Install the BigPanda Agent for RedHat or CentOS

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.

Available Configuration Options

The generic BigPanda agent is available for configuration on the below systems:

• RedHat / CentOS
• Debian / Ubuntu
• Docker

Integrations that Require the BigPanda Agent

The following integrations leverage the BigPanda Agent:

• Icinga
• Nagios
• Nagios XI
• Opsview
• SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol)
• Tivoli EIF
• Zenoss

See the specific integration instructions for details on installation and configuration.

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.

Create an App Key

Create an app key in BigPanda.

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Integration specific

You'll need a separate app key for each integrated system.

Install the BigPanda Agent on RedHat or CentOS

Connect to the host where your Agent Tool server is installed, 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 or Centos 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>
$ sudo bigpanda-config --add listener --app-key <Your App Key>

When prompted, specify the locations of <agent tool>.log, status.dat, and objects.cache files.

The script output should look like this:

Log File Path: /var/log/<agent tool>/<agent tool>.log
Status Dat Path: /var/cache/<agent tool>/status.dat
Objects Cache Path: /var/cache/<agent tool>/objects.cache

Of course, the actual paths will depend on your installation.

Update Permissions

Give the agent read permissions to the objects.cache, status.dat and log files. A possible way to do it:

$ sudo usermod -a -G "<GROUP OF OBJECT CACHE FILE>,<GROUP OF LOG FILE>,<GROUP OF STATUS DAT FILE>" bigpanda

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

Next Steps

Find details about the BigPanda Agent Advanced Configuration

Learn to Configure the BigPanda Agent Log

Learn how to Integrate with BigPanda