Pandora:FAQ

From openIdeas.info

Many of following questions has been asked in our public forums [1] or in our development mail list [2], if you don't find here an answer for your problem, try to check out there.


Contents

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How can I install?

How can I upgrade from version 3.x.y to 3.x.z ? (Same major version upgrade)

If you are installed, the "official" released version, and you know there are updates in your same major version, they will be always updated in the Subersion Pandora code repository. To update your version, just install a subversion client software, and execute following command: 

svn co https://pandora.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/pandora/trunk

That will download the last development version (Trunk), today is 3.1 (tomorrow, will be 3.2), if you want to download latest updates from a specific stable version, for example 3.0, execute: 

svn co https://pandora.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/pandora/branches/pandora_3.0

To update, just follow the procedure described in documentation, to upgrade from the same version, as written in http://openideas.info/wiki/index.php?title=Pandora_3.0:Documentation_en:Anexo_Upgrade

You have more information about development version and upgrades from the code repository in http://pandorafms.org/index.php?sec=community&sec2=development&lng=en

My old AIX (4.3, 5.1) don't have Perl 5.8, I cannot run agents

A: You can install part of the IBM toolbox, containing the Perl 5.8 packages. Download them from ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/aix/freeSoftware/aixtoolbox/RPMS/ppc/perl/

Note that some AIX are bundled with Perl v5.6: This version is able to run Pandora FMS agents, so you don't need to install Perl 5.8

My old HP-UX (11.0, 11.11) don't have Perl 5.8, I cannot run agents

A: You can install the official cpan packages for Perl 5.8 in HPUX. Download them from http://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/downloads.html

How can I install the GD libraries in Windows?

A: PHP for Windows includes the GD library by default but maybe they are not activated. Edit your php.ini file (usually in c:\winnt\php.ini or c:\windows\php.ini) and add the next line to the file: 

extension=php_gd2.dll

Restart your server to make the changes to take effect.

How can I install PEAR at Windows?

R: The PHP version for Windows comes already with PEAR. Yo only need to make it work uncommenting the line that has include_path, deleting the «;» character 

     ;include_path = ".;c:\php\includes"

in your php.ini and adding the path to PEAR, which is at the PHP directory. At the end, you will have something as: 

     include_path = ".;c:\php\includes;C:\php\PEAR"

Remember to restart Apache.

For GNU/Linux you should install the php-pear packages, php-image-canvas and php-image-graph. You can find more information for systems based on Debian GNU/Linux in the Openideas.info.

Terminology

What is a Timestamp?

A timestamp is a character sequence that informs about the date and hour in which an specific event toke place, for example when getting a data from an agent.

What means SVN?

It means Subversion, which is the control system software of versions that is used in the Pandora FMS development.SVN is the name of the command line tool.

Database

Using properly the mysql and mysqldump from command line

Q: I attempted to use several references from documentation, but there is an error in the document. In several locations you indicate a user name of "root, but the default sql user name in your configuration file is "pandora".

A: Always check your current credentials en /etc/pandora/pandora_server.conf. In some enviroments credentials could have changed. You should be able to access MySQL Pandora FMS database always with your Pandora user.

By default, database should be called "pandora", and user "pandora", password will be a random string. This means that commands should be like this:

To enter in mysql console: 

mysql -u pandora -D pandora -p
<enter pass in console>

and to do a SQL dump (backup): 

mysqldump -u pandora -p pandora > file
<enter pass in console>


Upgrade & migration problems

After a server upgrade / migration all network modules are unknown

That could be because a server name change, and if old server is not present in the server table. You need to "setup" manually your agents to use the new server. To avoid to edit one by one, you can use the SQL manager to configure all agents in a quick SQL command. For example, if your new server is called "linux-ppby" the SQL sentence will be: 

update tagente set server_name = "linux-ppby"

No need to restart the server, just wait a few seconds and modules will be processed again.

After upgrading from Pandora FMS 3.0 some modules show a wrong status

Starting from Pandora FMS 3.1 the status change behaviour has slightly changed due to FF protection. If some modules show a wrong status you can fix it resetting the module's internal counters with the following SQL query: 

update tagente_estado set last_status=0, status_changes=0

General / Not Classified

Linux agent inventory doesnt get hardware (CPU, RAM, etc) information

You need to have installed the lshw command. You can obtain in RPM from: 

http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3?stat=3&search=lshw&srodzaj=3

In a debian/ubuntu system, just install it with: 

apt-get install lshw

Forcing timezone in the console

By default, if that is not configured, Pandora FMS console uses PHP default timezone, if that is not set-up (not default), is forced to be European Time zone. To change this, edit file include/config_process.php, and use your own timezone, for this example Mexico City: 

if (ini_get('date.timezone') == ""){
        date_default_timezone_set("America/Mexico_City");
#       date_default_timezone_set("Europe/Berlin");
}

Timezone problems

It is usually a problem of the timezone system configuration, but we have summarize a test group that allow to see in which point of all Pandora system could have the difference in times. To solve it, you need to execute it visualizing the results that it shows:

- for the system (in the terminal) 

date +"%z"
date

- For database (in mysql) 

select now();
mysql> SELECT @@global.time_zone, @@session.time_zone;

- For perl 

perl -e 'my $t = localtime(); print "$t";'

- For PHP, create a new file called test_timezone.php at the www apache directory (usually /var/www or /srv/www/htdocs/) that will have: 

 <?php
     echo date("Y/m/d H:i:s O e");
 ?>

Now open a browser pointing to your test file, like http://your_ip_server_address/test_timezone.php

Once that the test battery and seeing the difficult point, we need to change the configuration of the piece which is not reporting the correct time. We need to "force" that component to use a specific timezone, or if you're not sure, you can also force all components to have the same timezone.

- For the system (in debian) : 

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

- For DB (mysql), open the file /etc/mysql/my.cnf and add the following line after the section "[mysqld_safe]" 

timezone = <time_zone>

- For PHP:

- For all the system, at the file /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini (or equivalent in your distro) and change/add the line: 

date.timezone = <time_zone>

- Only for pandora_console, edit in file <pandora_console>/include/config.php. Add the line: 

putenv("TZ=<time_zone>");

My pandora_db script programmed in /etc/cron.daily never executes, why ?

If you're running a Debian or Ubuntu server, there is a problem reported in /etc/cron.daily/apt script who stop the execution of runparts and avoid the execution of other scripts in /etc/cron.daily.

One solution is delete that script at /etc/cron.daily/apt and another solution is to set the execution of pandora_db.pl directly in /etc/crontab.

I download a corrupted/invalid version of the vmware/ISO image

Sometimes Sourceforge.net mirrors fails, try with a different download location link (Mirror) in sourceforge.net. All files has been tested and works fine. Several thousands of people have it running :-)

Does Pandora FMS support SNMP timeticks ?

Yes, a SNMP timetick is a 0.001 seconds, or 100 timeticks = 1 second. So to get this data in days, for example, you need to use the post-process module feature and multiply value obtained by 0,000000116. This is the result of divide value obtained by 8640000. Remember that postprocess only allow to specify values to multiply not to divide, so 0,000000116 = 1 / 8640000. You can use the same method to get the value in hours, for example, this will be 100x60x60 = 360000, and 1/360000 = 0,000002778.

I do not receive mail when an alert is triggered

This is an example SMTP setup in /etc/pandora/pandora_server.conf file: 

mta_adress smtp.domain.com
mta_port 25
mta_user myloginuser@domain.com
mta_pass 123456
mta_from pandora@domain.com

Be careful with the mta_auth config token, is to set "type" of authentication mechanism, not password (for that is mta_pass). If you have a special MTA mechanism, use for example: 

mta_auth LOGIN

Sent an alert when an agent doesn't send any information

Q: How can i send a alert to an email address when a windows agent doesn't send any information? In the console there will be an "Out of Limits" sign and the last contact will be in red. How to activate a alert when this happens?

A: You need to use the "keepalive" module, check the docs for more information, basically is an special module who change it's status when you don't get information from the agent (remote or by software agent) in interval x 2 seconds.

I get errors "Lock wait timeout exceeded"

This is a problem with your MySQL Server, it get's stuck and cannot proccess operations. Its usually because a problem due a incomplete "frozen" transaction. Connect to your mysql server and execute: 

show innodb status \G

Search for something similar to: 

------------
TRANSACTIONS
------------
Trx id counter 0 2005868535
Purge done for trx's n:o < 0 2005868523 undo n:o < 0 0
History list length 4
Total number of lock structs in row lock hash table 12990
LIST OF TRANSACTIONS FOR EACH SESSION:
---TRANSACTION 0 2005868508, not started, process no 6801, OS thread id 1150482768
MySQL thread id 67, query id 5223 localhost root
show innodb status
---TRANSACTION 0 2005868518, ACTIVE 833 sec, process no 6801, OS thread id 1150617936 rollback
mysql tables in use 2, locked 2
ROLLING BACK 12992 lock struct(s), heap size 1685488, undo log entries 1557131
MySQL thread id 70, query id 5111 localhost pandora end
DELETE FROM tagente_datos WHERE id_agente_modulo IN (SELECT id_agente_modulo FROM tagente_modulo WHERE  
delete_pending = 1)

Another easy way to list current operations is the command: 

SHOW FULL PROCESSLIST

In this example, transaction id 70 , has been active for 833, and seems to be DEAD and it's blocking the access some some data, and probably it's the explanation for that "lock wait" errors.

Kill the transaction with: 

KILL 70;

Sometimes a KILL could take some time, so be patient. Killing (kill -9) a mysql daemon IS NOT A GOOD IDEA, and you will get a corrupted database in a 99% probability, so you need to wait to finish.

I have a problem only with M-W-D-H graphs, I can't see them

This could be due to the variable that defines the use of '$config_fontpath' true type fonts , in file include/config.php is not correct. For example, in Gentoo Linux, arial.ttf place is '/usr/share/fonts/corefonts/arial.ttf'. In the compressed file of the console is given the reporting/FreeSans.ttf true type font.

Will be the Database affected in future versions?

Yes, but it will keep compatibility in order that the older agents will continue working without problems. It will be not necessary reinstall the agents again when updating the server or the database.

Pandora FMS Server downs

The first thing you should do to find the cause is to examine the file /var/log/pandora/pandora_server.error and according to the following possible error messages, there are the following solutions: 

Starting Pandora FMS Server. Error logging activated.
DBD::mysql::st execute failed: Table 'pandora.tagent_module_inventory' doesn't exist at /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.0/PandoraFMS/DB.pm line 199.

In this case is because in previous installations you left files of the Pandora Server Enterprise installation. Specifically, it should be the file /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.0/PandoraFMS/Enterprise.pm. If you eliminate it, the Pandora Server will be not down.

I can't see any error in the PHP error log file

The configuration of PHP error log is located, same as the rest of configuration in the php.ini file. From version 1.2 we have added an option to the file ./include/config.php of the Web Console in order it will not show any error. This have not consequences in the rest of the applications already installed, that will continue using the php.ini guidelines. It only affects to the Pandora Web Console. It is possible to change this performance modifying at ./include/config.php the line 

     error_reporting(0);

with something like 

     error_reporting(E_ALL);

It is recommended to check the PHP documentation to know other posible values of this function.

To see errors check always file at /var/log/apache/error.log or similar file.

I have problems running agent for Windows 2008 in 64 bits

Agent has been tested in 64bit environments and works. Problems could be because two reasons:

1. Running exec agents, because binary utils provided by Pandora FMS agent are compiled for 32bits and sometimes have problems running under a 64bit service. Check if under a shell command all utils your are using (gawk, cut, grep) are working fine. If not, try to replace by another executable or use another way to get around the problem.

2. Problems in logevent parsing/monitoring. This is due because a missing DLL (PDH.dll), this library must be in "C:\windows\system32", if it's not present, try to copy from another 64-Bit Machine. That's not uncommon, looking at google hits, it is often removed by some uninstallers.

I get problem creating table (errno: 150) in MySQL while trying to migrate to 3.0

You probably get an error similar to: 

ERROR 1005 (HY000) at line 101: Can't create table './pandora/talert_template_modules.frm' (errno: 150)

This is due a problem in MySQL because some fields has no the expected type. id_agente_modulo field in 2.1 should have bigint(10) type. If you have migrated from a 1.x before you will have this problem. Before running the migration tool to 3.0, enter this command in the mysql console: 

ALTER TABLE tagente_modulo MODIFY id_agente_modulo bigint(10) unsigned NOT NULL auto_increment;

And try to run again the migration tool. Please remind that 2.x and 3.x versions needs to have InnoDB support enabled in your MySQL database server

Another possible explanation is that your MySQL is too old and doesn't support some foreign key syntax. Be sure you are running at lest a MySQL 5.1 version-

Pandora FMS Server debian (.deb) package fails to install

This error is shown when trying to start Pandora FMS server: 

# /etc/init.d/pandora_server start
Pandora FMS Server is not running, cannot stop it.
Can't locate PandoraFMS/DB.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1 /usr/lib/perl5 
/usr/share /perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.10 /usr/share/perl/5.10 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at /usr/bin/pandora_server line 28.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at /usr/bin/pandora_server line 28.
Cannot start Pandora FMS Server. Aborted.
Check Pandora FMS log files at '/var/log/pandora/pandora_server.error & pandora_server.log'

Just copy the installed PandorFMS perl library to another directory: 

cp /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.0 /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1 -R

Pandora FMS crashes and the log message said "DBD::mysql::db do failed: Duplicate entry '1808516' for key 'PRIMARY'"

Your MySQL database has been corrupted and the auto-incremental field has been desynchronized. To resolve this, just update the last value of the auto-incremental field the the table has problems 

alter table xxxxx Auto_increment = 1234;

Where "1234" is a highest value possible + 2. You can get this value for example with: 

select MAX(primary_key_field) FROM xxxxx;

In Pandora FMS most table corruption should have in tagente_datos, tagent_access, tagente_datos_string or tevento. This could be an example or how to fix the problem in the tagente_datos_string 

mysql> select max(id_tagente_datos_string) from tagente_datos_string;
+------------------------------+
| max(id_tagente_datos_string) |
+------------------------------+
|                      1900270 |
+------------------------------+

alter table tagente_datos_string Auto_increment = 1900272;

In MySQL Cluster problem be related with a bad sync between nodes: [3] (ndb_autoincrement_prefetch_sz parameter)

If this doesnt fix the problem, try to use this settings in the SQL Node, editing your my.cnf file: 

ndb-autoincrement-prefetch-sz=1
auto_increment_increment=5
auto_increment_offset=5

This also can happen because a table has a primary key with auto increment and has a very small top limit:

For example: tsesion is defined by default with int(4) this could be too low for huge systems, to fix this, just alter table to set more allocatable PK: 

alter table tsesion modify ID_sesion bigint(20) unsigned;

I have a 3Com Switch and I want to monitor with SNMP, how can I start ?

1. Try to locate the MIB for your device, for example, 3COM OfficeConnect swith in Google shows me this.

http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.3com.com/pub/mibs/open-view/3com-products.mib

Could be a good starting point, a device could have different MIB files. Mib files are text files (.txt or .mib), readable from a simple text editor.

2. Download a MIB browser, there are a lot of free tools, for example:

http://www.ireasoning.com/mibbrowser.shtml

You can choose others, of course. Just take a look on different google searches.

3. Load the MIB into your mib browser. Each program do this differently.

4. "Browse" your device with your MIB browser, you will need a IP address accesible from your host, and of course the SNMP community (a kind of password) who allow to "read" data remotely.

5. Locate some "items" usable for you, and write it down in numerical format, like 1.3.4.2.5.6.3.23 Thats "weird numbers" are called "OID", and thats what need Pandora FMS to grab data from your device.

6. Create a network snmp module (probably incremental data (or generic_data_inc) type), and use the IP of your device, the OID you've collected and the SNMP community.

7. If everything it's ok the first data you willl colect is a 0, wait to collect a second data and data collected will be "items per second". Most SNMP information is given as a incremental data (a delta) and you need to grab at least 2 data to calculate the difference.

8. You can also get status information (port status) from SNMP devices, and text information (like IOS version from a Cisco Router) for example. There are types not supported at this time (timeticks) but probably in the future will be supported.

SNMP monitoring is hard at the beginning, but once you get it, all SNMP monitoring it's almost the same, so don't give up! ;-)

I get alerts every 5 min until problem it's fixed, how can I adjust to notify only once until problem it's fixed ?

Set alert threshold to 1 day (or more), set minimun alerts to 0 and max to 1. In this way Pandora FMS just ejecute an alert per day while problem continues un-resolved.

In SUSE I got my /tmp full of temp files, how can I automatically manage ?

Just edit /etc/sysconf/cron and define there your policy of deletion of "temp" directories. Could be also used to purge old pandora data in /var/spool/pandora/data_in (Old _BADXML_ files, for example). SUSE >11.x has a powerful script to manage temporal directories/data.

Pandora FMS shutdown and I get errors with "Mysql has gone away" in my logs

Edit your my.cnf (Main config file of MySQL) and alter following parameters: 

wait_timeout = 40000
connect_timeout = 40000
interactive_timeout = 40000
max_allowed_packet=32M

If you're using PHP 4.3 or higher (or not sure(, in the console, edit config_process.php, and alter line mysql_pconnect() statement to mysql_connect(). For some reason PHP 5.3 DOES NOT LIKE persistent connections and this make MySQL very silly about timeouts, resulting errors with "has gone away".

In some systems with several physical servers or a lot of threads tserver table could generate some locks. To avoid that, just alter the type of table, using this SQL syntax: 

UPDATE tserver engine = MyISAM;

Pandora FMS don't send properly my emails

First, check your pandora_server.conf properties and make sure that your mta_* parameters are ok and your MTA (Mail Server) can forward your messages. If you're using MTA authentication make sure that Sendmail.pm (Usually at /usr/share/perl5/Mail/Sendmail.pm) is version 0.79_16 or above, version 0.79 don't support AUTH methods. If your version is old, just replace by 0.79_16, you can get it here: [4]. Another option is to install from CPAN. Old versions works perfectly for MTA without authentication.

Enable WMI Service in Windows XP

Problems are because:

1. There is no connection to WMI because Firewall. 2. Remote DCOM is not enabled. Follow steps in Microsoft KB875605 [5] 3. Other problems can happen (WMI Corruption, or ACL disabled) check this URL [6]

After install a Windows agent in my Windows 2003 server it doesnt work, nothing is copied to server

In some systems, adding paths to SYSTEM is not inmmediate and need reboot to get the new path (pandora_agent/util) inserted in global %PATH% variable. Another way is copy contents of pandora_agent/util in a directory is currently on Path, like c:\windows. If you're using tentacle (default) to copy XML data files, it is mandatory to copy at lease tentacle_client.exe to somewhere inside the current path.

Of course, if you reboot your server, it will take the new Pandora FMS util directory in the path and everything will be ok.

How can I use PERL 5.8 in my old Solaris 8 ?

The best way is to install BlashWave packages. There are a lot of opensource packages in the Lastware package system, who works like the apt-get / yum / zypper system, grabbing the repository data, and installing on demand, resolvind dependencies. Check for more information in http://www.blastwave.org/howto.html

Whatever action I take, I get prompted again for login credentials.

Is PHP cgi runing under different user than /var/lib/php/session had permissions ?

I have all my Pandora SNMP Console setup fine, but I don't receive any trap

Check contents of your pandora_snmptrap.log. This should be like: 

tail -f /var/log/pandora/pandora_snmptrap.log

If you have "No access configuration - dropping trap." lines is because you have not configured the access of your snmptrapd daemon. Use this commands to solve the problem: 

echo "authCommunity log public" >> /etc/snmp/snmptrapd.conf

/etc/init.d/pandora_snmpconsole restart

And now should work.

I had recurrent problems with some servers generating a lot of BADXML files

The solution for common problems (FAQ) helped (changing the encode type), but there are more tips:

1. Check if the modules in /etc/pandora_agent.conf have *at least* this lines for each module: 

module_begin
module_name
module_type
module_exec
module_end

I don't have sure, but you should keep the lines in this order to avoid BADXML.

2. Check if you have a return data value equal to "0.00". I don't know why (maybe a bug?) but all my agents that have this return value generate a BADXML. So, I change this to simply "0" and the XML worked perfectly.

Ubuntu 9.04, Fedora XX, Redhat XX or SuSe XX doesnt have wmi-client package, what I can do to use WMI ?

Just download the wmiclient provided for "generic linux" in our download section (32bit) it works perfectly on Ubuntu 9.04, Fedora and other Linux distros because is a static compiled binary. 

 http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=155200&filename=wmi_client_linux.tar.gz&a=54919695

If you have problems running it or want to compile yourself, you need to get sources of latest version of Samba 4.x version (3.x don't have WMI or WinExe support). After compile and link you will get the wmic tool. Does this ONLY if provided binary (see above) doesn't work for you.

How can I upgrade a stable version with updates ?

For the latest stable version (3.x) code is public and available on branches/pandora_3.x directory in our code repository, you can get it with Subversion client using this command: 

svn co https://pandora.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/pandora/branches/pandora_3.x

Just copy new files over old files BUT be sure to backup everything (including database), just to be safe.

Also, consider using Pandora FMS Enterprise version [7] to keep up-to-date automatically your system.

How can I Start/Stop a Windows service on demand from Linux (To exec in an alert from Pandora FMS)

You need an updated version of Samba (3.x) and administrative credentials to access remotely (RPC call) to a Windows server. In this example we will use 192.168.50.121 like target server, "Administrador" as user and "pepe" as password. We want to work with a service called "PandoraFMSAgent" and also see the full list of services:

To get a list of process: 

net rpc service list -U administrador%pepe -I 192.168.50.121 

.
. full list

To show the status of a process: 

 net rpc service status  PandoraFMSAgent -U administrador%pepe -I 192.168.50.121 

 PandoraFMSAgent service is running.
 Configuration details:

	Controls Accepted    = 0x5
	Service Type         = 0x10
	Start Type           = 0x2
	Error Control        = 0x1
	Tag ID               = 0x0
	Executable Path      = C:\Archivos de programa\pandora_agent\PandoraAgent.exe
	Load Order Group     = 
	Dependencies         = /
	Start Name           = LocalSystem
	Display Name         = Pandora FMS agent

To stop a process: 

net rpc service stop  PandoraFMSAgent -U administrador%pepe -I 192.168.50.121 .

PandoraFMSAgent service is stopped.

To start a process: 

net rpc service start  PandoraFMSAgent -U administrador%pepe -I 192.168.50.121 

Successfully started service: PandoraFMSAgent

Pandora server is receiving data from an agent, and show latest data correctly, but graph don't show anything. Agent is working and last data is correct. Raw Data table is also empty

Probably your agent date is not sync with Pandora FMS. Check date in remote system and compare with the local date. Check timezones in both systems. You can setup agent (in 3.0 version) to "not use" its local time, and in 3.1 version you can define a different timezone to made the calculations and plus/substract time depending on timezone of agent.

How can I make a backup of database?

A simple mysqldump will dump your database contents. A blank database with the same name (without data), should be enought to receive dump generated by mysqldump.

Make the backup 

mysqldump -u root -p pandora > /backup/pandoradb_backup.sql

Restore the backup (from scratch) 

mysql -u root -p
create database pandora;
use pandora;
source /backup/pandoradb_backup.sql

Probably you also need to give access to your console pandora user: 

grant all privileges on pandora.* to pandora@localhost identified by 'mypassword';

I have setup a alert for a module, but when it comes a bad "peak" it doesn't fire the alert, if it is a proc module, it is reflected on event log, but alert doesn't fire

Check that your alert has a "min alerts" of 0. If it has a value of 1, for example, it means that needs at least one "bad" value before activate the alert. In this case, with a value of "min alerts" of 1, you need at least two bad values (in the same period defined by time threshold parameter) to fire an alert.

When I start the network server, I get a message 'segmentation fault' and server seems to stop running

Check your /etc/pandora/pandora_server.conf file and see how many network_threads are you using. If you're using more than 40-50 threads in a PIV with less than 1GB, probably your machine is not able to manage so many threads. Try to reduce. A single network thread is enough to manage about 100/200 modules, probably more depending on your setup and network latency needs.

I'd just installed pandora server on a solaris 10 machine. Is there a way to skip the error "This isn't GNU/Linux" ?

Pandora is not well tested on Solaris systems, but you could try to use in Solaris at your owk risk. Just edit Config.pm file and search: 

die "[ERROR] This isn't GNU/Linux.

Comment this line and Pandora FMS should start without warning about that SO is not Linux.

Adding mibs to Pandora FMS

Q: does anyone know how to load HP and/or compaq MIBS into pandora for the SNMP Walk functionality?

A: Pandora FMS do not manage directly SNMP, it relies on GNU/Linux Net-SNMP libraries that are managed by system, so editing /etc/snmp/snmp.conf you can define MIB loading. You should configure your the linux system that runs Pandora FMS Console and add MIB files to /etc/snmp/snmp.conf file (and restart apache). This are /etc/snmp/snmp.conf directives for MIB management:

mibdirs DIRLIST

specifies a list of directories to search for MIB files. This operates in the same way as the -M option - see snmpcmd(1) for details. Note that this value can be overridden by the MIBDIRS environment variable, and the -M option.

mibs MIBLIST

specifies a list of MIB modules (not files) that should be loaded. This operates in the same way as the -m option - see snmpcmd(1) for details. Note that this list can be overridden by the MIBS environment variable, and the -m option.

mibfile FILE

specifies a (single) MIB file to load, in addition to the list read from the mibs token (or equivalent configuration). Note that this value can be overridden by the MIBFILES environment variable.

Keepalive module doesn't work for me

Q: According to last fms1.3 beta .... I can not make the visual console to show in red color when the computer or server is not on / not alive. Setting in map_builder: Single graph zixzax / agent_keepalive server 320 70 0 0. It shows the picture somehow but it suppose to show in red instead of green color since i set the zixzax down/off.

A: Keepalive only set to "down" where there is NO CONTACT, it's a very special module (that currently have about 10% of support questions Very Happy).

If you have five modules for an agent, for example:

1. ICMP check 2. Four Agent modules 3. Keepalive module (by default)

And your agent is down (because machine is dead, for example), the ICMP module is "working", and reporting that machine is down, so if you have a ICMP check Keepalive module never become "DEAD" because there is at least one module working, so you need to use ICMP check to draw agent info on your map.

There is a lot of configuration required, prior to install Pandora FMS that isn't covered in the quick installation guide

Q: I'm not too experienced with Apache, Perl or even Linux. I work mostly with network design and support. So I wanted to implement some sort of monitoring, and Pandora seemed like an OK choice. But I used to think I could follow a manual letter by letter, until now that is... Is there alot of configuration required that isn't covered in the quick installation guide. As in, does it require arbitrary configuration of Apache or anything of the kind? .

A: If you're working with ubuntu, you don't need to "adjust" or configure neither apache or PHP, simple install all dependencies: 

apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mysql mysql-server php-pear php5-gd php5-snmp snmp snmptrapd snmpd

This should install all server and console dependencies in your system in a Ubuntu server. Perl dependencies are detailed on Quick Install Guide

I would like to know how to install more than one pandora agents in the same machine

If you take a look to pandora_agent_daemon, in the first 20 lines of that script you have a bunch of variables that need to rewrite: 

PANDORA_PATH=/etc/pandora
DAEMON=/usr/bin/pandora_agent
PIDFILE=/var/run/pandora_agent.pid
LOGFILE=/var/log/pandora_agent.log

Just create a directory /etc/pandora2

And copy your /etc/init.d/pandora_agent_daemon to /etc/init.d/pandora_agent2_daemon with lines shown before modified to do not interfere with first agent, something like: 

PANDORA_PATH=/etc/pandora2
DAEMON=/usr/bin/pandora_agent
PIDFILE=/var/run/pandora_agent2.pid
LOGFILE=/var/log/pandora_agent2.log

Copy your pandora_agent.conf config to /etc/pandora2 and if you want to use a pandora_user.conf also copy to this location.

My Pandora FMS Agents don't connect with Pandora FMS server, or my Pandora FMS Agents ask me for SSH password when try to connect. Implementing SSH authentication

I'm asked for a password when make connection for copying XML data. I tried connecting through SSH but still didn't work.

A: Before trying start a remote pandora agent you must be sure that SSH Key auth its working, for try this, execute in a host with pandora agent installed: ssh pandora@pandora_server.

Pandora_server is the hostname where pandora server its instaled. If you can connect directly, automated SSH Auth key its working OK and pandora agent must be able to connect Pandora Server.

Please refer Pandora FMS Server Install documentation on how to install automated Pandora SSH key auth. You need to do following steps in order:

1. Create "pandora" user in your Pandora FMS data server system. Be sure to give "pandora" user privileges to write in incoming directory for data files (/opt/pandora_server/data_in for 1.2 version or /var/spool/pandora/data_in for 1.3 version).

2. Create ssh key for root using (or the user using running Pandora FMS agent) in each of Pandora FMS Agent Systems, with command: 

ssh-keygen -t dsa

This would generate a file called /root/.ssh/id_dsa.pub

Copy contents of that file over the file (create if not exists) /home/pandora/.ssh/authorized_keys with permissions only to read/write for pandora user in Pandora FMS Data server system.

3. From root user in the Pandora FMS agent system, test the connection with command: 

 ssh pandora@pandorafms_data_server

If it's the first connection, it should ask you about the authenticity of host's fingerprint. Say yes, and you should enter system without problems. If not, SSH authentication is not correct, and you need to review previous steps carefully.

4. Run the agent, it should copy datafiles over Pandora FMS data server incoming data directory.


My agents on FC4 machines cannot send data to the Pandora Server (SSH Transfer mode)

I have installed agents on fc4 machines and my pandora server on fc5 and I also have an agent on the fc5 machine running the pandora server .The agents on the fc4 machines cannot send data to the pandora server but the agent on the machine running the pandora server(fc5) works ok.I also have a problem with generating the public keys.

A: Before trying start a remote pandora agent you must be sure that SSH Key auth its working, for try this, execute in a host with pandora agent installed: ssh pandora@pandora_server.

Pandora_server is the hostname where pandora server its instaled. If you can connect directly, automated SSH Auth key its working OK and pandora agent must be able to connect Pandora Server. Please refer Pandora Agent documentation on how to install automated Pandora SSH key auth.

When I try to see any graph, I don't see any image, and if I try to see the broken icon, the page shows Fatal error: Call to undefined function: imagetypes()

A: imagetypes() is a GD function, check if you have installed the GD library. Also, take a look at your php.ini file, to see if you load the gd.so library. To do so, add the next line to the file: 

extension=gd.so.

Pandora Web Console doesn't run and I get some MySQL errors

A: If you have created Pandora DataBase and added the Pandora user in the database, review your include/config.php file to change the database, host user and password with your own data. Also check connectivity with MySQL Server by connecting by hand.


I get Mysql error "client does not support authentication protocol"

I use MySQL 4.1 or MySQL 5.0, and when I try to authenticate user I get the next error: Warning: mysql_connect() [function.mysql-connect]: client does not support authentication protocol requested by server; consider upgrading

A: In MySQL 4.1 there's a new type of authentication different that 4.0 or 3.23 and PHP isn't compiled for this version, so it can't connect. There are a few different solutions, first is to compile PHP against the MySQL 4.1 client library. If that doesn't work or you can't do that, then you can read this text about how to fix it. Basically, you need to save the pandora user password with old hashing algorithm: 

mysql> set password for 'pandora'@'localhost' = old_password('pandora');

I get Pandora FMS Console error: You don't have access to this page

Q: I install Pandora Web Console and when I login as admin and try to access any of the links, I get an error: You don't have access to this page

A: You don't need this change in Pandora 1.2 and newer. This happens because the session isn't initiated. Review if you have the next line in your php.ini file: 

session.auto_start = 1

Also take a look at the session.save_path parameter in the same file, to ensure you have access to this directory (usually /tmp).

How can I run Pandora agent in IPSO / FreeBSD?

A: Due to a unknown bug in IPSO, sometimes it detects a different number of Pandora running processes and detects another Pandora agent running. If this happens, try to launch Pandora agent with: 

$ nohup ./pandora_agent.sh &

Can I run any Pandora agent in Cisco?

A: No, you can't. But you can run a satellite agent running in a nearby host (a host that has access to Cisco SNMP interface) and run a SNMP remote agent in a Pandora compatible system. With Pandora 1.2 you could run a remote network agent monitoring ICMP, TCP, UDP, and SNMP parameters of Cisco equipment. You also could setup a custom Pandora FMS agent that uses expect to get data and report to Pandora FMS Data server in provided XML interface.

Which is the load Pandora can support?

It depends on your architecture. If you have a single-server (MySQL, Pandora Server and Pandora Console) machine, about 1000 agents (in v3.0), with a total of 25-30 individual data items (modules) per agent. Hardware needed for that is a "cheap" Server, with a dual core CPU (2.4Ghz), 4GB of RAM and a 7500rpm Harddisk.

For more powerful setups (1000 agents), can I use multiple servers, using a high availability solution?

Yes. There is a HA solution and multiple high-load. Please read the documentation in depth, all information is explained there.

Can I use Crystal Reports with Pandora?

A: Yes, you can since database schema is open. Check our documentation about database schema explanation of directly, read the code in our development repository.

After a problem with MySQL Server (shutdown, restart) my Pandora Server stops. There are any data lost?

A: Pandora Server automatically shutdown if it can not connect with MySQL Server. If Pandora Server is not running, data packets are storing in Pandora Server incoming directory. When Pandora Server restart again, it will process that packets and no data will be lost.

Where can I download the srvany.exe and instsrv.exe files?

A: Microsoft has released this files into the Resource Kit for Windows 2000 and for Windows XP and Windows 2003. You can download it freely from Microsoft, but Only for XP and 2003. This file was used for Pandora FMS older versions (1.1) but could be used to program as service the Perl Unix agent running on windows with the Active State Perl. Thats a nice hack :-)

How do I convert the Pandora Windows agent 1.1 keys into Pandora Windows agent 1.2 keys?

A: Disclaimer: Your old keys must be in DSA format. If they are not in this format, or you are not sure, generate a new pair of SSH keys.

In order to convert your ppk keys into OpenSSH DSA format (id_dsa and id_dsa.pub files) you will need Putygen utility.

Open Putygen, go to "File" menu and click "Load", then open your ppk private key. Open "Conversions" menu and select "Export OpenSSH key". Save it as "id_dsa".

To export the public key, in the main window of Putygen you can see a textbox on the top which title is "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file". Select all the text in the box and copy it in the clipboard. Create a text file with notepad and paste the text into the file. Save the file and close notepad. Rename this file to "id_dsa.pub" and thats all.

How to generate a pair of SSH keys for Pandora Windows agent ? (SSH Transfer only)

A: Open Putygen and select SSH2-DSA at the bottom of the main window. Then click "Generate". The program will ask you to move the mouse over the blank area to generate randomness. Once the key has been generated, export it by opening "Conversions" menu and select "Export OpenSSH key". Don't use any passphrase when exporting it, so click "No" if a warning dialog appears. This will export the private key, which you must save as "id_dsa".

To export the public key, in the main window of Putygen you can see a textbox on the top which title is "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file". Select all the text in the box and copy it in the clipboard. Create a text file with notepad and paste the text into the file. Save the file and close notepad. Rename this file to "id_dsa.pub" and that's all.

How to configure the Pandora server to accept the keys from Pandora FMS Windows agent (SSH Transfer) ?

A: Connect to your server and go to /home/pandora/.ssh . If this directory does not exist you must create it. Open "authorized_keys" file with your favourite editor (you must create it also if it does not exists) and paste the public key in a new line of the file. This should work now, so run pandora windows agent SSH test again with: 

c:\path\to\pandora> PandoraAgent --test-ssh

I have Net::SNMP installed but Pandora still asks me for SNMP.pm

A: net-snmp-perl and Net::SNMP are two different things.

net-snmp-perl is the perl bindings for the snmp library at http://net-snmp.sourceforge.net/, which provides an SNMP.pm without the Net:: prefix.

Net::SNMP is a perl module from http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-SNMP/ which provides Net::SNMP (i.e. it would be /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.5/Net/SNMP.pm). You can find RPMs for this package in Dag's repo: http://dag.wieers.com/packages/perl-Net-SNMP/

UPDATE: With Pandora FMS 3.0 this library is not needed anymore.

Error: Call to undefined function imageantialias() in Pandora Console

A: The problem resides on the jpgraph.php file: Line 5791 and 5792. 

  If you take a look on that lines you'll find this:
   $this->use_anti_aliasing = $aFlg;
  imageantialias($this->img,$aFlg);

To solve the bug just change those lines into these: 

    $this->use_anti_aliasing = false;
   //imageantialias($this->img,$aFlg);

Problem starting the first time Pandora Agent for Unix (SSH Transfer mode)

Q: When i enter 

[root@localhost root]# /opt/pandora_agent/pandora_agent_daemon start
Pandora Agent is now running with PID 14786

Then it will display 

[root@localhost root]# The authenticity of host '192.168.182.157 (192.168.182.157)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 9c:11:1b:ac:44:2e:10:98:16:75:00:58:34:18:5b:2d.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?

when I press yes it still show those message. what is the problem?

A: Yep, it's normal. Stop the agent. Make the first connection to the server manually. I mean, ssh pandora@pandora_server_ip, press yes. That will also make you to be sure you set up the ssh publickey configuration successfully. After doing this, launch the agent again and everything should work out ok for you.

How to run PandoraFMS agent on the system startup

Q: I've installed the pandora_agent on my Linux system and I want it to run every time the computer starts up, how can I do that automatically?

A: First of all, copy pandora_agent_daemon to /etc/init.d

Then if you wanna pandora_agent_daemon starts in your system boot, just: 

ln -s /etc/init.d/pandora_agent_daemon /etc/rcX.d/S99pandora_agent_daemon

Where the X is the run level you're booting into.

Then, to make sure your pandora_agent_daemon is being correctly switched off when you make a shutdown, or poweroff... 

ln -s /etc/init.d/pandora_agent_daemon /etc/rc0.d/K99pandora_agent_daemon
ln -s /etc/init.d/pandora_agent_daemon /etc/rc6.d/K99pandora_agent_daemon

Problems with PHP-PEAR RPM

Q: I installed php-pear rpm package but the graphics do not work though

A: By default, php-pear is installed in /usr/share/pear

To solve that just: 

 cp /usr/share/pear/PEAR.php /var/www/html/pandora_console/reporting/

(Check out your pandora_console PATH) Then, just make apache able to read that file: 

 chown apache PEAR.php

(Check out which user is running the apache server, could be either apache or www-data)

Problems with "Unknown agent" in the WebConsole"

Q: I created the agent in the webconsole but it has no data. Looking at the logs I found this error: 

  2007/07/11 14:13:45 ulises_Data [V1] ERROR: Received data from an unknown agent

But the agent is created in the webconsole

A: You need to install: libxml-simple-perl 

  apt-get install libxml-simple-perl

Problems with the VMWare Image, eth0 doesn't work

Q: The problem is, the interface eth0 cannot be found. So when i try to change the ip address it just doesn't work (sending me 'eth0: error while getting interface flags: no such device).

A: Cleaning cache will fix the eth0 issue. It is cause by MAC caching, when you copy vmware image. 

  rm /etc/udev/rules.d/*.*

I need more decimals in the definitions of SLA's, how can I get it ?

A: Altering database with following SQL sentence (MySQL): 

ALTER TABLE treport_content_sla_combined MODIFY `sla_limit` double(18,3) default NULL;
ALTER TABLE treport_content_sla_combined MODIFY `sla_min` double(18,3) default NULL;
ALTER TABLE treport_content_sla_combined MODIFY `sla_max` double(18,3) default NULL;

This will give you three decimals, if you need more, just alter the table again. This is for the SLA's only.

I need more precission for the postprocess field

A: Altering database with following SQL sentence (MySQL): 

ALTER TABLE tagente_modulo MODIFY `post_process` double(18,13) default NULL;

Can't locate PandoraFMS/DB.pm on Debian after install Pandora FMS 3.0

A: It seems to be a problem detecting the perl version to solve it just copy it, for example: 

# cp /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.0 /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1 -R

PDF Reports without graphs

A report with graphs, this report show graphs in the html view, but when the same report in PDF the graphs don't show. And this bug is cause to the PHP configuration (normally this file is in /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini), in this configuration you have a disable the flag to pass session as parameter. Well, for to set on the flag, you can change the line "session.use_only_cookies = 0". The reason is becase to make the PDF, the server auto-get the image graph and use the user session as parameter.

A Map's background is black

In the Dashboards, when creating a visual map Widget, if the map's background is completely black, it is due to the Apache configuration. If the Pandora console is installed in the Apache location by default (/var/www en Ubuntu) this problem won't be, but if we've installed the Pandora console in other location, as for example at /home/Usuario/public_html,then, it'll be possible that you'll have problems to find the map background image.

Retrieved from "http://www.openideas.info/wiki/index.php?title=Pandora:FAQ"
Documentation