Published: 05-02-2014 | Author: Remy van Elst | Text only version of this article

Table of Contents

This tutorial shows you how to install extra software in the VMWare vCenter appliance. VMWare provides a vCenter appliance, which is a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server appliance with the VMWare vCenter server software installed. Because this is SUSE, we can add repositories and install software from there. By default it comes without repositories enabled. I needed to do this because I want to use NRPE on the vCenter appliance.

If you like this article, consider sponsoring me by trying out a Digital Ocean VPS. With this link you'll get $100 credit for 60 days). (referral link)

Make sure you can SSH to your vCenter Appliance. I use my own account with sudo, however, if you're feeling lucky you might be able to use the root account. Remember, to disable root login.

First we need to make sure we have the correct version. Check the file /etc /SuSE-release :

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 (x86_64) VERSION = 11 PATCHLEVEL = 2

I use the vCenter 5.5 appliance. If you have another version, change the repository URL to match this version.

Add the openSUSE repository:

zypper addrepo -f http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/ opensuse

Output:

Adding repository 'opensuse' [done] Repository 'opensuse' successfully added Enabled: Yes Autorefresh: Yes GPG check: Yes URI: http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/

Verify that adding the repository went successfully:

zypper repos -d

Output:

# | Alias | Name | Enabled | Refresh | Priority | Type | URI | Service --+----------+----------+---------+---------+----------+------+----------------------------------------------------------+-------- 1 | opensuse | opensuse | Yes | Yes | 99 | NONE | http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/ |

Update the local repository cache (comparable to apt-get update ):

zypper refresh

It will ask you if you want to trust the repository:

Retrieving repository 'opensuse' metadata [\] New repository or package signing key received: Key ID: B88B2FD43DBDC284 Key Name: openSUSE Project Signing Key <opensuse@opensuse.org> Key Fingerprint: 22C07BA534178CD02EFE22AAB88B2FD43DBDC284 Key Created: Fri Nov 7 14:10:07 2008 Key Expires: Sun Nov 7 14:10:07 2010 (EXPIRED) Repository: opensuse Do you want to reject the key, trust temporarily, or trust always? [r/t/a/?] (r):

Answer with a to always trust this repository:

Retrieving repository 'opensuse' metadata [done] Building repository 'opensuse' cache [done] All repositories have been refreshed.

That's it. If you now for example want to install NRPE, you can use the following commands. First search for the correct package name:

zypper search nrpe

Output:

Loading repository data... Reading installed packages... S | Name | Summary | Type --+--------------------+-------------------------------------------------------+-------- | nagios-nrpe | Nagios Remote Plug-In Executor | package | nagios-nrpe-client | Client part of Nagios Remote Plug-ins Executor (NRPE) | package | nagios-nrpe-doc | Nagios Remote Plug-In Executor documentation | package | nagios-nrpe-server | Server part for Nagios Remote Plug-In Executor | package

Install the correct one:

zypper install nagios-nrpe-client

Output:

Loading repository data... Reading installed packages... Resolving package dependencies... The following NEW packages are going to be installed: nagios-nrpe-client nagios-plugins perl-Crypt-DES perl-Digest-HMAC perl-Net-SNMP The following recommended package was automatically selected: nagios-plugins 5 new packages to install. Overall download size: 612.0 KiB. After the operation, additional 2.4 MiB will be used. Continue? [y/n/?] (y): Retrieving package nagios-nrpe-client-2.12-4.5.x86_64 (1/5), 30.0 KiB (52.0 KiB unpacked) Retrieving: nagios-nrpe-client-2.12-4.5.x86_64.rpm [done] Retrieving package perl-Crypt-DES-2.05-135.1.x86_64 (2/5), 19.0 KiB (39.0 KiB unpacked) Retrieving: perl-Crypt-DES-2.05-135.1.x86_64.rpm [done] Retrieving package perl-Digest-HMAC-1.01-630.2.x86_64 (3/5), 21.0 KiB (34.0 KiB unpacked) Retrieving: perl-Digest-HMAC-1.01-630.2.x86_64.rpm [done] Retrieving package perl-Net-SNMP-5.2.0-134.3.x86_64 (4/5), 98.0 KiB (389.0 KiB unpacked) Retrieving: perl-Net-SNMP-5.2.0-134.3.x86_64.rpm [done] Retrieving package nagios-plugins-1.4.13-5.3.x86_64 (5/5), 444.0 KiB (1.9 MiB unpacked) Retrieving: nagios-plugins-1.4.13-5.3.x86_64.rpm [done] Installing: nagios-nrpe-client-2.12-4.5 [done] Installing: perl-Crypt-DES-2.05-135.1 [done] Installing: perl-Digest-HMAC-1.01-630.2 [done] Installing: perl-Net-SNMP-5.2.0-134.3 [done] Installing: nagios-plugins-1.4.13-5.3 [done]

After the install, enable and start the service:

chkconfig nrpe on /etc/init.d/nrpe start

Tags: nagios