  If it comes back with anything other than 
/usr/local/bin/perl read on... otherwise skip the next paragraph.

I went to the /usr/local/nmis/bin and edited the change_perl_bin.pl file:

The first if statement shows a directory, the second shows a path to perl.  
Change the second if statement to your perl path. You are going to change 
the first if statement to each of the following directories, running the 
script for each directory separately - /usr/local/nmis/cgi-bin and 
/usr/local/nmis/bin.  To run the script, type perl change_perl_bin.pl.  This 
changes all the scripts to point to where perl is found on your PC.

Second, do a which ksh to find the ksh path.  Change the path on the first 
line of any files with a .sh extension in the /usr/local/nmis/cgi-bin and 
/usr/local/nmis/bin directories to reflect your ksh path.

Third, do a which ping and which traceroute to find their paths.  Open in 
your favorite editor the /usr/local/nmis/bin/admin.pl file and around line 
89 you'll see something like:

if ($admin eq "ping") {
                $adminoutput=`/bin/ping -c 5 -s 64 $node`;
        }
Change the path of ping to your path.  Right below this is tracroute - 
change the path to your traceroute path.

At this point, everything is generically in place.

If you haven't already done so, create user(s) and an nmis group - I just 
edit the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files using the previous entries as 
examples.  Then chown -R :nmis /usr/local/nmis - this changes the ownership 
of the /usr/local/nmis and recursive directories and files to the group 
nmis.

#######
# Web #
#######

Now the web part.  I got the following right from the NMIS web site for the 
Apache install.
First, I looked at the first third of the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf to see 
if anything needed to be changed.

Second, I edited the this file, adding right at the end of it following:

Alias /nmis/ "/usr/local/nmis/htdocs/"
ScriptAlias /cgi-nmis/ "/usr/local/nmis/cgi-bin/"

<Location "/cgi-nmis/nmiscgi.pl">
        ## For IP address based permissions
        Order deny,allow
        deny from all
        allow from 10.0.0.0/8 172.16.0.0/16 192.168.1.1 .sins.com.au
        ## For Username based authentication
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName "NMIS"
        AuthUserFile /usr/local/nmis/conf/users.dat
        Require valid-user
</Location>

<Location "/cgi-nmis/logs.pl">
        ## For IP address based permissions
        Order deny,allow
        deny from all
        allow from 10.0.0.0/8 172.16.0.0/16 192.168.1.1 .sins.com.au
        ## For Username based authentication
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName "NMIS"
        AuthUserFile /usr/local/nmis/conf/users.dat
        Require valid-user
</Location>

<Location "/cgi-nmis/admin.pl">
        ## For IP address based permissions
        Order deny,allow
        deny from all
        allow from 10.0.0.0/8 172.16.0.0/16 192.168.1.1 .sins.com.au
        ## For Username based authentication
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName "NMIS"
        AuthUserFile /usr/local/nmis/conf/users.dat
        Require valid-user
</Location>

<Location "/cgi-nmis/view.pl">
        ## For IP address based permissions
        Order deny,allow
        deny from all
        allow from 10.0.0.0/8 172.16.0.0/16 192.168.1.1 .sins.com.au
        ## For Username based authentication
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName "NMIS"
        AuthUserFile /usr/local/nmis/conf/users.dat
        Require valid-user
</Location>

Third, I added users to the /usr/local/nmis/conf/users.dat file that is 
referred to above.  To do this type:

htpasswd -c /usr/local/nmis/conf/users.dat <username>

You will be asked for a password.

To add other user names, just type:

htpasswd /usr/local/nmis/conf/users.dat <username>

Restart apache and all should be good to go - /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd restart

################
# Running NMIS #
################

I'v copied the following right from the nmis website:

You can turn on debugging with debug=<true|false|0-9> for more information 
while running NMIS.

When run without debug, NMIS is silent, it will only report BAD things and 
log non fatals to the NMIS log -> nmis.log in the logs directory is the 
default.

First check that the config is all right!
<nmis base dir>/bin/nmis.pl type=config

Then run an update!
<nmis base dir>/bin/nmis.pl type=update

Then run collect! Minimum! Runs collection for all nodes in the node list.
<nmis base dir>/bin/nmis.pl type=collect

Will run NMIS for router only doing a health collection and a interface 
collection with debugging on.  Very handy for figuring out problems.
<nmis base dir>/bin/nmis.pl type=collect node=router debug=true

You can look at error messages in the file <nmis base dir>/log/nmis.log


#############
# Cron Note #
#############
Redhat has the cron.d, cron.hour, cron.week, cron.month, cron.year 
directories and the crontab all found in the /etc directory.  Supposedly you 
can make a cron file like, say, nmis, put it in cron.d at it will run.  It 
didn't for me.  So all my cron commands is in the /etc/crontab file.  It 
works, it's just big.

I copied the following right from the NMIS website and put it in my contab:

######################################################
# Run the Reports Weekly Monthly Daily
######################################################
54 23 * * * /data/nmis/bin/run-reports.sh day health
55 23 * * 0 /data/nmis/bin/run-reports.sh week health
5 0 1 * * /data/nmis/bin/run-reports.sh month health
0 18 * * * /data/nmis/bin/run-reports.sh day response
57 23 * * 0 /data/nmis/bin/run-reports.sh week outage
######################################################
# Run Statistics Collection
5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * /data/nmis/bin/nmis.pl type=collect
######################################################
# Run the update twice a day
30 7,20 * * * /data/nmis/bin/nmis.pl type=update
# Run the interfaces once and hour with Thresholding on!!!
0,15,30,45 * * * * /data/nmis/bin/nmis.pl type=threshold

#########################
# All should be working #
#########################

Let it run for about 10 minutes and then go to your website.  You should see 
stuff - a bunch of devices you don't have that are all down.  If not, go 
through these notes again, read everything on the NMIS website, and join 
then read the YAHOO group nmis_users.  If you do wee this stuff, read on.

###############
# Configuring #
###############
I used the web interface to add escalation, nodes, contacts, etc.  The 
escalation didn't seem to want to tae changes via the web so I did have to 
manually edit the file.

IF WEB ADMIN'NG THESE FILES, DO NOT REMOVE EVERYTHING FROM THEM UNTIL YOU 
HAVE ADDED ONE AT LEAST ONE GOOD ENTRY!!! I used the sample info as examples 
for all of my entries.

NOTE ON NODES:

The only way I got error free reporting was:
devicetype = lan or wan
group = switch, router, server
net = access, core, distribution

I tried different things in group, like my physical locations, but I ran 
into a lot of errors that the data couldn't be found to create a report.  I 
was error free using the above stated parameters.  I hope to figure this out 
soon.

Also, within the /usr/local/nmis/database directory there are 3 
subdirectories.  I made sure the health and interface directories had a lan 
and a wan subdirectory - I did have to make a couple of these somewhere in 
there.

Once you have added your stuff and removed the old stuff you should begin 
getting accurate information for your network.

If it alls seems to be "working" but looking at the nmis.log you see "no 
database file ..." check the directory path stated. Make sure there is a 
directory there, if not then make one and see if it is fixed.

I, once out of pure frustration, deleted all files and directories 
associated with any of my devices from the /usr/local/nmis/database 
directories/sub-directories and from /usr/local/nmis/var.  This started all 
my databases and reprots over again.  After that, some of my errors 
disappeared.

##########
# Syslog #
##########

I have read the notes on the NMIS website for Net-SNMP and the notes on 
Net-SNMP's website and have it istalled, but I haven't got it to work right 
yet.

Remember to change the file locations for your log files in the 
/usr/local/nmis/conf/logs.csv (there is no web interface for manipulating 
this file).

####################
# Additional Notes #
####################

Following these instructions, I installed NMIS and still could not see my 
2900 series Cisco switches to get interface info.  I joined the nmis_users 
group and YAHOO and found the following:

"""""
Message 2203:

From:  Chris Brain <chris.brain@w...>
Date:  Fri Sep 6, 2002  9:44 am
Subject:  Re: NMIS v3.0 and ifErrors

Rob,
This functionality is already in NMIS but an out of the box NMIS
only fetch's the extra info for some types of interfaces.
The interfaces it will fetch are detailed in nmis.conf as in line 101:

# regex for defining what interfaces to get FULL stats from.
int_stats=ethernetCsmacd|sdlc|propPointToPointSerial|frameRelay

We wanted the errors to be collected for cisco catalyst switch ports so we
added the extra interface types to nmis.conf:

# regex for defining what interfaces to get FULL stats from.
int_stats=ethernetCsmacd|sdlc|propPointToPointSerial|frameRelay|e10a100BaseT
X|e100BaseFX

In addition you also have to tell nmis.pl what ifType these are so add these
on line 2249:

$ENUMportType[8] = "e10a100BaseTX";
$ENUMportType[13] = "e100BaseFX";

If you use different types of equipment you also might want to add the
following lines to nmis.pl to tell you what ifType number the port is during
a debug:
(add these @ line 2307)

if ($debug>3) { print "\t ourportNumber: $ourPortNumber Description :
$interfaces->{$ifIndex}{Description}\n ";}
if ($debug>3) { print "\t ourportNumber: $ourPortNumber Type :
$interfaces->{$ifIndex}{ifType}\n ";}

To see the errors select pkts under the tye meno on the graph.


cheers
chris
wa newspapers
http://www.thewest.com.au
""""

I added the line to nmis.conf and the 2 lines in nmis.pl and now get info on 
these devices.

##################
# Final Thoughts #
##################

I know I am forgetting stuff.  Join the YAHOO group - they will help.  I 
just hope this gets you further along more quickly than I took to get here.  
Just remember, if anything bad happens while using this document, it was 
written by an Newbie (or, as I am lovingly? called by my wife, an idiot).

Mike Hendricks mjh6792@hotmail.com

"Who is the more foolish:  The fool or the one who follows him?"

10/10/2002