Preparing to Install CiscoWorks

This chapter describes preparatory information for installing and configuring CiscoWorks. Included are worksheets to help you gather the necessary information.

Before you install the CiscoWorks network management software, confirm that your computer system meets the related hardware and software-version requirements. In addition, you should note any special requirements about how you want CiscoWorks installed. For example, CiscoWorks prompts you during installation to supply information such as where you want CiscoWorks installed and whether you are performing an upgrade or new installation.

Time Saver If you do not have any special requirements, you can press Return to accept a default selection.

To gather all the information you need to install CiscoWorks, first complete the Installation Worksheet on page 3-9. You can then refer to the worksheet, if necessary, as you proceed with the installation.

Process Overview for Preparing to Install or Upgrade

Follow these basic steps to prepare to upgrade from a previous release of CiscoWorks, or to install and configure CiscoWorks for the first time.

1. Verify that your system meets the minimum hardware and software requirements for CiscoWorks. (Refer to "Verifying Your System Requirements" section later in this chapter.)
   
   
2. Gather information required for installation and configuration by filling in the Installation and Configuration Worksheets. (Refer to the "Gathering Information for Installation and Configuration" section later in this chapter.)
   
   
3. If you are using a Sun system, upgrade your SunOS to Version 4.1.3 or later. CiscoWorks does not run on Solaris 2.x. (Refer to the "Verifying Your System Requirements" section later in this chapter.)
   

   If you are using an HP system, upgrade your HP-UX to Version A.09.03, A.09.04, or A.09.05. (Refer to the "Verifying Your System Requirements" section later in this chapter.)

   
   
   
4. Install the supported version of network management platform software, if required. For details on supported network management platform versions, refer to Table 3-2.
   
   
5. Verify that the correct version of network management platform is installed on your system by starting the software with the sample database file created during installation. Test the network management platform installation by starting a request to an agent on your local machine. Using the SunNet Manager Quick Dump option, perform a Quick Dump on an agent on your machine to ensure that the agent is responding. For instructions on verifying HP OpenView installation, refer to the HP OpenView manual set.
   
   
6. If you plan to use CiscoConnect, make sure you follow the requirements in "CiscoConnect Software Requirements" section later in this chapter.
   
   
7. If you are upgrading from a previous release of CiscoWorks, backup your old NMS database before you upgrade.
   

You are now ready to install and configure CiscoWorks on your system.

Upgrade Information

The following upgrade paths are supported for this release:

• Sybase 4.9 with CiscoWorks 2.x--Most common upgrade. Your system does not have any version other than Sybase 4.9 installed.

• Sybase 10 with CiscoWorks 2.x and Sybase 4.9--If you are running Sybase 10 with other software on the same system running CiscoWorks and Sybase 4.9.

• Sybase 4.9 and no CiscoWorks--If you are running Sybase 4.9 with other software, but do not have CiscoWorks software.

• Sybase 10 and no CiscoWorks--If you are running Sybase 10 with other software, but do not have CiscoWorks software.

• Customer with beta version of Sybase 10 with CiscoWorks--If you were a Cisco beta site for the CiscoWorks/Sybase 10 release.

You must back up the directory and files /usr/nms, /etc/passwd, /etc/tacpasswd, /etc/group, and /var/log/nmslog using UNIX backup commands. Other files you may want to back up include any of the following types of files you created to support CiscoWorks: cron files, specific UNIX commands, scheduled UNIX commands. If these files are not backed up, they will automatically be lost during the upgrade. You can reinstall these files from your backup disk after installation.

Verifying Your System Requirements

Table 3-1 lists the hardware and software requirements for your system. You need one of the following systems to run CiscoWorks:

• Sun SPARCstation 2, 10 or 20

• Hewlett-Packard 9000 system, series 700 or 800

Table 3-2 provides additional information on your system requirements for CiscoWorks and other software.

Table 3-3 lists the random access memory (RAM) requirements for your system.

Additional Hardware Requirements

In addition to the general system requirements, CiscoWorks requires the following hardware:

• SunNet Manager software is in the /usr/snm directory, unless you installed it in a different directory. HP OpenView software is in the /usr/OV directory, unless you installed it in a different directory. Both NMS databases recommend 10 to 15 MB of disk space for the initial database directory to allow enough space for the growth of log files. If the log files require more hard disk space, you can change the location of the database directory. For detailed information on the hard disk space requirements and on changing the location of the database directory, refer to your NMS documentation.

• Color monitor.

• CD-ROM drive (local to the NMS system or available remotely across a network).

• PostScript-compatible printer (to print snapshot images and online help pages).

Additional Software Requirements to Use CiscoWorks Applications

In addition to the general operating system requirements, CiscoWorks applications have specific Cisco Systems systems software requirements. Table 3-4 lists the CiscoWorks application requirements. For more up-to-date information, refer to the CiscoWorks Release Notes shipped with the product or on UniverCD.

CiscoConnect Software Requirements

CiscoConnect software requirements are described below. If you plan to use CiscoConnect, follow these instructions to configure it.

1. To use CiscoConnect, you must run the sendmail daemon. CiscoConnect relies on e-mail to send data to and receive data from the server. The installation scripts create three mail aliases in your /etc/aliases file:
   

   • cw-admin--Creates and receives error and administrative messages.

   • ciscoconnect-client--Determines how CiscoConnect receives responses from the server.

   • ciscoconnect-server--Points to the CiscoConnect server at Cisco. This server receives all messages from your CiscoWorks workstation.

     You may assign any mail alias or user name(s) to the cw-admin alias, but the other two aliases should not be changed. The installation script prompts you for a value for cw-admin. The default for cw-admin is postmaster. It is recommended that you change this value to specify the email address of the person responsible for administering CiscoConnect or e-mail.

     
     

     If you are not running sendmail, it is likely that you do not have the configuration file for sendmail. If so, you need to create this file as described below. On HP-UX, this file is /usr/lib/sendmail.cf; on SunOS, it is /etc/sendmail.cf.

     
     

On HP-UX:

To enable the sendmail daemon, you need to use System Administration Manager (SAM). From the Networking/Communications menu, open the Services: Enable/Disable screen. Set the status of Sendmail to Enabled. This will enable the sendmail daemon and create the sendmail configuration files /usr/lib/sendmail.cf and /usr/lib/aliases.

Edit your /usr/lib/aliases file to make sure it contains the following two aliases:

MAILER-DAEMON: postmaster
postmaster: root

On SunOS:

The directory /usr/lib contains two sample sendmail.cf files called sendmail.main.cf and sendmail.subsidiary.cf. Generally, you will use sendmail.subsidiary.cf. Copy the file to /etc/sendmail.cf and edit it to change the word "mailhost" to the name of your site's mail server in the lines beginning with "DR" and "CR." For example, if your mail server is called "hubbub," change the lines:

DRmailhost
CRmailhost

to:

DRhubbub
CRhubbub

After setting up the configuration file for sendmail, you need to select the sendmail program to use. There are two binaries in /usr/lib called sendmail.mx and sendmail.nomx. If your site has a connection to the Internet, it is recommended you use sendmail.mx. Link the file to sendmail; it is likely that sendmail.mx may already be linked to sendmail. To identify the file you are using, enter the following command and compare the inode numbers:

ls -i /usr/lib/sendmail*

The file that has the same number as the sendmail file is the one currently installed. To change it (example from mx to nomx), enter the following commands:

cd /usr/lib
rm sendmail
ln sendmail.nomx sendmail

To run the sendmail daemon, ensure that the following lines exist in the /etc/rc.local file:

if [ -f /usr/lib/sendmail -a -f /etc/sendmail.cf ]; then
 (cd /var/spool/mqueue; rm -f nf* lf*)
 /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q1h; echo -n ' sendmail'
fi

The next time you reboot your machine, the sendmail daemon should be running. To verify that the sendmail daemon is running, enter the following command:

ps -ax | grep sendmail

and look for a line that says /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q1h. You can also start the sendmail daemon without rebooting your system by entering the following command:

/usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q1h

1. The sendmail configuration at most sites uses a configuration option known as 'host hiding,' so that outgoing mail from host.company.com appears to be coming directly from company.com, with no mention of the particular host that sent the message. However, in order for the CiscoConnect server to send messages to the CiscoConnect client running on your workstation, this feature needs to be disabled, since with it there is no way to find which workstation sent the message.
   

   If you are running sendmail 8, the most common way of disabling this feature is by changing the following line in /etc/sendmail.cf:

   
   

# who I masquerade as (null for no masquerading)
DMcompany.com

to:

# who I masquerade as (null for no masquerading)
DM

If you are running sendmail 5, the original vendor supplied sendmail.cf file should have host hiding disabled by default.

For HP-UX, the vendor-supplied sendmail.cf file has a macro Y for host hiding. If you have a line that reads something like the following, comment it out to run CiscoConnect:

DYcompany.com

1. In order to transmit messages to the CiscoConnect server, your machine needs to be able to reach the mail server for cisco.com. If you are running DNS or an MX mailer, or have any form of working email configuration to reach the Internet, your machine should be able to find cisco.com without any modifications. In the unlikely event that you are directly connected to the Internet and rely on a host table exclusively, you can add the following entry for cisco.com:
   

198.92.30.32    cisco cisco.com cisco.cisco.com

1. Check to see if sendmail syslog messages are being logged somewhere. Examine the file /etc/syslog.conf for a line containing "mail.debug" to determine the destination of these messages. (The default on Sun systems is /var/log/syslog if the workstation is also the loghost.) If sendmail syslog messages do not appear to be logged anywhere, it is recommended that you modify your /etc/syslog.conf file to contain the following entry:
   

   On SunOS:

   
   

mail.debug /var/log/syslog

On HP-UX:

mail.debug /usr/spool/mqueue/syslog

You can now monitor incoming and outgoing mail messages by running the following command:

tail -f file

file is the filename as appropriate for your machine.

1. The value of $NMSROOT must be less than 22 characters long. It is recommended you use the default value of /usr/nms. If you choose to use some other directory, make sure that the directory you choose is less than 22 characters long. This is because the Perl scripts use the #! syntax to find the Perl interpreter, which is located in $NMSROOT/etc. There is a limit of 32 characters imposed by the operating system on the length of the #! line. The '#!' and the '/etc/perl' parts use 10 characters, leaving 22 for the $NMSROOT variable.
   
   
2. In order to test the e-mail connection to Cisco, the software provides a way to send a test message to the CiscoConnect server. To run the test, execute the script nmccsendtest, which resides in $NMSROOT/etc. If a response comes back from Cisco, a message is sent via e-mail to the user who sent the initial message provided that user's UNIX user name is the same as a CiscoConnect user; otherwise, the message goes to the cw-admin alias. You must watch both addresses for the response. If you receive the response, it means that the system is working. You may also wish to monitor the syslog file (see 4 above ) to check the progress of the test message.
   

Gathering Information for Installation and Configuration

Before you install and configure CiscoWorks, complete the CiscoWorks Installation and Configuration Worksheets to identify installation requirements and gather the information required for running the installation and configuration scripts.

Refer to the worksheets when installing and configuring your CiscoWorks software.

CiscoWorks Installation Worksheet

Complete the Installation Worksheet. Refer to Table 3-5 for an explanation of the worksheet questions.

Installation Worksheet Items

Table 3-5 explains each question on the Installation Worksheet. This information is required to install CiscoWorks. During installation, prompts appear requesting information on the items listed in the installation option column of the table. The order of the list is the sequence in which the installation script prompts you for an answer. To obtain and verify system information for some items on the worksheet, you must log in as the superuser. Logging in as the superuser is described in "Becoming the Superuser," in the "Installing and Configuring CiscoWorks" chapter.

CiscoWorks Configuration Worksheet

Complete the Configuration Worksheet. The same worksheet applies to both SunOS and HP-UX installations. Refer to Table 3-6 for an explanation of the worksheet questions.

Configuration Worksheet Items

Table 3-6 explains each item on the Configuration Worksheet. This information is required to configure CiscoWorks. For detailed information on the /etc/passwd and /etc/group files, usernames, user IDs, group names, and group IDs, refer to the HP-UX system manuals.