Supported operating system

Install an operating system that is supported by DPOD as described in Hardware and Software Requirements. Verify the installed OS using the following command:

 cat /etc/redhat-release

Resources allocation

Allocate resources according to the chosen deployment profile as listed in Hardware and Software Requirements. Verify the allocated resources using the following commands:

free -h
lscpu

Network requirements

Ensure you have at least one network interface installed and configured with full access to network services, such as DNS and NTP.
Some configurations, such as the Cell environment, require 2 network interfaces.
See Firewall Requirements for more details.

Root access

The installation must be performed by a root user. You cannot use sudo instead.

• Do not override the PATH variable with a fixed value during login sequence, as this will override the value set by DPOD installation in .bash_profile and will cause various scripts to fail.

• Do not use script command during the login sequence to make a typescript of the terminal session for audit, as this will cause various scripts to hang.

• Do not use trap command to clear the terminal on session close, as this will cause various scripts to get extra characters as their input and fail.

• Do not print a disclaimer in .bashrc, as this will cause various scripts to get the disclaimer as their input and fail.

Disks

DPOD requires at least 3 disks (LUNs / physical / virtual):

• 1 disk for the operating system

• 1 disk for the application/logs

• At least 1 disk for the data

Some configurations, such as the Cell environment, require multiple disks for the data.

You may verify the existence of the disks using the following command (e.

g: look for sda, sdb and sdc):

lsblk

Mount points, file systems and logical volumes

See Table 1 below for the required mount points / file systems on the different disks

.
It is strongly recommended to use logical volume manager (LVM) - particularly for the data disk(s). See Example: Creating File Systems using LVM.
Once configured, you may verify the configuration using the following command:

lsblk

Tip: To use LVM in AWS EC2 instances with RHEL 8.x and EBS disks, first execute dnf install lvm2 to install the LVM package, and use gdisk to create a partition. For more information, see https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/create-lv-on-ebs-partition/.

Store service dedicated OS user and group

The Store service requires a dedicated OS user and group to run. Consider executing the following command:

groupadd storeadms && useradd -g storeadms -md /home/storeadm -s /bin/bash storeadm

OS locale

The supported OS locale is en_US.UTF-8. Check the OS Locale Configuration and change it if necessary.

SELinux configuration

Changes in SELinux configuration might be needed. Check if SELinux is enabled using the following command:

sestatus

If SELinux is enforced on the DPOD server, please review possible required configuration changes.

Setup DNS

It is highly recommended to setup DNS - your network admin may need to assist you with this action.

Using yum on RedHat

For RedHat only: Your system might need to be registered and subscribed to the Red Hat Customer Portal to be able to install all prerequisites using yum.
Registration and subscription may differ between organizations and RHEL version, so consider the following commands just as an example:

subscription-manager register
subscription-manager attach --auto

• For RHEL 7.x

  Code Block
  subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-server-rh-common-rpms subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-server-optional-rpms

• For RHEL 8.x

  Code Block
  subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-8-for-x86_64-baseos-rpms subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-8-for-x86_64-appstream-rpms

Setup NTP

It is highly recommended to setup NTP - it has to be the same one configured in your IBM DataPower Gateways.

• Consult your Linux and network admin about the proper way to configure this service.

• For RHEL 7.x, ensure the NTP RPM is installed. Consider executing the following commands:

  Code Block
  yum install ntp ntpdate <ntp server hostname> systemctl enable ntpd.service systemctl start ntpd.service

• For RHEL 8.x, ensure the Chrony RPM is installed. Consider executing the following commands:

  Code Block
  yum install chrony chronyd -q 'server {ntp_server_name} iburst' systemctl enable chronyd.service systemctl start chronyd.service

Setup hosts file

Verify that the /etc/hosts file includes an entry with your server name mapped to your external server IP.
To display your server name, you may execute the command hostname.
To display your server’s IP address, you may execute the command ip a.

Required RPMs

Verify the existence of the following RPMs from the official RedHat/CentOS yum repositories:

• httpd version 2.4.6-67 and above (together with the following dependencies: mailcap, apr, httpd_tools)

• mod_ssl

• mod_proxy_html

• curl

• wget

• unzip

• iptables

• iptables-services

• bc

• fontconfig

• squashfs-tools

• numactl

• pciutils

• nvme-cli

The installation is usually performed by executing yum. If the command fails to find the packages, you should manually download the RPM files and install them.

yum install -y httpd
yum install -y mod_ssl
yum install -y mod_proxy_html
yum install -y curl
yum install -y wget
yum install -y unzip
yum install -y iptables
yum install -y iptables-services
yum install -y bc
yum install -y fontconfig
yum install -y squashfs-tools
yum install -y numactl
yum install -y pciutils
yum install -y nvme-cli

The following RPMs are recommended for system maintenance and troubleshooting, and are optional: telnet client, net-tools, iftop, tcpdump

Ensure squashfs module is loaded - see more at https://access.redhat.com/solutions/5477831.
Ensure squashfs is not disabled in /etc/modprobe.d (by running the command grep -ri squashfs /etc/modprobe.d).

Ensure the httpd service is enabled and started by executing the command:

systemctl enable httpd.service && systemctl start httpd.service && systemctl status httpd.service

Cleanup

In case you are using yum, it is recommended to clean its cache to make sure there is enough space in /var (yum cache can take a lot of the space there). To clean yum cache, execute the following command:

yum clean all

Disk 1: Operating System

(e.g.: sda)

biosboot

2MB

Standard Partition

BIOS BOOT

swap

8GB

LVM

swap

/boot

2GB

Standard Partition

XFS

/boot/efi

200MB
(for UEFI installations for GPT partition)

Standard Partition

EFI System Partition

/

8GB

LVM

XFS

/var

8GB

LVM

XFS

/tmp

16GB

LVM

XFS

Disk 2: Application/logs

(e.g.: sdb)

/shared

1GB

LVM

XFS

/app

30GB

LVM

XFS

/app/tmp

8GB

LVM

XFS

/installs

30GB

LVM

XFS

/logs

15GB

LVM

XFS

Data Disk(s) (e.g.: sdc, sdd, sde...)

/data

As described in Hardware and Software Requirements or according to the sizing spreadsheet in case one was provided by the DPOD support team. Minimum of 100GB.

LVM

XFS

[Required only for cell members]
/data2, /data22, /data222, /data3, /data33, /data333, /data4, /data44, /data444

Only for cell members, according to the sizing spreadsheet provided by DPOD support team. See Setup a Cell Environment for information about these disks/mount points.

LVM

XFS