Installing an Agent on Linux

The standard eG agent software for Linux hosts is provided as a tar file. An accompanying script drives the installation process for the eG agent. The names of these tar files and scripts vary according to the different Linux flavors / bit-rates. The table below lists the tar files and the accompanying scripts for each Linux flavor that eG Enterprise supports out-of-the-box:

Linux Flavor	Tar File	Script File
Red Hat Linux 32-bit	eGagent_linux.tar	iAgent_linux
Red Hat Linux 64-bit, openSUSE, Tru64, CentOS, Fedora, Debian	eGagent_linux_x64.tar	iAgent_linux_64
SCO Unix	eGagent_linux.tar	iAgent_sco_unix
FreeBSD	eGagent_linux.tar	iAgent_freebsd
Linux on PowerPC LE	egagent_linux_ppc64le.tar	iAgent_linux_ppc64le

The steps involved in installing an agent on these platforms are:

1. To start the installation process, first copy the tar file and script file that correspond to the target Linux host to the same directory. In other words For instance the iAgent_linux or the iAgent_linux_x64 script or the iAgent_linux_ppc64le script (as the case may be), with the eGagent_linux.tar file or the eGagent_linux_x64.tar file (as the case may be) located in the same directory as the corresponding script file (i.e., iAgent_linux or iAgent_linux_x64).

   Note:

   The agent installation must be performed from aor tsuper-user account.

2. Next, specify the user account to be used for executing the eG agent. First enter the name of the eG user. The default value taken is “egurkha”.

   This script will install the eG agent. The eG agent must be installed and executed by a separate user. If you have installed the eG manager on the same system, you must use the same user and the same installation directory for the manager and the agent.

   Enter the name of the eG user [egurkha]:

   Note:

   • If the agent is being installed on the same system as the manager, the eG user configured for the agent should be the same as that used for the manager.
   • You can specify the name of an existing user or a new user here. If you provide the name of a new user, then the eG agent installer will automatically create an eG user with that name. By default, the user account so created will only be a normal user account, and not a service account. Because a service account is more secure, administrators of high-security environments may prefer to use a service account for agent installation and operations, instead of a normal account. Such administrators can do the following:

   • Start the agent installation process by running the following command on a 32-bit Linux host:

     iAgent_linux -s

     On 64-bit Linux hosts, run the following command:

     iAgent_linux_x64 -s

   • When prompted for a user name, specify the name of the eG user account you want the installer to create. Once you provide a user name, the installer will automatically create a service account with that name.
   • Then, proceed with the installation as described by steps 3 to 8 below.

3. Enter the group to which the eG user is to be associated [egurkha]:

   Then, enter the group to which the eG user is to be associated with. The default value taken is “egurkha”. The installation will attempt to create the user account if it does not exist on the system. If you specify an existing user name, then this group prompt will not appear.

4. Enter the directory in which the eG agent should be installed [/opt]:

   Next enter the path to the directory in which the eG agent will reside. The default base directory for the eG agent is /opt. A subdirectory named egurkha will be created under the base directory. If the base directory is not /opt, a symbolic link will be created from the egurkha subdirectory of the base directory to /opt/egurkha.

5. Would you like the eG agent to auto-restart on system boot-up? y/n [n] :

   The install process will now request the user to confirm installation of the auto-restart feature. This feature will enable the agent to start automatically every time the system hosting the agent reboots. Now, press y to install the auto-restart feature, or n to proceed without installing the same.

6. If the agent is installed on the same system as the manager some common files need not be reinstalled.

   The following files are already installed on the system and are being used by another package: Do you want to install these conflicting files [y,n,?,q] n         

7. As in the case of the eG manager, the agent package contains components that need to be installed with the set-uid permissions set. These components must be installed for the agent to function properly. Following this step, the eG agent components are extracted and stored.

8. Finally, the following message will be displayed depicting the success of the installation.

   The eG agent has been successfully installed! Please login as <eG user name> and run the script /opt/egurkha/bin/setup_agent to configure the agent.

Note:

• To install the eG agent on Tru64/FreeBSD/CentOS/openSUSE operating systems also, you will have to use the standard Linux package, and follow the installation procedure discussed above.
• A license is not required for installing an eG agent. However, the licensing terms of the eG manager should support the number of agents being deployed.