The configuration of a Box (virtual or physical) is performed in two steps: firstly, the deployment of the new machine in the Web app followed by its configuration using an install script.

Notes

• For physical machines, you should follow the configuration procedure only if the Box provided by EasyVista is not shipped with a predefined configuration enabling its immediate deployment on the target network.

• You should also follow the configuration procedure if you need to replace an existing Box that is completely defective, i.e. unable to connect to the network or local console after a restart.
• You must follow specific procedures to replace a defective but still accessible Box (unstable or behaving unexpectedly) and migrate it to a new Box, or to migrate the Box to the latest Ubuntu version. 

Caution

• The new Box must be able to reach the EV Observe platform via HTTP and HTTPS.
• When generating the password for a Hyper-V Box, you must not use punctuation marks. This is because punctuation marks are not always correctly interpreted by the Hyper-V console and access will not be possible if there is no network connection.

Best Practice

• In the case of a virtual machine, we recommend that you expand the disk space to 20 GB in order to collect data over the next ten days in text files.
      See How to expand the disk space of a Linux partition for a Box

• Access to the Box is secured using a password.
  • You should replace the default password.
  • Use a password generator and create a strong password that includes 12 characters, upper and lower cases, numbers, punctuation marks and unique characters.

Procedures

How to configure the Box

Step 1: Deploy the new Box in the Web app

1. Select the company associated with the new Box.

• Go to the Web app.
• Select Configuration > General in the menu.

• Select the company associated with the new Box from the tree structure of companies and sites.

2. Create the new Box associated with the selected company.

• Select Configuration > General > Box in the menu.
• Click + Add.
          
• Specify the name of the new Box.
• Click Validate.
  • The creation process will start and may take a few minutes.
  • The new Box will be declared in the Web app.

Step 2: Configure the Box using an install script

Step 2.a: Run the Box installer

1. Log in to the new Box.

Note: You should submit a support request to obtain your login information.

2. Run the Box installer as the root user and run the commands below.

The install script will run.

• Press any key to start the configuration of the new machine.
          

3. Configure the Box in the order of the steps listed in the script.
 

Step 2.b: Configure the network

To perform the network configuration using DHCP

By default, the Box is configured using DHCP.

1. Press the <Enter> key.

The script will proceed directly to the next step of the configuration.
 

To perform the network configuration using a static IP address

1. Enter y in the script window.

2. Enter s to select a configuration with a static IP address.

3. Specify the following information and press the <Enter> key each time to validate your input.

• IP address: Static IP address to be used.
• Netmask [default = 255.255.255.0]: Subnetwork or subnet mask.
• Gateway [default = 192.168.192.254]: Gateway address.
• DNS Name-servers IP ('n' for next step): 192168192254: Address of the domain name servers.
  • Enter n or press the <Enter> key once you have specified all addresses.
  • Note: You must specify at least one DNS server.

• Local Network Name [default = lan]: domain.local: Suffix of the local DNS.
• Hostname (example: SNB_1): Name of the Box.

4. Enter y and press the <Enter> key to apply the network configuration to the Box.

5. Log in again to take the new IP address into account and proceed with the configuration.

Step 2.c: Download the configuration of the Box

Note: The configuration is performed using an API that runs on the Web server on the EV Observe platform. It requires a configuration installation token that is generated by the Web app.

1. Retrieve the installation token in the Web app.

• Select Configuration > General > Box in the menu.
          
• Click  next to the new Box.
  Information on the token will appear.
• Keep the window open and specify the relevant information in the install script.
          

2. Use the installation token to download the configuration from the install script.

• Enter y in the script window to download the configuration.
          

• Specify the URL of your EV Observe platform.
  • On-premises customers:
    • WebApp URL: URL of your platform in the following HTTP format, https://my.monitoring.com.
       
  • SaaS-based customers:
    • The URL of your Web app is https://servicenav.io : WebApp URL = https://snb-init.servicenav.io.
    • The URL of your Web app is https://azure.servicenav.io: WebApp URL = https://vpn-azure.servicenav.io.
      
      Note: If the URL of your Web app is different, you should submit a support request to obtain the URL to be entered.

3. Specify the information on the installation token you just downloaded.

• ID: Token ID.
• Installation Token: Token code.

Caution: The token has a lifespan of ten minutes. If it expires, you should click  in the Web app to generate it again.

Step 2.d: Configure the sending of notification emails

1. Enter y in the script window to run the configuration tool for the email service, Exim4.

2. Specify the information below based on the type of configuration you want.

To perform the configuration of the Exim4 service using SMTP

• Type of configuration: Direct distribution by SMTP (Internet website)
• System email name: Email address in the following format, my_company@my_domain.com
• List of Exim IP addresses awaiting incoming SMTP connections: 127.0.0.1
• Other destinations whose emails must be accepted: (blank)
• Domains to relay: Email address in the following format, my_company@my_domain.com
• Machines to relay: 127.0.0.1
• Minimize DNS queries (on-demand connections)? : No
• Local email distribution method: Format in /var/mail
• Separate the configuration into multiple files? : No
   

To perform the configuration of the Exim4 service using a relay server

• Type of configuration: Send via (smarthost) relay – no local email
• System email name: Email address in the following format, my_company@my_domain.com
• List of Exim IP addresses awaiting incoming SMTP connections: 127.0.0.1
• Other destinations whose emails must be accepted: (blank)
• Domain name visible to local users: Email address in the following format, my_company@my_domain.com
• Network name or IP address of the smarthost system: x.x.x (IP address of the relay email server)
• Machines to relay: 127.0.0.1
• Minimize DNS queries (on-demand connections)? : No
• Separate the configuration into multiple files? : No
   

At the end of the configuration, the server will restart automatically.
        

3. Run the commands below to check that emails are sent correctly.

Note: You should adapt the commands to your requirements.

Step 2.e: Finish running the install script

• Press any key to finish the configuration of the new machine.
          
   

Step 2.f: Synchronize with a time server

1. Open the configuration file called /etc/ntp.conf.

2. Specify the required time sources.

3. Run the command below to restart the ntp service.

Step 2.g: Secure access to the new Box using a password

1. Run the command below using the user account defined for SSH access.

Step 3: Set up monitoring for the new machine

    See the procedure

How to configure the network of a machine manually

Assign a static IP address

1. Run the command below to open the Netplan network configuration file called /etc/netplan/90-snb.yaml/.

2. Configure the network IP address in the section below.

3. Open the configuration file called /etc/resolv.conf.

4. Run the commands below to specify the IP addresses of the DNS.

Replace {DNS_local_domain} with the domain name of the local DNS.

Replace x.x.x.x with the IP addresses of the DNS provided in the inventory file.

Assign a dynamic IP address

1. Run the command below to open the Netplan network configuration file called /etc/netplan/90-snb-ens160.yaml.

2. Add the section below to the end of the file to configure the IP address of the network using DHCP.