RPM install in VIMA?

[jholland]

So I want to install apcupsd (a daemon for controlling APC UPSes www.apcupsd.com) on VMWare's VIMA virtual appliance. Is this possible? I'm sure others have installed rpms on VIMA before. I usually work on Debian systems and know very little about package management on Red Hat based distros.

When I execute:

rpm -i apcupsd-3.14.5-1.el3.i386.rpm

I get back:

warning: apcupsd-3.14.5-1.el3.i386.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID a57b2d90

error: Failed dependencies:

++ libcrypto.so.4 is needed by apcupsd-3.14.5-1.i386++

++ libnetsnmp.so.5 is needed by apcupsd-3.14.5-1.i386++

Anybody have any pointers?

[halcabes]

I believe APC's existing software is designed to deal with the physical machine it's running on, not a virtual machine such as VIMA.

APC has announced that they're developing a new version of their software designed to work in VIMA.

--Harvey

Harvey Alcabes

Product Manager

VMware, Inc.

[jholland]

This is not APC's software though, apcupsd is an open source alternative. I have written a tutorial on how to shutdown ESXi using and APC SmartUPS with a network managment card, but I had apcupsd installed within a Debian virtual machine, now I want to see can I install the apcupsd software on VIMA too.

Basically I'm wondering if yum in VIMA can resolve dependencies for packages

[halcabes]

Does the software use the VI API to shutdown ESXi? If it just uses standard Linux commands it may shut down the VIMA VM rather than ESXi.

I'll let someone else reply regarding the installation of software into VIMA.

--Harvey

Harvey Alcabes

Product Manager

VMware, Inc.

[jholland]

Apcupsd uses standard linux commands to shutdown the machine it's installed on, like PCNS. Only I have modified the control script within apcupsd to now ssh into the ESXi host and run commands to shutdown all running VMs and then the host itself. See here http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-9308

[lamw]

We've used apcupsd in the past on an arch linux distribution running in a VM, though our UPS is out of commission at the moment. Let me try to see if I can get apcupsd installed on VIMA, I don't recall if it installed right away on arch distro, might have had to make a slight modification. I remember a thread awhile back about someone trying to use the default RCLI or VI Perl Toolkit utilities and was not able to shutdown the VM(s) and the host since the host will not power down until all VM(s) are off. Though the individual had a strict requirement that everything was hosted on this single ESXi Server, including the VM that would initiate the shutdown of the VM(s) and host.

If you're looking to execute this from another system, then I think it would be possible but not sure. I'll let you know if I can get the utility installed

=========================================================================

--William

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

[admin · Accepted solution]

The rpm you're is built for a 32 bit linux system. You should try the apcupsd-3.14.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm (also available from www.apcupsd.com). It should install ( I haven't tried configuring it).

[lamw]

[vi-admin@vima-dev ~]$ sudo rpm -ivh apcupsd-3.14.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm
Password:
warning: apcupsd-3.14.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID a57b2d90
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:apcupsd                ########################################### [100%]

Make sure you're using the 64bit version and latest release of apcupsd, apcupsd-3.14.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm

=========================================================================

--William

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

[jholland]

Yeah, tried the 64bit version and it installed ok.

$ sudo rpm -ivh apcupsd-3.14.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm

Password:

warning: apcupsd-3.14.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID a57b2d90

Preparing... ###########################################

1:apcupsd ###########################################

$

Can't believe I forgot that the VIMA virtual machine was a 64bit envirnment.

Thanks for the tips, it seems to be working ok now.

[lamw]

You're right, I was using an older release, instead of el5.

apcupsd-3.14.5-1.el5.x86_64.rpm does indeed install, let us know if it works. Once we get our UPS online, I'll have to give it a shot as well.

=========================================================================

--William

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

[jholland]

Thanks for the help guys. I have put my tutorial on how to shutdown ESXi when connected to an APC UPS up on the VIOPS site. Here's the link:

http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1341

jholland

[lamw]

I took a look at your VIOPs doc, good stuff. I'm glad our vimsh doc helped you out with automating the process of shutting down your VM(s) and then the host using the default shutdown.sh script located on the ESXi systems. I remember talking to someone about this and they were trying to initiate a shutdown of the VM(s) and host using VIMA and the VI Perl Toolkit but found that the host would not shutdown since the VM that initiates the power down was hosted on the ESXi host. Is this something you've tried, so you don't need the shutdown script or have you tried that already and require the host to process the VM shutdown and then itself? Thanks

=========================================================================

--William

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

[barber50701]

So does this shutdown the VM's too or just the ESXi host? If only the host how do you shutdown the VM's Does anybody have a virtual appliance with this already config'd?

Nick

[lamw]

http://viops.vmware.com/home/docs/DOC-1351

This is the updated document that I've put together along with Joseph's original work. This will shutdown both the VM(s) and ESXi host(s)

=========================================================================

William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at:

[barber50701]

I was able to get VIMA installed and apcupsd installed. I config'd my apcupsd.conf file just like it showed in the document,

When I run the apcaccess it say that communication has been lost. Has anybody else seen this.. I have very little experiance with linux..does anybody have a virtual appliance that is working that could download and make my change to? I am just really confused and any help would be great.

My config is

1 esxi server

4 VM's on this box

1 APC with the Smart card in it APC has a static IP and MY VIMA VM has a static IP.

Nick