How To Install LibreNMS on Rocky Linux 8

In this tutorial, we want to teach you How To Install and Configure LibreNMS on Rocky Linux 8.

LibreNMS is an auto-discovering PHP/MySQL/SNMP-based network monitoring which includes support for a wide range of network hardware and operating systems including Cisco, Linux, FreeBSD, Juniper, Brocade, Foundry, HP, and many more.

Steps To Install and Configure LibreNMS on Rocky Linux 8

To complete this guide, you must log in to your server as a non-root user with sudo privileges and set up a basic firewall. To do this, you can follow our guide on Initial Server Setup with Rocky Linux 8.

Also, you need a domain name that is pointed to your server’s IP address.

Set up LibreNMS on Rocky Linux 8

First, you need to update your local package index with the following command:

sudo dnf update -y

Install Epel Repository

Then, you need to install the Epel repo on your Rocky Linux server:

sudo dnf install epel-release -y

Install Remi Repository

At this point, you need to install the Remi repository to install the latest PHP on your Rocky Linux server:

sudo dnf install dnf-utils http://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpm

Enable PHP 8.1

Now you need to enable PHP 8.1 Remi repository. To do this, run the command below:

# sudo dnf module enable php:remi-8.1 -y

When you are done, proceed to the next step to install the required packages and dependencies.

Install Required Packages and Dependencies

Use the following command to install the packages and dependencies that are required for LibreNMS:

sudo dnf install bash-completion cronie fping git ImageMagick mariadb-server mtr net-snmp net-snmp-utils nginx nmap php-fpm php-cli php-common php-curl php-gd php-gmp php-json php-mbstring php-process php-snmp php-xml php-zip php-mysqlnd python3 python3-PyMySQL python3-devel python3-redis python3-memcached python3-pip python3-systemd rrdtool unzip gcc

When you are done, start and enable the following services on Rocky Linux 8:

# sudo systemctl enable nginx php-fpm mariadb snmpd
# sudo systemctl start nginx php-fpm mariadb snmpd

Configure Firewall

Here we assumed that you had enabled firewalld from the requirements. Now you need to allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic to the firewall. To do this, run the commands below:

# sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone public --add-service http
# sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --zone public --add-service https

To apply the new rules, reload the firewall:

sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Create LibreNMS User on Rocky Linux 8

At this point, you need to create a user that is used to run the LibreNMS. To do this, use the following command:

sudo useradd librenms -d /opt/librenms -M -r -s "$(which bash)"

Download LibreNMS from Sorce on Rocky Linux 8

Here you need to switch to your /opt directory by using the command below:

cd /opt

Then, use the following command to download the LibreNMS source code from GitHub:

sudo git clone https://github.com/librenms/librenms.git

Next, set the correct ownership and permissions for the /opt/librenms directory:

# sudo chown -R librenms:librenms /opt/librenms
# sudo chmod 771 /opt/librenms

Finally, you need to set the access control lists for some of the LibreNMS directories. This will grant the group ‘librenms‘ to read, write, and execute on some specific LibreNMS directories. To do this, run the commands below:

# sudo setfacl -d -m g::rwx /opt/librenms/rrd /opt/librenms/logs /opt/librenms/bootstrap/cache/ /opt/librenms/storage/

# sudo setfacl -R -m g::rwx /opt/librenms/rrd /opt/librenms/logs /opt/librenms/bootstrap/cache/ /opt/librenms/storage/

Install PHP Dependencies for LibreNMS on Rocky Linux

At this point, you need to install PHP dependencies for PHP by running an installer script. To do this, switch to your LibreNMS user and run the command below:

# su - librenms
# ./scripts/composer_wrapper.php install --no-dev

When you are finished, exit from LibreNMS user by typing exit in your terminal.

Configure PHP-FPM on Rocky Linux 8

At this point, you need to edit the /etc/php.ini file and set up a specific php-fpm pool for LibreNMS.

First, check your time zone by using the command below:

timedatectl

Example Output
                Time zone: America/New_York (EST, -0500)

Then, open the php.ini file with your favorite text editor, here we use vi:

sudo vi /etc/php.ini

Uncomment the date.timezone directive and set it to your timezone:

date.timezone = America/New_York

When you are done, save and close the file.

You need to copy the default PHP-FPM pool configuration ‘www.conf‘ to ‘librenms’.conf‘. To do this, run the command below:

cp /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf /etc/php-fpm.d/librenms.conf

Now open the PHP-FPM pool configuration /etc/php-fpm.d/librenms.conf file:

sudo vi /etc/php-fpm.d/librenms.conf

Change [www] pool name to [librenms] as shown below:

[librenms]

Find the user and group directives and change their value to librenms:

user = librenms
group = librenms

Finally, change the listen option to ‘/run/php-fpm-librenms.sock‘:

listen = /run/php-fpm-librenms.sock

When you are done, save and close the file.

Restart php-fpm, to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart php-fpm

Configure MariaDB on Rocky Linux 8

The LibreNMS required the MariaDB database server with InnoDB enabled. To do this, open the following file with your favorite text editor, here we use vi:

sudo vi /etc/my.cnf.d/mariadb-server.cnf

Paste the following configuration under the ‘[mysqld]’ section:

[mysqld]
....
innodb_file_per_table=1
lower_case_table_names=0

When you are done, save and close the file.

Restart MariaDB to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart mariadb

Now you need to log in to your MariaDB shell to create a LibreNMS database on Rocky Linux 8:

sudo mysql 

From your MariaDB shell, run the commands below to create a LibreNMS user and database and grant all the privileges to it:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE librenmsdb CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE USER 'librenmsuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON librenmsdb.* TO 'librenmsuser'@'localhost';
MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

When you are done, exit from your MariaDB shell:

MariaDB [(none)]> exit

Set up Nginx server block configuration for LibreNMS

At this point, you need to create an Nginx server block configuration for LibreNMS on Rocky Linux 8.

To do this, use the command below:

sudo vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/librenms.conf

Add the following configuration to the file and be sure to change the domain name with your domain:

server {
    listen      80;
    server_name domain-name;
    root        /opt/librenms/html;
    index       index.php;

    charset utf-8;
    gzip on;
    gzip_types text/css application/javascript text/javascript application/x-javascript image/svg+xml text/plain text/xsd text/xsl text/xml image/x-icon;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ [^/]\.php(/|$) {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm-librenms.sock;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        include fastcgi.conf;
    }

    location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
        deny all;
    }
}

When you are done, save and close the file.

Ensure the configuration is correct by using the command below:

sudo nginx -t

Output
nginx: the configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf syntax is ok
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful

Restart Nginx to apply the changes on Rocky Linux 8:

sudo systemctl restart nginx

Set up SELinux Rules For LibreNMS on Rocky Linux 8

In this guide, you will run the LibreNMS with SELinux enabled on the enforcing mode. So you need to set up SELinux rules for the LibreNMS.

First, install the following package on your server:

sudo dnf install policycoreutils-python-utils

Next, edit the SELinux file:

sudo vi /etc/selinux/config

Find the SELinux directive and change it to enforcing as shown below:

SELINUX=enforcing

When you are done, save and close the file.

Reboot server:

reboot

Then, use the following commands to set up SELinux rules for LibreNMS:

# semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_content_t '/opt/librenms/html(/.*)?'
# semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/opt/librenms/(rrd|storage)(/.*)?'
# semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_log_t "/opt/librenms/logs(/.*)?"
# semanage fcontext -a -t bin_t '/opt/librenms/librenms-service.py'
# restorecon -RFvv /opt/librenms
# chcon -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t /opt/librenms/.env

Now you need to allow access to some services for Nginx. To do this, run the commands below:

# setsebool -P httpd_can_sendmail=1
# setsebool -P httpd_execmem 1

Next, you need to create a new ‘http_fping.tt‘ file with your favorite text editor:

sudo vi http_fping.tt

Add the following content to the file:

module http_fping 1.0;

require {
type httpd_t;
class capability net_raw;
class rawip_socket { getopt create setopt write read };
}

#============= httpd_t ==============
allow httpd_t self:capability net_raw;
allow httpd_t self:rawip_socket { getopt create setopt write read };

When you are done, save and close the file.

Run the following command to convert the ‘http_fping.tt‘ to the format for the SELinux. Then, add the new compiled rule to the SELinux.

# checkmodule -M -m -o http_fping.mod http_fping.tt
# semodule_package -o http_fping.pp -m http_fping.mod
# semodule -i http_fping.pp

Configure LibreNMS on Rocky Linux 8

At this point, you need to make some LibreNMS configurations.

First, run the following command to enable the ‘lnms‘ command line and copy the bash completion of the ‘lnms‘ command:

# ln -s /opt/librenms/lnms /usr/bin/lnms
# cp /opt/librenms/misc/lnms-completion.bash /etc/bash_completion.d/

Next, you need to copy the example configuration of the LibreNMS cron to the ‘/etc/cron.d/librenms‘ by using the command below:

sudo cp /opt/librenms/librenms.nonroot.cron /etc/cron.d/librenms

Now you need to use the following command to copy the default logrotate configuration for LibreNMS to ‘/etc/logrotate.d/librenms‘:

sudo cp /opt/librenms/misc/librenms.logrotate /etc/logrotate.d/librenms

Then, copy the default snmpd service configuration to ‘/etc/snmp/snmpd.conf‘ with the command below:

sudo cp /opt/librenms/snmpd.conf.example /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf

Edit the ‘/etc/snmp/snmpd.conf‘ file:

sudo vi /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf

Change the default community password for the snmpd service ‘RANDOMSTRINGGOESHERE‘ with your password:

# Change RANDOMSTRINGGOESHERE to your preferred SNMP community string
com2sec readonly  default         RANDOMSTRINGGOESHERE

When you are done, save and close the file.

Next, download the binary file that will be used by LibreNMS for automatically detecting the operating system of every target host. Then, make it executable by changing the default permission by using the following commands:

# curl -o /usr/bin/distro https://raw.githubusercontent.com/librenms/librenms-agent/master/snmp/distro
# chmod +x /usr/bin/distro

Restart snmpd to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl restart snmpd

Access LibreNMS Web Interface

At this point, you can access your LibreNMS web interface.

First, you need to edit your /etc/hosts file and define the local domain name of your LibreNMS installation.

sudo vi /etc/hosts

your-server-ip   your-domain

When you are done, save and close the file.

Now you can access the LibreNMS web interface by typing your domain name in your web browser:

http://your-domain

You will see the LibreNMS pre-install checks. Ensure all requirements are marked as green and click on the database icon.

In the Database screen, enter your database credentials and click on the check credentials.

Once it’s successful, you should see the following page, click on the Build Database button.

Then, you will see the following screen, you need to click on the key icon.

Now provide your admin username, email, and password, and click on the Add User button.

Next, click on the Finish installation button.

Next, click on “validate your install”.

You should see the LibreNMS login page. Provide your LibreNMS admin username, and password, and click on the Login button.

Now you will see your LibreNMS dashboard on Rocky Linux 8.

That’s it, you are finished.

For more information, you can visit the LibreNMS Documentation page.

Conclusion

At this point, you have learned to Install and Configure LibreNMS on Rocky Linux 8.

Hope you enjoy it.

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