Deploying an SL1 Virtual Machine in Azure

This section describes how to deploy a ScienceLogic virtual machine in Azure from a .vhd image file.

To deploy an SL1 appliance in Azure, you need the following components:

• An Azure Resource group
• An Azure storage account that includes at least one blob container
• An Azure Network Security Group (NSG)

Use the following menu options to navigate the SL1 user interface:

• To view a pop-out list of menu options, click the menu icon ([Original reference image unavailable: menu icon]).
• To view a page containing all the menu options, click the Advanced menu icon ([Original reference image unavailable: AdvancedMenu]).

The steps to create these components in Azure are described throughout this section. This section includes the following topics:

NOTE: If you are configuring a Database, ScienceLogic recommends allocating four times the memory for the Database as compared to the memory for the Data Collectors.

TIP: A single Azure image file can be used to create multiple virtual machines. For example, you can use the same Azure .vhd file for the Database Server to create multiple Database Servers.

System Requirements

For details about supported hypervisors and the requirements and specifications for each SL1 appliance, see the Customer Portal: https://support.sciencelogic.com/s/system-requirements

Deploying an SL1 System in Azure

To deploy a distributed SL1 system on Azure instances, create appliances in this order:

1. Database Server
2. Administration Portal (if applicable)
3. Data Collectors
4. Message Collectors (if applicable)

Configuring an Azure Storage Account

To create and configure an Azure storage account:

1. Log in to the Azure Portal, and then click Resource groups on the left menu.

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2. Click the Add button and add information for a new Resource group. Click the Create resource group button to create the Resource group.
3. After creating the Resource group, click Storage accounts on the left menu.

4. Click the Add button, and then click the Create Storage accounts button to create a new Storage account. When creating the Storage account, complete the following fields:

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• Deployment model. Select Resource manager.

• Account kind. Select General purpose.
• Resource group. Select Use existing, and then select the Resource group you created in step 2.

5. After creating the Storage account, click Storage accounts on the left menu, and then select the newly created Storage account.
6. Under the Services section of the Storage account pane, click Blobs. The Blob service blade information appears.

7. In the Blob service pane, click the Plus icon to add a new container. Type a name for the container and select Blob as the Access Type. When you are finished, click the Create button to create the Blob container.

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Uploading a .vhd Image File to an Azure Storage Account

After creating the Resource group, Storage account, and Blob container, you must upload the ScienceLogic .vhd image file to the Blob container. To do so, you will need the following information:

• The ScienceLogic .vhd file
• Resource Group name
• Blob container URI
• Local file path to the .vhd file

To download the ScienceLogic .vhd file:

1. Open a browser session and go to:

https://portal.sciencelogic.com/portal/images

2. Find the platform version that you want to download. Click on its name.
3. At the bottom of the ScienceLogic Platform Version page, find a list of .vhd files. Click on the SL1 appliance type for which you want an .vhd.
4. The .vhd file is downloaded to your local computer.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each SL1 appliance type you want to build.

To upload the ScienceLogic .vhd file to your Blob container, perform the following steps:

We reference this in a support article https://support.sciencelogic.com/s/article/1197

1. Ensure that you have the appropriate Azure modules installed in your PowerShell environment, specifically PowerShellGet and AzureRM. For details, see : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/powershell/azure/install-az-ps?view=azps-2.8.0&viewFallbackFrom=azurermps-5.7.0
2. Open Microsoft Azure PowerShell, and then log in to your Azure account using the cmdlet Add-AzureRmAccount:

Login-AzureRmAccount

3. Ensure that you have a resource group and storage account blob to which you can save the .vhd file. The virtual machine that you create later must be in the same resource group as the storage account.

4. Add your .vhd file to the storage account with the following cmdlet:

Add-AzureRmVhd -Destination '' -LocalFilePath '' -ResourceGroupName ''

When entering the Blob URI, you must include the .vhd file name. For example: "https://azuretest.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/em7inazure.vhd".

5. Repeat step 4 for each .vhd file.

Creating an Azure Virtual Machine

The following steps require that you have an ARM resource group and storage account with the .vhd file uploaded.

To create an Azure virtual machine:

1. In a web browser, open https://github.com/Azure/azure-quickstart-templates/tree/master/201-vm-specialized-vhd-new-or-existing-vnet and click the Deploy to Azure button.

2. The Azure Portal launches and the TemplateParameters pane appears. Complete the following information:

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• Subscription. Select the Azure subscription to use for the virtual machine deployment.
• Resource Group. Select Use existing, and then select the Resource group that was created in step 2 of the section Configuring an Azure Storage Account.
• Location. Use the default resource group location.
• Os Disk Vhd Uri. Type the URI of the .vhd file that you uploaded in step 3 of the section Uploading a .vhd File to an Azure Storage Account.
• Os Type. Select Linux.
• Vm Size. Specify the size of your virtual machine. For more sizing information, see the ScienceLogic System Requirements portal page.
• Vm Name. Type a custom name for your virtual machine.

3. Review the legal terms in the Terms and Conditions section, and then click Purchase.
4. Click Create to deploy the virtual machine.
5. Repeat these steps for each SL1 appliance you want to build.
6. To verify that the virtual machine deployment is successful, navigate to the Virtual Machines pane and search for the custom virtual machine name.

Setting the Virtual Machine Allocation Method to Static

To ensure the IP address for the virtual machine remains the same after reboot, you must set the allocation method to static. To do so:

1. In the Azure Portal, navigate to the Virtual machine pane and verify that the virtual machine has a public IP address and a virtual network/subnet set.

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2. Click the name of the Virtual network/subnet. The Virtual network pane appears.

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3. In the “Connected devices” section of the Virtual network pane, click the Network interface. The Network interface pane appears.

4. Click the Public IP address value, and then click the Dissociate button.

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5. In the Network interface pane, click on Settings > IP addresses. Then, do one of the following:

• If you are not using a VPN, complete steps 6 through 9. Ignore step 10.
• If you are using a VPN, skip ahead to step 10.

6. If you are not using a VPN, then in the IP addresses pane, select Enabled in the Public IP address field and then click on the IP address field.
7. Click the Create new button.
8. In the Create public IP address pane, type a name for your IP address in the Name field and select Static in the Assignment field.
9. Click OK and then click Save.
10. If you are using a VPN, then in the IP addresses pane, select Disabled in the Public IP address field and then select a Subnet. You can use the default values for all other fields.

Configuring Ports on SL1 Appliances

You must next create a Network security group that will specify the ports required for communication with the Data Collector and the Database.

To configure the ports for communication:

1. In the Azure Portal, navigate to the Network security groups pane, and then click the Add button. The Create network security group pane appears.

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2. Type the information for the Network security group (name, subscription, resource group, and location), then click Create.
3. In the Network security groups pane, click the newly created Network security group, and then click the Settings button.
4. In the Settings pane, click Inbound security rules.

5. In the Inbound security rules pane, click the Add button. The Add inbound security rule pane appears.

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6. In the Add inbound security rule pane, create an inbound security rule using the information from the first row of the following table. When you are finished, click OK.

ScienceLogic recommends that you limit the Source port range for security reasons.

7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 to create an inbound security rule for each of the ports listed in the table above.
8. After creating all of the inbound security rules, navigate to the Virtual machine pane and click the Settings button.
9. In the Settings pane, click Network interfaces and then click on the name of the Network interface.
10. In the Network interface pane, click the Settings button and then click Network security group.
11. Select the newly created network security group to associate it with the Network interface.

Configuring the Virtual Machine

To configure each virtual machine, perform the following steps:

1. Use SSH to access the virtual machine using its public IP address and the username and password that were defined in step 2 of the section Creating an Azure Virtual Machine.

2. Run em7_install.sh in a special operational mode:

sudo /opt/em7/share/scripts/em7_install.sh --instance-init-only

3. On the Administration Portal (and the Database Server only if you are using the Administration Portal on the Database Server), run the following command to start the web server:

sudo service nginx start

4. Using vi or another text editor, edit the /etc/silo.conf file

sudo vi /etc/silo.conf

5. In the LOCAL section, set ipaddress to the Azure virtual machine's public IP address. If a VPN is used, however, set the ipaddress field to the VM’s private IP address. For example, see the bolded text below:

[LOCAL]

rootdir = /opt/em7

vardir = /var/lib/em7

logdir = /var/log/em7

rundir = /run/em7

ipaddress = 172.16.10.10

dbdir = /data/db

dbserver = 172.16.10.11

dbport = 7706

dbuser = root

dbpasswd = em7admin

portcheck = /usr/bin/nmap

model_type = 1

eventmanager = internal,email,syslog,trap,dynamic

6. Perform the required steps in the Web Configuration Tool.

• For instances of the Database Server or All-In-One Appliance:

• Licensing the instance in the Web Configuration Tool

Upon installation, SL1 appliances are automatically licensed for 30 days. During these 30 days, you can perform the steps to obtain a permanent license from ScienceLogic.

• For instances of the Administration Portal:

• Configuring the instance in the Web Configuration Tool
• When prompted for the IP address of the Database Server,

• If you are not using a VPN, enter the public IP address of the Database Server.
• If you are using a VPN, use the private IP address of the Database Server.

• For instances of the Data Collector and Message Collector:

• Configuring the instance in the Web Configuration Tool
• When prompted for the IP address of the Database Server,

• If you are not using a VPN, enter the public IP address of the Database Server.
• If you are using a VPN, use the private IP address of the Database Server. .

7. Open a browser session to SL1 (to the Administration Portal). Go to the Appliance Manager page (System > Settings > Appliances).
8. If you are using an All-In-One Appliance, you will see two entries for the All-In-One Appliance.

• Select the bomb icon for the All-In-One Appliance for which the bomb icon () is enabled.
• In the remaining entry, select the wrench icon (). In the top pane, enter the IP Address specified in Azure for the All-In-One Appliance. Click Save.

9. If you are using a distributed system, you will see two entries for the Database Server.

• Select the bomb icon for the Database Server for which the bomb icon () is enabled.

Troubleshooting

If the Data Collector continuously displays a message saying the collector is working when running a Dynamic Application, DO NOT restart the Azure virtual machine, as doing so could cause you to lose SSH access to the machine.

Instead, do the following:

1. Using the command line interface, verify whether you can run the Dynamic Application in debug mode by typing the following command:

sudo /usr/local/silo/proc/dynamic_single.py

2. Restart the data pull processes (em7_hfpulld, em7_lfpulld, em7_mfpulld) by typing the following command:

sudo service restart