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RackMonkey 1.2.5 Debian/Ubuntu Install Guide

RackMonkey 1.2.5 Documentation Index

RackMonkey Version 1.2.5
©2004-2009 Will Green (wgreen at users.sourceforge.net)
Licensed under the GNU Public Licence v2.

Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. System Set Up
  3. Installing RackMonkey
  4. Configuring the Web Server
  5. Configuring RackMonkey
  6. Database Set Up
  7. Running RackMonkey
  8. RackMonkey Plugins: Excel and DNS

1. Introduction

This document explains how to perform a fresh install of RackMonkey with SQLite on Debian or Ubuntu. If you wish to use a different database, please consult the generic installation instructions. For upgrades you should follow the upgrade document. For installation instructions for other operating systems see the README.

The following OS releases have been tested (all tests were on x86-64/amd64):

You need a web browser with JavaScript enabled to access the RackMonkey interface. Any reasonably standards-compliant browser should work, but the following browsers are officially supported:

Please note that the $ shown at the start of commands represent the shell prompt, you should not type it.

2. System Set Up

Debian and Ubuntu include packages for all the software you need to run RackMonkey. Run the following commands from a terminal and say yes to the installation of any dependancies:

$ apt-get install apache2
$ apt-get install sqlite3
$ apt-get install libdbi-perl
$ apt-get install libdbd-sqlite3-perl
$ apt-get install libhtml-template-perl
$ apt-get install libhtml-parser-perl

3. Installing RackMonkey

Once you have obtained a copy of RackMonkey (see README) you should have a directory with the following layout:

conf        RackMonkey and Apache configuration files
doc         Documentation for RackMonkey
perl        Perl scripts and modules
README      Read this first
sql         SQL to create the RackMonkey database
tmpl        Web interface templates
www         Web space files: images, CSS and JavaScript

Make a directory for rackmonkey in web space:

$ mkdir /var/www/rackmonkey

Copy the rackmonkey.pl file and the whole perl/RackMonkey directory to your new web directory and make the script executable:

$ cp rackmonkey-1.2.5/perl/rackmonkey.pl /var/www/rackmonkey
$ cp -r rackmonkey-1.2.5/perl/RackMonkey /var/www/rackmonkey
$ chmod 755 /var/www/rackmonkey/rackmonkey.pl

Copy the RackMonkey web content into the web directory (note the * in the following command):

$ cp -r rackmonkey-1.2.5/www/* /var/www/rackmonkey

Make a directory for template and data content:

$ mkdir /var/lib/rackmonkey
$ chown www-data:www-data /var/lib/rackmonkey

Copy the templates into the directory:

$ cp -r rackmonkey-1.2.5/tmpl /var/lib/rackmonkey

4. Configuring the Web Server

Copy the Apache configuration into place and reload the web server:

$ cp rackmonkey-1.2.5/conf/httpd-rackmonkey.conf /etc/apache2/conf.d 
$ /etc/init.d/apache2 force-reload

5. Configuring RackMonkey

Copy the default configuration file into /etc:

$ cp rackmonkey-1.2.5/conf/rackmonkey.conf-default /etc/rackmonkey.conf

Amend /etc/rackmonkey.conf as follows:

dbconnect = dbi:SQLite:dbname=/var/lib/rackmonkey/rackmonkey.db
tmplpath = /var/lib/rackmonkey/tmpl
wwwpath = /rackmonkey

6. Database Set Up

Set up the schema and data:

$ sqlite3 /var/lib/rackmonkey/rackmonkey.db < rackmonkey-1.2.5/sql/schema/schema.sqlite.sql
$ sqlite3 /var/lib/rackmonkey/rackmonkey.db < rackmonkey-1.2.5/sql/data/default_data.sql
$ sqlite3 /var/lib/rackmonkey/rackmonkey.db < rackmonkey-1.2.5/sql/data/sample_data.sql

Change the owner and group of the database to be that of the web server:

$ chown www-data:www-data /var/lib/rackmonkey/rackmonkey.db

7. Running RackMonkey

Point your web browser at one of the following:

http://localhost/rackmonkey/rackmonkey.pl (for local connections)
http://hostname/rackmonkey/rackmonkey.pl (for remote connections)

You should be greeted by the RackMonkey interface. If all is well, read the user guide under the 'Help' tab within the RackMonkey interface. If you get an error, check out troubleshooting and README for advice.

8. RackMonkey Plugins: Excel and DNS

The Excel export and DNS query plugins are optional. To use them you need to install two additional perl module packages (say yes to the installation of any dependancies if prompted):

$ apt-get install libspreadsheet-writeexcel-perl
$ apt-get install libnet-dns-perl

Then copy the plugins into place and make executable:

$ cp rackmonkey-1.2.5/perl/rack2xls.pl /var/www/rackmonkey
$ cp rackmonkey-1.2.5/perl/rackdns.pl /var/www/rackmonkey
$ chmod 755 /var/www/rackmonkey/rack2xls.pl
$ chmod 755 /var/www/rackmonkey/rackdns.pl

Finally you need to enable the plugins by uncommenting the relevant lines in /etc/rackmonkey.conf as follows (remove the # from the start of the lines):

plugin_xls = rack2xls.pl
plugin_dns = rackdns.pl

You should now find an 'Export XLS' button at the top of the device table views and a 'Query DNS...' link next to the device name in single device view. To see the single device view simply click on the name of a device in the rack or device table views.

RackMonkey 1.2.5 Documentation Index