API Node Installation

Overall Installation Steps

The high-level steps for installing and configuring N2PTF API nodes are:

  1. Ensure the installation pre-requisites are met.
  2. Install the API package.
  3. Perform any required post-installation steps.
  4. Update the API configuration as desired.
  5. Optionally, apply the recommended Apache security configuration.

Installation Pre-requisites

OS-specific Setup

Refer to the specific Red Hat or Debian instructions for any pre-requisites as required.

Apache

Apache must be installed prior to installing the N2PTF API package. The package to install will depend on your OS type:

RHEL 9 Other RPM-based Systems DEB-based Systems
sudo dnf install httpd sudo yum install httpd sudo apt-get install apache2

The N2PTF API package expects that the relevant Apache configuration directory exists. Again, this varies depending on your OS type:

RPM-based Systems DEB-based Systems
/etc/httpd /etc/apache2

Finally, the apachectl program must exist (it is installed as part of the Apache package) and Apache must be running.

Perl

The N2PTF API node requires several Perl packages to be available prior to installation. The package names may vary depending on your OS type.

Note: If installing from an N-Squared repository dependency resolution will be completed automatically.

RPM-based Systems DEB-based Systems
perl or perl-interpreter >= 1:5.12
perl(B)
perl(DBI)
perl(DBD::Pg)
perl(Data::Compare)
perl(Data::Dumper)
perl(Date::Format)
perl(DateTime::Format::Pg)
perl(Digest)
perl(Getopt::Long)
perl(JSON)
perl(List::MoreUtils)
perl(MIME::Base64)
perl(POSIX)
perl(Scalar::Util)
perl(Storable)
perl(Time::Local)
perl(XML::LibXML)
perl(boolean)
perl(strict)
perl(warnings)
perl >= 5.12
perl-base
perl-modules
libdbi-perl
libdata-compare-perl
libtimedate-perl
libdatetime-format-pg-perl
libjson-perl
liblist-moreutils-perl
libxml-libxml-perl
libboolean-perl

For each of these packages (or with all as one command), execute the instructions specific to your operating system:

RHEL 9 Other RPM-based Systems DEB-based Systems
sudo dnf install <package(s)> sudo yum install <package(s)> sudo apt-get install <package(s)>

Jarvis

The N-Squared application Jarvis must be installed. Follow the installation steps for this, noting any prerequisites.

Note: If installing from an N-Squared repository Jarvis will automatically be installed.**

The N2PTF API package also expects that the default Jarvis configuration directory exists:

/etc/jarvis

Installation Steps

Follow the appropriate installation steps depending on your installation sources.

From N-Squared Repository

Execute the instructions specific to your operating system:

RHEL 9 Other RPM-based Systems DEB-based Systems
sudo dnf install n2ptf-api sudo yum install n2ptf-api sudo apt install n2ptf-api

Post-Installation Steps

Firewall

The firewall (if any) on the API node must be updated to allow:

The exact commands to do this will depend both on the firewall on your platform and also which port(s) are in use.

For example, to allow the default Apache ports when using firewalld, the commands might be:

firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=80/tcp  --permanent
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=443/tcp --permanent
service firewalld restart

SELinux

If SELinux is in use, Apache must be allowed to initiate proxy connections. To enable this, execute:

sudo /usr/sbin/setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect 1

Session Security

Jarvis allows for session security to be increased by configuring a number of configuration parameters. In particular, the following parameters may be updated:

Refer to the Jarvis documentation for more details. Further information is also available in the documentation for the Perl modules CGI::Session and CGI::Cookie.