Posts Tagged ‘dependencies’

Howto Upgrade IBM Spectrum Protect Backup Client TSM 7.X to 8.1.8, Update Tivoli 8.1.8 to 8.1.11 on CentOS and Redhat Linux

Thursday, December 3rd, 2020

 

IBM-spectrum-protect-backup-logo-tivoli-tsm-logo

Having another day of a system administrator boredom, we had a task to upgrade some Tivoli TSM Backup clients running on a 20+ machines powered by CentOS and RHEL Linux to prepare the systems to be on the latest patched IBM Spectrum Backup client version available from IBM. For the task of patching I've used a central server where, I've initially downloaded the provided TSM client binaries archives. From this machine, we have copied TivSM*.tar to each and every system that needs to be patched and then patched. The task is not too complex as the running TSM in the machines are all at the same version and all running a recent patched version of Linux. Hence to make sure all works as expected we have tested TSM is upgraded from 7.X.X to 8.X.X on one machine and then test 8.1.8 to 8.1.11 upgrade on another one. Once having confirmed that Backups works as expected after upgrade. We have proceeded to do it massively on each of the rest 20+ hosts.
Below article's goal is to help some lazy sysadmin with the task to prepare an TSM Backup upgrade procedure to standartize TSM Upgrade, which as many of the IBM's softwares is very specific and its upgrade requires, a bit of manual work and extra cautious as there seems to be no easy way (or at least I don't know it), to do the upgrade by simply adding an RPM repository and doing, something like yum install tivsm*.


0. Check if there is at least 2G free of space

According to documentation the minimum space you need to a functional install without having it half installed or filling up your filesystem is 2 Gigabytes of Free Memory on a filesystem where the .tar and rpms will be living.

Thus check what is the situation with your filesystem where you wills store the .tar archice and extract .RPM files / install the RPM files.

# df -h

1. Download the correct tarball with 8.1 Client

On one central machine you would need to download the Tivoli you can do that via wget / curl / lynx whatever is at hand on the Linux server.

As of time of writting this article TSM's 8.1.11 location is at
URL:

http://public.dhe.ibm.com/storage/tivoli-storage-management/maintenance/client/v8r1/Linux/LinuxX86/BA/v8111/

I've made a local download mirror of Tivoli TSM 8.1.11 here.
In case you need to install IBM Spectrum Backup Client to a PCI secured environment to a DMZ-ed LAN network from a work PC you can Download it first from your local PC and via Citrix client upload program or WinSCP upload it to a central replication host from where you will later copy to each of the other server nodes that needs to be upgraded.

Lets Copy archive to all Server hosts where you want it later installed, using a small hack

Assuming you already have an Excel document or a Plain text document with all the IPs of the affected hosts where you will need to get TSM upgraded. Extract this data and from it create a plain text file /home/user/hosts.txt containing all the machine IPs lined up separated with carriage return separations (\n), so you can loop over each one and use scp to send the files.

– Replicate Tivoli tar to all machine hosts where you want to get IBM Spectrum installed or upgraded.
Do it with a loop like this:

# for i in $(cat hosts.txt); do scp 8.1.11.0-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar user@$i:/home/user/; done

 Copy to a Copy buffer temporary your server password assuming all your passwords to each machine are identical and paste your login user pass for each host to initiate transfer
 

2. SSH to each of the Machine hosts IPs

Once you login to the host you want to upgrade
Go to your user $HOME /home/user and create files where we'll temporary store Tivoli archive files and extract RPMs

[root@linux-server user]# mkdir -p ~/tsm/TSM_BCK/
[root@linux-server user]# mv 8.1.11.0-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar ~/tsm
[root@linux-server user]# cd tsm
[root@linux-server user]# tar -xvvf 8.1.11.0-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar
gskcrypt64-8.0.55.17.linux.x86_64.rpm
GSKit.pub.pgp
gskssl64-8.0.55.17.linux.x86_64.rpm
README_api.htm
README.htm
RPM-GPG-KEY-ibmpkg
TIVsm-API64.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-APIcit.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-BAcit.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-BAhdw.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-BA.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-filepath-source.tar.gz
TIVsm-JBB.x86_64.rpm
TIVsm-WEBGUI.x86_64.rpm
update.txt

3. Create backup of old backup files

It is always a good idea to keep old backup files

[root@linux-server tsm]# cp -av /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.opt ~/tsm/TSM_BCK/dsm.opt_bak_$(date +'%Y_%M_%H')
[root@linux-server tsm]# cp -av /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.sys ~/tsm/TSM_BCK/dsm.sys_bak_$(date +'%Y_%M_%H')

[root@linux-server tsm]# [[ -f /etc/adsm/TSM.PWD ]] && cp -av /etc/adsm/TSM.PWD ~/TSM_BCK/ || echo 'file doesnt exist'

/etc/adsm/TSM.PWD this file is only there as legacy for TSM it contained encrypted passwords inver 7 for updates. In TSM v.8 encryption file is not there as new mechanism for sensitive data was introduced.
Be aware that from Tivoli 8.X it will return error
exist'

!! Note – if dsm.opt , dsm.sys files are on different locations – please use correct full path locations !!

4. Stop  dsmcad – TSM Service daemon

[root@linux-server tsm]# systemctl stop dsmcad

5. Locate and deinstall all old Clients

Depending on the version to upgrade if you're upgrading from TSM version 7 to 8, you will get output like.

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -qa | grep 'TIVsm-'
TIVsm-BA-7.1.6-2.x86_64
TIVsm-API64-7.1.6-2.x86_64

If you're one of this paranoid admins you can remove TIVsm packs  one by one.

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -e TIVsm-BA-7.1.6-2.x86_64
[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -e TIVsm-API64-7.1.6-2.x86_64

Instead if upgrading from version 8.1.8 to 8.1.11 due to the Security CVE advisory recently published by IBM e.g. (IBM Runtime Vulnerability affects IBM Spectrum Backup archive Client) and  vulnerability in Apache Commons Log4J affecting IBM Spectrum Protect Backup Archive Client.

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -qa | grep 'TIVsm-'
TIVsm-API64-8.1.8-0.x86_64
TIVsm-BA-8.1.8-0.x86_64

Assuming you're not scared of a bit automation you can straight do it with below one liner too 🙂

# rpm -e $(rpm -qa | grep TIVsm)

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -qa | grep gsk
[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -e gskcrypt64 gskssl64

6. Check uninstallation success:

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -qa | grep TIVsm
[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -qa | grep gsk

Here you should an Empty output, if packages are not on the system, e.g. Empty output is good output ! 🙂

7. Install new client IBM Spectrum Client (Tivoli Storage Manager) and lib dependencies

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -ivh gskcrypt64-8.0.55.4.linux.x86_64.rpm
[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -ivh gskssl64-8.0.55.4.linux.x86_64.rpm

 If you're lazy to type you can do as well

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -Uvh gsk*

Next step is to install main Tivoli SM components the the API files and BA (The Backup Archive Client)

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -ivh TIVsm-API64.x86_64.rpm
[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -ivh TIVsm-BA.x86_64.rpm

If you have to do it on multiple servers and you do it manually following a guide like this, you might instead want to install them with one liner.

[root@linux-server tsm]# rpm -ivh TIVsm-API64.x86_64.rpm TIVsm-BA.x86_64.rpm

There are some Not mandatory "Common Inventory Technology" components (at some cases if you're using the API install it we did not need that), just for the sake if you need them on your servers due to backup architecture, install also below commented rpm files.

## rpm -ivh TIVsm-APIcit.x86_64.rpm

## rpm -ivh TIVsm-BAcit.x86_64.rpm

These packages not needed only for operation WebGUI TSM GUI management, (JBB) Journal Based Backup, BAhdw (the ONTAP library)


— TIVsm-WEBGUI.x86_64.rpm
— TIVsm-JBB.x86_64.rpm
— TIVsm-BAhdw.x86_64.rpm

8. Start and enable dsmcad service

[root@linux-server tsm]# systemctl stop dsmcad

You will get

##Warning: dsmcad.service changed on disk. Run 'systemctl daemon-reload' to reload units.

[root@linux-server tsm]# systemctl daemon-reload

[root@linux-server tsm]# systemctl start dsmcad


## enable dsmcad – it is disabled by default after install

[root@linux-server ~]# systemctl enable dsmcad

[root@linux-server tsm]# systemctl status dsmcad

9. Check dmscad service is really running

Once enabled IBM TSM will spawn a process in the bacground dmscad if it started properly you should have the process backgrounded.

[root@linux-server tsm]# ps -ef|grep -i dsm|grep -v grep
root      2881     1  0 18:05 ?        00:00:01 /usr/bin/dsmcad

If process is not there there might be some library or something not at place preventing the process to start …

10. Check DSMCAD /var/tsm logs for errors

After having dsmcad process enabled and running in background

[root@linux-server tsm]# grep -i Version /var/tsm/sched.log|tail -1
12/03/2020 18:06:29   Server Version 8, Release 1, Level 10.000

 

[root@linux-server tsm]# cat /var/tsm/dsmerror.log

To see the current TSM configuration files we can  grep out comments *

[root@linux-server tsm]# grep -v '*' /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/dsm.sys

Example Configuration of the agent:
—————————————————-
   *TSM SERVER NODE Location
   Servername           tsm_server
   COMMmethod           TCPip
   TCPPort              1400
   TCPServeraddress     tsmserver2.backuphost.com
   NodeName             NODE.SERVER-TO-BACKUP-HOSTNAME.COM
   Passwordaccess       generate
   SCHEDLOGNAME         /var/tsm/sched.log
   SCHEDLOGRETENTION    21 D
   SCHEDMODE            POLLING
   MANAGEDServices      schedule
   ERRORLOGNAME         /var/tsm/dsmerror.log
   ERRORLOGRETENTION    30 D
   INCLEXCL             /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/inclexcl.tsm

11. Remove tsm install directory tar ball and rpms to save space on system

The current version of Tivoli service manager is 586 Megabytes.

[root@linux-server tsm]# du -hsc 8.1.11.0-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar
586M    8.1.11.0-TIV-TSMBAC-LinuxX86.tar

Some systems are on purpose configured to have less space under their /home directory,
hence it is a good idea to clear up unnecessery files after completion.

Lets get rid of all the IBM Spectrum archive source files and the rest of RPMs used for installation.

[root@linux-server tsm]# rm -rf ~/tsm/{*.tar,*.rpm,*.gpg,*.htm,*.txt}

12. Check backups are really created on the configured remote Central backup server

To make sure after the upgrade the backups are continuously created and properly stored on the IBM Tivoly remote central backup server, either manually initiate a backup or wait for lets say a day and run dsmc client to show all created backups from previous day. To make sure you'll not get empty output you can on purpose modify some file by simply opening it and writting over without chaning anything e.g. modify your ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile

## List all backups for '/' root directory from -fromdate='DD/MM/YY'

[root@linux-server tsm]# dsmc
Protect>
IBM Spectrum Protect
Command Line Backup-Archive Client Interface
  Client Version 8, Release 1, Level 11.0
  Client date/time: 12/03/2020 18:14:03
(c) Copyright by IBM Corporation and other(s) 1990, 2020. All Rights Reserved.

Node Name: NODE.SERVER-TO-BACKUP-HOSTNAME.COM
Session established with server TSM2_SERVER: AIX
  Server Version 8, Release 1, Level 10.000
  Server date/time: 12/03/2020 18:14:04  Last access: 12/03/2020 18:06:29
 
Protect> query backup -subdir=yes "/" -fromdate=12/3/2020
           Size        Backup Date                Mgmt Class           A/I File
           —-        ———–                ———-           — —-
         6,776  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /etc/freshclam.conf
         6,685  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /etc/freshclam.conf-2020-12-02
         5,602  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /etc/hosts
         5,506  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /etc/hosts-2020-12-02
           398  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /opt/tivoli/tsm/client/ba/bin/tsmstats.ini
       114,328  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /root/.bash_history
           403  B  12/03/2020 01:26:53             DEFAULT              A  /root/.lesshst

Removing exim and installing qmail / Generate and install pseudo mta dummy package on Debian / Ubuntu etc. .deb based Linux

Thursday, March 10th, 2016

debian-dummy-mta-package-install-howto-tux-mail-nice-mascot
If you happen to be installing Qmail Mail server on a Debian or Ubuntu (.deb) based Linux, you will notice by default there will be some kind of MTA (Mail Transport Agent) already installed mail-transfer-agent package will be installed and because of Debian .deb package depedency to have an MTA always installed on the system you will be unable to remove Exim MTA without installing some other MTA (Postix / Qmail) etc.

This will be a problem for those like me who prefer to compile and install Qmail from source, thus to get around this it is necessery to create a dummy package that will trick the deb packaging depencies that actually mta-local MTA package is present on the server.

The way to go here is to use equivs (Circumvent debian package dependencies):
 

debian:~# apt-cache show equivs|grep -i desc -A 10

Description: Circumvent Debian package dependencies
 This package provides a tool to create trivial Debian packages.
 Typically these packages contain only dependency information, but they
 can also include normal installed files like other packages do.
 .
 One use for this is to create a metapackage: a package whose sole
 purpose is to declare dependencies and conflicts on other packages so
 that these will be automatically installed, upgraded, or removed.
 .
 Another use is to circumvent dependency checking: by letting dpkg
 think a particular package name and version is installed when it

Btw creating a .deb dummy package will be necessery in many other cases when you have to install from some third party debian repositories or some old and alrady unmaintaned deb-src packages for the sake of making some archaic software to resurrect somewhere, so sooner or later even if you're not into Mail servers you will certainly need equivs.

Then install equivs and go on proceeding creating the dummy mail-transport-agent package
 

debian:~# cd /tmp debian:~# cp -rpf /usr/share/doc/equivs/examples/mail-transport-agent.ctl . debian:~# equivs-build mail-transport-agent.ctl


Above command will build and package /tmp/mta-local_1.0_all.deb dummy package.
So continue and install it with dpkg as you use to install debian packages
 

 

debian:~# dpkg -i /tmp/mta-local_1.0_all.deb


From then on you can continue your standard LWQ – Life with Qmail or any other source based qmail installation with:

 

 

./config-fast mail.yourmaildomain.net


So that's it now .deb packaging system consistency will be complete so standard security package updates with apt-get and aptitude updates or dpkg -i third party custom software insatlls will not be breaking up any more.

Hope that helped someone 🙂

 

 

 

 

How to upgrade single package with their dependencies on Debian and Ubuntu Linux

Friday, March 16th, 2012

Debian GNU / Linux apt-get upgrade a package selection of a whole bunch of packages ready to upgrade apt artistic logo

Are you a Debian System Administrator and you recently run apt-get upgrade && apt-get upgrade finding out there are plenty of new packagesfor upgrade? Do you need only a pre-selected number of packages to upgrade with apt?
I run apt-get update && apt-get upgrade on one of our company Debian servers, just to see there are a number of packages to be upgraded among which there was some I didn't wanted to upgrade. Here is a little paste output from apt-get upgrade:

debian:~# apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
Hit http://security.debian.org squeeze/updates Release.gpg
...
Hit http://security.debian.org squeeze/updates/main amd64 Packages
Fetched 128 kB in 0s (441 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
at imagemagick libdbd-pg-perl libfreetype6 libmagickcore3 libmagickcore3-extra libmagickwand3 libmysqlclient16 mysql-client
mysql-client-5.1 mysql-common mysql-server mysql-server-5.1 mysql-server-core-5.1
Do you want to continue [Y/n]
14 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

From first sight it seems logical to issue apt-get upgrade packagename to upgrade only single package with its package dependencies, instead of the whole group the above packs. However doing:
apt-get upgrade imagemagick will still try to upgrade all the packages instead of just imagemagick and its dependency package deb libmagickcore3

debian:~# apt-get upgrade imagemagick
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be upgraded:
at imagemagick libdbd-pg-perl libfreetype6 libmagickcore3 libmagickcore3-extra libmagickwand3 libmysqlclient16 mysql-client
mysql-client-5.1 mysql-common mysql-server mysql-server-5.1 mysql-server-core-5.1
14 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]

Doing all package,upgrade is not a good idea in my case, since upgrading mysql-server will require a MySQL server restart (something which we cannot afford to do right now) on this production server.
MySQL server restart during upgrade is never a good idea especially on productive busy (heavy loaded) SQL servers.
A restart of the MySQL server serving thousands of requests per second could lead often to crashed tables and hence temporary server downtime etc.

Still it is a good idea to upgrade the rest of packages with their newer versions. For exmpl. to upgrade; imagemagick, at , libfreetype6 and so on.

In order to upgrade only this 3 ones and their respective package dependencies, issue:

debian:~# apt-get --yes install imagemagick at libfreetype6

Repeat the apt-get install command with passing all the single package name you want to be upgraded and voila you're done :).
Be sure the apt-get install packagename upgrade doesn't require also upgrade of myssql-server, mysql-client, mysql-common or mysql-server-core-5.1 or any of the package name you want to preserve from upgrading.