NPT (Network Performace Toolkit) Installation at UTA_SWT2

Version 1.8

This section details the steps needed to install the NPT (1.8) via the ISO image available from Rich Carlson.

Hardware

Our NDT server is a Dell 1850, Single 3.2GHz XEON CPU, 2GB RAM, 73GB DISK, CDROM, 1GB USB drive

Initial Startup

Grab the four files attached to this page and store them on the USB drive. On our drive the files are stored in the /NEW directory.

Insert the USB KEY and CDROM containing the ISO image and boot the computer from the CD drive. The NPT, built on top of Knoppix, should auto start and detect your hardware. After booting, you will be presented with the configuration menu. This will eventually time-out, or select "0" to exit the configuration items.

Preconfiguration Items

There are a couple of issues to take care of before working on the configuration:

• Login as knoppix (there should be no password)
• Become root with su -
• Verify that the USB drive is mounted with RW permissions using grep sda /var/log/messages If your system mounts a hard drive using sda then grep for sdb
• If you plan to use a static IP address, you may want to check /etc/resolv.conf. The system defaults to using DHCP for setting the network configuration and the initial /etc/resolv.conf generated by the DHCP may be adequate for use with a static address.

Replace configuration scripts

Copy the four scripts stored on the USB drive to their proper location in the system. The example shows that the USB drive is mounted at /UNIONFS/media/sdb1.

root@0[~]# cd /usr/local/bin
root@0[bin]# cp /UNIONFS/media/sdb1/NEW/customize.NPtools ./
cp: overwrite `./customize.NPtools'? y
root@0[bin]# cp /UNIONFS/media/sdb1/NEW/create-staticIP.sh ./ 
cp: overwrite `./create-staticIP.sh'? y
root@0[bin]# cp /UNIONFS/media/sdb1/NEW/create-npad.sh ./   
cp: overwrite `./create-npad.sh'? y
root@0[bin]# cp /UNIONFS/media/sdb1/NEW/create-owampd.sh ./
cp: overwrite `./create-owampd.sh'? y

Perform Configuration

A transcript of the configuration can be found at NDTInstallationTypeScript

run /usr/local/bin/customize.NPtools

select "1" to pick the device to hold the configuration.

• The configuration script will ask which device(s) should be used for storing the configuration items.

select "7" if you want the system to use a static IP address.

• I did not supply any additional nameservers during the installation. Any nameservers supplied while configuring the script are simply added to the /etc/resolv.conf file. After configuring this item, you may want to directly edit the version of this file on the USB key.
• The configuration for this item will throw an error when trying to remove the non-existent file /tmp/customize.staticIP. This is harmless

select "2" to see the message about bwctl configuration * (We are running the defaults)

select "3" to configure ndt

• The configuration for this item asks for an email userid and an email server, while the npad configuration asks for an entire email address

select "4" to configure npad (accept defaults until asked for site name)

• This configuration item asks for an email address user@server for as opposed to the ndt configuartion item which asks for user then server.
• We accepted defaults until asked for the site name

select "5" to see message about configuring ntp

• This will instruct you to edit /etc/ntp.conf
• The default configuration uses numerous sites for time synchronization.
• The information pages for bwctld mentions that ntp should be synch'ed to at least four time servers
• If you modify the /etc/ntp.conf file, you can force the system to save the version by stopping ntp: /etc/init.d/ntp stop

select "6" to see message about configuring owampd

• We are using the defaults

Reboot

You should now be ready to reboot the system and check the services.

-- PatrickMcGuigan - 11 Jul 2007

Attachments

• customize.NPtools: customize.NPtools

• create-staticIP.sh: create-staticIP.sh

• create-npad.sh: create-npad.sh

• create-owampd.sh: create-owampd.sh