Categories
CentOS Linux Zabbix

Upgrade from Zabbix 6.0 to 6.2 on CentOS 8

Zabbix is an open source monitoring system that can monitor almost anything. You can learn more about Zabbix here. For the purpose of this article I will using the predeployed Zabbix Appliance from Linode. Linode is a cloud based hosting service that offers really good pricing for Linux based servers. Best of all they have a datacenter that is really close to my house. You can learn more about Linode and their services here. If you are a new sign up they run a deal sometimes to get a free $100 credit which you could use toward running your VM.

Prep work

The first piece of advice that I can give while you are working on the upgrade you should open a second ssh session to your server and run the following command:

 sudo tail -f /var/log/zabbix/zabbix_server.log

This will give you a better view of what is going on with the application once you start the service back up.

The next step is to stop the Zabbix Server Service

systemctl stop zabbix-server

From here Zabbix reommends backing up your configuration files.

This command will create a new backup folder

mkdir /opt/zabbix-backup/

These commands will copy your config files to your backup folder

cp /etc/zabbix/zabbix_server.conf /opt/zabbix-backup/
cp /etc/httpd/conf.d/zabbix.conf /opt/zabbix-backup/

This will copy your .php files to your backup folder

cp -R /usr/share/zabbix/ /opt/zabbix-backup/
cp -R /usr/share/zabbix-* /opt/zabbix-backup/

Starting the update

To proceed with the upgrade your current repository package has to be updated.

rpm -Uvh https://repo.zabbix.com/zabbix/6.2/rhel/8/x86_64/zabbix-release-6.2-1.el8.noarch.rpm

Switch the DNF module version for PHP:

dnf module switch-to php:7.4

To upgrade Zabbix components run the following command:

dnf upgrade zabbix-server-mysql zabbix-web-mysql zabbix-agent

Post upgrade work

Once the packages have been updated you will need to open your database. In my case I would type in mysql. Then according to the Zabbix documentation you need to run this command.

SET GLOBAL log_bin_trust_function_creators = 1;

One of the issues that I ran into, and I am not sure if this is just a Linode appliance issue or a CentOS issue but I had to run the following command. If I did not run this command the update would fail at 43% everytime.

grant all privileges on zabbix.* to 'zabbix_srv'@'localhost';

Once that is complete type quit and hen type thhe following command to start the Zabbix service.

systemctl start zabbix-server

Once you press enter the log file that you opened at the begin displaying output and you should see the entire startup processs and then update.

I hope you find this guide helpful and if so please share it with others.

Categories
Linux Ubuntu

How to interact as root in Ubuntu

I recently learned that you can interact with the Ubuntu BASH shell as root. In my lab I have been playing with a whole bunch of new applications and servers running on Ubuntu.

I recently was installing a Zabbix Proxy to monitor and I needed to run the installer as root. This was a wierd concept as I thought you were only able to use sudo in front of the command to be able to elevate the permissions. I thought root was out of the question with Ubuntu.

It turns out if you need to work in root you can simply type the following:

“sudo -i”

After typing in your password you will be given a root prompt. This really blew my mind consindering I had been using ubuntu for a while and never knew this was an option.

I hope this helps someone out there as I had no idea that this was even a thing.

Categories
Linux

How to see what iSCSI targets are connected to a CentOS Host

I was working on a server after there was an outage on the storage system which was a iSCSI QNAP NAS.

I did a little Google searching and found this command which worked wonderfully

iscsiadm -m session

This will give you a list of all of the devices connected via iSCSI, including the IP Address of the device you are connecting to.

Hopefully, by documenting this I will be able to remember it when I need it in the future. 
If you found this helpful, please share it with your friends, and if you are interested in some of the hardware mentioned in this post, please check the affiliate links below. 
QNAP 8 bay NAS
QNAP 4 bay NAS
Synology 2 Bay NAS

How to add vMA to Windows AD Domain

While working in my lab at work I wanted to see about adding my vSphere Management Assistant (vMA) to our lab Active Directory so it would be easier for me to connect to resources. After going through the process I decided to make a guide on the steps I took to get it working.

Just an FYI I was working with vSphere Management Assistant version 5.5.0.4 at the time of taking these screenshots so I am sure things may have changed in later versions… or not.

First you will need to get to the console of the machine.

Select the option to login

and log in using the vi-admin account

Once you are logged in you are presented with a command prompt. You will need to use the following command to add your appliance to a Windows domain.

Sudo domainjoin-cli join <domain.name> <Domain User Name>

You will then be prompted for the vi-admin password

Once your Appliance is added to the domain you will see a screen like this.

Once the reboot has been completed you will can verify that you are on the domain by running this command:
sudo domainjoin-cli query
and you will be presented with a response something line this
Now your appliance is on the domain and you will now have an easier time connecting to resources in your VMware environment.