Precise minimum requirements for installation

This topic includes the following sub-topics:

This topic details the various hardware and software requirements that need to be met to apply the Precise product offerings to your systems.

Supported operating systems and technologies

Before installing the Precise framework or agents, refer to the most recent Precise Support Matrix at Precise Support Matrix to make sure that the relevant operating systems and technologies are supported.

Supported databases for Precise framework

The Precise framework uses two different database instances for the PMDB database. Ensure that the correct PMDB database instance is available before installing the Precise framework.

The SQL Server PMDB instance supports the following database technologies:

• SQL Server
• Sybase

The Oracle PMDB instance supports the following database technologies:

• Oracle
• DB2 LUW

Hardware requirements for Precise framework

The following operating systems are supported for the Precise framework:

• Linux
• Windows
• Solaris
• HP-UX
• AIX

It is highly recommended to use a 64-bit platform. For detailed OS versions, see the most recent Precise Support Matrix at Precise Support Matrix.

Table 1 Required hardware for framework server

Disk requirements for the Precise Collectors

Disk space requirements per Collector (no matter the amount for instances) should be between 500MB and 2GB. The real value depends on the load on the instances.

Requirements for the user interface

Table 2 Software configuration required by the Precise user interface.

Table 3 Hardware configuration required by the Precise user interface

Required vendor patches

Make sure to apply all vendor patches that are required for JRE operation on all servers running Precise components.

Table 4 List of links for vendor patches.

Communication requirements

Precise uses the ports listed below. Make sure that these ports are not used by any application in your site.

Table 5 Precise ports

Insight SmartLink requirements

PMDB requirements

The following table describes the requirements for the PMDB based on the installed platform:

Table 6 PMDB requirements

Operating system requirements

The operating system user running Precise agents on monitored UNIX servers should have the following characteristics:

• Password, other than NULL.
• Authorization to use the cron facility (only required if you intend to install an Oracle AppTier Collector on the respective server).
• On Linux, read and write permissions to the /dev/null special file.
• On Linux, an initial korn shell (KSH). Otherwise, the installation fails. In addition, many of the shell scripts that are included in Precise require KSH.
• Unless you have purchased the AT&T version of KSH, you must download PDKSKH, a korn shell clone in the public domain. If you have Red Hat, you can download the Intel version of PDKSKH from the Red Hat Web site. For other Linux distributions and platforms, search for "pdksh" at: http://rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=pdksh.

• Make sure that the user limits are as specified in the list or higher (the user limit can be changed and configured using the ulimit command):

  • time (seconds) = unlimited

  • file (blocks) = unlimited

  • data (kbytes) = unlimited

• For installation on Windows, the user must have Local administration privileges.

Additional requirements per supported technology

The following topics describe the additional requirements per supported technology:

Oracle

The additional requirements for Oracle are:

• The Precise for Oracle agent reads the Oracle SGA directly. To do so, the user must be in the same group as the Oracle user to have access to the Oracle shared memory.
  • Windows. For Windows servers:
    1. Create a domain user, who is then granted local administrator permissions as required on the monitored servers.
    2. Add the Precise user to the ora_dba group. On monitored Oracle servers, add the Precise user to the same group as the Oracle user – typically ora_dba.
  • UNIX. For UNIX servers:
    
    1. Create a Precise user on every monitored server.
    2. Add the Precise user to the same group as the Oracle software owner (e.g. dba or oinstall). Your DBA group should be the primary group of the Precise user.
• Make sure you have an Oracle DBA user name and password. The user should also have SYSDBA privileges.
• If you are installing on a Sun Solaris operating system, verify that the /proc file system is available.
• On UNIX servers, verify that the file system where you plan to install the software is mounted with the SETUID option.
• Verify that the shared library path variable (LD_LIBRARY_PATH, SHLIB_PATH, or LIB_PATH, depending on the operating system) is not set in the Precise user environment.
• The Init.ora parameter timed_statistics should be set to TRUE.

 Web

The additional requirements for Web are:

• Before you install a Web AppTier, you need to grant special file and directory permissions (including all sub-directories) to the UNIX or Windows user that you intend to use during the installation.

  The permissions in the general collection table are not needed for the ongoing operation, only for installation.

  Auto-detected values will be shown. If this user does not have these permissions during installation you will not see these auto-detected values and you will have to supply them manually.

• The Operating System user that runs the Web Server or Web Application should have full control privileges for the <i3_root> directory.

  For the installation of a Web AppTier, you will need a user with Web administrator privileges.

• Permissions that are required for the GENERAL collection on UNIX and Windows.

  Table 7 GENERAL collection on UNIX and Windows

  Web Server	File or Directory
  iPlanet	sitename/config sitename/config/server.xml
  Apache	Configuration directories (typically: apache root/conf) and sub-directories configuration files (typically: httpd.conf)
  WebLogic	Server installation directory (WL root) WL root/site name WL root/site name/config.xml
  WebSphere	WS root/properties/version/platform.websphere and WS root/properties/version/WAS.product (only for UNIX) Node directory and all sub-directories, such as: .../cells/cell1/nodes/node1 Node serverindex.xml and server.xml files such as .../cells/cell1/nodes/node1/serverindex.xml and .../cells/cell1/nodes/node1/servers/server1/server.xml
  Oracle Applications Server (only for UNIX)	OC root/inventory/ContentsXML/configtools.xml
  Oracle Applications Server - OPMN	Configuration directory (typically: oracle as root/opmn/conf) and all sub-directories Configuration files (typically: oracle as root/opmn/conf/opmn.xml)
  Oracle Applications Server - Apache	Configuration directory (typically: oracle as root/Apache/conf) and all sub-directories Configuration files (typically: oracle as root/Apache/conf/*.conf)
  Tomcat	Configuration directory (typically: tomcat root/conf) and all sub-directories server.xml file (typically under: tomcat root/conf)
  Sun ONE	Configuration directory (typically: sunone root/domains/domain1/config) and all sub-directories domain.xml file (typically under: sunone root/domains/domain1/config)

• Permissions needed for STATIC instrumentation collection on UNIX and Windows:

  Table 8 Permissions for STATIC instrumentation collection on UNIX and Windows

  Web Server	File or Directory
  iPlanet, Apache 1.3	Web application pages directory and sub-directories Page files in the Web application pages directory (such as .html files, .htm files, and so on)

• To install a Precise for Web instance on IIS7.x, the IIS6 Metabase Compatibility service and ISAPI filters must be installed.
• If you are going to install SAP WAS ABAP, the following prerequisites are needed:
  • The import of the Precise for Web transport to the monitored SAP system.
  • The download of the SAP Java Connector (JCo).

  • The installation of SAP Java Connector (JCo) on the server on which Precise for Web FocalPoint is installed.

    Before installing SAP WAS ABAP, check whether Precise supports your version of SAP WAS ABAP in the Precise Support Matrix that can be found on the Precise Customer Portal.

    Precise for Web does not provide the following features for the supported SAP WAS ABAP versions:

    • application user collection
    • server-side monitoring
    • client-side monitoring of new browsers, such as IE8, Chrome, and Firefox 3

To enable IIS6 Metabase Compatibility on Windows 2008

1. Go to Start > Control Panel > Programs > Programs and Features.
2. On the left Side Bar, select Turn Windows features on or off.
3. Go to Roles > Web Server (IIS), and then click Add Role Services.
4. Select IIS6 Metabase Compatibility under IIS 6 Management Compatibility.
5. Select ISAPI filters under Application Development.
6. Click Next, and the follow the instructions.

To import the Web transport to the monitored SAP system

1. If it is the first Web instance in the Precise Environment:
   1. On the Precise FocalPoint server, go to the \products\i3FP\distribution source\installer\ folder
   2. Extract the files with the following path name from the PSWW_FP_Shared_ALL.zip file: products\www\install\sap\abap
2. Copy the Precise for Web transport files to the SAP System:
   1. Copy the K900112.WS4 file that is located in <i3_root>\products\www\install\SAP\abap\cofiles\ to the appropriated trans\cofiles folder on the SAP system.
   2. Copy the R900112.WS4 file from <i3_root>\products\www\install\SAP\abap\data\ to the appropriated trans\data folder on the SAP system.
3. Import the transport from the SAP GUI. During the import, choose the following options:
   • Leave Transport Request in Queue for Later Import
   • Import Transport Request Again
   • Overwrite Originals
   • Overwrite Objects in Unconfirmed Repairs

Downloading the SAP Java Connector (JCo)

For information regarding the SAP JCo, see Installing the SAP Java Connector (JCo).

To download the SAP JCo

1. Open the following URL in a browser window: http://service.sap.com/connectors
2. Enter your SAP Service Marketplace user name and password, and then click OK.
3. In the tree view, go to Connectors > SAP Java Connector > Tools and Services.
4. Review the JCo Release notes for the available versions and choose one that is relevant for the operating system of the i³ for Precise for Web FocalPoint server. Note that the JCo may require other prerequisite software as described in the release notes. Use the JCo version as described in the note above.

Installing the SAP Java Connector (JCo)

To install the SAP JCo

1. Unzip the contents of the downloaded file to a directory of your choice on the Precise for Precise for Web FocalPoint server.
2. From the directory to which you unzipped the downloaded file, copy the .JAR file(s) to <i3_root>\java\3rd_party directory on your Precise for Web FocalPoint server.
3. If the Precise for Web FocalPoint is installed on Windows, copy the .DLL files from the directory to which you unzipped the downloaded file to <i3_root>\products\www\bin directory on your Precise for Web FocalPoint server.
   If the Precise for Web FocalPoint is installed on UNIX/Linux, copy the .SO files from the directory to which you unzipped the downloaded file to: <i3_root>\products\www\bin directory on your Precise for Web FocalPoint server.
4. Make sure the gateway port between the Precise for Web FocalPoint and the SAP Application Server is open in both directions. The gateway port is 33xx, where xx has to be replaced by the instance number of the SAP Application Server.
5. Maintain the SAP communication ports the services file in:
   Windows     %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\services
   UNIX             /etc/services

6. Replace the following <SID> and <instance-number> with the values from your environment:
        sapms<SID> 36<instance-number>/tcp
     sapgw<SID> 33<instance-number>/tcp
     sapdp<SID> 32<instance-number>/tcp
   e.g. for a SAP system with the SID = PRD and Instance Number 01:
        sapmsPRD 3601/tcp # SAP Message Server
     sapgwPRD 3301/tcp # SAP Gateway sapdpPRD
     3201/tcp # SAP Dispatcher

J2EE

The additional requirements for J2EE are:

• If the J2EE Collector is hosted on an AIX server, make sure that the user limits for the Precise user are unlimited for data.
• The user of the application server (regardless of the application server type) must have the following file system permissions:

  Table 9 File system permissions

  Directory	Permissions	Justification
  <i3_root>/logs	Read/write	Write log file, log file rotation
  <i3_root>/products/j2ee	Read/write	Various configuration files, status files
  <i3_root>/infra/cluster	Read/write	Cluster installation management files

• When Precise for J2EE monitors WebSphere, the privileges of the Precise for J2EE user must be the same as those needed to run the WebSphere administration server.

Microsoft .NET

The additional requirements for Microsoft .NET is:

• Create a Microsoft .NET login name with system administrator privileges and a password.
• The user running the .NET application (regardless of the application type) must have full control privileges for the <precise_root> folder.

SQL Server

The additional requirements for SQL Server are:

• Create a Microsoft SQL Server login name with system administrator privileges and a password. Note that this step is optional for the SQL Server AppTier. You may use the Microsoft Windows authentication option instead.
• If you want to use the Recommend/What-If feature in Precise for SQL Server, make sure to install the SQL Server Client tool on both the Precise for SQL Server FocalPoint and Collector servers.
• When running in remote sampling mode, you must provide the Windows user for login into the remote server. This user should have the sysadmin privilege on the remote server, otherwise the installation will fail.
• For the Precise for SQL Server FocalPoint, you need a user for logging in with the server administration privileges.
• When the PMDB is installed using Windows authentication, you need to provide a user that can connect both to the PMDB and to the monitored instance.

Sybase

The additional requirements for Sybase are:

• Make sure you have access to an existing Sybase user name with the system administrator privileges.
• Make sure to install the Sybase PC Open Client of one the supported versions.

  Table 10 Supported Open Client and related ODBC versions

  Open Client	ODBC version
  12.5.1 ESD #2	Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise ODBC driver version 4.20.00.67
  12.5.1 ESD 15	Adaptive Server Enterprise version 12.05.01.529
  15.x	Adaptive Server Enterprise version 15.0.0.152

• Make sure that the following components are installed:
  • Embedded SQL/C
  • Monitor Client Library
  • ODBC driver
• To enable monitoring of the Sybase AppTier, you need to adjust the Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) configuration parameters

The following table specifies the parameter values for ASE version 12.5.0.3 and higher:

Table 11 Parameter values

• Make sure that the user used to monitor the Sybase instance is a member of the mon_role and sa_role server roles

  To grant the mon_role server role, run the following command: grant role mon_role to user name. For example, if you connect as system administrator, run the command as: grant role mon_role to sa.

• The following tables must be activated:
  • monProcessSQLText
  • monProcess

For instructions on how to activate these tables, see Sybase's book Performance Tuning: Monitoring and Analyzing at http://infocenter.sybase.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.sybase.dc20022_1251/html/monitoring/monitoring61.htm

• Make sure that the master.sysservers table includes the following entry: sp_addserver logical name,'local',physical name where: logical name is the name used to address the server on your system and physical name is the name of the instance as it appears in the interface file. This file is usually located in the sybase root dir/ini/sql.ini directory or the sybase root dir/interfaces directory.

  The entry points to the Sybase instance as the local server (srvclass=0). If this entry does not exist, add it to the table.

• To function properly, the Statistics workspace requires that you comply with the following requirements:
  • Run the sp_sysmon system stored procedure with the noclear option set only. For example: sp_sysmon "00:01:00", noclear.
• When the PMDB is installed using Windows authentication, you need to provide a user that can connect both to the PMDB and to the monitored instance

To check which PC Open Client and ODBC driver versions are installed

1. Open the command prompt and run the following command: "%SYBASE%%SYBASE_OCS%\bin\isql" -v (PC Open Client version.)
2. Click Setting > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC). (ODBC driver version.)

DB2

The additional requirements for DB2 are:

• Refer to the Precise Support Matrix for information on supported DB2 versions and FixPak levels
• Precise software components are installed on each monitored DB2 server. You create a dedicated Precise OS user on each monitored server. The name "precise" is used as an example. 
  Windows     On Windows, generally a domain user is created, who is then granted local administrator permissions as required on monitored servers.
  UNIX            For UNIX servers, you must create a Precise user on every monitored server.
  For monitored DB2 servers, create the Precise user as follows:
  • Non-null password, not containing special characters, and has a maximum length of 15 characters
  • Connected to the DB2 SYSADM group (as reported by the DB2 GET DBM CFG command)
  • Login shell is ksh, with "dot" (.) in the Path variable
  • The shared library path (LD_LIBRARY, SHLIB_PATH, LIB_PATH) is not set in this user's environment

• For monitoring purposes, the Precise user must have the DBADM and SYSMON privileges or SYSADM privileges

  The Precise for DB2 AppTier installation creates a schema in either an existing or new tablespace. If you prefer to create a new tablespace, the user must also have DBADM and SYSCTRL privileges or SYSADM privileges.

• When monitoring DB2 on HP, make sure the database default charset isn't roman8 (CP1051)
• Close the Services window in the Control Panel if you are installing on a Windows server

SAP

Define the fields that Precise for SAP will retrieve for organization and user areas. By default, Precise for SAP retrieves the Department field for organization and the Building field for user area.

The additional requirements for SAP are:

• Precise for SAP function modules are installed on the monitored SAP system (For more information, see the Installing Precise Components.)
• You need to have SAP user account with the authorization profile Z_PRECISE (For more information, see the Installing Precise Components.)
• The SAP Java Connector (JCo) version 2.1.9 is installed on the Precise for SAP FocalPoint server
• To install Precise for SAP BW, the SAP BW technical content needs to be enabled (For more information, see the Installing Precise Components.)

PeopleSoft

The additional requirement for PeopleSoft is:

• Verify that the PeopleSoft Applications server can be brought down for a short window of time (approximately 15 minutes) to set the database monitoring parameter to TRUE: EnableDBMonitoring=1.

Oracle Apps

The additional requirements for Oracle Apps are:

• FORMS LISTENER MODE. The relevant port number is defined by the FORMS_PORT environment variable in the adfrmctl.sh script found in the Oracle Applications installation directory

  If the Precise Insight Savvy for OA is to be deployed, the Forms server must be a UNIX server and must have the Precise Listener and Insight Savvy for Network agents installed to monitor the Forms Tier of Oracle Applications.

• FORMS SERVLET MODE. If the Precise Insight Savvy for OA is to be deployed, the Forms server must be a UNIX server and must have the Precise Listener and Precise for J2EE agents installed to monitor the Forms Tier of Oracle Applications
• Access to the Oracle Database with a userid having sysdba privileges
• Must be able to run command: GRANT EXECUTE ON DBMS_PIPE TO <COLLECTOR_SCHEMA_USER>
• Verify that the Oracle Applications server can be brought down for a short window of time (approximately 30 minutes)
• To make the required modifications:
  • No users can be logged on to the Oracle Applications server
  • No batch jobs or reports can be running on the Oracle Applications server
  • The Concurrent Manager must be shut down
• Verify that you can change the CUSTOM.pll and CUSTOM.plx forms library

Insight Savvy for OS and Network

The additional requirements for Insight Savvy for OS and Network are:

• On UNIX, verify the file system where you will install the software is mounted with the SETUID option and no security monitoring system (for example CA Etrust) is blocking setuid
• Verify you have access to use a userid root, this is required for installation action items

Insight Savvy for Tuxedo

The additional requirement for Insight Savvy for Tuxedo is:

• On UNIX operating systems you will need Super-user (root) privileges (only for the installation) If the automatic detection does not work, the following procedures can be performed:

To obtain the Tuxedo version number

1. Log on as the Tuxedo operator.
2. Run the following command: tmadmin -v

To obtain the Tuxedo domain ID

1. Look for the BBL process on the server.
2. Use the name following the DOM option.
3. Alternatively, look for the UBBCONFIG file or a file containing UBB in its name.
4. Use the value of the DOMAINID variable in the RESOURCES section.

If you are not sure what the Tuxedo domain ID is, you can use the UNIX user name running the BBL process on the server, or simply use an arbitrary name. In upgrade mode, this is the name of the Tuxedo domain you want to upgrade. Via the auto-detection mechanism, invalid characters for Precise may appear. This should be changed manually.

To obtain the path of the Tuxedo installation directory

1. Log on as the Tuxedo operator.
2. Check the value of the TUXDIR environment variable.
3. Alternatively, locate the Tuxedo bin directory where the BBL program is located. The Tuxedo installation directory is immediately above it.

To find the Tuxedo configuration file

1. Log on as the Tuxedo operator.
2. Check the value of the TUXCONFIG environment variable.

This is a binary file. Do not confuse it with the textual UBBCONFIG file. In a PeopleSoft installation, the name of the Tuxedo configuration file is usually PSTUXCFG. This file is located in the PeopleSoft installation directory/appserv/PeopleSoft Domain directory. For example: /home/hrprd/hrprd831/appserv/HR_PRD831/PSTUXCFG

Custom Apps and Tuxedo

The additional requirements for Custom Apps and Tuxedo are:

• When performing an upgrade:

  Table 12 Prerequisites

  Application	Needed Downtime	Permissions
  J2EE	Restart of the monitored application server after installing the upgrade patch on its server.	Permission to use the operating system user of the Web/application server.
  Web	Restart of the monitored application server after installing the upgrade patch on its server.	Permission to use the operating system user of the Web/application server.
  Tuxedo	If the CORBA Interceptor DLL has been deployed, the Tuxedo domain will need to be shut down for the duration of the upgrade on the Tuxedo server.

• When performing an installation:

  Table 13 Prerequisites

  Application	Needed Downtime	Permissions	Manual actions
  J2EE	Restart of the monitored application server after installing the agent for it.	The Web/application server operating system user must have permission to read/write from the Precise installation directory (a.k.a. the <i3_root> directory) and all of its sub folders. It is therefore highly recommended that the Precise operating system user shares the same group as the Web/application server operating system user.
  Web	Restart of the monitored application server after installing the agent for it.	The Web/application server operating system user must have permission to read/write from the Precise installation directory (a.k.a. the <i3_root> directory) and all of its sub folders. It is therefore highly recommended that the Precise operating system user shares the same group as the Web/application server operating system user.	To be performed using the operating system user of the Web/application server at the end of the the installation process, before terminating the downtime: Editing the Web/application server configuration files (e.g. server.xml, httpd.conf, etc.) For monitoring a J2EE application the additional actions will also be required: Editing the application server startup script for adding Precise classes to the JVM classpath. Editing the Web descriptor (web.xml inside WAR or EAR) of the application.

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