OPSI Getting Started

Each active Samba connection starts its own Samba process. Estimates vary between 800 kB and 4 MB. How many opsi clients access an opsi server at the same time depends heavily on the daily routines in your environment.

The following values ​​were recommended for Samba 3:

Since we do not have any values ​​for current Samba versions, the above figures can only be regarded as a rough estimate and should be extended with a safety margin of 50%.

The memory consumption of opsiconfd depends heavily (but not only) on the number of clients. The following minimum memory consumption can be derived from existing installations. The specified number of users are not active users at the same time, but the total number.

You should also implement a safety margin here.

Opsiconfd currently uses only one core. This core is only fully loaded when many opsi clients (> 100) access the server exactly at the same time. But the operating system, Samba, the database, etc. also require computing time.

I.e. with 500 clients two CPU cores should be sufficient, with 1000 clients four CPU cores should be provided.

Also note that opsi-depots put a strain on the opsi-configserver, which is significantly larger than that of a single client.

VMware

If you have a server running VMware or VMware player, it only takes a few mouse clicks to install a base 'opsi-server':

ESXi-Server

Virtualbox

General

The VMware player is free of charge and available for all common operating systems at vmware.com. Usually it can be installed without any problems, as long as the resources of the host computer (especially memory) meet the needs of running software systems in parallel.

The first step is to choose the preferred language:

The opsi-server needs to be connected to the Internet to work properly. The script 1stboot.py will automatically start at the first boot in order to configure the opsi-server network settings. If something goes wrong while running '1stboot.py', then you may run 1stboot.py again from the command line.

The log file of 1stboot.py is located at /var/lib/1stboot/1stboot.log.

Fill in the configuration information for your network and answer the questions.

In the following, you will be asked for:

After the program '1stboot.py' finishes, the virtual machine will be rebooted.

After the reboot, or after completing the network configuration, login as 'adminuser' with your password.

The graphical user interface of the opsi-server should have already started (a lightweight window manager is used). A "Firefox" browser window appears at startup, and displays this document and further information.

If you get a message that there is no network connection, this might be caused by the special configuration of the virtual appliance. Before trying other options, you should reboot the server again. (i.e. use the shutdown button in the GUI)

If the network was correctly configured in the previous steps, then you should be able to remotely access the opsi-server, for example:

In the following sections, some commands have to be entered into a command line interface. It may be the easiest way to work through these instructions.

The commands are input into a window called a "terminal window". Here are examples that explain how to access a terminal window:

We recommend cutting and pasting commands from this handbook directly into the opsi-server terminal window (most applications support cut and paste).

Example snippets from configuration files are formatted like this:

Example snippets for commands that you have to execute are formatted like this:

Angle brackets '< >' mark abstract names. When entering commands, please replace the '<abstract name>' with a real name.
For example: The file share, where opsi places the software packages, may abstractly be noted as '<opsi-depot-share>'. If the real file share is /var/lib/opsi/depot, then you have to replace the abstract name by this exact string. The location of the package '<opsi-depot-share>/ooffice' becomes /var/lib/opsi/depot/ooffice. .

If the network configuration is correct, and the computer is connected to the Internet, then you can access any website using the browser in the start window.

If not everything is working, then you have to open a terminal window (maybe this is not yet possible from a remote connection, only from the server GUI) and then perform the necessary network connection checks and fixes.

You can re-enter the network configuration by entering this command in the terminal window:

A reboot is forced with the command:

If the network connection works, then you can install opsi packages or update them, and configure the environment for the first installation test. If you want to use the virtual machine (and not install the opsi-server directly to your host system), then skip to Update and Configuration of the opsi-server.

To update your opsi-server you need to double click the Icon 'Update OS' on the desktop. To do this please enter the current password for the adminuser and confirm if necessary.

If necessary for your Internet access, adapt the file /etc/apt/apt.conf to your network circumstances (enter correct proxy or comment / delete line). You can edit these using the program any text editor for example, 'midnight commander':

By performing a double click the Icon 'First package installation' the minimal opsi-products will be installed. To do this please enter the current password for the adminuser. This automatically fetches the current opsi packages, including templates for OS deployments, from the opsi repositories and installs them on the server.

For more information see Importing the minimal opsi products.

You can start the management interface by double clicking on the icon 'Opsi Configuration Editor'. For a description of the management interface check Installation of the management interface opsi-configed.

You have a running opsi server now, i.e. the opsi application itself is fully configured.

You can now proceed with:

First, make sure that the opsi-server has a valid DNS hostname. To do this, either check the entries in the /etc/hosts file or enter the following command:

The result should look like this for example:

The output on your system should show the server’s IP address to which the opsi clients connect later on. It’s followed by the associated hostname, and the third field contains an optional alias (here: server), under which the computer can also be reached.

The file may look different on your distribution. If it contains only entries for 127.0.0.1 or localhost, edit the file /etc/hosts in the text editor of your choice. For the opsi-server, enter at least the IP address and the full host name, optionally an alias.

opsi-QuickInstall can be found on our servers under the following link: https://download.uib.de/opsi4.2/stable/quickinstall/

Download the zip file to your computer and unpack it, for example using this command on the shell:

Alternatively unpack the archive via the file manager of your graphical desktop environment (right click / Unpack here). You can install opsi QuickInstall wither with a graphical user interface or via the command line. The next two sections explain both ways.

The installation may take a few minutes. When it’s finished, opsi QuickInstall will tell you if it was successful. If you see the message success, then your opsi-server is configured and ready for operation. You can now start with the installation of opsi products.

If you see a dialog like in Figure 8 instead, please check the log files for error messages. You can find the logs in the two files /var/log/opsi-quick-install-l-opsi-server.log and /tmp/opsi_quickinstall.log.