• Installing on Google Compute Engine
  • Installing ManageIQ
    • Obtaining the Appliance
    • Uploading the Appliance on Google Compute Engine
  • Configuring ManageIQ
    • Accessing the Appliance Console
    • Configuring a Database
      • Configuring an Internal Database
      • Configuring an External Database
    • Configure Messaging
    • Configuring a Worker Appliance
  • Logging In After Installing ManageIQ
    • Changing the Default Login Password
• Appendix
• Appliance Console Command-Line Interface (CLI)
  • Database Configuration Options
  • Messaging Configuration Options
  • v2_key Options
  • IPA Server Options
  • Certificate Options
  • Other Options

Installing on Google Compute Engine

Installing ManageIQ

Installing ManageIQ consists of the following steps:

1. Downloading the appliance for your environment as a virtual machine image template.

2. Setting up a virtual machine based on the appliance.

3. Configuring the ManageIQ appliance.

After you complete all the listed preceding steps, you have a working environment on which additional customizations and configurations can be performed.

Obtaining the Appliance

Uploading the Appliance on Google Compute Engine

When the ManageIQ Google Compute Engine appliance is downloaded to your system, upload the appliance to Google Compute Engine.

To upload the ManageIQ Google Compute Engine appliance file, you need to satisfy the following requirements:

• 44 GB of storage space
• 12 GB RAM
• 4 vCPUs.

You can upload the appliance with the following steps:

1. Log in to the Google Cloud Platform dashboard.

2. Click Home located on the left of the screen.

3. Click to show the Products and Services menu. Click Storage.

4. Create a bucket by clicking Create Bucket, and configure the following details:

   1. Enter a unique Name for the bucket. Valid characters include lowercase alphanumeric characters, hyphens, and underscores.

   2. Configure your location from the dropdown list.

   3. Click Create.

5. Click Upload Files and browse to the location of the ManageIQ Google Compute Engine appliance you downloaded. Select the tar.gz file on your local machine, and click Open to begin the upload.

6. When the upload is complete, click Products & services > Compute Engine on the left menu.

7. Create an image by clicking Images from the left menu, then Create Image. Enter the following details about the image:

   1. Enter a unique Name for the image. Valid characters include lowercase alphanumeric characters and hyphens.

   2. Optionally, add a Description.

   3. Configure Encryption if needed. The default value is set to Automatic (recommended).

   4. In Source, use the dropdown to select Cloud Storage file. This shows the Cloud Storage file field.

   5. In Cloud Storage file, click Browse to open the Select object window. Select the bucket containing the image that you uploaded and click the > symbol to locate the tar.gz image inside the bucket. Select the image and click Select.

   6. Click Create. Creating an image can take a few minutes. When the image is created, the screen refreshes, and the new image appears in the Images list.

8. Create a virtual machine instance by navigating to VM instances > Create Instance, and configure the following fields:

   1. Enter a unique Name for the virtual machine instance. Valid characters include lowercase alphanumeric characters and hyphens.

   2. Select the Zone closest to your location.

   3. Under Boot disk, click Change to open the Boot disk window. Click the Your Image tab and select the disk that you previously created. Click Select.

   4. Under Firewall, select the checkbox for Allow HTTPS traffic.

   5. Click Management, disk, networking, SSH keys. Then, click the SSH Keys tab, add your entire SSH public key data in the Username box.

   6. Configure any other fields as needed, and click Create.

Your new virtual machine instance and the external IP address for accessing the ManageIQ interface appears under VM instances.

Configuring ManageIQ

After installing ManageIQ and running it for the first time, you must perform some basic configuration. You must complete these steps:

1. Add a disk to the infrastructure that is hosting your appliance.

2. Configure the database.

3. Configure messaging

Configure the appliance by using the internal appliance console.

Accessing the Appliance Console

1. Start the appliance and open a terminal console.

2. Enter the appliance_console command. The ManageIQ appliance summary screen displays.

3. Press Enter to manually configure settings.

4. Press the number for the item that you want to change, and press Enter. The options for your selection are displayed.

5. Follow the prompts to make the changes.

6. Press Enter to accept a setting where applicable.

Note: The ManageIQ appliance console automatically logs out after five minutes of inactivity.

Configuring a Database

ManageIQ uses a database to store information about the environment. Before using ManageIQ, configure the database options for it; ManageIQ provides the following two options for database configuration:

Configuring an Internal Database

Before installing an internal database, add a disk to the infrastructure hosting your appliance. See the documentation specific to your infrastructure for instructions for adding a disk. As a storage disk usually cannot be added while a virtual machine is running, Red Hat recommends adding the disk before starting the appliance. ManageIQ only supports installing of an internal VMDB on blank disks; installation will fail if the disks are not blank.

1. Start the appliance and open a terminal console.

2. Enter the appliance_console command. The ManageIQ appliance summary screen displays.

3. Press Enter to manually configure settings.

4. Select Configure Application from the menu.

5. You are prompted to create or fetch an encryption key.

   • If this is the first ManageIQ appliance, choose Create key.

   • If this is not the first ManageIQ appliance, choose Fetch key from remote machine to fetch the key from the first appliance. For worker and multi-region setups, use this option to copy key from another appliance.

     Note: All ManageIQ appliances in a multi-region deployment must use the same key.

6. Choose Create Internal Database for the database location.

   In the Configure Messaging menu, select Make No messaging changes. If you see Configuration failed: Internal database require a volume mounted at /var/lib/pgsql. Please add an unpartitioned disk and try again. message, then ensure to add a second disk for the database per instructions as defined above.

7. Choose a disk for the database. This can be either a disk you attached previously, or a partition on the current disk.

   Red Hat recommends using a separate disk for the database.

   If there is an unpartitioned disk attached to the virtual machine, the dialog will show options similar to the following:

   1) /dev/vdb: 20480
   2) Don't partition the disk
   

   • Enter 1 to choose /dev/vdb for the database location. This option creates a logical volume using this device and mounts the volume to the appliance in a location appropriate for storing the database. The default location is /var/lib/pgsql, which can be found in the environment variable $APPLIANCE_PG_MOUNT_POINT.

   • Enter 2 to continue without partitioning the disk. A second prompt will confirm this choice. Selecting this option results in using the root filesystem for the data directory (not advised in most cases).

8. Enter Y or N for Should this appliance run as a standalone database server?

   • Select Y to configure the appliance as a database-only appliance. As a result, the appliance is configured as a basic PostgreSQL server, without a user interface.

   • Select N to configure the appliance with the full administrative user interface.

9. When prompted, enter a unique number to create a new region.

   Creating a new region destroys any existing data on the chosen database.

10. Create and confirm a password for the database.

ManageIQ then configures the internal database. This takes a few minutes. After the database is created and initialized, you can log in to ManageIQ.

Configuring an External Database

Based on your setup, you need to configure the appliance to use an external PostgreSQL database. For example, you can only have one database in a single region. However, a region can be segmented into multiple zones, such as database zone, user interface zone, and reporting zone, where each zone provides a specific function. The appliances in these zones must be configured to use an external database.

The postgresql.conf file requires specific settings for correct operation. For example, it must correctly reclaim table space, control session timeouts, and format the PostgreSQL server log for improved system support. It is recommended that external databases use a postgresql.conf file based on the standard file used by the ManageIQ appliance.

Ensure you configure the settings in the postgresql.conf to suit your system. For example, customize the shared_buffers setting according to the amount of real storage available in the external system hosting the PostgreSQL instance. In addition, depending on the aggregate number of appliances that are expected to connect to the PostgreSQL instance, it might be necessary to alter the max_connections setting.

Note:

- ManageIQ requires PostgreSQL version 13.

- `postgresql.conf` controls the operation of all databases managed by the PostgreSQL instance, therefore it is not recommended to run other databases on this PostgreSQL instance.

Use the following steps to configure an external PostgreSQL database:

1. Start the appliance and open a terminal console.

2. Enter the appliance_console command. The appliance console summary screen is displayed.

3. Press Enter to manually configure settings.

4. Select Configure Application from the menu.

5. Choose Create Region in External Database for the database location.

6. Enter the database hostname or IP address when prompted.

7. Enter the database name or leave blank for the default (vmdb_production).

8. Enter the database username or leave blank for the default (root).

9. Enter the chosen database user’s password.

10. Confirm the configuration if prompted.

ManageIQ configures an external database.

Configure Messaging

Configuring messaging is required for the appliance setup. It is recommended to configure the broker on the same appliance where your database is configured

Note: You can only have one Kafka broker per region.

1. You can either configure the current appliance as a Kafka broker, or point the appliance to an existing external Kafka broker.

   Select the appropriate option either Configure this appliance as a messaging server or Connect to an external messaging system to connect to an external Kafka broker. Fill in the required Message Client Parameters, such as IP address, username and password.

2. Select Proceed. appliance_console applies the configuration that you requested.

3. Restart evmserverd to pick up the changes.

Note: Use your Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) as the messaging hostname rather than localhost, ensure that a resolvable and reachable non-localhost name entry is present in /etc/hosts.

Configuring a Worker Appliance

You can use multiple appliances to facilitate horizontal scaling, as well as for dividing up work by roles. Accordingly, configure an appliance to handle work for one or many roles, with workers within the appliance carrying out the duties for which they are configured. You can configure a worker appliance through the terminal. The following steps demonstrate how to join a worker appliance to an appliance that already has a region configured with a database and messaging.

1. Start the appliance and open a terminal console.

2. Enter the appliance_console command. The ManageIQ appliance summary screen displays.

3. Press Enter to manually configure settings.

4. Select Configure Application from the menu.

5. You are prompted to create or fetch a security key. Since this is not the first ManageIQ appliance, choose 2) Fetch key from remote machine. For worker and multi-region setups, use this option to copy the security key from another appliance.

   Note: All ManageIQ appliances in a multi-region deployment must use the same key.

6. Choose Join Region in External Database for the database location.

7. Enter the database hostname or IP address when prompted.

8. Enter the port number or leave blank for the default (5432).

9. Enter the database name or leave blank for the default (vmdb_production).

10. Enter the database username or leave blank for the default (root).

11. Enter the chosen database user’s password.

12. Confirm the configuration if prompted.

13. Choose Connect to an external messaging system to connect to the external kafka broker located on the appliance with the external database

    Note: You can only have one kafka broker per region

14. Enter the necessary Message Client Parameters such as the hostname/IP and username/password

15. Confirm the configuration if prompted.

Logging In After Installing ManageIQ

Once ManageIQ is installed, you can log in and perform administration tasks.

1. Browse to the URL for the login screen. For example, URL should be https://xx.xx.xx.xx

2. Enter the default credentials as listed for the initial login.
   • Username: admin
   • Password: smartvm
3. Click Login.

Changing the Default Login Password

Change your password to ensure more private and secure access to ManageIQ.

1. Browse to the URL for the login screen. For example, URL should be https://xx.xx.xx.xx.

2. Click Update Password beneath the Username and Password text fields.

3. Enter your current Username and Password in the text fields.

4. Input a new password in the New Password field.

5. Repeat your new password in the Verify Password field.

6. Click Login.

Appendix

Appliance Console Command-Line Interface (CLI)

Currently, the appliance_console_cli feature is a subset of the full functionality of the appliance_console itself, and covers functions most likely to be scripted by using the command-line interface (CLI).

1. After starting the ManageIQ appliance, log in with a user name of root and the default password of smartvm. This displays the Bash prompt for the root user.

2. Enter the appliance_console_cli or appliance_console_cli --help command to see a list of options available with the command, or simply enter appliance_console_cli --option <argument> directly to use a specific option.

Database Configuration Options

Messaging Configuration Options

| | | | —————————– | —————————————————– | | Option | Description | | –message-server-config | configure appliance as a messaging server (boolean) | | –message-server-unconfig | unconfigure appliance as a messaging server (boolean) | | –message-client-config | configure appliance as a messaging server (boolean) | | –message-client-unconfig | unconfigure appliance as a messaging server (boolean) | | –message-keystore-username | messaging keystore username (defaults to admin) | | –message-keystore-password | messaging keystore password | | –message-server-username | messaging server username (defaults to admin) | | –message-server-password | messaging server password | | –message-server-port | messaging server port (defaults to 9093) | | –message-server-use-ipaddr | use ipaddress not hostname for messaging server | | –message-server-host | messaging server hostname or ipaddress | | –message-truststore-path-src | path for messaging server truststore | | –message-ca-cert-path-src | path to a certificate authority for messaging SSL | | –message-persistent-disk | configure a new volume for storing messaging data |

v2_key Options

IPA Server Options

Note:

• In order to configure authentication through an IPA server, in addition to using Configure External Authentication (httpd) in the appliance_console, external authentication can be optionally configured via the appliance_console_cli (command-line interface).

• Specifying –host will update the hostname of the appliance. If this step was already performed via the appliance_console and the necessary updates that are made to /etc/hosts if DNS is not properly configured, the –host option can be omitted.

Certificate Options

Note: The certificate options augment the functionality of the certmonger tool and enable creating a certificate signing request (CSR), and specifying certmonger the directories to store the keys.

Other Options

Example Usage.

$ ssh root@appliance.test.company.com

Set up an all-in-one appliance as a local database and messaging appliance and start the MIQ Server:

# appliance_console_cli --internal --dbdisk /dev/sdb --region 0 --password smartvm --message-server-config --message-keystore-password smartvm --server=start

Join a worker appliance to an existing region:

# appliance_console_cli --fetch-key db.example.com --sshlogin root --sshpassword smartvm --hostname db.example.com --password mydatabasepassword --message-client-config --message-server-host db.example.com --message-server-password smartvm --message-keystore-password smartvm --server start

To create a new database locally on the server by using /dev/sdb:

# appliance_console_cli --internal --dbdisk /dev/sdb --region 0 --password smartvm

To copy the v2_key from a host some.example.com to local machine:

# appliance_console_cli --fetch-key some.example.com --sshlogin root --sshpassword smartvm

You could combine the two to join a region where db.example.com is the appliance hosting the database:

# appliance_console_cli --fetch-key db.example.com --sshlogin root --sshpassword smartvm --hostname db.example.com --password mydatabasepassword

To configure an appliance as a messaging server:

# appliance_console_cli --message-server-config --message-keystore-password="smartvm"

To configure an appliance as a messaging client:

# appliance_console_cli --message-client-config --message-server-host db.example.com --message-server-password smartvm --message-keystore-password smartvm

To configure external authentication:

# appliance_console_cli --host appliance.test.company.com
                        --ipaserver ipaserver.test.company.com
                        --ipadomain test.company.com
                        --iparealm TEST.COMPANY.COM
                        --ipaprincipal admin
                        --ipapassword smartvm1

To uninstall external authentication:

# appliance_console_cli  --uninstall-ipa