HP TopTools Agent for Linux Install HOWTO
Version: TopTools 5.0 / build 1.00.12 Date: Sep. 19, 2000
Table of contents
1. Introduction Welcome to the HP TopTools Agent, Hewlett-Packard's client manageability software based on the Desktop Management Interface (DMI). This is the Linux version of the Agent. It is provided for free on an "as is" basis. HP does not currently provide support for this version. The purpose of this HOWTO document is to help Linux users install the HP TopTools DMI Agent on HP computers running Linux. When installing this DMI Agent, the script automatically installs a local interface for the agent. This HOWTO document assumes that you are familiar with Linux. 2. Before You Begin Before starting the installation of the TopTools Agent on your HP machine, verify that all requirements are satisfied. 2.1. Hardware Requirements This version of the TopTools DMI Agent for Linux can be installed only on a specific set of HP computers listed below: 1. Vectra: VLi8, VEi8, VL400 and VL600 2. Kayak: XM600, XU800 2.2. Hard Disk Space Requirements and Coexistence The total amount of space needed for this installation is 6 MBytes. By the time this document was completed, we have not found any coexistence problems related to the Agent. 2.3. Linux Distributions Tested This version of the TopTools Agent was tested and approved for installation on the following Linux distributions: TurboLinux 6.0.4: Kernel 2.2.13-12 SuSE 6.3: Kernel 2.2.13 SuSE 6.4: Kernel 2.2.14 Red Hat 6.1: Kernel 2.2.12-20 Red Hat 6.2: Kernel 2.2.14-5.0 Mandrake 7.0-2: Kernel 2.2.14-15 2.4 TopTools Device Manager Tested This version of the TopTools DMI Agent is to be installed on HP client computers that will be managed with the HP TopTools Device Manager version 4.5 or 5.0.
3. Installation Overview Before installing the DMI Agent on a HP machine running Linux, verify if your platform satisfies hardware and software requirements as listed above in section 2. If all requirements are satisfied, just follow this procedure:
./install
4. Installation Details The DMI Agent installation script will display some messages and make some verifications before installing the DMI Agent on your hard drive. The verifications made are the following: 4.1. Welcome Message The script displays a message showing the current versions of the TopTools DMI Agent and of the installation script. 4.2. Login Verification The script verifies if you are logged in as root. If not, a warning message is displayed. 4.3. Hardware Checks The installation script verifies that the target hardware is supported by this version of the TopTools DMI Agent. If not, a warning message is displayed. 4.4. Environment Checks The installation script examines the environment looking for system tools needed for the TopTools DMI Agent to install and execute. 4.4.1. Check that rpm is installed. The script verifies that rpm is installed and informs about the result of this query. The rpm is a mandatory tool for the DMI Agent to install. 4.4.2. Check that the /proc file system is present. The script verifies that the file system is installed at /proc directory and informs about the result of this query. If file system is not installed, a warning message is displayed. 4.4.3. Check that chkconfig is present. The script checks if chkconfig is installed on the hard drive in the /sbin directory. If chkconfig is not installed, a warning message is displayed and you will have to reconfigure the system to start the agent services properly. 4.4.4. Check that sed is Present. The script verifies if sed is installed and displays the results. The sed is a mandatory tool for the DMI Agent installation. 4.5. Installation If all checks were positive, the script starts the installation proper. 4.5.1. Verify a Previous Installation of the Agent. The installation script verifies if there is a previous version of the TopTools Agent already installed. If the version being installed is newer than the current one, you will be asked about updating it or not. If it is the first installation, you will be asked for confirmation. The script does not overwrite a version newer or equal to the one being installed. To do this, you must stop the agent, if it is running, and remove the current version installed before. It can be done through the commands: /etc/rc.d/init.d/hpttagent stop rpm -e tt_agent To get the current version of the Agent, type the following command: rpm -q tt_agent
At this point, the installation of the Agent itself starts. If any error occurs, you will be notified by the installation script.
5. Post Installation.
After a successful installation, the script needs to set the system environment before finishing: 5.1. Add the DMI Agent to Services.
The script uses the chkconfig tool to add the Agent to the system services. 5.2. Create required directories. The installation script creates the following directories: /var/dmi/database /var/dmi/log /var/dmi/socket 5.3. Set the Installation Date. The token TT_INSTALL_DATE from /usr/dmi/backup/sp.mif is replaced by the current date and time of installation. 5.4. Set the DMI Agent Version. The token TT_VERSION from /usr/dmi/backup/sp.mif is replaced by the Agent version being installed. 5.5. Load the Parallel Port Modules.
The Installation script asks the user about loading parallel port modules. If they are loaded, communications through parallel ports will be available and the local TopTools user interface for Linux and/or TopTools Device Manager will report parallel ports attributes correctly. 5.6. Update hpcompc.conf File. The installation script invokes /usr/dmi/bin/config and you will be asked to answer a few questions about the system. The following screen is displayed:
HEWLETT PACKARD COMPANY Top Tools Agent for Linux Configuration ======================================= Please enter the following information about this computer: User name: User's phone: Physical location: Asset tag: Monitor Manufacturer: Monitor Model: Monitor Serial Number: Monitor Asset tag: Enter 's' to save configuration, 'c' to change any information or 'q' to quit without saving.
5.7 Load the nvram Module. The Agent requires the nvram module. If the module is not installed, the script will try to create and install it. If any error happens, the user is informed about it. 5.8 Finish the Installation When the installation is completed, a message is displayed. The Agent should be running by now. After this, you could unmount and remove the installation CD. No reboot is necessary.
6. How to verify that the Agent is running To verify that the Agent is running on your HP PC, type the following command: ps xa If the Agent is running, a screen similar to the one listed below will be displayed. More than one occurrence of dmisp and hplcompc is listed because there is more than one thread being executed for each process.
[root@vectrave /tmp]# ps xa PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND 1 ? S 0:03 init [3] 2 ? SW 0:00 [kflushd] 3 ? SW 0:00 [kupdate] . . . . . . . . . . 547 ? S 3:44 dmisp 548 ? S 0:00 dmisp 549 ? S 0:00 dmisp 550 ? S 0:00 dmisp 551 ? S 0:00 dmisp 554 ? S 0:00 dmisp 555 ? S 0:00 dmisp 556 ? S 0:00 dmisp 557 ? S 0:00 dmisp 558 ? S 0:00 hplcompc 559 ? S 0:01 hplcompc 561 ? S 0:00 hplcompc . . . . . . . . . . 569 tty3 R 0:00 ps xa
7. Using TopTools? Local User Interface To run the local interface of the TopTools Agent, open an X terminal and execute the following command: /usr/dmi/bin/toptools
8. Uninstalling the Agent If you wish to remove the Agent from your hard disk, execute the following steps: Logged as root, type the following command to stop the Agent service: /etc/rc.d/init.d/hpttagent stop Then remove the installed agent with the following command: rpm -e tt_agent No reboot is necessary.
9. Installing the Agent Manually If you wish to install the Agent manually (without using the script), all steps described above must be followed.
10. Setting Values for the HP Generic Information Group If you wish to set values for the attributes in the HP Generic Information group, edit file hpcompc.conf on /etc, section [HP_Generic_Information], and alter the following fields: Software_Image=<Not Initialized> Leasing_Contract=<Not Initialized> Leasing_Expiration=<Not Initialized>
11. Important Notes 11.1 Values Reported for System Memory Under Linux, the TopTools Agent?s local user interface and TopTools Device Manager show values for System Memory that represent the amount of memory managed by the kernel, which means logical memory instead of physical memory. When the machine has more then 64MB, sometimes the kernel does not see all this memory properly. In this case, only the amount seen will be shown for system memory. 11.2. Notes for SuSE Linux Users The following notes are related to SuSE Linux installations only. 11.2.1 Starting the Agent on SuSE distribution This Linux distribution, although tested with this version of the DMI Agent, does not automatically start the agent when booting the OS. To start the DMI Agent, you must type the command:
/etc/rc.d/init.d/hpttagent start 11.3. Notes for TurboLinux Linux Users The following notes are related to TurboLinux installations only. 11.3.1 Improving the local user interface This Linux distribution, although tested with this version of the DMI Agent, needs to be configured to 75 dpi fonts or 1024x768 resolution. This setting will make the TopTools local user interface look better. To set TurboLinux, edit file /etc/X11/XF86Config and change the position of statements referring 100 dpi fonts and 75 dpi fonts like shown in the following example:
Example: Original file /etc/X11/XF86Config: Section "Files" RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/" <----- FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi" <----- FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled" <----- FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/freefont/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/sharefont/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/tt/" EndSection
Edited file /etc/X11/XF86Config: Section "Files" RgbPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi" <----- FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled" <----- FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/freefont/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/sharefont/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/tt/" FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/" <----- EndSection As shown before, all statements referring 75 dpi fonts must be placed before 100 dpi fonts references into file /etc/X11/XF86Config.
11.3.2 Granting Access to TopTools Device Manager TurboLinux has all networking access denied by default for security reasons. So, after installing the TopTools Agent, you must grant access to the host running Toptools Device Manager if you want to allow the Device Manager to manage the client machine. The installation script displays a message alerting about this Turbo Linux operating system characteristic. 11.4. Differences Found Between Attribute Values in Linux Distributions We have found some differences in comparing attribute values provided by the Agent running on different Linux distributions. For example, attribute values for Physical Memory, Logical Memory, IRQ, DMA, Memory Mapped I/O, System Memory Settings, Memory Array Mapped Addresses, Mouse, System Resources Description, Pointing Device, etc. All memory size differences came from kernel versions, which differ for each distribution being evaluated. Even when testing the agent in the same Linux distribution running on different machines, we have identified that differences were not constant and they depended on the memory size installed on each machine model. 11.5. SNMP Service Running on the Client Machine When the Agent runs together with a SNMP service on the client machine, if you want to manage it with TopTools Device Manager, it is necessary to grant write access to the machine running the Device Manager. This can be done by configuring the file snmpd.conf in /etc/snmp (at least for RH 6.1, 6.2 and TurboLinux 6.0.4). Otherwise, when saving settings from TopTools Device Manager, an error message will be displayed.
12. Terms of Use This document is © Copyright 2000 by Hewlett-Packard Co. It may be used, disseminated and reproduced if the copyright notice is neither omitted nor altered. |
