Install Zenoss with RedHat or CentOS

Configure the BigPanda agent to send monitoring alerts from Zenoss.

The BigPanda agent is a low-footprint utility installed on the master host of your monitoring tool. It consumes alerts from the tool in real-time and then transmits them to BigPanda via TLS-encrypted HTTP calls.

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Python Compatibility

To use the Open Integration Manager for Agent-based integrations, Python version>= 3.8.0 and an Agent version >= 10.2 are required.

Prerequisites

python >= 3.8.0 is required for the latest version of the BigPanda Agent, and will be installed by the BigPanda Agent installer if it does not exist.

  1. Ensure python3 is installed with the following command:

    $ sudo yum install -y python3
    
  2. Verify the install with the following commands:

    $ python3 --version
    $ pip3 --version
    

Note: If pip3 was not installed as a dependency, it can be installed with sudo yum install -y python3-pip.

Note: Access to JFrog, pypi, and yum repositories are required to install all dependencies.

Install the BigPanda Agent on RedHat or CentOS

Connect to the host host that can access the API endpoints of RedHat or CentOS, and install the BigPanda agent package.

  1. Add a new yum repository to download the BigPanda agent package.

     $ sudo vim /etc/yum.repos.d/bigpanda.repo
    
     ...
    
     [BigPanda]
     name=BigPanda
     baseurl=https://bigpandaio.jfrog.io/artifactory/int-rpm/bigpanda/agents/
     enabled=1
     gpgcheck=0
     gpgkey=https://bigpandaio.jfrog.io/artifactory/int-rpm/bigpanda/agents/repodata/repomd.xml.key
     repo_gpgcheck=1 
    
  2. Update the yum repos list to add the BigPanda repo.

     $ sudo yum update 
    
  3. List all available packages with duplicates in the BigPanda repo.

     $ sudo yum list --showduplicates bigpanda-agent | expand
     
    Available Packages
     bigpanda-agent.x86_64        10.2.0-1.el7        BigPanda
     bigpanda-agent.x86_64        10.2.0-1.el8        BigPanda
     bigpanda-agent.x86_64        10.2.0-1.el9        BigPanda
     bigpanda-agent.x86_64        10.3.0-1.el7        BigPanda
     bigpanda-agent.x86_64        10.3.0-1.el8        BigPanda
     bigpanda-agent.x86_64        10.3.0-1.el9        BigPanda 
    

    Note: RHEL does not send the OS version to JFrog, so we need to cherry-pick the correct version for the OS.

  4. Install the BigPanda agent package.

     $ sudo yum install bigpanda-agent-<version-number> 
    

    Note: Append the version number to the package name, (i.e. bigpanda-agent-10.3.0-1.el7).

    Note: For the OIM, bigpanda-agent v10.0.0+ is required.

Configure the BigPanda Agent

Generate the agent's configuration file:

$ sudo bigpanda-config --init --token <Your Org Bearer Token>

And add the Zenoss plugin with the application key you created in step 1:

$ sudo bigpanda-config --add  --app-key <Your App Key>

When prompted, enter the base URL of the Zenoss.core web interface and a valid username and password.

Note: You may want to create a dedicated user for BigPanda, the required role is ZenUser.

Set Zenoss timezone

Zenoss uses the timezone that has been set in the system that it is installed on. Connect to the server Zenoss is installed on, check the timezone, and select it below.

Zenoss Timezone Configuration

Zenoss Timezone Configuration

Start the BigPanda Agent

Start the BigPanda agent service by running the following command:

  • For RHEL 7 and RHEL 8:
     $ sudo service bigpanda start
    
  • Verify the agents have started:
    $ systemctl status bigpanda
    

Troubleshooting

You should have the bigpanda directory with the bigpanda.conf config file located at /etc/bigpanda/bigpanda.conf.

If the configs are missing or the package did not set up correctly, stop the service the and reinstall the package.

  $ sudo service bigpanda stop
  $ sudo yum reinstall -y bigpanda

Success

You should be able to see all your active Zenoss alerts in the Incidents tab.