How to add Rocky Linux (& Other not supported Linux Flavors) to ControlUp

Disclaimer: I am a ControlUp employee but am posting this on my own. We officially only support the Linux flavors here: https://support.controlup.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001497917-Linux-Integration-with-ControlUp

Disclaimer 2: I am NOT a Linux expert, I consider myself a basic user for most Linux things.

With the recent rise of the truly community driven (beta) releases of Rocky Linux I thought it was time to see what would be needed to add Rocky Linux to the ControlUp console. If you want to know more about how and what with Rocky Linux I recommend reading my good friend Angelo Luciani’s blog post here. TLDR: Rocky Linux is a project from one of the CentOS co-founders and is supposed to be enterprise grade once GA is reached.

Adding the linux machines to ControlUp

Fixing Linux to work with ControlUp

Adding linux machines to ControlUp

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To compare the process with CentOS 7, 8 and Ubuntu 2004 LTS I have deployed fresh vm’s for these distributions. For Rocky and the CentOS vm’s I selected Server with a GUI, for Ubuntu I picked the default installation. All of them got 1 cpu, 2GB ram and 64GB disk space (overkill, yes I know). I also added the same user to all of them during the deployment. Network wise I just gave them a proper host name and selected dhcp as that was enough for this test.

The setup screen for Rocky Linux

To be able to add unsupported Linux Flavors you need to enable this in Settings > Agents

After deploying all 4 of the vm’s I added them to the ControlUp console with the same Linux Data collector.

I could use another credential that I setup in the past for my domoticz & Unify linux machines, after this click add to add the machines.

I entered the ip range to scan, hit scan, selected the 4 linux machines (note: CentOS 8 is not being reported as a not supported flavor, I have reported a bug for this), click add and hit ok twice.

By default the CentOS 7 machine is the only one working correctly.

if you see some weird negative number for CPU make sure to check your locale settings that it is the same as the regional settings on your Console/Monitor.

Now let’s make sure we get proper metrics in the console 🙂

Fixing Linux machines to work with ControlUp

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Rocky Linux needs the same fixes as CentOS 8, Ubuntu needs another step.

  1. Install gcc : for CentOS / Rock
    sudo yum install gcc

    or for Ubuntu

    sudo apt-get install gcc
  2. run
    ps -V
    1. if the output has ps from procps you need to remember the number 6
    2. If the output has ps from procps-ng you need to remember the number 7
  3. Create a file called a.c
    1. run:
      nano a.c

      (or vi, whatever you like)

    2. Add:
      1. #include <stdio.h> 
        int main() 
        {
          printf("6\n");
          return 0;
        }

        replace the 6 with 7 if you had procps-ng in the previous step

    3. save this file
  4. run:
    gcc a.c
  5. run:
    sudo cp a.out /bin/rpm
  6. Install sysstat: For Rocky Linux / CentOS
    sudo yum install sysstat

    or for Ubuntu

    sudo apt-get install sysstat
  7. Reboot ( yes I needed this)

For Rocky Linux and CentOS you’re done

For Ubuntu you will also need to install ifconfig from net-tools before the reboot

  1. run:
    sudo apt-get install net-tools

For me this was enough to have all four of these machines look properly in the ControlUp Console. Remember we might not officially support this way of working but it works good

Nutanix .Next 2019 Copenhagen Day 1

Having arrived in Copenhagen on Sunday I have had plenty of time to go for some sightseeing but yesterday things really started for me at the Nutanix .Next event in Copenhagen. I haven’t done any sessions to be honest but had a full schedule anyway. First we started of at the keynote with the NTC’s getting a shoutout from marketing Chief Ben Gibson and one of us on just before at the celebration of 10 years of Nutanix: Andrea Mauro. Several announcements where made during the keynote like Metro availability for AHV, one minute RPO for Xi Leap and ESXi availability for Xi Leap as well. For me the highlight was Julie O’Brien (VP of marketing ) doing a tech demo on stage.

What followed after the keynote was a lot of networking and offcourse the yearly NTC lunch. While it was only a small group it actually was great to catch up with everyone. Too bad Angelo didn’t have a microphone because he was singing with the music as usual.

In the afternoon I did a roundtable session about a new type of certification that Nutanix is exploring. This was with a small group of ntc’s and I have to say the discussions where great and what is actually the future of us engineers and what does an engineer actually do?

For the evening keynote Angelo got us in the executive lounge (that hadn’t been used a lot during the day according to some of the staff). Too bad the part with Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike wasn’t broadcasted but they made up for that at the awesome party in the evening. They did a great set with lots of oldskool music that got the croud really going.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B3aJOdWBeIK/

(yes my smartphone can’t handle 120+db’s of music)

 

Nutanix Technology Champion, what’s in it for you?

This week it was announced that applications for the 2019 Nutanix Technology Champions (NTC) are open. Despite not having worked with Nutanix in production in a while I have been a member of this great piece of vCommunity for two years now. Angelo, who runs the program, listed the benefits to include the following:

  • Early access briefings about Nutanix products and announcements
  • Access to private betas and insight into ongoing product development
  • Participation in exclusive meetings with engineering teams
  • Access to discussions on the Nutanix NTC slack channel with internal teams
  • Exclusive activities at our annual .NEXT conference including pre-show briefings
  • Support and Mentorship for those seeking NCP, NCAP and NPX career development

Let’s dive into these benefits a bit deeper.

Early access briefings about Nutanix products and announcements

Since I don’t work with the tech this is what really keeps me up to speed on what Nutanix is doing. While sometimes it’s hard for them to do it really early with the fast pace of developing new features or tools this still gives the edge for bloggers who like to blog about this. But it also gives us the possibility to provide feedback before it’s released for new ideas or enhancements.

Access to private betas and insight into ongoing product development

Again due to the high pace of developing at Nutanix the first part doesn’t happen too often but the second one does every now and then. Engineers pitch ideas during regular calls and use our reactions to those to see if it would be worth implementing.

Participation in exclusive meetings with engineering teams

See the previous point, it’s really valuable for both sides to give and receive the input on new developments.

Access to discussions on the Nutanix NTC slack channel with internal teams

Being a customer or partner this is the icing on the cake for you. Besides communicating with your fellow NTC’s every Nutanix employee can have access to our Slack Channel. I have been on the phone with support during an issue while on Slack I was able to give logs and other information that otherwise might have taken a bit more time to end up on their side. In here there are no stupid questions and if the person with the required knowledge isn’t in the channel someone else will invite them in. And it isn’t about Nutanix software only, if someone at Nutanix has the knowledge we will get them in there. Want to ask CEO Dheeraj Pandey a question? He’s in there as well!

Exclusive activities at our annual .NEXT conference including pre-show briefings

We always have a NTC lunch at .Next and several briefings up front so we know what to expect. Angelo is also a selfie maniac at conferences so you probably won’t get away without one posted on Twitter. Everywhere you go you’ll find another NTC around so like most conferences it’s a great place to make new and meet old friends.

(and no I never look good on selfies :D)

Support and Mentorship for those seeking NCP, NCAP and NPX career development

For this again the Slack channel is essential. After a call about the NPX certification ealy this year I pitched the idea to have a bootcamp in The Netherlands and that turned out to be a success as you can see in my blogpost about it.

Other things

Are there any other advantages than those that Angelo names? Yes there certainly are, all NTC’s get a free subscription to Pluralsight and on a regular base we have calls with vendors that also supply us with nfr licenses. For example we have access to hycu, Bitdefender and after the comming call also  Unitrends.

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter if you are a partner, customer or member of the greater vCommunity being a member of the NTC program is great benefit. Angelo really strives to help us grow in whatever we do and succeeds in that! If it isn’t about the knowledge then it is about expanding your network in this awesome thing that we call the vCommunity.