Preinstallation on Linux systems

All agents

The following preinstallation tasks are applicable to all agents:

Non-root user installation

You must have read, write, and execute permissions for the installation directory. Otherwise, the installation is canceled. For more information about non-root user installation, see Installing agents as a non-root user.

70-character limitation for installation path

The installation directory and the path to it must be no more than 70 characters.

Ensure that the binary for bc is available on your system

The binary for bc is required to run prereq_checker when installing agents. But bc is missing on some Linux platforms, for example, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 and CentOS 7.6. You must install bc and set it in the PATH environment variable. You can run # which bc to check. If it is available, you can see the following message:

# which bc
/usr/bin/bc

If bc is not found, you can see the following message:

# which bc
which: no bc in (/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/sbin:/root/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin)

Specific operating systems

Specific agents

The following preinstallation tasks are applicable to the specified agents:

DataPower® agent

You must run the ulimit -d unlimited command to ensure that the max data segment size system environment variable is set to unlimited. This agent cannot be installed on the same machine as the DataPower appliance that you want to monitor.

DataStage® agent

1. Enable parameters in the DSODBConfig.cfg file. Complete the following steps:
   1. Open the DSODBConfig.cfg file at the following location in an editor:
      • infosphere_information_server_install_dir/Server/DSODB
   2. Uncomment the following parameters by removing # symbol:
      • MonitorLinks=1
      • JobRunUsage=1
      • ResourceMonitor=1
      • DSODBON=1
   3. Edit values of these parameters equal to 1.
2. Copy the JDBC driver of the database that is used for metadata repository configuration on the agent computer.
   1. Type 4 JDBC 4, or later. Example: db2jcc4.jar
   2. Type 4 JDBC driver for Oracle. Example: ojdbc6.jar
   3. JDBC driver for MS SQL:
      • Sqljdbc41.jar requires a JRE of 7 and supports the JDBC 4.1 API.
      • Sqljdbc42.jar requires a JRE of 8 and supports the JDBC 4.2 API.

HTTP Server agent

If you install this agent as a root user, you must use the same user ID to run and configure the agent.

If you install and run the agent as a non-root user, the non-root user must have the same user ID as the user who started the IBM HTTP Server. Otherwise, the agent has problems with discovering the IBM HTTP Server. You can use the same user ID to run and configure the agent.

Linux KVM agent

The Monitoring Agent for Linux KVM is a multi-instance and multi-connection agent and supports connections to the Enterprise Linux based KVM hypervisor and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager (RHEV-M) environments. You can create multiple instances of this agent to monitor multiple hypervisors in an RHEV-M or KVM hypervisor environment. You can monitor virtualized workloads and analyze the resource capacity across different virtual machines. To connect the agent to a virtual machine in the KVM hypervisor environment, you must install the prerequisites: libvirt*.rpm and Korn Shell Interpreter (pdksh). The agent collects metrics by connecting remotely to a libvirt hypervisor that manages the virtual machines.

Microsoft SQL Server agent

To monitor a Microsoft SQL environment, the Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SQL ODBC driver must be installed before you install the Monitoring Agent for Microsoft SQL Server. For example, to install the ODBC driver on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, use the following command:

sudo yum install unixODBC
sudo yum install msodbcsql17 

To complete the execution of prerequisite checker, the agent needs to be configured on the Cloud Application Performance Management Version 8.1.4.0 Server Interim Fix 15 (8.1.4.0-IBM-APM-SERVER-IF0015. tar) or later.

MongoDB agent

You must install and configure MongoDB agent on the system where the MongoDB Database Server or MongoDB Database Client is installed.

If you want to monitor MongoDB Server version 6.0 or later, then ensure that you install MongoDB Client version 5.x.x or earlier on the agent machine.

MySQL agent

After you start the agent installation and during the prerequisite check for the MySQL package name, you might get a warning if a provider other than Red Hat is used, such as Oracle. If the MySQL Server and JDBC driver are available, the warning does not cause the installation to fail, and you can disregard the message. Sample output:

Scenario: Prerequisite Scan
KSE - Monitoring Agent for MySQL Prerequisite Checker [version 01000005]:
Property                      Result Found       Expected 
========                      ====== =====       ======== 
os.package.mysql-server         WARN Unavailable mysql-server-5.1.12+
os.package.mysql-connector-java WARN Unavailable mysql-connector-java-5.
1.12+

Node.js agent

The version of Node.js that you use to run your monitored application must be the same as the default installed version.

Currently Node.js v5 is not supported.

OpenStack agent

Before you can use the OpenStack agent, you must have the following software on the server where you install the agent:

• Python 2.6.0 or later, or Python 2.7.0 or later
• Latest OpenStack clients:
  • OpenStack
  • Keystone
  • Neutron
  • Swift

  To install the OpenStack command-line clients, see Install the OpenStack command-line clients.

• Paramiko library for remote access in Python.
  Note: If you want to install the OpenStack agent on a clean RedHat Linux server, before you install the Paramiko library, run the following command to install the required software:

  wget https://ftp.dlitz.net/pub/dlitz/crypto/pycrypto/pycrypto-2.6.1.tar.gz
  yum install gcc/openssl-devel/libffi-devel

• KornShell

Oracle Database agent

On Red Hat® Enterprise Linux version 5 and version 6 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server version 11 and version 12 x64, if the Oracle Database agent monitors the Oracle database remotely, you must install the Oracle instant clients first. Install the Oracle instant clients from Oracle Technology Network - Instant Client Downloads.

The instant client v10.x, v11.x, and v12.x are supported by the Oracle Database agent.

libstdc++.so.5 is required when you install the Oracle Database agent on Linux for IBM Z. On SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 and 15 for IBM Z and RedHat Enterprise Linux 8 for IBM Z, libstdc++.so.5 is not installed by default. Ask your system admin to install before you deploy the Oracle Database agent.

PHP agent

If the PHP application is deployed by using the root user, you must use the root user to install, configure, start, or stop the agent. If the PHP application is deployed by using a non-root user, you can use root user or the same non-root user to install, configure, start, or stop the agent.

You must have an existing WordPress application installed. The PHP agent monitors WordPress V3.7.1 or later.

The agent evaluates only the performance of PHP requests in WordPress applications. CSS and JS loading are not evaluated.

The agent does not use URL arguments to identify URLs.

Python data collector

The Python data collector monitors Django applications.

Response Time Monitoring Agent

Before you install the Response Time Monitoring agent, review the installation planning section here: Planning the installation.

SAP HANA Database agent

1. Install SAP HANA database client HDBSQL version 1.00.102.06 or later on the Linux system.
   Important: For the RHEL 5.x 64-bit operating system, install the Linux SUSE 9 on x86_64 64bit SAP HANA database client instead of Linux on x86_64 64bit. For the RHEL 6.x, or later 64-bit operating systems, install the Linux on x86_64 64bit SAP HANA database client.
2. Run the following command to add the path of the installation directory to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable:

   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:install_directory_path

   Example: export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/sap/hdbclient, where /usr/sap/hdbclient indicates the installation path of the SAP HANA database client.

Important:

If the installation path of the SAP HANA database client is not added to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable, the prerequisite scanner returns the FAIL result.

The environment variable that you added by using the export command persists only for a particular session of the terminal. Therefore, ensure that you run the agent installation script from the same terminal that was used for adding the environment variable.

Synthetic Playback agent

To install the Synthetic Playback agent, the operating system user requires the following permissions:

• Enable read and execution permission for the installation image
• Enable write permission for the agent home

To run the Synthetic Playback agent, the operating system user requires the following permissions:

• Enable read, write, and execution permission for the agent installation location and its subdirectories and files.
• Enable permission to run Mozilla Firefox.
• Ensure that the Mozilla Firefox execution binary is in the PATH environment variable of the user's profile.

Before you install the Synthetic Playback agent, you must complete the following steps:

1. Synchronize agent installation locations with the Cloud APM console.
2. Install Mozilla Firefox and the Xvfb display server.
3. Verify that the Xvfb display server is working. Run the command:

   # Xvfb -ac

   There should be no error output.

4. Check that the Xvfb process is running. Run the following command:

   # ps -ef|grep Xvfb

   Sample output:

   root 7192 1 0 Jan14 ? 00:00:14 Xvfb -ac
   root 20393 17900 0 02:05 pts/0 00:00:00 grep -i xvfb

5. Stop the Xvfb process. Run the following command:

   # kill -9 7192

6. Navigate to install_dir/etc/hosts and edit the beginning of the hosts file to include the following parameters:

   127.0.0.1 localhost

   Then, save and close the hosts file.

WebSphere® Applications agent

• Before the agent is installed, the prerequisite checker checks that ulimit is set to 524000 on the Linux system. You must run the ulimit -d 524000 command to ensure that the max data segment size system environment variable is set to 524000.
• libstdc++.so.5 is required when installing the WebSphere Applications agent on Linux for IBM Z. On SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 and 15 for IBM Z, libstdc++.so.5 is not installed by default. Ask your system admin to install before deploying the WebSphere Applications agent. Otherwise, you will meet the following error:

  KYN - WAS Monitoring Agent [version 07301410]: 
  
  Property              Result       Found            Expected
  ========              ======       =====            ========
  os.lib.libstdc++_64   FAIL         Unavailable      regex{libstdc++.so.5}