Monthly Archives: May 2013

SME Server as a Nagios NRPE Client only

If you are wanting to install Nagios on an SME Server version 8 then you will probably start with the Wiki Contribs page for a Nagios Server install. http://wiki.contribs.org/Nagios

Which is going to lead you down a path of installing a complete Nagios Server assuming you overcome the issues with those instructions.

But if you have a Nagios Server elsewhere and you want to just add the SME Server as a client then a different set of instructions can be found in the forums.

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php/topic,48587.msg241615.html#msg241615

Which is really helpful but is missing a couple of key points for a complete set of instructions. So here is a re-write of that instruction set.

NRPE SME Server 8 Installation

1. Configure the dag repository

The following command will configure the dag repository on SME Server.

[text]

/sbin/e-smith/db yum_repositories set dag repository
Name ‘Dag – EL5’
BaseURL ‘<a href="http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/" target="_blank">http://apt.sw.be/redhat/el5/en/</a>$basearch/dag’
EnableGroups no
GPGCheck yes
GPGKey <a href="http://dag.wieers.com/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt" target="_blank">http://dag.wieers.com/packages/RPM-GPG-KEY.dag.txt</a>
Visible no
Exclude freetype,htop,iptraf,rsync,syslinux
status disabled

[/text]

2. After adding it to the database we have to update the changes to the configuration file:

[text]signal-event yum-modify[/text]

3. Then run this to enable the repo

[text]

/usr/bin/yum –enablerepo=dag install
nagios-plugins
nagios-plugins-setuid
perl-Config-Tiny
perl-Class-Accessor

[/text]

4. Copy nrpe rpm’s

Current download for the files are:

http://pkgs.repoforge.org/nagios/nagios-3.2.1-5.el5.rf.i386.rpm

http://pkgs.repoforge.org/nagios-nrpe/nagios-nrpe-2.5.2-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

http://pkgs.repoforge.org/nagios-nrpe/nagios-plugins-nrpe-2.5.2-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

5. Install the nrpe rpm’s

[text]

yum localinstall nagios-3.2.1-5.el5.rf.i386.rpm
yum localinstall nagios-nrpe-2.5.2-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm
yum localinstall nagios-plugins-nrpe-2.5.2-1.el5.rf.i386.rpm

[/text]

6. Modify the nrpe.cfg file to allow the external ip of your Nagios server  (swap vim for your favourite editor)

[text]

vim /etc/nagios/nrpe.cfg

[/text]

the allowed_hosts parameter is already in the file, remove the # from the start of the line and add your nagios server ip

[text]

allowed_hosts=127.0.0.1,nagios.server.ip.here

[/text]

Save the file and exit.

7. Add the service

[text]

cd /etc/rc7.d

cp -s /etc/init.d/nrpe S95nrpe

[/text]

8. Port forward 5666 to localhost (swap vim for your favourite editor)

a)

[text]

mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/hosts.allow/

[/text]

(if you get an error it means the directory already exists.)

b)

[text]

vim /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/hosts.allow/nrpe

[/text]

and add the following lines to the nrpe file, adding your nagios server ip

[text]

{
$OUT="nrpe: " . ($nrpe{HostsAllow} ? $nrpe{HostsAllow} : "127.0.0.1 nagios.server.ip.here" );
}

[/text]

Save the file and exit.

9. Configure the new template

[text]

expand-template /etc/hosts.allow

[/text]

10. Start NRPE

[text]

service nrpe restart

[/text]

And then off to your Nagios server to add the new SME Server as a client.

Adding SSRS Reporting Services to an existing SQL 2008 Instance

Trying to add Reporting Services to an existing database instance and when I select the instance in the SQL installer Reporting Services is not an option.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6987741/cannot-add-reporting-services-to-an-existing-instance-of-sql-express-2008

3 Years ago this question was raised and there is still no answer. Why? Because there is a trick to all of this.

So what is the issue that prevents an instance of SQL Server Express 2008 from having Reporting Services added as a feature?

Simple. The installed instance is not the same version as the installing version being used to add the feature.

Using, for example as I was, a server with multiple instances, SQL Express 2008 R2 Advanced, the Reporting Services feature was not available for the instance that I wanted to add it to.

Installing a new instance worked fine as I tested this to make sure. This meant that it was not a service prerequisite that was missing.

Using http://stackoverflow.com/questions/141154/how-can-i-determine-installed-sql-server-instances-and-their-versions to get the following query:

[text]

<code>SELECT SERVERPROPERTY(‘productversion’), SERVERPROPERTY (‘productlevel’), SERVERPROPERTY (‘edition’)</code>

[/text]

Check each instance for its version. In my case I got

Original instance that will not accept Reporting Services showed as 10.50.4000.0 SP2 Express Edition (64-bit)

and

The newly installed instance with SSRS showed as 10.50.1600.1 RTM Express Edition with Advanced Services (64-bit)

Checking at http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2013/01/18/sql-server-a-list-of-various-sql-server-rtm-and-service-pack-number/ for the list of SQL editions I get:

SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 10.00.4000.00

and

SQL Server 2008 R2 RTM 10.50.1600.1

Ok, so what to do about it?

Upgrading a single instance of SQL does not appear to be an option, at least I could not find a way to do so, when the server already had other instances with the later version.

In any case, the outcome was to install a fresh instance for the application with Reporting Services.