Install Opscenter in CentOS environment

In my previous post, I talked about how to install Cassandra in CentOS environment. This is the follow-up post of my previous post and here I am going to show you how to install OpsCenter in the same environment. "OpsCenter is a browser-based user interface for monitoring, administering, and configuring multiple Cassandra clusters in a single, centralized management console (ref)". 

Last time, I installed Cassandra cluster on these nodes:

• cassandra node1 -> 10.0.0.57
• cassandra node1 -> 10.0.0.58
• cassandra node1 -> 10.0.0.59

Now I am going to install OpsCenter agents on these nodes and will treat 10.0.0.57 as my client node (that means, OpsCenter console will be deployed on that host). Before OpsCenter installation, make sure your Cassandra cluster is up and running successfully.

Step #1: Create a new yum repository definition for DataStax OpsCenter in 10.0.0.57 node.

[root@ip-10-0-0-57 ~]# vim /etc/yum.repos.d/datastax.repo

Step #2: Write the edition you want to install in the datastax.repo file (I am installing OpsCenter community edition):
Step #3: Install the OpsCenter pacakge:

[root@ip-10-0-0-57 ~]# yum install opscenter-free

The above steps will install the most recent OpsCenter community edition in your system. But I want to install a specific version of OpsCenter today (appropriate for the Cassandra version which I installed earlier). So to do that, at first I need to check the list of versions for OpsCenter which are available now:
I wanted to install 3.0.2-1 version. So, I'm installing it by:

[root@ip-10-0-0-57 ~]# yum install opscenter-free-3.0.2-1

Step #4:  If you do not want to try with the repository and want to install manually any specific version of OpsCenter, in that case you can download the rpm file from http://rpm.datastax.com/community/noarch/ and can install it by:

[root@ip-10-0-0-57 ~]# yum install opscenter-free-3.0.2-1.noarch.rpm

Step #5: Now configure your opscenter configuration file (/etc/opscenter/opscenterd.conf) to mention your web server's IP address or hostname:
Step #6: Now start your OpsCenter by:
Step #7: Now you can see your OpsCenter console by navigating to http://<opscenter_host>:8888. For my case, it would be: http://54.208.29.59:8888 as it's the public IP address for the host 10.0.0.57.

Step #8: Wait, you are not done yet! You still need to install your OpsCenter agents. For the first time when you open your OpsCenter console, it will ask you whether you want to create a new cluster or want to use existing cluster. In previous post, I installed a cluster with the name "Simple Cluster". So I want to install that existing cluster for my OpsCenter. So, I'm selecting "Use Existing Cluster" option.

Step #9: Now, you need to pass a list of hostnames or IP address of my cluster in each line at a time (leave other fields as they are):

Step #10: At this point you should be able to see your OpsCenter console.

Note that on top of your console, there is a notification labeled as "0 of 3 agents connected" with a link called "fix". This is because, none of your OpsCenter agents are installed yet. Click on that link and install agents automatically.

Step #11: Enter appropriate credentials of your machine. For my case, I'm writing "root" as my username and pasting my private key (including the commented part, i.e. --BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY):

Click on "Done" and finally install it by clicking on the "Install on all nodes" button.

Step #12: Accept all the fingerprints by clicking on the "Accept Fingerprints" button. Once you click on that button, each of your host will be downloading agent package by connecting to the internet and then it will install and configure agent in the system.

At the end of the installation you should be able to see a successful message on your screen:

As you see that each of the host downloads the agent package from internet, it is required that each of your host can talk to internet. If you do not have that setup, you can also install OpsCenter agent manually.

At the end of your installation you shouldn't be seen "0 of 3 agents connected" notification anymore.

Finally you are done! There are so many things you can do in OpsCenter. I highly recommend you to play with it and do some experiments by changing/applying different settings and configurations. It also comes with a large set of very good performance metrics, so do not forget to check those metrics too.



Note: For privacy purpose, I had to modify several lines on this post from my original post. So if you find something is not working or facing any issues, please do not hesitate to contact me.