Setup Notes for Big Brother WARNING: For security reasons, it is best to install and run BB as its own user and not as root. (but use the root account during the install process, at the end you'll change ownership to the chosen BB user ID) *** READ THE README.SECURITY FILE BEFORE PROCEEDING *** You've extracted the BB archive and this is the directory structure that was created: bbnewversion/ (i.e. bb18/) referred as $BBHOME bbvar/acks/ referred as $BBACKS /data/ referred as $BBDATA /disabled/ referred as $BBDISABLE /hist/ referred as $BBHIST /histlogs/ referred as $BBHISTLOGS /logs/ referred as $BBLOGS 1. cd bb (i.e.: cd bb18) This is often referred to BBHOME or $BBHOME cd ./install ./bbconfig where OS-NAME is bsdi sco3 sco freebsd solaris hpux9 hpux linux sunos netbsd osf ultrix irix unixware redhat aix dynix debian dgux caldera mandrake Note that is optional, BB will try to figure it out. If you are running Linux you may have to provide the proper distribution name: ./bbconfig readhat ./bbconfig debian ./bbconfig caldera ./bbconfig mandrake ./bbconfig linux If you're not running one of the above, read the install/README ./bbconfig will ask you questions about your setup be ready with: BBHOME: directory where BB resides (usually the choice given by BB is correct) Should the old-style structure be kept If you intend to use FQDN(Fully qualified domain names) Which host(s) is(are) the BBDISPLAY(s) Which host(s) is(are) the BBPAGER(s) If the current host is a BBDISPLAY/BBPAGER Default e-mail recipient for notification URL you intend to view BB with URL of the BB CGI scripts The user id of your web server 2. cd ../src type "make" then type "make install" If you have trouble compiling, refer to the README file located at src/README for those who are upgrading then go to "upgrading BB" section 3. cd ../etc edit bb-hosts, put your hosts names in there. Refer to install/README. This is the core of Big Brother. You must read the docs here. edit bbdef.sh, set alarm levels and things. If you want to use fully qualified domain name hosts then make sure you set FQDN=TRUE in etc/bbdef.sh. If this is the first host you install and intend to use it as the display/notification server as well as the server that tests the network services then your bb-hosts should contain this line: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx this.host.name # BBDISPLAY BBPAGER BBNET 4. ./bbchkcfg.sh Checks the bbdef.sh/bbinc.sh/bbsys.sh source scripts for invalid entries ./bbchkhosts.sh Checks the bb-hosts file for errors 5. cd ../.. ln -s bbdir bb where bbdir is the new version directory (e.g. ln -s bb13a bb) This is useful as you don't have to change the directory in your startup script. (see section 11) cd bb chown -R bbuser . where bbuser is the user you defined in the install process. This makes sure that the bbuser can write/read into the BB directory structure as you will probably install it while in the root account. cd .. chown -R bbuser bbvar 6. ln -s /full_path_to_bb/www /WWW/bb (where /WWW is the Document Root dir). Make sure the permissions are correct. Configure your web server for this directory if need be. Also make sure that your web server follows symbolic links 7. cd bbdir where bbdir is the new version directory (e.g. bb13a) or cd bb if you've followed section 5 ./runbb.sh start examine the BBOUT file for any errors. By default the BBOUT log file is located in $BBHOME. The location of BBOUT is defined by the value of the BBOUT variable in bbdef.sh NB The HTML summary pages (bb.html/bb2.html) should be available 2 minutes after the startup. Don't panic the'll be there if you are patient. In your browser, you should be able to see the results at http://yourwebhost/bb/ or http://yourwebhost/bb/bb.html (assuming you used /bb as BB URL root) 8. Debug, and look at all the docs. 9. Check the online documentation! It lives under: http://bb4.com/bb/bb-help.html 10. This will have enabled you to have a display/pager server set up. At this point no clients are running. When you have all of your hosts defined in etc/bb-hosts then use install/bbclient to create a tarball for BB clients of the same OS/HW type. If you have different OS/HW platforms then reinstall BB on each one (then use the bbclient to create a tarball for each identical OS/HW client) and don't forget to copy your master bb-hosts file to it. Run through the install procedure to make sure that the clients are also installed properly(bbchkcfg.sh/bbchkhosts.cfg) 11. If you wish to start BB automatically at startup, we suggest the following command in your startup script: su - -c "cd ;./runbb.sh start" is the user you chose at install is the directory in which you installed BB or where you've created the bb directory link as per section 5. (e.g. bb18/) If you're new to BB, we suggest that you subscribe to the BB mailing list. To do so, follow these instructions: Send an e-mail to MajorDomo@bb4.com In the body of the e-mail message (not the Subject line), place the statement: subscribe bb Nick Silberstein has made an archive of the Big Brother mailing list available. It can be found at the URL: http://www.tpdinc.com/~bb/ When you have finished installing BB on all of your monitored hosts, you might want to check out the FTP archive that contains many contributed scripts. Check it out at ftp://ftp.deadcat.net/pub/BB