Cisco Prime Network Installation Guide, 4.3

Preparing for the Installation

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This chapter provides preinstallation tasks that must be performed and verified before proceeding with the Prime Network installation.

• Gateway Preinstallation Tasks—Embedded Database
• Gateway Preinstallation Tasks—External Database
• Unit Preinstallation Tasks
• IPv4 and IPv6 Compliance Considerations
• UNIX Services and Components Used by Prime Network

Note All procedures in this chapter are performed as the root user.

Gateway Preinstallation Tasks—Embedded Database

Table 3-1 shows the tasks that you must perform before installing Prime Network on a gateway that uses an embedded database. All procedures should be performed as the root user.

Table 3-1 Gateway Preinstallation tasks Using an Embedded Database

	Task	Refer to (or perform):
Step 1	Verify that the Disk 1: New Install DVD is available. Note If the Installation DVD is not available, mount the build server on the gateway and access the required build for PN installation.	Installation DVDs
Step 2	Verify that the server machines meet the system requirements.	Installation Requirements
Step 3	Ensure you have the following SSH connectivity as root: Gateway to unit Unit to gateway Unit to localhost Gateway to localhost	—
Step 4	Verify that the server machines meet the Oracle database requirements.	Prime Network Gateway and Database Requirements
Step 5	Verify the installed operating system.	Verifying the Installed Operating System
Step 6	Disable SELinux.	In /etc/selinux/config, configure SELINUX=disabled, then reboot the machine.
Step 7	Verify the RPM files required for Prime Network on Red Hat are installed.	Verifying the RPMs Required on Red Hat for Prime Network
Step 8	Verify that all the ports designated for Prime Network are free.	Required Ports for Prime Network
Step 9	Allocate the storage for the Oracle database files. By default, Prime Network supports an archive size of 14 days. Contact your Cisco account representative for assistance.	Also see the database requirements in Breakdown of Oracle Database IOPS .
Step 10	Verify that the time of the servers is synchronized.	Configuring the Network Timing Protocol.
Step 11	Enable the jar command in the root user path on all machines where you will install Prime Network.	Run which jar to verify that the jar command is available .
Step 12	Verify that the user has root privileges on the gateway.	—
Step 13	Verify that DNS is enabled on the Prime Network gateway, unit, and client machines.	—
Step 14	Verify that the hosts file (/etc/hosts) is configured to include the machine’s local hostname and its IP address.	Do not put the hostname and local host address on the same line, as shown in the bad /etc/hosts example. Valid /etc/hosts file: 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost ::1 localhost6.localdomain localhost6 10.56.117.131 pnqa-ha-p2.cisco.com   Invalid /etc/hosts file: 127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost hostname1 ::1 localhost6.localdomain localhost6

Gateway Preinstallation Tasks—External Database

Table 3-2 lists the tasks that you must perform before installing Prime Network on a gateway that uses an external database. All procedures should be performed as the root user.

Unit Preinstallation Tasks

Table 3-3 shows the tasks that you must verify or perform before proceeding with Prime Network unit installation. All procedures should be performed as the root user.

Verifying the Installed Operating System

Prime Network 4.3 is supported on, Red Hat 5.8 and Red Hat 6.5 64-bit Server Edition (English language).

To verify that you have installed a supported Linux version, as the root user, enter:

The command output should list a supported version, as in this example:

Verifying the RPMs Required on Red Hat for Prime Network

As root user, verify all required RPMs are installed. For a list of required RPMs, see Required Red Hat Services and RPMs.

To verify which required RPMs are installed, use the rpm - q command followed by the required RPMs, as in the following example (which is for Red Hat 6.5):

rpm -q binutils-2.20.51.0.2-5.36.el6.x86_64 compat-libcap1-1.10-1.x86_64 compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-69.el6.x86_64 gcc-4.4.7-4.el6.x86_64 gcc-c++-4.4.7-4.el6.x86_64 glibc-2.12-1.132.el6.x86_64 glibc-2.12-1.132.el6.x86_64 ksh-20120801-10.el6.x86_64 libgcc-4.4.7-4.el6.x86_64libstdc++-4.4.7-4.el6.x86_64 libstdc++-devel-4.4.7-4.el6.x86_64 libaio-0.3.107-10.el6.x86_64 libaio-devel-0.3.107-10.el6.x86_64 make-3.81-20.el6.x86_64 sysstat-9.0.4-22.el6.x86_64 expect-5.44.1.15-5.el6_4.x86_64 openssh-clients-5.3p1-94.el6.x86_64 openssh-server-5.3p1-94.el6.x86_64 openssh-5.3p1-94.el6.x86_64 telnet-0.17-47.el6_3.1.x86_64 openssl-1.0.1e-16.el6.x86_64 compat-libstdc++-33.x86_64 dos2unix-3.1-37.el6.x86_64 --qf '%{name}.%{arch}\n'|sort

The output of this command will list the RPMs and will indicate which RPMs are not installed.

Example output:

Starting the Oracle Listener (External Database)

After the external database has been created, start the Oracle listener so that the network-conf.pl configuration script can connect to the database.

Step 1 As the root user, to determine if the Oracle listener is up, enter:

The following output should be displayed (in this example, ORACLEHOME is set to /export/home /oracle):

Step 2 If the Oracle listener is down, complete the following steps:

a. Log in as user oracle.

b. Enter lsnrctl start .

Configuring the Network Timing Protocol

It is recommended to use your organization’s NTP server for timing synchronization, however, if necessary, you could use the Prime Network gateway.

Note If gateway high availability is configured, you must use your organization’s NTP server for timing.

To use your organization’s NTP server for timing synchronization:

Step 1 Locate the ntp.conf file, which is usually located under /etc/ntp.conf. (Check the file location with the NTP system administrator.)

Step 2 Enter the following in ntp.conf, where NTP_SERVER_IP is the IP address of your organization’s NTP server.

• For IPv4, enter:

• For IPv6, enter:

Step 3 Restart the NTP service:

To use the Prime Network gateway for timing synchronization:

Step 1 On the Prime Network gateway, create a file with the following contents and save it as /etc/ntp.conf :

Step 2 Create a drift file:

Step 3 Restart the NTP service:

Step 4 Configure the units and database to be NTP clients by creating a file with the following contents, and save it as /etc/ ntp.conf :

a. Create an /etc/ntp.conf with the following contents:

For IPv4, enter:

For IPv6, enter:

b. Restart the NTP service:

c. Verify connectivity to the NTP server, enter:

Note If you find two NTP processes running on the server, kill one of them.

IPv4 and IPv6 Compliance Considerations

Prime Network 4.3 supports monitoring and communication over IPv4 and IPv6 interfaces. Units can hold and manage VNEs from different interface types. Prime Network IPv4 and IPv6 installation options are shown in Table 3-4 . Variations in the options are possible, for example, a gateway with a dual-stack interface can connect to one unit with an IPv4 interface and another with an IPv6 interface.

While Prime Network 4.3 allows for flexible IPv4 and IPv6 installations, do not install Prime Network in an IPv4 and IPv6 network until you review the following points:

• Units configured in a redundant relationship must have the same interface type, that is, either IPv4 or IPv6.
• Installation sets the interface type between a unit and a gateway. Upgrading to Prime Network 4.3 does not automatically add a new interface type between an existing unit and its gateway, even if the IPv6 connectivity already exists. Contact Cisco Technical Support for assistance.
• The client must have the same connectivity type to the database machine as the Prime Network gateway. For example, if the gateway is configured to access the database using IPv4, the client must also be able to access the database using IPv4.
• Only Oracle version 12cR2 and later are IPv6-compliant. If you plan to install a gateway or unit with only IPv6 interface types, verify that the Oracle database is version 12cR2 or later. (The Prime Network embedded Oracle database is version 12cR2.)
• You can install the Prime Network 4.3 embedded database on an IPv4-only server or on a dual stack server (IPv4 and IPv6). You cannot install the embedded database on an IPv6-only server.
• You can install Prime Network 4.3 Operations Reports on an IPv4-only server or on a dual stack server (IPv4 and IPv6). You cannot install the tool on an IPv6-only server.
• When using Change and Configuration management, make sure your device can communicate both over IPv4 and IPv6. If your device cannot communicate over IPv4, then the Unit from which the VNE of that device is configured can only manage devices over IPv6. This is valid only in case the device does not have dual stack.
• If the units are installed with interface type that differs from the interface on which the database is installed, then database must be configured for dual listener. To configure dual listener, complete the procedure in Configuring Dual Listeners after the installation.

UNIX Services and Components Used by Prime Network

Table 3-5 lists the Linux services and components that are used by the Prime Network system. Do not remove them.