AUGUST 2023

RACKWARE MANAGEMENT MODULE

V7.4 INSTALLATION GUIDE
– Version 3.08

RACKWARE INC
1 RackWare RMM Installation ................................................................................................................. 2
1.1 Pre-Installation .............................................................................................................................. 2
1.2 First Time Installation of RMM ..................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Administration Operations and Factory Reset.............................................................................. 7
1.3.1 RMM Administration Operations.......................................................................................... 8
1.3.2 Factory Reset......................................................................................................................... 8
1.4 Upgrading the RMM ..................................................................................................................... 9
2 Licensing................................................................................................................................................ 9
2.1 Professional Services................................................................................................................... 10
2.2 License Type ................................................................................................................................ 10
2.3 Functional Type ........................................................................................................................... 10
2.4 Server Limits................................................................................................................................ 10
2.5 Expiry........................................................................................................................................... 11
2.6 Licensing Process ........................................................................................................................ 11
2.7 Common license errors and warnings ........................................................................................ 11
2.8 Extending a license...................................................................................................................... 12
2.9 Operation Statistics ..................................................................................................................... 13

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1 RackWare RMM Installation
This document describes the installation of the Rackware Management Module (RMM).

1.1 Pre-Installation
Before beginning the installation of the RMM code, please verify the following that all the prerequisites
for the RMM server as described in Chapter 3 of the RMM Prerequisites and Operational Requirements
have been met.

Determine which interfaces on the server the RMM should listen on to communicate with the source
Hosts. During the installation you will be prompted for the interface(s) to use. If DHCP configured IP
addresses are used, they should not change during RMM operations or failures will occur.

If you will be using the RMM for DR, determine which disk devices you will be using to store the
captured images using zfs. See section 5.1 of the RMM Prerequisites and Operational Requirements
Guide. If you will be using the RMM only for migrations, no disk devices will be needed to store
captured images.

Verify that the RMM server has access to the yum repository (via the network, a DVD, a mirror site, or
locally), has access to the epel repository, and can be installed as root.

Verify that WAN connectivity from the source servers to the RMM server has been established, and that
name resolution is configured and working.

The following ports are required to the Internet:

• TCP port 443
• TCP port 80

*** These requirements are necessary only during the installation/upgrade. After a successful
installation, these requirements do not apply for normal RMM operation.

Execute a ‘yum update’ on the RMM server and then reboot the RMM server.

1.2 First Time Installation of RMM

The RMM installation file name has the form:

rackware-<VERSION>-x86_64.sh

Ensure that the permissions of this file allow for execution, and if not modify via chmod 755.

The RMM software is dependent on various libraries and utilities. The RMM installer checks for these
dependencies, and automatically installs any that are missing. The simplest and safest option to ensure
that all the correct packages are on the server is to have temporary access to the Internet for the server
prior to running the installer. Specifically, ports 80 and 443 should be open in the outbound direction
on the RMM and on any firewalls. Note that this step utilizes the standard distribution package
manager and requires Internet access.

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Internet access can be disabled immediately after installation.

Installing the RMM over an existing installation is supported and, in fact, is the mechanism for installing
a new version. In this case there will be an existing CMDB, and by default the installation process retains
that information. So after installation all existing resources will continue to reside in the CMDB.

1) From root user, execute:

./rackware-<VERSION>-x86_64.sh

2) Read and accept the EULA and the Microsoft licenses by entering "yes".

3) Answer the prompts.

There will be a series of prompts. Accept the default values for the Yes/No questions related to the
perl-CGI, EPEL package installation, and Modify iptables.

4) Download ISO for linux vcenter autoprovision

Answering ‘Y’ at this prompt will cause the RMM to attempt to download a 545 MB rescue cd file to the
/opt/iso/ folder. This file is relevant only when autoprovisioning linux machines into a vCenter.
However, depending on the exact version of RMM you have and the files available on the 3rd party web
site, the download may be ineffective. Therefore, please accept the default value of ‘N’.
If you are planning on using the RMM to autoprovision linux machines into a vCenter, then please
contact RackWare support at [email protected] and ask for the latest rescue cd file.

5) log rotate
Accepting the default will mean that the RMM’s by-jobid log files will be kept for 15 days before being
deleted. Depending on the length of your project and the frequency and number of syncs that will be
done, you may wish to make that time longer.

6) RMM-Hub
Unless you are using the RMM-Hub feature, accept the default of N for this prompt.

7) GUI Selection
When prompted for the RMM GUI type, select [L] for RMM Lite.

8) Password for GUI

When prompted for the ‘admin’ password, enter a password that is valid according to the passwords
policies of the OS on which the RMM is being installed. This password will be used to log in to the RMM
GUI as the admin user

9) Passphrase
When prompted for a passphrase, enter a passphrase. Once the installation is complete, you will not
need to know the passphrase. This passphrase is used to encrypt sensitive data in the CMDB using
AES with a 128-bit key

10) ZFS

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 ZFS packages will then be installed on the server if they are not already installed. (Note – it is normal
for the installation to appear to pause for a few minutes after a line similar to “Installing : zfs-dkms-
0.8.2-1.el7.noarch 7/8” is displayed.)

You will then be prompted to add a disk to the RMM Storage Pool. If using the RMM for DR or using
staged syncs, enter Y to add a disk. If using the RMM only for migrations, enter N.

If you entered Y, you will then be shown a list of the existing devices on the server. The ones that are
shown as being “free” can be added to the rmm’s storage pool. Ones that are not free can be used,
but all data on them will be destroyed.
You will then be prompted to select a disk device which can be added to the RMM’s pool of storage.
Enter ‘A’ to add a disk (e.g. /dev/sdd) and ‘F’ once you have added all the disks you wish to the RMM’s
storage pool. The RMM adds any disks specified to the default pool named “rwzpool” with a default
compression algorithm of “lz4”.

After the RMM is installed ZFS can be configured using the ‘rwadm zfs configure’ command if needed.

11) Ethernet Interfaces

When prompted for the interfaces on which the RMM will listen, add each of the interfaces the RMM
will use to communicate with the source hosts.

12) NTP
The next prompt will ask if the RMM should configure an NTP server.
In order for the RMM to come up properly, the RMM must have access to an NTP server, unless a
professional services license is installed (see section 2 “Licensing”).
The default value of N to this prompt means that the RMM will use as the NTP server the default of
pool.ntp.org.
If Y is chosen for this prompt, then you will be prompted to enter the name of the NTP server you would
like the RMM to use.
If the NTP server being used by the RMM is not reachable from the RMM then RMM's license will be
temporarily disabled and thus the RMM will not come up.

13) NAT
The next prompt will ask if a NAT IP needs to be added. Unless otherwise instructed by RackWare,
accept the default value of [F]

14) Licensing
For an initial installation, there will then be messages

License not found in /etc/rackware/. Generating the preinstall file

PreInstall file generated at /etc/rackware/rwlicense_preinstall_xxxxxxxxxx. Please email this file to
[email protected] to get the license.

and

WARNING: No license file found for rmm. Cannot start RMM Process.

Following this, there will be a message “Reboot required for changes to take effect”

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Copy the file /etc/rackware/rwlicense_preinstall_xxxxxxxxxx off of the RMM server and email it to
[email protected]. Then reboot the RMM server. The licensing team at RackWare will then
send you a license file specific to your server. When received, place the license file in the
/etc/rackware directory of the RMM server.

For more details on licensing see Chapter 2 Licensing.

Once the license key has been installed, the rmm software will need to be manually started. This is done
by entering:

[root@rmm-install rackware]# rwadm start all

CentOS Linux release 7.7.1908 (Core)
Found supported RedHat/CentOS release.
CentOS Linux release 7.7.1908 (Core)
Starting: httpd ... Done.
* running: httpd[6468]
Starting: target ... Done.
* running: target[]
Starting: rsyslogd ... Done.
* running: rsyslogd[6547]
Starting: rackware ... Done.
* running: rmm[6676]
Starting: crond ... Done.
* running: crond[6946]
For any installation failures consult the rwadm.log at /var/log/rackware/rwadm.log. Contact
RackWare with this information.

15) Verify the RMM Installation

A couple of commands will ensure that the software is installed correctly.

This series of tests will:

• Verify that the RMM is running.
• Query general information about the RMM.

15a) Verify the RMM is running correctly.

$ rwadm status all

*** Note that rwadm commands should be run from root.

The expected output is similar to

[root@rmm-instance-02 opc]# rwadm status all

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.6 (Maipo)
Found supported RedHat/CentOS release.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 7.6 (Maipo)
Dependent services:
* running: httpd[21177]

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 * running: target[]
* running: rsyslogd[21265]
* running: rmm[21394]
* running: crond[21739]

Note - on some servers, syslog-ng rather than rsyslogd may be running

if any services are in the ‘stopped’ state, run:

$ rwadm start <service_name>

If the services are not starting reboot the RMM server. Note rwadm commands must be run from
root or sudo with root privileges.

If after rebooting, the services still have problems starting, examine the file
/var/log/rackware/rwadm.log for more details, and consult RackWare.

15b) Query the RMM.

$ rw rmm show

This will display general information about the RMM. For example:
[root@bob-rmm01 ~]# rw rmm show
RMM Info
Software version : v7.4.0.186
Build date/time : Aug 18 2020 at 16:19:45
Uptime : 8 day(s), 22 hour(s), 31 minute(s), 42 second(s)
Installation Time : Fri Jul 17 11:26:18 2020
System Date/Time : Thu Sep 3 12:20:13 2020
Environment
LocalConfigDB : /opt/rackware/data/rmm.db
RemoteConfigDB : /opt/rackware/data/rmm.db
RmmInterfaces : eth0
Configuration
Default boot method: tftp
RMM IP Interface:
Configured RMM Roles
ROLE : RMM_ROLE_STANDALONE
Configured RMM Hub(s)
Plugins
None installed
Operation Statistics
Total Host Captured : 1
Total Assign Operations : 0
Total Data Migrations : 0
Total Hosts Discovered : 1
License Data
Version : 2.5

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 Type : Production
Functional Type : Disaster Recovery
Limits Install Date Expiry Date Validity
------------ ------------------------ ------------------------ --------
19/20 remain Fri Jul 17 11:26:19 2020 Wed Jan 13 10:26:19 2021 Valid

Storage monitoring status : Running

You have new mail in /var/spool/mail/root

15c) Query the available storage available to the RMM with the ‘rw
pool show’ command. Verify that the rwzpool is shown and that the
ZPOOL is Enabled.

[root@rw-install rackware]# rw pool show

======================================
Regular Pool Info: array-iet:default
======================================
TotalSize TotalUsed Available Capacity Path Mount On
--------- --------- --------- -------- ----------- --------
38.06 GB 10.77 GB 27.29 GB 29% /srv/images /

==============================================================================
ZFS Pool 'rwzpool'at /srv/images Info: ZPOOL_ENABLED
==============================================================================
TotalSize TotalAllocated Available TotalLogicalUsed TotalCompressRatio Compression Dedup DedupRatio Capacity Fragmentation
--------- -------------- --------- ---------------- ------------------ ----------- ----- ---------- -------- -------------
99.50 GB 516.00 KB 96.39 GB 129.50 KB 1x lz4 off 1x 0% 0%

16) Predefined Users

The RMM integrates user authentication with the Linux server that it is running on. Linux users on the
RMM server must be defined to the RMM as viable users to operate the product. There are two Linux
users automatically configured to operate the RMM product as part of installation.
• root
• admin

The root user is pre-existing, and the installation process automatically adds the "admin" Linux user (via
"useradd admin" Linux command). The password for the admin is set during the installation procedure
based on user input.

17) Firewall Ports

Ensure that any firewall between the RMM and Client Hosts has the appropriate ports opened. See the
RMM Prerequisites and Operational Requirements manual for details.

1.3 Administration Operations and Factory Reset

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During installation, if the RMM was previously running, the CMDB will be backed up prior to install, and
restored post-install. Re-Installation is a safe process, and will not change any configurations unless
instructed to do so in the installer.

1.3.1 RMM Administration Operations

Basic operations to start and stop the RMM include:

$ rwadm restart
$ rwadm start
$ rwadm stop

To restart all dependent services:

$ rwadm restart all

To rerun the installation in order to update configuration settings such as rwnat.conf and IP addresses
for the RMM to listen on run:

$ rwadm init

Running rwadm init will retain all existing CMDB objects.

Run rwadm -h for help on rwadm options.

1.3.2 Factory Reset

If the administrator wishes to reset the RMM to a factory installed state (i.e. - a blank CMDB, and the
destruction of all previously captured images), enter the following command
WARNING: Using rwadm with ‘-F’ permanently destroys all previously captured images!
$ rwadm -F restart
CentOS release 6.6 (Final)
Found supported RedHat/CentOS release.
Stopping: rmm ... Done.
* stopped: rmm
Starting: rmm ...
Cleaning logs ...find: `/var/log/rackware/uniramfs': No such file or
directory
All Rackware logs removed.
Removing sync policies...
Done.
* running: rmm[14075]

After this command, all previous CMDB entries will be gone.

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After doing ‘rwadm -F restart’, if an attempt is then made connect to the RMM via a web browser, the
RMM GUI will not come up properly. There will be a message
“Rackware RMM Installation Incomplete
The RMM has not been fully installed. Please finish or re-install the RMM to be able to access
the RMM GUI.”
Before connecting to the RMM via a web browser, please issue the command
rwadm gui select
This will bring up the GUI Selection prompt, the same prompt as in step 7 in section 1.2. Select [L] for
RMM Lite. Then when you connect to the RMM via a web browser, the RMM GUI will come up
successfully.

1.4 Upgrading the RMM

Upgrading the RMM is done by running the new RMM installer file (./rackware-
<VERSION>-x86_64.sh) on the current RMM server. All existing information in the RMM’s CMDB
is retained during the upgrade. A subset of the prompts issued during an initial installation will be
issued during an upgrade. See First Time Installation of RMM for a description of the prompts and the
appropriate responses.
During the upgrade process the RMM will be restarted, so upgrading the RMM should be done
only when there are no operations in progress on the RMM. This includes having active DR policies,
which could cause syncs to be started while the upgrade is in progress. If there are operations in
progress, you will see a prompt such as
Running operations on RMM:

Active DR policy
----------------
drpol1

There are running operations on the RMM.

Force upgrading at this stage will possibly lead to data

loss.

Do you want to force upgrade the RMM ? (yes/no)

If you know that there will be no syncs/captures/assigns/discovers run during the installation
timeframe, then answer ‘yes’. Otherwise, answer ‘no’ and wait for any operations in progress to
complete, and/or pause the DR policies.

In prior versions of RMM (i.e 7.3.x.x) the use of a zfs storage pool for captured images was
recommended, not required. In the 7.4 version of RMM, the use of a zfs storage pool for captured
images is required. If you captured any servers using non-zfs storage for the images using an earlier
version of RMM, those servers will need to be recaptured using RMM 7.4.

2 Licensing

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When you purchased the RMM product, you purchased a license type with a specific function for a
certain number of servers which is valid for a particular period of time.

2.1 Professional Services

If the license was purchased along with RackWare Professional Services, then the version of the license
will include the words “Professional Services”. If the RMM has a Professional Services license, then the
RMM does not need access to an NTP server in order to come up, and the license will not expire even if
the RMM has been powered off for over 8 days (see section 2.5 “Expiry”).

2.2 License Type

The License Type determines the class of license you have. The License type will be
Production, or Marketplace.

A Production license is the standard license type, and has a flexible duration and allows you to
discover, migrate, or protect a large number of servers.

A Marketplace license is one ordered through one of the Marketplace portals and has
functionality tailored to that Marketplace. If an RMM is ordered through a Marketplace with a BYOL
license, then a Production license will be used.

Any License Type may be combined with any Functional Type.

2.3 Functional Type

Your license has one of three functional types:
1) Discover - this function allows your RMM to discover servers and gather information about them.
Reports containing this information can then be generated

2) Migration - This function allows your RMM to perform discover, capture, and manual sync operations.
Using these operations you can migrate servers from an on-premises location or a cloud to another
cloud or another on-premises location. The migration function is a superset of the Discover function.

3) Disaster Recovery - In addition to everything that a Migration functional type allows the RMM to do,
this type of license allows you to assign waves of servers to DR Policies, so that syncs can be done in an
automated fashion and allows you to take snapshots of your origin servers so that you can restore those
servers to a certain point in time, including restoring a single file to a previous version.

2.4 Server Limits

The license allows the functional operations in the previous section to be performed on a certain
number of servers. This number is shown under the Limits column in the License Data area of the ‘rw
rmm show’ output. The Limits are expressed as “R/T Remain”, where T is the total number of servers
your license permits operations to be performed on, and R is the amount of those that have not yet
been used.

A server in this context is a source/production server. If the T value is 10, then there are 10 servers on
which the RMM can perform the Functional Type (Discover, Migration, or Disaster Recovery) of

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operations on before the license is exhausted. If the Functional Type is Disaster Recovery, then each of
those 10 servers can be discovered, captured, migrated, put into a DR Policy via a Wave, and have
snapshots taken and restored. Each of those operations can be performed on those 10 servers
multiple times if needed.

The first time an operation is performed on a server, the R value will be decremented. After that, the R
value will not be decremented because of any other operation performed on that server.

When the R value becomes 0, the RMM will not perform any operations on new servers. Contact
[email protected] if you need additional servers to be a part of your license.

2.5 Expiry
A license has an expiry date. After the expiry date the RMM will no longer perform any operations on
the servers covered under this license, nor will the RMM perform operations on new servers even if the
R value under Limits is greater than 0. Contact [email protected] if you would like to have
your license extended.

Please note that if the RMM is powered down for more than 8 days the license will automatically expire,
no matter what the expiration date (unless the license is a Professional Services license). Please
contact [email protected] if you know you will be powering off the RMM for more than 8
days.

2.6 Licensing Process

1. When installing the RMM for the first time on a server, a pre-install file will be generated.
Following is the sample output:

Stopping: rmm ... Done.

* stopped: rmm
License not found in /etc/rackware/. Generating the preinstall file
PreInstall file generated at /etc/rackware/rwlicense_preinstall_1475562473.
Please email this file to [email protected] to get the license.

2. Email this file to [email protected]

3. RackWare will generate a license. Place this license in /etc/rackware
4. Execute: rwadm restart

2.7 Common license errors and warnings

When the RMM has performed an operation on 90% of the servers that the license allows, the RMM will
start issuing a warning whenever an operation is performed on a new server
For example:

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 If the license allows for operations to be performed on 100 servers, and an operation has been
performed on 89, when an operation is performed on the 90th server, the RMM will issue a
warning as follows:

# rw host capture 1.2.3.4 --clonename image-4-new-server --flex

…WARNING: License limit will exhaust after 10 operation(s).
Please consider renewing the license at the earliest.

1. When performing an operation on a new server would cause the license limit to be exceeded,
the license limit is said to have been exhausted.

# rw host capture 1.2.3.5 --clonename image-4-new-server2 --flex

NTC_LICENSE_LIMIT_STATUS STATUS_ERROR
ERROR: The license limit for this operation has exhausted
Please renew the license to perform this operation.

2. All licenses have expiration dates. When a license expires, the following error message is shown:

# rw host discover 10.2.3.4 -n licensedemo --flex …

NTC_LICENSE_LIMIT_STATUS STATUS_ERROR
ERROR: The license has expired.
Please renew the license to perform this operation.

3. The RMM starts issuing warnings 30 days before the license expires.

# rw host discover 11.2.3.4 -n licensedemo2 --flex …

WARNING: License expires after 20 day(s).
Please consider renewing the license at the earliest.

2.8 Extending a license

The RackWare licensing process allows the following:

• Extend license limit (i.e., how many servers can be migrated/protected)
• Extend license expiry
• Upgrade to a higher functional type (i.e. Migration to Disaster Recovery)

For each of these cases, the preinstall file needs to be generated. (Note – before issuing the ‘rwadm
relicense’ command, please contact [email protected] and let them know which type of
license change you need). The preinstall file can be generated using the following command:

# rwadm relicense
CentOS release 7.7 (Final)
Found supported RedHat/CentOS release.

WARNING: This command will generate a new preinstall file but will also
INVALIDATE the existing license on next RMM restart.

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If you wish to continue using RMM till you get the new license, DO NOT STOP
RMM after running this command.
Do you wish to continue? (Y/N) [N]: Y
PreInstall file generated at /etc/rackware/rwlicense_preinstall_1475553975.
Please email this file to [email protected] to get the license.

Please then do the following:

1. Email the preinstall file to [email protected]

2. RackWare will generate a license and send it to you. Place this license in the /etc/rackware/
folder on the RMM server
3. Execute: rwadm restart

2.9 Operation Statistics

The ‘rw rmm show’ output contains an Operation Statistics field

Operation Statistics
Total Host Captured : 1
Total Assign Operations : 0
Total Data Migrations : 0
Total Hosts Discovered : 1

These statistics are informational only. They are not used by the licensing algorithm to determine if a
license limit has been exceeded.

Total Host Captured - the number of times a ‘capture’ operation has completed successfully

Total Assign Operations - this is incremented only when a legacy ‘image assign’ command was
completed successfully. Since the 7.4 release does not support legacy operations, this field will never
be incremented

Total Data Migrations- The number of successful initial ‘host sync’ operations plus the number of
“image assign --flex” operations plus the number of successful Stage 2 Sync Autoprovision operations

Total Hosts Discovered - The number of hosts discovered via an explicit “discover” command, or as
part of a capture operation, an initial ‘host sync’ operation, or as part of a Stage 2 autoprovision
operation

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