Worldwide many IT infrastructures are running Linux on one of their servers. This opens the door to an endless number of different possibilities thanks to the many professional applications that support Linux natively. And if we are talking about such an important step as monitoring, then it is even more important to take advantage of it. So, in this post, I will show you how to install PandoraFMS on Ubuntu 18.04.
PandoraFMS is a web application that allows the monitoring of multiple operating systems. All this allows having the control of all your IT infrastructure without many problems.
Fortunately, PandoraFMS has a version for Linux and although it is not free it also has a community version that we can install to have the potential of PandoraFMS without any cost. This makes it ideal for small or educational projects.
Many of the features of PandoraFMS are focused on the new generation of monitoring. So it is an ideal solution for our times.
Let’s go for it.
Install PandoraFMS on Ubuntu 18.04
1.- Install LAMP on Ubuntu 18.04
The PandoraFMS server is installed on a computer and for the data visualization, it includes a web application made with PHP. So, first of all, you have to have a fully functional webserver.
On the other hand, PandoraFMS requires a database manager like MariaDB to manipulate and store all the information it needs to work.
In short, you have to have a LAMP server. For it, read our post about this:
How to install LAMP on Ubuntu 18.04?
It’s also good to take into account that these are all the dependencies of PandoraFMS:
php7.2 php7.2-common php7.2-gmp php7.2-curl php7.2-mbstring php7.2-xmlrpc php7.2-mysql php7.2-gd php7.2-bcmath php7.2-xml php7.2-cli php7. 2-zip php-php-gettext php-gettext php-pear php7.2-zip php7.2-sqlite3 php7.2-snmp php-db graphviz php7.2-curl php7.2-ldap dbconfig-common
After you have finished with the installation, you can continue.
2.- Configure MariaDB instance
With the arrival of the new versions of MariaDB the plugin of the root password has been updated and this for PandoraFMS is necessary. However, in this version of MariaDB you have to make the adjustment.
For it, open the MariaDB console and execute the following commands:
:~$ sudo mysql -u root -p
> USE mysql;
> UPDATE user SET plugin='mysql_native_password' WHERE User='root';
> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
> EXIT;
Now we can continue.
3.- Download and install PandoraFMS on Ubuntu 18.04
Once we have the server ready, we can download and install PandoraFMS without problems. For this, I will use the wget command and I will do it from the tmp folder.
:~$ cd /tmp/
:~$ wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/pandora/files/Tools%20and%20dependencies%20%28All%20versions%29/DEB%20Debian%2C%20Ubuntu/wmi-client_0112-1_amd64.deb
:~$ wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/pandora/files/Pandora%20FMS%207.0NG/743/Debian_Ubuntu/pandorafms.console_7.0NG.743.deb
:~$ wget https://sourceforge.net/projects/pandora/files/Pandora%20FMS%207.0NG/743/Debian_Ubuntu/pandorafms.server_7.0NG.743.deb
To finish the downloads, we proceed to install it with the following command:
:~$ sudo dpkg -i pandorafms.console_7.0NG.743.deb pandorafms.server_7.0NG.743.deb
Please, now, point your browser to http://your_IP_address/pandora_console/install.php and follow all the steps described on it.
Setting up pandorafms-server (7.0NG.743) ...
Linking pandora_exec...
Creating common Pandora FMS directories
Giving proper permission to /var/spool/pandora
Creating setup directory in /etc/pandora
Skipping creation of pandora_server.conf: there is already one.
Skipping creation of tentacle_server.conf: there is already one.
Enabling start-up pandora & tentacle server daemons
Synchronizing state of pandora_server.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable pandora_server
Synchronizing state of tentacle_serverd.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install.
Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable tentacle_serverd
Create the Cron script to run hourly Pandora DB tool
Please, now, edit the /etc/pandora/pandora_server.conf and launch the Pandora Server with /etc/init.d/Pandora .
Then run this command to prevent any un-configured packages from causing problems.
:~$ sudo apt-get -f install
The next step is to start the PandoraFMS service. Then you can check the status of the service to know if everything has gone well.
:~$ sudo systemctl start pandora_server.service
:~$ sudo systemctl status pandora_server.service
● pandora_server.service - Pandora FMS server daemon
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/pandora_server.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: inactive (dead) since Mon 2020-03-16 13:39:31 UTC; 1s ago
Process: 28037 ExecStart=/usr/bin/pandora_server /etc/pandora/pandora_server.conf -D (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Mar 16 13:39:28 virtual systemd[1]: Starting Pandora FMS server daemon...
Mar 16 13:39:31 virtual pandora_server[28037]: Pandora FMS Server 7.0NG.743 Build 200129 Copyright (c) 2004-2020 Artica ST
Mar 16 13:39:31 virtual pandora_server[28037]: This program is OpenSource, licensed under the terms of GPL License version 2.
Mar 16 13:39:31 virtual pandora_server[28037]: You can download latest versions and documentation at official web page.
Mar 16 13:39:31 virtual pandora_server[28037]: [*] Backgrounding Pandora FMS Server process.
Mar 16 13:39:31 virtual systemd[1]: Started Pandora FMS server daemon.
Now we can complete the installation using the web interface.
4. Install PandoraFMS on Ubuntu 18.04 (II)
Now we can complete the installation from the PandoraFMS web interface. To do this, go to the following address:
http://your-server/pandora_console/install.php
And you’ll see the following:
In the image above, you can see some tips and warnings before you start.
Then when you click on Next, you will see the license terms.
By accepting the license terms, the installer will check the server to see if we meet all the requirements.
In the next screen, you have to configure the new database. Remember that PandoraFMS needs to work with the root user. At least at the beginning. So fill in the required fields and click on Next.
If everything went well, you’ll see a message like this:
There’s something very interesting in this window. After we complete the installation, we have to modify the PandoraFMS configuration file with the data that this screen shows us, which are the database and the password of this user “pandora“.
If everything went well, a screen will appear saying this message:
Rename the file and then go to the log in page.
The default credentials are user: admin and password pandora.
Next, you will see this. So, configure the timezone and something else.
Now edit the configuration file and change dbuser and dbpass values.
:~$ sudo nano /etc/pandora/pandora_server.conf
# dbuser: Database user name (pandora by default)
dbuser root
# dbpass: Database password
dbpass root_password
Save the changes and close the file. Finally, restar the service.
:~$ sudo systemctl restart pandora_server
And that is it. Enjoy it.
Conclusion
PandoraFMS is a quite competent application to do network monitoring tasks. So you can install it without problems in Ubuntu 18.04 that as we have seen is not a task as complex as it seems.
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