ManageIQ
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1. Installing ManageIQ

ManageIQ is able to be installed and ready to configure in a few quick steps. After downloading ManageIQ as a virtual machine image template from the Red Hat Customer Portal, the installation process takes you through the steps of uploading the appliance to a supported virtualization or cloud provider.

After installing the ManageIQ appliance, you must configure the database for ManageIQ. See [configuring_a_database].

1.1. Obtaining the appliance

  1. In a browser, navigate to manageiq.org/download.

  2. Select OpenStack from the --Choose your platform-- list.

  3. Select Stable from the --Choose a release-- list.

  4. Follow the instructions to download the appliance.

1.2. Uploading the Appliance on OpenStack

Log in to your OpenStack dashboard to upload your ManageIQ appliance.

  1. Log in to the OpenStack dashboard.

  2. In the Project tab, navigate to Compute  Images.

  3. Click Create Image.

  4. In Name, enter a name for the image.

  5. From Image Source list, select Image Location. Note that currently only images available via an HTTP URL are supported.

  6. In Image Location, add an external (HTTP) URL to load the image from. For example, http://example.com/image.iso.

  7. From the Format list, select the image format. For example, ISO - Optical Disk Image.

  8. Specify the Architecture. For example, i386 for a 32-bit architecture or x86-64 for a 64-bit architecture.

  9. Leave the Minimum Disk (GB) and Minimum RAM (MB) fields empty.

  10. Check the Public box to make the appliance available to all users.

  11. Check the Protected box to protect the image from being accidentally deleted.

  12. Click Create Image.

You have successfully uploaded the ManageIQ appliance.

The appliance image is placed in a queue to be uploaded. It may take some time before the Status of the image changes from Queued to Active.

1.3. Adding a Rule to a Security Group

Security groups specify what IP traffic is allowed to reach an instance on its public IP address. Security group rules are processed before network traffic reaches firewall rules defined within the guest itself.

In the default configuration, the default security group accepts all connections from the default source; all instances within the default group can talk to each other on any port.

  1. From the OpenStack dashboard, navigate to Project  Compute  Access & Security.

  2. Navigate to Security Groups  Manage Rules on the row for the default security group. 7216

  3. Click Add Rule. 4941

  4. Configure the rule.

    1. Select Rule  Custom TCP Rule.

    2. Select Direction  Ingress.

    3. Select Port from the Open Port list.

    4. Specify 443 in the Port field.

    5. Select CIDR from the Remote list.

    6. Specify 0.0.0.0/0 in the CIDR field.

    7. Click Add.

1.4. Creating a Custom Flavor

A flavor is a resource allocation profile that specifies, for example, how many virtual CPUs and how much RAM can be allocated to an instance. You can, for example, run ManageIQ on a Red Hat OpenStack m1.large flavor, which specifies a virtual machine with 4 cores, 12 GB RAM, and 80 GB disk space. Creating a flavor to run ManageIQ is optional.

The following procedure demonstrates creating a flavor with the minimum requirements (4 cores, 12 GB RAM, 44 GB disk space) for ManageIQ. For more information about flavors, see the Red Hat OpenStack Platform Administration User Guide.

  1. Log in to the OpenStack dashboard as admin.

  2. In the Admin tab, navigate to System  Flavors.

  3. Click Create Flavor to display the Create Flavor dialog.

  4. Configure the settings to define a flavor that meets ManageIQ system requirements.

    1. Enter a name for the flavor.

    2. Enter the following settings:

      • VCPUs: 4

      • RAM MB: 8192

      • Root Disk GB: 45

      • Ephemeral Disk GB: 0

      • Swap Disk MB: 0

  5. Click Create Flavor.

A new flavor specific to ManageIQ is created.

1.5. Launching the Instance

  1. From the OpenStack dashboard, navigate to Project  Compute  Instances.

  2. Click Launch Instance.

  3. Enter a name for the instance.

  4. Select the custom flavor for your instance. The flavor selection determines the computing resources available to your instance. The resources used by the flavor are displayed in the Flavor Details pane.

  5. Enter 1 in the Instance Count field.

  6. Select a boot option from the Instance Boot Source list:

    • Boot from image - displays a new field for Image Name. Select the image from the drop-down list.

    • Boot from snapshot - displays a new field for Instance Snapshot. Select the snapshot from the drop-down list.

    • Boot from volume - displays a new field for Volume. Select the volume from the drop-down list.

    • Boot from image (creates a new volume) - boot from an image and create a volume by choosing Device Size and Device Name for your volume. Some volumes can be persistent. To ensure the volume is deleted when the instance is deleted, select Delete on Terminate.

    • Boot from volume snapshot (creates a new volume) - boot from volume snapshot and create a new volume by choosing Volume Snapshot from the drop-down list and adding a Device Name for your volume. Some volumes can be persistent. To ensure the volume is deleted when the instance is deleted, select Delete on Terminate.

  7. Click Networking and select a network for the instance by clicking the + (plus) button for the network from Available Networks.

  8. Click Launch.

1.6. Adding a Floating IP Address

When you create an instance, Red Hat OpenStack Platform automatically assigns it a fixed IP address in the network to which the instance belongs. This IP address is permanently associated with the instance until the instance is terminated.

In addition to the fixed address, you can also assign a floating IP address to an instance. Unlike fixed IP addresses, you can modify floating IP addresses associations at any time, regardless of the state of the instances involved.

  1. At the command-line on your RHEL OpenStack Platform host, create a pool of floating IP addresses using the nova-manage floating create command. Replace IP_BLOCK with the desired block of IP addresses expressed in CIDR notation.

    $ nova-manage floating create IP_BLOCK

  2. In the Project tab, navigate to Compute  Access & Security.

  3. Click Floating IPs  Allocate IP To Project. The Allocate Floating IP window is displayed. 7218

  4. Click Allocate IP to allocate a floating IP from the pool. The allocated IP address appears in the Floating IPs table.

  5. Select the newly allocated IP address from the Floating IPs table. Click Associate to assign the IP address to a specific instance. 7217

  6. Select an instance with which to associate the floating IP Address.

  7. Click Associate to associate the IP address with the selected instance.

To disassociate a floating IP address from an instance when it is no longer required, click Release Floating IPs.

2. Configuring ManageIQ

Although the ManageIQ appliance comes configured to be integrated immediately into your environment, you can make some changes to its configuration.

The ManageIQ appliance is intended to have minimal configuration options.

2.1. Changing Configuration Settings

The following procedure describes how to make changes to the configuration settings on the ManageIQ appliance.

  1. Start the appliance and open a terminal console.

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

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

  4. Press Enter to manually configure settings.

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

  6. Follow the prompts to make the changes.

  7. Press Enter to accept a setting where applicable.

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

2.2. Advanced Configuration Settings

After logging in, you can use the following menu items for advanced configuration of the appliance:

  • Use Set DHCP Network Configuration to use DHCP to obtain the IP address and network configuration for your ManageIQ appliance. The appliance is initially configured as a DHCP client with bridged networking.

  • Use Set Static Network Configuration if you have a specific IP address and network settings you need to use for the ManageIQ appliance.

  • Use Test Network Configuration to check that name resolution is working correctly.

  • Use Set Hostname to specify a hostname for the ManageIQ appliance.

    A valid fully qualified hostname for the ManageIQ appliance is required for SmartState analysis to work correctly,

  • Use Set Timezone to configure the time zone for the ManageIQ appliance.

  • Use Set Date and Time to configure the date and time for the ManageIQ appliance.

  • Use Restore Database from Backup to restore the Virtual Management Database (VMDB) from a previous backup.

  • Use Setup Database Region to create regions for VMDB replication.

  • Use Configure Database to configure the VMDB. Use this option to configure the database for the appliance after installing and running it for the first time.

  • Use Configure Database Replication to configure a primary or standby server for VMDB replication.

  • Use Configure Database Maintenance to configure the VMDB maintenance schedule.

  • Use Configure Application Database Failover Monitor to start or stop VMDB failover monitoring.

  • Use Extend Temporary Storage to add temporary storage to the appliance. The appliance formats an unpartitioned disk attached to the appliance host and mounts it at /var/www/miq_tmp. The appliance uses this temporary storage directory to perform certain image download functions.

  • Use Configure External Authentication (httpd) to configure authentication through an IPA server.

  • Use Generate Custom Encryption Key to regenerate the encryption key used to encode plain text password.

  • Use Harden Appliance Using SCAP Configuration to apply Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) standards to the appliance. You can view these SCAP rules in the /var/www/miq/lib/appliance_console/config/scap_rules.yml file.

  • Use Stop EVM Server Processes to stop all server processes. You may need to do this to perform maintenance.

  • Use Start EVM Server Processes to start the server. You may need to do this after performing maintenance.

  • Use Restart Appliance to restart the ManageIQ appliance. You can either restart the appliance and clear the logs or just restart the appliance.

  • Use Shut Down Appliance to power down the appliance and exit all processes.

  • Use Summary Information to go back to the network summary screen for the ManageIQ appliance.

  • Use Quit to leave the ManageIQ appliance console.

2.3. 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.

  1. Start the appliance and open a terminal console.

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

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

  4. Press Enter to manually configure settings.

  5. Select 5) Configure Database from the menu.

  6. 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.

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

  7. Choose 3) Join Region in External Database for the database location.

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

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

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

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

  12. Enter the chosen database user’s password.

  13. Confirm the configuration if prompted.

3. Logging In After Installing ManageIQ

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

Log in to ManageIQ for the first time after installing by:

  1. Navigate to the URL for the login screen. (https://xx.xx.xx.xx on the virtual machine instance)

  2. Enter the default credentials (Username: admin | Password: smartvm) for the initial login.

  3. Click Login.

3.1. Changing the Default Login Password

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

  1. Navigate to the URL for the login screen. (https://xx.xx.xx.xx on the virtual machine instance)

  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 A: Appendix

A.1. 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 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.

Table 1. Database Configuration Options

Option

Description

--region (-r)

region number (create a new region in the database - requires database credentials passed)

--internal (-i)

internal database (create a database on the current appliance)

--dbdisk

database disk device path (for configuring an internal database)

--hostname (-h)

database hostname

--port

database port (defaults to 5432)

--username (-U)

database username (defaults to root)

--password (-p)

database password

--dbname (-d)

database name (defaults to vmdb_production)
Table 2. v2_key Options

Option

Description

--key (-k)

create a new v2_key

--fetch-key (-K)

fetch the v2_key from the given host

--force-key (-f)

create or fetch the key even if one exists

--sshlogin

ssh username for fetching the v2_key (defaults to root)

--sshpassword

ssh password for fetching the v2_key
Table 3. IPA Server Options

Option

Description

--host (-H)

set the appliance hostname to the given name

--ipaserver (-e)

IPA server FQDN

--ipaprincipal (-n)

IPA server principal (default: admin)

--ipapassword (-w)

IPA server password

--ipadomain (-o)

IPA server domain (optional). Will be based on the appliance domain name if not specified.

--iparealm (-l)

IPA server realm (optional). Will be based on the domain name of the ipaserver if not specified.

--uninstall-ipa (-u)

uninstall IPA client

  • 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 made to /etc/hosts if DNS is not properly configured, the --host option can be omitted.
Table 4. Certificate Options

Option

Description

--ca (-c)

CA name used for certmonger (default: ipa)

--postgres-client-cert (-g)

install certs for postgres client

--postgres-server-cert

install certs for postgres server

--http-cert

install certs for http server (to create certs/httpd* values for a unique key)

--extauth-opts (-x)

external authentication options

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.
Table 5. Other Options

Option

Description

--logdisk (-l)

log disk path

--tmpdisk

initialize the given device for temp storage (volume mounted at /var/www/miq_tmp)

--verbose (-v)

print more debugging info
Example Usage
$ ssh root@appliance.test.company.com

To create a new database locally on the server 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 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