Big Brother Professional Edition Client 3.00 Unix/Linux QuickStart Guide 11/25/2002 Big Brother Professional Edition Server – Unix QuickStart Guide TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Big Brother PE Quick Reference Card ________________________________________1 2. Prerequisites _____________________________________________________________3 2.1 Download BBPE _____________________________________________________________ 3 2.2 Download and Install Apache __________________________________________________ 3 2.3 Configuration of apache_______________________________________________________ 4 3. BBPE Server Installation___________________________________________________5 3.1 Introduction_________________________________________________________________ 5 3.2 Administrator’s Overview of BBPE _____________________________________________ 5 3.2.1 System Requirements_______________________________________________________________ 6 3.2.2 Security Issues ____________________________________________________________________ 7 3.3 Installing BBPE______________________________________________________________ 8 3.4 Pre-Installation Steps _________________________________________________________ 8 3.4.1 Obtain root permissions ____________________________________________________________ 8 3.4.2 Creating the BB user _______________________________________________________________ 8 3.4.3 Copying the BBPE Archive__________________________________________________________ 8 3.5 The BBPE Directory Structure _________________________________________________ 9 3.6 BBPE Variable Names and Home Directories ____________________________________ 10 3.7 BBPE Server Installation _____________________________________________________ 11 3.7.1 Running the Main Configuration Script _______________________________________________ 11 3.8 Editing the bb-hosts file ________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. 3.9 Checking the Configuration___________________________________________________ 16 3.9.1 Checking the bb-hosts file for errors __________________________________________________ 16 3.10 Starting BBPE ____________________________________________________________ 16 3.11 Verifying that BBPE is running______________________________________________ 17 3.12 Checking that BBPE is generating web pages __________________________________ 17 4. Configuration Of BB Hosts and Notification __________________________________19 4.1 Configuring the bb-hosts file.__________________________________________________ 19 4.1.1 Prefixes and Directives ____________________________________________________________ 20 4.1.2 HTTP __________________________________________________________________________ 21 4.1.3 POP3 __________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.4 SMTP __________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.5 FTP____________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.6 Telnet __________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.7 SSH ___________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.8 Procs___________________________________________________________________________ 22 4.1.9 CPU ___________________________________________________________________________ 23 4.1.10 Disk _________________________________________________________________________ 23 – ii – Big Brother Professional Edition Server – Unix QuickStart Guide 4.1.11 dns __________________________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. 4.1.12 dig __________________________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. 4.1.13 noping _______________________________________________________________________ 23 4.1.14 noconn _______________________________________________________________________ 23 4.1.15 dialup ________________________________________________________________________ 23 4.2 etc/bb-hosts special directives _________________________________________________ 23 4.2.1 Grouping on the display____________________________________________________________ 23 4.2.2 group Intranet Servers _____________________________________________________________ 24 4.2.3 group-compress California Servers ___________________________________________________ 24 4.2.4 group-only conn|cpu|disk Restricted Services _________________________________________ 24 4.2.5 DHCP hosts (no fixed IP address) ____________________________________________________ 24 4.2.6 Modem Banks ___________________________________________________________________ 24 4.2.7 Summary Lines __________________________________________________________________ 25 4.2.8 Display results in an HTML subpage _________________________________________________ 25 4.3 Notification ________________________________________________________________ 25 4.3.1 Notification by e-mail _____________________________________________________________ 25 4.3.2 Setting up notification _____________________________________________________________ 26 4.3.3 Creating notification rules __________________________________________________________ 26 4.3.4 Displaying acknowledgements ______________________________________________________ 26 5. Troubleshooting Common Problems _________________________________________27 5.1 “403 Permission Denied” Error________________________________________________ 27 5.2 Checking BBOUT for errors __________________________________________________ 27 6. Useful Resources ________________________________________________________27 6.1 Websites ___________________________________________________________________ 27 6.2 Technical support ___________________________________________________________ 27 – iii – Big Brother Professional Edition Server – Unix QuickStart Guide – 1 1. BIG B ROTHER PE QUICK R EFERENCE C ARD This is a list of information that will be required during and after the install of BBPE. Print out and complete this checklist prior to beginning the installation of BBPE. D You must be logged in as root for the BBPE install process. F D Need to have created a bb user (bb) F D You must have a working webserver on the BBPE server machine. F D User ID the webserver is running as: Group webserver is running as: D Note: This may not be the same group as the webserver user, see the “group line” in Apache’s httpd.conf file D Location of the Document Root directory: D Location of the CGI-BIN directory: D CGI-BIN URL: D BBPE URL: D Symbolic links must be accepted (Options FollowSymLinks) F D CGI scripts need to be working F D Need e-mail working to receive notifications F Record the hostkey presented during the installation in the space below, you will need it in order to get your permanent license key. D Hostkey generated during installation: Keep this in a safe place for future reference Big Brother Professional Edition Server – Unix QuickStart Guide – 2 P REFACE INTENDED AUDIENCE This guide is addressed to administrators seeking to install BBPE. It assumes basic knowledge of systems administration including the ability to download and decompress files, install precompiled packages, and editing of system files. DESCRIPTION AND FUNCTION OF BBPE Big Brother Professional Edition (BBPE) is a software tool for monitoring computer stations, devices, machines and processes. As long as the machines are connected to a network, the physical location of the station being monitored is not important. This means that computer networks can be monitored remotely, 24-hours a day. BBPE can generate a web page that can be viewed internally or externally. Notification can be by e-mail or a pager. Alarm levels are fully customizable. Network status can be public or private, depending on permission configuration. BBPE consists of two parts: a client (BBclient) and a server (BBserver). BBPE TERMINOLOGY Terminology is very important in understanding and running BBPE successfully. BB server - The default server used by BBPE is called the BBserver and contains the BBDISPLAY, BBPAGE and BBNET servers, which are defined as follows: BBDISPLAY (Display Server) – The display server is the machine that accepts incoming reports and prepares them for display. BBPE uses the Web as its user interface, so it can be accessed by anyone with clearance to access the BBPE site. This server is known as the BBDISPLAY server. BBPAGER (Pager Server) – The function of the pager server is to send a notification if alarm levels are exceeded. BBNET –Is the machine that performs all network tests for each protocol, for each system listed in the bb-hosts file. Not all protocols are supported. BB client – Is the machine to retrieve CPU, disk, messages, and process information. This may be loaded on the BB server. Big Brother Professional Edition Server – Unix QuickStart Guide – 3 THE BBPE ENVIRONMENT (USER) BB user – The user that is created who runs BBPE. For security reasons, BBPE cannot be run as root. NAMING CONVENTIONS The following default naming conventions are used throughout the book: Name of BB user bb Home directory of BB user /home/bb Home directory of BBPE /home/bb/bb30 Home directory of Apache /var/www/html cgi-bin directory of Apache /var/www/cgi-bin 2. PREREQUISITES 2.1 DOWNLOAD BBPE If you don’t already have a copy of the BBPE software it can be downloaded directly from the Quest Software website at http://www.quest.com/bigbrother.asp 2.2 DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL APACHE Quest Software does not provide support for the installation of Apache, however if you do not already have a webserver installed, precompiled versions of Apache can be