perfSONAR User Q&A and Other Discussion

[Philip Papadopoulos <>]

After.

I have subsequently followed the advice on this page:
http://forums.cacti.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=27584

specifically
update settings set value = '1' where name = 'auth_method';

and that gets me to a Cacti user login ... I think at this point it's now an "internal to cacti" issue.
Let me see how far I get.

On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 10:56 AM, Aaron Brown <> wrote:

Hey Philip,

Did you modify cacti.conf before installing the Toolkit RPMs, or after?

Cheers,
Aaron

On Jul 23, 2014, at 1:48 PM, Philip Papadopoulos <> wrote:

> Not much in the way of documentation -- basically add a perfSONAR roll just like any other
> roll - then do the normal perfSONAR configuration.
>
> cacti.conf:
> I just modifed the one that comes with cacti-0.8.8b7.el6.noarch to enable hosts other than local host
> [root@vi-1 ~]# cat /etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf
> #
> # Cacti: An rrd based graphing tool
> #
>
> # For security reasons, the Cacti web interface is accessible only to
> # localhost in the default configuration. If you want to allow other clients
> # to access your Cacti installation, change the httpd ACLs below.
> # For example:
> # On httpd 2.4, change "Require host localhost" to "Require all granted".
> # On httpd 2.2, change "Allow from localhost" to "Allow from all".
>
> Alias /cacti    /usr/share/cacti
>
> <Directory /usr/share/cacti/>
>         <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
>                 # httpd 2.4
>                 Require all granted
>         </IfModule>
>         <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
>                 # httpd 2.2
>                 Order deny,al
>
>                 Allow from all
>                 Deny from all
>         </IfModule>
> </Directory>
>
> <Directory /usr/share/cacti/install>
>         # mod_security overrides.
>         # Uncomment these if you use mod_security.
>         # allow POST of application/x-www-form-urlencoded during install
>         #SecRuleRemoveById 960010
>         # permit the specification of the rrdtool paths during install
>         #SecRuleRemoveById 900011
> </Directory>
>
>
> # These sections marked "Require all denied" (or "Deny from all")
> # should not be modified.
> # These are in place in order to harden Cacti.
> <Directory /usr/share/cacti/log>
>         <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
>                 Require all denied
>         </IfModule>
>         <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
>                 Order deny,allow
>                 Deny from all
>         </IfModule>
> </Directory>
> <Directory /usr/share/cacti/rra>
>         <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
>                 Require all denied
>         </IfModule>
>         <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
>                 Order deny,allow
>                 Deny from all
>         </IfModule>
> </Directory>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 10:18 AM, Jason Zurawski <> wrote:
> Hey Phil
>
> If you would like to share a redacted version of the rocks documentation, I can post that as well.
>
> With regards to cacti, that is an error we haven't seen before.  can you send the contents of "/etc/httpd/conf.d/cacti.conf"?  We don't have the final documentation ready for what will change with cacti, but will by the official 3.4 release.
>
> Thanks;
>
> -jason
>
> On Jul 23, 2014, at 1:00 PM, Philip Papadopoulos <> wrote:
>
> > FWIW,
> > I've created a Rocks roll for PerfSONAR (does not install the web100-modded kernel, since we often have other things that depend on the kernel and the mods introduce uncertainty (yes I know that the system then cannot be used as an NDT endpoint, but that seems OK).
> > I've updated this to 3.4rc2 for testing.   No significant issues, so far.
> >
> > On another topic,
> > Do you have a write-up on configuring Cacti on 3.4rc2, seems that things have changed.
> > I've gotten as far as getting the message when trying to look at cacti graphs of
> > "Error: Web Basic Authentication configured, but no username was passed from the web server. Please make sure you have authentication enabled on the web server."
> >
> > -P
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 9:52 AM, Jason Zurawski <> wrote:
> > Thanks for the information, I will update document.
> >
> > -jason
> >
> > On Jul 23, 2014, at 10:59 AM, Trey Dockendorf <> wrote:
> >
> > > Jason,
> > >
> > > I have this working, but not yet "refined".
> > >
> > > Basic steps:
> > >
> > > mkdir /mnt/perfsonar
> > > mount -o loop pS-Performance_Toolkit-3.3.2-NetInstall-x86_64.iso /mnt/perfsonar
> > > mkdir /tmp/perfsonar
> > > cd /tmp/perfsonar
> > > cat /mnt/perfsonar/isolinux/initrd.img | xz --format=lzma --decompress --stdout | cpio -id
> > >
> > > # There will be a 'centos6-netinstall.cfg' file in /tmp/perfsonar
> > > # Edit file
> > >
> > > Since I'm using Foreman (steps probably similar for Cobbler users) my PXELinux files are automatically generated, and look like this:
> > >
> > > -----
> > > default linux
> > > label linux
> > > kernel boot/CentOS-6.5-x86_64-vmlinuz
> > > append initrd=boot/CentOS-6.5-x86_64-initrd.img ks=http://<FOREMAN FQDN>:80/unattended/provision ksdevice=bootif network kssendmac
> > > IPAPPEND 2
> > > -----
> > >
> > > The files CentOS-6.5-x86_64-vmlinuz and CentOS-6.5-x86_64-initrd.img come from a CentOS mirror's "6/os/x86_64/images/pxeboot/vmlinuz" and "6/os/x86_64/images/pxeboot/initrd.img".
> > >
> > > Can likely also use files from "/mnt/perfsonar/images/pxeboot" once the perfsonar ISO is mounted.
> > >
> > > The kickstart file can be modified in various ways...here's example of what I changed:
> > >
> > > * Added "--proxy=http://squid.fqdn:3128" to "url" line and "repo" lines so that provisioning behind restricted NAT could reach external repos
> > > * Set timezone to "America/Chicago" (CST)
> > > * Changed auth line to "authconfig --enableshadow --passalgo=sha512"
> > > * Set "rootpw" line
> > > * Set partitioning to give 500MB to /boot, "--recommended" to swap and rest to / [1]
> > > * Add "network" line to set IP for public interface which was not used to kickstart
> > > * Remove "interactive" line
> > > * Add "reboot" line
> > >
> > > In the %post section:
> > >
> > > * Remove all items having to do with resizing filesystem and /home
> > > * chkconfig sshd on
> > >
> > > [1]: Partitions
> > >
> > > bootloader --location=mbr
> > >
> > > zerombr
> > > clearpart --all --initlabel
> > > part /boot --fstype=ext4 --size=500 --asprimary
> > > part / --fstype=ext4 --size=1 --grow --asprimary
> > > part swap --recommended
> > >
> > > More to come later.  Now that I see how the NetInstall is performed it seems rather trivial to setup a Puppet module to do the exact same thing since everything is packaged as an RPM.
> > >
> > > - Trey
> > >
> > > =============================
> > >
> > > Trey Dockendorf
> > > Systems Analyst I
> > > Texas A&M University
> > > Academy for Advanced Telecommunications and Learning Technologies
> > > Phone: (979)458-2396
> > > Email:
> > > Jabber:
> > >
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > >> From: "Jason Zurawski" <>
> > >> To: "Trey Dockendorf" <>
> > >> Cc:
> > >> Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2014 7:32:02 AM
> > >> Subject: Re: [perfsonar-user] PXE booting NetInstall & automated install
> > >>
> > >> Hi Trey;
> > >>
> > >> The community supplied documentation was for the previous version of
> > >> the toolkit software (3.2.x), so there are bound to be differences
> > >> between the underlying CentOS 5 and 6 operating systems.  If you are
> > >> able to get this working, I would be happy to include any notes you
> > >> make during the process into that document so it can be useful to
> > >> others.
> > >>
> > >> Thanks;
> > >>
> > >> -jason
> > >>
> > >> On Jul 21, 2014, at 7:53 PM, Trey Dockendorf <>
> > >> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> Jason,
> > >>>
> > >>> Thanks, that does help.  The steps in that document are slightly
> > >>> different than what I'm finding in the 3.3.2 image.  For example
> > >>> the ks file in that PDF doesn't exist.
> > >>>
> > >>> I found a kickstart file in isolinux/initrd.img, named
> > >>> 'centos6-netinstall.cfg'.  Should that file and a CentOS 6.5
> > >>> initrd be enough to kickstart a perfsonar box as if it was
> > >>> NetInstalled?  I also noticed the bulk of the NetInstall ISO's
> > >>> size is "images/install.img" but I don't see it referenced in any
> > >>> of the cfg files or the kickstart file...so likely some normal
> > >>> syslinux behavior being used that I'm just unfamiliar with.
> > >>>
> > >>> Thanks,
> > >>> - Trey
> > >>>
> > >>> =============================
> > >>>
> > >>> Trey Dockendorf
> > >>> Systems Analyst I
> > >>> Texas A&M University
> > >>> Academy for Advanced Telecommunications and Learning Technologies
> > >>> Phone: (979)458-2396
> > >>> Email:
> > >>> Jabber:
> > >>>
> > >>> ----- Original Message -----
> > >>>> From: "Jason Zurawski" <>
> > >>>> To: "Trey Dockendorf" <>
> > >>>> Cc:
> > >>>> Sent: Monday, July 21, 2014 4:14:19 PM
> > >>>> Subject: Re: [perfsonar-user] PXE booting NetInstall & automated
> > >>>> install
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Hi Trey;
> > >>>>
> > >>>> The perfSONAR project has found that everyone does things slightly
> > >>>> different, and as a result of that we try to make the toolkit as
> > >>>> fungible as possible to support all of the various approaches to
> > >>>> configuration management.  We know of people using puppet and
> > >>>> cfengine, they may be able to post recipes that are specific to
> > >>>> their use case.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> I can note that engineers from Penn State provided us a very
> > >>>> detailed
> > >>>> write up of the approach they took to netbooting images for their
> > >>>> statewide deployment, I have posted a PDF on this page:
> > >>>>
> > >>>> http://psps.perfsonar.net/toolkit/use-cases.html
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Hope this helps to get you started, and hopefully others can chime
> > >>>> in
> > >>>> as well.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Thanks;
> > >>>>
> > >>>> -jason
> > >>>>
> > >>>> On Jul 21, 2014, at 4:58 PM, Trey Dockendorf <>
> > >>>> wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> Is it possible to PXE boot the NetInstall CD, and if so does
> > >>>>> anyone
> > >>>>> have some steps on making the ISO into something that can be used
> > >>>>> with PXE?
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> I manage all my systems and all provisioning through Foreman, so
> > >>>>> it
> > >>>>> would be ideal if our PerfSONAR boxes could also be provisioned
> > >>>>> within Foreman.
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Does PerfSONAR support any kind of automated installation, or is
> > >>>>> it
> > >>>>> feasible to install the software on top of a stock CentOS 6.5
> > >>>>> host
> > >>>>> and have it function like it was installed via NetInstall method?
> > >>>>> It would be very useful if I could manage our PerfSONAR boxes
> > >>>>> using Puppet :)
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Thanks,
> > >>>>> - Trey
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> =============================
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> Trey Dockendorf
> > >>>>> Systems Analyst I
> > >>>>> Texas A&M University
> > >>>>> Academy for Advanced Telecommunications and Learning Technologies
> > >>>>> Phone: (979)458-2396
> > >>>>> Email:
> > >>>>> Jabber:
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Philip Papadopoulos, PhD
> > University of California, San Diego
> > 858-822-3628 (Ofc)
> > 619-331-2990 (Fax)
>
>
>
> --
> Philip Papadopoulos, PhD
> University of California, San Diego
> 858-822-3628 (Ofc)
> 619-331-2990 (Fax)

--
Philip Papadopoulos, PhD
University of California, San Diego
858-822-3628 (Ofc)
619-331-2990 (Fax)