Install nfsight plugin for nfsen on CentOS 6

Install nfsight plugin for nfsen netflow/sflow collector/analyser on CentOS 6 (and probably RedHat 6)

This was done with nfsen 1.3.6p1 and nfdump 1.6.6 -- i have not yet upgraded to any newer versions which may may be different.

This was one of the most difficult installations I've done to date.  I had attempted to do so at least twice if not thrice without success.  The key was to know about the chgrp command which I had not used before.  Also mysql was not something I was overly familiar with.  I attempted this task knowing I had failed in the past, but I also knew I had gained more Linux experience since those attempts.  I was very excited to succeed this time.

Here are my notes, because quite frankly I have not found any hints online other than the official installation guide which is bare minimum.

Please comment, especially if you find errors or know better solutions.  Enjoy.

Edit: newer nfsight version available: nfsight-beta-20140905.tgz ; just replace references.

######################################################
### Install nfsight plugin for nfsen on CentOS 6.4 ###
### http://sourceforge.net/p/nfsight/home/Nfsight/ ###
### Prerequisite: nfsen/nfdump already operational ###
######################################################

#################################################################
### Your nfsen and webserver directories may indeed be different.
### Apply settings as they pertain to your directory structure.
###
### My server's configuration:
### nfsen installed to /usr/local/nfsen
### nfsen website installed to /var/www/html/nfsen
### website owner=root, group=apache
###
### All commands performed as root.
#################################################################

### install prerequisites
yum install mysql mysql-server perl-DBI perl-DBD-MySQL php-mysql

### download and untar nfsight v.20130323
cd ~
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/nfsight/files/nfsight-beta-20130323.tgz/download
tar xvfz nfsight-beta-20130323.tgz
cd ~/nfsight-beta-20130323

### following http://sourceforge.net/p/nfsight/wiki/Installation/

### copy nfsight.pm to plugins directory
cp ~/nfsight-beta-20130323/backend/nfsight.pm /usr/local/nfsen/plugins/

### make nfsight data directory and set rights
mkdir /var/www/html/nfsen/plugins/nfsight
chgrp -R apache /var/www/html/nfsen/plugins/nfsight

### make nfsight website directory
mkdir /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight

### copy frontend to nfsight website directory
cp -R ~/nfsight-beta-20130323/frontend/* /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight/

### set rights to nfsight website
chgrp -R apache /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight/

### unsure if necessary - set write permissions for apache
chmod g+w /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight/
chmod g+w /var/www/html/nfsen/plugins/nfsight
### if nothing else apache must write config.php
### touch /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight/config.php
### chmod g+w /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight/config.php

### install mysql service and start it 
yum install chkconfig 
chkconfig mysqld on
service mysqld start

### first time setup of mysql
/usr/bin/mysql_secure_installation


#################################################################
### create nfsight database -- probably overkill but this worked
#################################################################
mysql -u root -p 
Enter password: 

mysql> CREATE DATABASE nfsight

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nfsight.* TO root@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> grant all privileges on nfsight.* TO root@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON nfsight.* TO 'root'@'%' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> quit
Bye

#################################################################
### launch http://yourserver/nfsight/installer.php
### 
### setup as you desire including proper paths:
### URL = /nfsight/
### Path to data files = /var/www/html/nfsen/plugins/nfsight
#################################################################

#################################################################
### settings can be edited later without installer.php: 
### nano /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight/config.php
### nano /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight/detail.php
#################################################################

#################################################################
### edit detail.php to include proper paths:
### /bin/grep
### /bin/cat
### /usr/bin/pcv
#################################################################
nano /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight/detail.php


#################################################################
### edit /usr/local/nfsen/etc/nfsen.conf
### add settings as output by installer.php
### 
### your setting may vary:
#################################################################
@plugins = (
[ '*', 'nfsight' ],
);

%PluginConf = (\
nfsight => {
            path => "/var/www/html/nfsen/plugins/nfsight",
                expiration => "180",
                processing_timer => "",
                network => {
                        "10.0.0.0" => "8",
                },
                scanner_limit => "5",
                bidirectional_via_nfdump => "",
                print_int_scanner => "1",
                print_ext_scanner => "1",
                print_int_client => "0",
                print_ext_client => "0",
                print_int_server => "1",
                print_ext_server => "0",
                print_int_invalid => "0",
                print_ext_invalid => "0",
                sql_host => "localhost",
                sql_port => "3306",
                sql_user => "root",
                sql_pass => "password",
                sql_db => "nfsight",
        },

);
#################################################################

### restart nfsen
/usr/local/nfsen/bin/nfsen stop
/usr/local/nfsen/bin/nfsen start
/usr/local/nfsen/bin/nfsen status

### edit cron jobs as decribed from installer.php
crontab -e
06 * * * *  /usr/bin/wget --no-check-certificate -q -O - http://management:aggregate@127.0.0.1/nfsight/aggregate.php


#################################################################
### optional: install picviz
#################################################################
### picviz 0.6-8 has only one dependency issue in CentOS 6.4
### picviz 0.6-8 requires libev available in the EPEL repository
### What is EPEL?: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL
#################################################################

### Install the EPEL repository 
### This is the 64-bit version, you may need to locate the 32-bit version
rpm -Uvh http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

### install picviz prerequisite libev from EPEL
yum install libev

### install picviz 0.6-8 64-bit
wget https://depots.global-sp.net/CentOS/6/x86_64/picviz-0.6-8.el6.x86_64.rpm
rpm -i picviz-0.6-8.el6.x86_64.rpm 
wget https://depots.global-sp.net/CentOS/6/x86_64/picviz-plugin-pngcairo-0.6-8.el6.x86_64.rpm
rpm -i picviz-plugin-pngcairo-0.6-8.el6.x86_64.rpm 

### fix errors decribed by nfsight regarding picviz
chmod g+w /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight/cache
chmod g+x /var/www/html/nfsen/nfsight/bin/biflow2picviz.pl

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Install php-mcrypt in CentOS 6

php-mcrypt is not in CentOS's standard repositories.  However, it is in Fedora's EPEL repository.

Install the EPEL Repo:
for 32 bit:
rpm -Uvh http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
for 64 bit:
rpm -Uvh http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/6/x86_64/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm

Then you can
yum install php-mcrypt


EPEL also includes php-mbstring if you need that as i did.
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Redirect http to https on Apache server (httpd)

After googling http to https redirect, I found several answers that simply did not work (for me).  Finally I came across one that did:

In the directory of your web-content, create the file .htaccess and fill it with these directives:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*) https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI}

That's it.

This worked on CentOS 6.3 and Apache 2.2.15

p.s. Don't forget your firewall settings.
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Install official VMWare-Tools via yum repository for RedHat and CentOS

Edit: RHEL 7 and CentOS 7 now officially recommends open-vm-tools via their own repository -- i.e. sudo yum -y open-vm-tools , then reboot -- that is all!  If you are still using RHEL/CentOS 5 or 6, then continue below:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Sources: http://packages.vmware.com/tools/docs/manuals/index.html)

All instructions assuming root or sudo.

Special Note: May have to remove old versions prior to upgrades:
vmware-uninstall-tools.pl  or
rpm -e VmwareTools or
yum remove vmware-tools[-esx] or ..?..

First, add gpg keys for repositories:
wget http://packages.vmware.com/tools/keys/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-DSA-KEY.pub
wget http://packages.vmware.com/tools/keys/VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-RSA-KEY.pub
rpm --import ./VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-RSA-KEY.pub
rpm --import ./VMWARE-PACKAGING-GPG-DSA-KEY.pub

Adding the appropriate sources depend on Release-Version and Architecture:
(Tools version can be 4.0latest, 4.1latest, 5.0latest, or 5.1latest)
(Release can be rhel5 or rhel6)
(Architecture can be i386 or x86_64)

***** edit: Thanks to Anonymous (Nov 1 2013), please do not use "*latest" as VMWare now recommends the static url/folder.  Ex: "5.1u3". Find yours by traversing http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/ 
***** edit: As of Early 2014, I find "*.latest" is still working with ESXi 5.1 and CentoOS 6.5 -- proceed at your own discretion.

Confirm your distro with cat /etc/redhat-release

Confirm your architecture with uname -m (or -a) (if i686, use i386)

Create the repository file /etc/yum.repos.d/vmware-tools.repo and edit it to contain the following, based on the above confirmations and desired vmware version:
(your baseurl will be http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/<version>/<release>/<architecture>)
(note various examples are commented with #)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[vmware-tools]
name=VMware Tools
baseurl=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/5.1latest/rhel6/x86_64
#baseurl=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/5.1latest/rhel6/i386

#baseurl=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/5.1latest/rhel5/i386

#baseurl=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/5.1latest/rhel5/x86_64
#baseurl=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/4.0latest/rhel6/x86_64
#baseurl=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/4.0latest/rhel5/i686
#baseurl=http://packages.vmware.com/tools/esx/4.0latest/rhel6/i686
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Installation for VMWare 4.x tools (option 1 or 2 exclusively):
option 1) 4.x including X11 dependencies:
yum install vmware-tools
option 2) 4.x excluding X11 dependencies (headless):
yum install vmware-tools-nox

Installation for VMWare 5.x tools:
Step 1) Confirm PAE or not (if not PAE, will not see it):
uname -a

Step 2) Install kmods: (option 1 or 2 exclusively)
Option 1) non-pae:
yum install vmware-tools-esx-kmods
Option 2) pae:
yum install vmware-tools-esx-kmods-PAE

Step3) Install tools: (option 1 or 2 exclusively)
Option 1) including X11 dependencies:
yum install vmware-tools-esx
Option 2) excluding X11 dependencies (headless):
yum install vmware-tools-esx-nox

Note, This can be done in one line, but "kmods" must be FIRST
yum install vmware-tools-esx-kmods[-kerneltype] vmware-tools-esx[-nox]
where [-kerneltype] is "-PAE" or nothing and "-nox" or not.

Therefore, this is the no pae, no X (headless) install command:

yum install vmware-tools-esx-kmods vmware-tools-esx-nox

~~~
As always, good luck!


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