How To Install the Master Server Appliance (from ISO)

This chapter describes how to perform a standard installation of the ER2 Master Server software appliance using the ISO installer.

• Master Server as a Software Appliance
• Preparing to Install
  • System Requirements
  • Backup the Master Server and Network Settings
  • Download the RPM Installer
• Installing the Master Server Appliance from ISO
• Activating ER2
• Update ER2

See How To Install the Master Server on RHEL 8 (from RPM) on how to install the ER2 Master Server on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8 server.

Master Server as a Software Appliance

Enterprise Recon 2.12.0 is provided as a software appliance that runs the Oracle Linux 8 operating system. You do not have to install the operating system separately when installing the Master Server.

Instead, use the ISO to create a (i) bootable DVD or (ii) bootable USB media (using Fedora Media Writer), and use it to install the Master Server directly on bare-metal or a virtual machine.

See How To Install Enterprise Recon on a Virtual Machine for instructions on installing ER2 on a virtual machine.

Preparing to Install

This section explains the various prerequisites and aspects to consider before starting the installation.

System Requirements

You can install the ER2 Master Server appliance on a server with the following minimum requirements:

Backup the Master Server and Network Settings

If you have an existing installation of ER2:

1. Create a backup of the current Master Server. Copy the backup file to a shared location separate from the current Master Server host that is accessible by the new Master Server host.
2. Copy the datastore configuration file /var/lib/er2/datastore.cfg to a shared location separate from the current Master Server host that is accessible by the new Master Server host.
   Do this step to avoid having to reconfigure all Node Agents with a new Master Server public key.
3. Take down the host name, IP address and network configuration settings of the current Master Server.
   Do this step to avoid having to reconfigure all Node Agents to point to a new IP address for the Master Server.

Download the ISO Installer

The ER2 ISO installer is a bootable ISO image that installs the Master Server appliance with an Oracle Linux 8-based operating system on your machine.

To download the Master Server ISO installer:

1. Log in to Ground Labs Services Portal.
2. From the Home tab, scroll down to the Enterprise Recon 2 > Enterprise Master Package > Appliance (OL8) section and look for version 2.12.0.
   
3. Click Download to download the Enterprise Recon ISO file (er2-2.x.x-OracleLinux8.iso).
4. Load the ISO image on bootable media such as a USB stick or a DVD, and use it to install the Master Server directly on bare-metal server.

Installing the Master Server Appliance from ISO

To perform a standard installation of the ER2 Master Server appliance:

1. On your machine, load the ER2 installation media.
2. (Optional) To run a memory test, select Troubleshooting and press Enter.
3. Select Install Enterprise Recon 2.x.x and press Enter.
4. In the INSTALLATION SUMMARY screen, configure the following settings. Click Done to confirm each setting.

   Settings	Description
   Keyboard	Select the keyboard layout(s) to use.
   Language Support	Select the language(s) to install.
   Network & Host Name	Configure your network interfaces. Locally accessible interfaces are automatically detected and listed in the left panel of the installation window. Set the toggle button to ON to activate a network interface and click Configure to manually configure the network interface settings. You can re-configure the Master Server's network interface after the installation. Set the host name for your Master Server and click Apply.
   Time & Date	Set the date, time format and time zone for the Master Server. Region: Asia, City: Singapore Scan schedules are based on the Master Server system time. If your Master Server system time does not match the system time of Agent hosts, your scans will not run as scheduled. When you View Agents in the Agent Admin page, a warning is displayed if the system time of an Agent host does not match the Master Server system time. Set the toggle button to ON to enable the network time.
   Disk Setup	ER2 encrypts the disk that the Master Server is installed on. This LUKS passphrase is required to decrypt the disk every time you start up the Master Server. Keep your passphrase in a secure place; you cannot start the Master Server without it. Ground Labs cannot help you recover your lost passphrase. Any existing operating system or data on the disk that the Master Server is installed on will be overwritten.

5. Once you have finished configuring the Master Server, click Begin Installation.
6. After the system reboots to complete the installation, enter your LUKS passphrase to access the Master Server console.
7. Log in to the Master Server console as root with the default password, ChangeMeNow.

8. Run the following command:

   yum update

   The yum update command checks for and displays all available updates for ER2 and the underlying operating system.

9. Enter y to install available updates.

10. (Optional) Restore ER2 from a backup file.

    Set up the Master Server host with the IP address and network configuration settings of the previous Master Server to avoid having to reconfigure all Node Agents to point to a new IP address for the Master Server. See Backup the Master Server and Network Settings for more information.

11. (Optional) Restore the datastore configuration file copied from the previous Master Server.

    # Stop the er2-master service. /etc/init.d/er2-master stop
# Rename and backup the original datastore.cfg file. mv /var/lib/er2/datastore.cfg /var/lib/er2/datastore.cfg.orig
# Copy the datastore configuration file for the previous Master Server # from the "<shared_location>" to the RHEL 8 server. scp <user@source_host>:<shared_location>/datastore.cfg /var/lib/er2/datastore.cfg
# Give ER2 ownership of the configuration file. chown erecon:root /var/lib/er2/datastore.cfg
# Change the permissions for the datastore configuration file. chmod -x /var/lib/er2/datastore.cfg
# Start the er2-master service. /etc/init.d/er2-master start
# Once the restore operation has been verified to be successful, # delete the original datastore configuration file. rm /var/lib/er2/datastore.cfg.orig

    Do this step to avoid having to reconfigure all Node Agents with a new Master Server public key. See Backup the Master Server and Network Settings for more information.

Activating ER2

Once the Master Server has started, log in to the Web Console to activate ER2 and Install Node Agents.

See Installation Overview for more information.

Update ER2

Update ER2 to upgrade to the latest version of ER2.