1. Setting up a basic OpenNMS Horizon

The OpenNMS Horizon platform can be installed on multiple OS families. This guide provides instructions for installing the platform on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)-based, Debian-based, and Microsoft Windows operating systems.

1.1. Objectives

  • Installing OpenNMS Horizon components on a single node using the built-in JRobin as time series storage

  • Setup OpenNMS Horizon on recommended operating systems

  • Login the Web User Interface and change the default admin password

1.2. Before you begin

The following abbreviations will be used to refer to their respective entry through this documentation.

Table 1. Operating Systems

RHEL

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 or higher, CentOS 7 or higher

Debian

Debian 9 or higher, Ubuntu 16.04 LTS or higher

Windows

Microsoft Windows Server 2012, Windows 10

OpenJDK 11 Development Kit

Installed OpenJDK 11 Development Kit

It is recommended to meet the following requirements:

Table 2. Installation Requirements

Minimal Hardware

2 CPU, 2 GB RAM, 20 GB disk

Operating System

RHEL or Debian in a current version is recommended. Please be aware OpenNMS Horizon is developed and mostly operated on Linux systems. Community support is limited when you run on Microsoft Windows platform. On Microsoft Windows the R integration for statistical computation on time series data is not supported.

Internet

Access to {yum,debian}.opennms.org or SourceForge for Microsoft Windows via https.

DNS Setup

Please make sure your DNS settings for the OpenNMS server are correct and the localhost name can be resolved. If there is an incorrect or missing A Resource Record for the server hostname, OpenNMS might not start correctly. The Java security manager might not initialize and an RMI class loader disabled exception will be shown.

Depending on the installed operating system, the path for OpenNMS Horizon is different. If the instruction refers to ${OPENNMS_HOME}, the path is resolved to the following directories:

Table 3. Directory Structure

RHEL

/opt/opennms

Debian

/usr/share/opennms

Windows

C:\Program Files\opennms

1.3. Installing on RHEL

The following steps will be described:

  1. Installation of the opennms meta package which handles all dependencies

  2. Initialize PostgreSQL database and configure access

  3. Initialize OpenNMS Horizon database and start

  4. Log in to the Web User Interface and change default admin password

All commands on the command line interface need to be executed with root permissions.

Step 1: Install OpenNMS Horizon

Add yum repository and import GPG key
yum -y install https://yum.opennms.org/repofiles/opennms-repo-stable-rhel7.noarch.rpm
rpm --import https://yum.opennms.org/OPENNMS-GPG-KEY
Installation of with all built-in dependencies
yum -y install opennms

The following packages will be automatically installed:

  • jicmp6 and jicmp: Java bridge to allow sending ICMP messages from OpenNMS Horizon repository.

  • opennms-core: OpenNMS Horizon core services, e.g. Provisiond, Pollerd and Collectd from OpenNMS Horizon repository.

  • opennms-webapp-jetty: OpenNMS Horizon web application from OpenNMS Horizon repository

  • postgresql: PostgreSQL database server from distribution repository

  • postgresql-libs: PostgreSQL database from distribution repository

With the successful installed packages the OpenNMS Horizon is installed in the following directory structure:

[root@localhost /opt/opennms]# tree -L 1
.
└── opennms
   ├── bin
   ├── contrib
   ├── data
   ├── deploy
   ├── etc
   ├── jetty-webapps
   ├── lib
   ├── logs -> /var/log/opennms
   ├── share -> /var/opennms
   └── system
We recommend disabling the OpenNMS Horizon apt repository after installation to prevent upgrades while it is running. OpenNMS Horizon requires some manual steps upon upgrade to make sure the database and configuration are consistent in the new version, and on systems with many nodes or lots of events, this can take hours. For this reason, it is recommended to exclude the OpenNMS Horizon packages from update except when you are planning on performing an upgrade. 
yum-config-manager --disable opennms-repo-stable-common,opennms-repo-stable-rhel7

Step 2: Initialize and setup PostgreSQL

Initialization of the PostgreSQL database
postgresql-setup initdb
System startup configuration for PostgreSQL
systemctl enable postgresql
Startup PostgreSQL database
systemctl start postgresql
Create an opennms database user with a password and create an opennms database which is owned by the user opennms
su - postgres
createuser -P opennms
createdb -O opennms opennms
Set a password for Postgres super user
psql -c "ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'YOUR-POSTGRES-PASSWORD';"
exit
The super user is required to be able to initialize and change the database schema for installation and updates.
Change the access policy for PostgreSQL
vi /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf
Allow OpenNMS Horizon accessing the database over the local network with a MD5 hashed password
host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            md5(1)
host    all             all             ::1/128                 md5(1)
1 Change method from ident to md5 for IPv4 and IPv6 on localhost.
Apply configuration changes for PostgreSQL
systemctl reload postgresql
Configure database access in OpenNMS Horizon
vi ${OPENNMS_HOME}/etc/opennms-datasources.xml
Set credentials to access the PostgreSQL database
<jdbc-data-source name="opennms"
                    database-name="opennms"(1)
                    class-name="org.postgresql.Driver"
                    url="jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/opennms"
                    user-name="** YOUR-OPENNMS-USERNAME **"(2)
                    password="** YOUR-OPENNMS-PASSWORD **" />(3)

<jdbc-data-source name="opennms-admin"
                    database-name="template1"
                    class-name="org.postgresql.Driver"
                    url="jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/template1"
                    user-name="postgres"(4)
                    password="** YOUR-POSTGRES-PASSWORD **" />(5)
1 Set the database name OpenNMS Horizon should use
2 Set the user name to access the opennms database table
3 Set the password to access the opennms database table
4 Set the postgres user for administrative access to PostgreSQL
5 Set the password for administrative access to PostgreSQL

Step 3: Initialize and start OpenNMS Horizon

Detect of Java environment and persist in /opt/opennms/etc/java.conf
${OPENNMS_HOME}/bin/runjava -s
Initialize the database and detect system libraries persisted in /opt/opennms/etc/libraries.properties
${OPENNMS_HOME}/bin/install -dis
Configure systemd to start OpenNMS Horizon on system boot
systemctl enable opennms
Start OpenNMS Horizon
systemctl start opennms

Step 4: First Login and change default password

After starting OpenNMS the web application can be accessed on http://<ip-or-fqdn-of-your-server>:8980/opennms. The default login user is admin and the password is initialized to admin.

  1. Open in your browser http://<ip-or-fqdn-of-your-server>:8980/opennms

  2. Login with with admin/admin

  3. Click in main navigation menu on "admin → Change Password → Change Password"

  4. Set as current password admin and set a new password and confirm your newly set password

  5. Click "Submit"

  6. Logout and login with your new password

Next Steps

Additional information can be found in these follow up documents:

  • Getting Started Guide

    Learn the first steps to setup, configure, and maintain an OpenNMS Horizon.

  • Reference Guide

    Find in-depth information on the detecters, monitors, collectors, and configuration files used by the OpenNMS Horizon platform.

1.4. Installing on Debian

The following steps will be described:

  1. Installation of the opennms meta package which handles all dependencies

  2. Initialize PostgreSQL database and configure access

  3. Initialize OpenNMS Horizon database and start

  4. Log in to the Web User Interface and change default admin password

All commands on the command line interface need to be executed with root permissions.

Step 1: Install OpenNMS Horizon

Add apt repository in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opennms.list and add GPG key
cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opennms.list
deb https://debian.opennms.org stable main
deb-src https://debian.opennms.org stable main
EOF
wget -O - https://debian.opennms.org/OPENNMS-GPG-KEY | apt-key add -
apt update
Installation of OpenNMS Horizon with all built-in dependencies
apt -y install opennms

The following packages are required by the opennms package and will be automatically installed:

  • jicmp6 and jicmp: Java bridge to allow sending ICMP messages from OpenNMS repository.

  • opennms-core: OpenNMS core services, e.g. Provisiond, Pollerd and Collectd from OpenNMS repository.

  • opennms-webapp-jetty: OpenNMS web application from OpenNMS repository

  • postgresql: PostgreSQL database server from distribution repository

  • postgresql-libs: PostgreSQL database from distribution repository

With the successful installed packages the OpenNMS Horizon is installed in the following directory structure:

[root@localhost /usr/share/opennms]# tree -L 1
.
└── opennms
   ├── bin
   ├── data
   ├── deploy
   ├── etc -> /etc/opennms
   ├── instances
   ├── jetty-webapps
   ├── lib -> ../java/opennms
   ├── logs -> /var/log/opennms
   ├── share -> /var/lib/opennms
   └── system
We recommend disabling the OpenNMS Horizon apt repository after installation to prevent upgrades while it is running. OpenNMS Horizon requires some manual steps upon upgrade to make sure the database and configuration are consistent in the new version, and on systems with many nodes or lots of events, this can take hours. For this reason, it is recommended to exclude the OpenNMS Horizon packages from update except when you are planning on performing an upgrade. 
apt-mark hold libopennms-java \
              libopennmsdeps-java \
              opennms-common \
              opennms-db

Step 2: Initialize and setup PostgreSQL

The Debian package installs the PostgreSQL database and is already initialized. The PostgreSQL service is already added in the runlevel configuration for system startup.

Startup PostgreSQL database
systemctl start postgresql
Create an opennms database user with a password and create an opennms database which is owned by the user opennms
su - postgres
createuser -P opennms
createdb -O opennms opennms
Set a password for Postgres super user
psql -c "ALTER USER postgres WITH PASSWORD 'YOUR-POSTGRES-PASSWORD';"
exit
The super user is required to be able to initialize and change the database schema for installation and updates.
Configure database access in OpenNMS Horizon
vi ${OPENNMS_HOME}/etc/opennms-datasources.xml
Set credentials to access the PostgreSQL database
<jdbc-data-source name="opennms"
                    database-name="opennms"(1)
                    class-name="org.postgresql.Driver"
                    url="jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/opennms"
                    user-name="** YOUR-OPENNMS-USERNAME **"(2)
                    password="** YOUR-OPENNMS-PASSWORD **" />(3)

<jdbc-data-source name="opennms-admin"
                    database-name="template1"
                    class-name="org.postgresql.Driver"
                    url="jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/template1"
                    user-name="postgres"(4)
                    password="** YOUR-POSTGRES-PASSWORD **" />(5)
1 Set the database name OpenNMS Horizon should use
2 Set the user name to access the opennms database table
3 Set the password to access the opennms database table
4 Set the postgres user for administrative access to PostgreSQL
5 Set the password for administrative access to PostgreSQL

Step 3: Initialize and start OpenNMS Horizon

Detect of Java environment and persist in /usr/share/opennms/etc/java.conf
${OPENNMS_HOME}/bin/runjava -s
Initialize the database and detect system libraries persisted in /opt/opennms/etc/libraries.properties
${OPENNMS_HOME}/bin/install -dis
Configure systemd to start OpenNMS Horizon on system boot
systemctl enable opennms
Start OpenNMS Horizon
systemctl start opennms

Step 4: First Login and change default password

After starting OpenNMS the web application can be accessed on http://<ip-or-fqdn-of-your-server>:8980/opennms. The default login user is admin and the password is initialized to admin.

  1. Open in your browser http://<ip-or-fqdn-of-your-server>:8980/opennms

  2. Login with with admin/admin

  3. Click in main navigation menu on "admin → Change Password → Change Password"

  4. Set as current password admin and set a new password and confirm your newly set password

  5. Click "Submit"

  6. Logout and login with your new password

Next Steps

Additional information can be found in these follow up documents:

  • Getting Started Guide

    Learn the first steps to setup, configure, and maintain an OpenNMS Horizon.

  • Reference Guide

    Find in-depth information on the detecters, monitors, collectors, and configuration files used by the OpenNMS Horizon platform.

1.5. Installing on Windows

The installer for Microsoft Windows does not handle PostgreSQL and Java dependencies as on Linux operating systems.

Ensure you have installed Oracle Java Development Kit 8 (JDK) or higher from the Oracle web page or from the OpenJDK community build site.

The following steps will be described:

  1. Install PostgreSQL on Microsoft Windows

  2. Install OpenNMS Horizon with GUI installer

  3. Initialize PostgreSQL database and configure access

  4. Log in to the Web User Interface and change default admin password

It is required to have local administration permission to install OpenNMS Horizon.

To edit OpenNMS configuration files on Microsoft Windows the tool Notepad++ can deal with the formatting of .property and .xml files.

Step 1: Install PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL is available for Microsoft Windows and latest version can be downloaded from Download PostgreSQL page. Follow the on-screen instructions of the graphical installer.

The placeholder {PG-VERSION} represents the PostgreSQL version number. Check the Compatibility Matrix to find a suited PostgreSQL version.

During the installation of PostgreSQL the following information need to be provided:

  • Installation directory for PostgreSQL, e.g. C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL{PG-VERSION}

  • Password for the database superuser (postgres), this password will be used during the OpenNMS setup.

  • Port to listen for PostgreSQL connections, default is 5432 and can normally be used.

  • Locale for the database, keep [Default locale], if you change the locale, OpenNMS may not be able to initialize the database.

It is not required to install anything additional from the PostgreSQL Stack Builder.

Step 2: Install OpenNMS with GUI installer

For Microsoft Windows environments download the standalone-opennms-installer-{ONMS-VERSION}.zip file from the OpenNMS SourceForge repository. Extract the downloaded ZIP file.

The {ONMS-VERSION} has to be replaced with the latest stable version number.

Start the graphical installer and follow the on screen instructions. The following information has to be provided:

  • Path to Oracle JDK, e.g. C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_71

  • Installation path for OpenNMS, e.g. C:\Program Files\OpenNMS

  • Select packages which has to be installed, the minimum default selection is Core and Docs

  • PostgreSQL Database connection

    • Host: Server with PostgreSQL running, e.g. localhost

    • Name: Database name for OpenNMS, e.g. opennms

    • Port: TCP port connecting to PostgreSQL server, e.g. 5432

    • Username (administrative superuser): PostgreSQL superuser, e.g. postgres

    • Password (administrative superuser): Password given during PostgreSQL setup for the superuser

    • Username (runtime user for opennms): Username to connect to the OpenNMS database, e.g. opennms

    • Password (runtime user for opennms): Password to connect to the OpenNMS database, e.g. opennms

  • Configure a discovery range for an initial node discovery. If you don’t want any discovery set begin and end to the same unreachable address.

Choose secure passwords for all database users and don’t use the example passwords above in production.

Step 3: Configure PostgreSQL access for OpenNMS Horizon

Set credentials to access the PostgreSQL database
<jdbc-data-source name="opennms"
                    database-name="opennms"(1)
                    class-name="org.postgresql.Driver"
                    url="jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/opennms"
                    user-name="** YOUR-OPENNMS-USERNAME **"(2)
                    password="** YOUR-OPENNMS-PASSWORD **" />(3)

<jdbc-data-source name="opennms-admin"
                    database-name="template1"
                    class-name="org.postgresql.Driver"
                    url="jdbc:postgresql://localhost:5432/template1"
                    user-name="postgres"(4)
                    password="** YOUR-POSTGRES-PASSWORD **" />(5)
1 Set the database name OpenNMS Horizon should use
2 Set the user name to access the opennms database table
3 Set the password to access the opennms database table
4 Set the postgres user for administrative access to PostgreSQL
5 Set the password for administrative access to PostgreSQL

After setting the username and passwords in opennms-datasources.xml re-run the graphical installer and also initialize the database. OpenNMS can be started and stopped with the start.bat and stop.bat script located in %OPENNMS_HOME%\bin directory.

The Wiki article Configuring OpenNMS as Windows Service describes how to create a Windows Service from the start.bat files. There is also a Java Wrapper which allows to install Java applications as Windows Service.

Step 4: First Login and change default password

After starting OpenNMS the web application can be accessed on http://<ip-or-fqdn-of-your-server>:8980/opennms. The default login user is admin and the password is initialized to admin.

  1. Open in your browser http://<ip-or-fqdn-of-your-server>:8980/opennms

  2. Login with with admin/admin

  3. Click in main navigation menu on "admin → Change Password → Change Password"

  4. Set as current password admin and set a new password and confirm your newly set password

  5. Click "Submit"

  6. Logout and login with your new password

Next Steps

Additional information can be found in these follow up documents:

  • Getting Started Guide

    Learn the first steps to setup, configure, and maintain an OpenNMS Horizon.

  • Reference Guide

    Find in-depth information on the detecters, monitors, collectors, and configuration files used by the OpenNMS Horizon platform.

2. Monitor isolated location with Minion

This section describes how to install the Minion to monitor devices and services in a location which can’t be reached from an OpenNMS Horizon instance.

2.1. Objectives

  • Install a Minion to monitor devices and services unreachable from an OpenNMS Horizon instance

  • Configure an authenticated unencrypted communication between Minion and OpenNMS Horizon using ActiveMQ and REST

2.2. Before you begin

Setting up a OpenNMS Horizon with Minions requires:

  • Instance of OpenNMS Horizon needs to be exact same version as Minion packages

  • Packages are available as RPMs for RHEL-based systems and DEBs for Debian-based systems

  • OpenNMS Horizon needs to be installed and communication to the REST (8980/tcp) and ActiveMQ (616161/tcp) endpoints is possible

Depending on the installed operating system, the path for Minion is different. If the instruction refers to ${MINION_HOME}, the path is resolved to the following directories:

Table 4. Directory Structure

RHEL

/opt/minion

Debian

/usr/share/minion

2.3. Installing on RHEL

  1. Setup OpenNMS Horizon to allow Minion communication

  2. Installation of the opennms-minion meta package which handles all dependencies

  3. Starting Minion and access the Karaf console over SSH

  4. Configure Minion to communicate with OpenNMS Horizon

  5. Verify the connectivity between Minion and OpenNMS Horizon

All commands on the command line interface need to be executed with root permissions.

Step 1: Setup OpenNMS Horizon to allow Minion communication

Communication between a Minion and OpenNMS Horizon uses REST API and a messaging system, by default ActiveMQ. An authenticated user in OpenNMS Horizon is required for these communication channels. The security role ROLE_MINION includes the minimal amount of permissions required for a Minion to operate.

As an example we use in this guide the user name minion with password minion. Change the credentials accordingly.
Create a user minion in the OpenNMS Horizon web user interface

  1. Login the web user interface with a user which has administrative permissions

  2. Go in the main navigation to "Login Name → Configure OpenNMS → Configure Users, Groups and On-Call Roles → Configure Users"

  3. Add a new user with login name minion and password minion and click Ok

  4. Assign the security role ROLE_MINION, optional fill in a comment for what location and purpose the user is used for and click Finish

  5. The minion user should now be listed in the User List

Configure ActiveMQ to allow communication on public network interface
vi ${OPENNMS_HOME}/etc/opennms-activemq.xml
Remove comments for the transport connector listening on 0.0.0.0 and save
<transportConnector name="openwire" uri="tcp://0.0.0.0:61616?useJmx=false&amp;maximumConnections=1000&amp;wireformat.maxFrameSize=104857600"/>
Restart OpenNMS Horizon
systemctl restart opennms
Verify if port 61616/tcp is listening on all interfaces
ss -lnpt sport = :61616
State   Recv-Q  Send-Q  Local Address:Port  Peer  Address:Port
LISTEN  0       128     *:61616             *:*   users:(("java",pid=1,fd=706))

Step 2: Install the repository and Minion package

Connect with SSH to your remote RHEL system where you need a Minion to be installed.

Install the Yum repository
yum -y install https://yum.opennms.org/repofiles/opennms-repo-stable-rhel7.noarch.rpm
rpm --import https://yum.opennms.org/OPENNMS-GPG-KEY
Install the Minion package
yum -y install opennms-minion

The following packages will be automatically installed:

  • opennms-minion: The Minion meta package

  • opennms-minion-container: The Karaf OSGi container with Minion branding and additional management extensions

  • opennms-minion-features-core: Core utilities and services required by the Minion features

  • opennms-minion-features-default: Service-specific features

With the successful installed packages the Minion is installed in the following directory structure:

[root@localhost /opt/minion]# $ tree -L 1
.
├── bin
├── deploy
├── etc
├── lib
├── repositories
└── system

The Minion’s startup configuration can be changed by editing the /etc/sysconfig/minion file. It allows to override the defaults used at startup including:

  • Location of the JDK

  • Memory usage

  • User to run as

Step 3: Starting the Minion and test access to Karaf Shell

Configure systemd to start Minion on system boot
systemctl enable minion
Startup Minion
systemctl start minion
Test access to Karaf shell with user admin and password admin and exit with <ctrl-d>
ssh -p 8201 admin@localhost

Step 4: Configure Minion to communicate with OpenNMS Horizon

Login to the Karaf Shell on the system where your Minion is installed with SSH
ssh -p 8201 admin@localhost
Configure the Minion’s location and endpoint URLs for communication with OpenNMS Horizon
[root@localhost /root]# $ ssh -p 8201 admin@localhost
...
admin@minion()> config:edit org.opennms.minion.controller
admin@minion()> config:property-set location Office-Pittsboro
admin@minion()> config:property-set http-url http://opennms-fqdn:8980/opennms
admin@minion()> config:property-set broker-url failover:tcp://opennms-fqdn:61616
admin@minion()> config:update
Include the failover: portion of the broker URL to allow the Minion to re-establish connectivity on failure. For a reference on the different URL formats, see ActiveMQ URI Protocols.
Configure the credentials to use when communicating with OpenNMS Horizon
admin@minion()> scv:set opennms.http minion minion
admin@minion()> scv:set opennms.broker minion minion
Another way to configure credentials is to use the scvcli utility in your Minion bin directory.
Example of configuring credentials with the command line utility scvcli
[root@localhost /root]# $ cd /opt/minion
[root@localhost /opt/minion]# $ ./bin/scvcli set opennms.http minion minion
[root@localhost /opt/minion]# $ ./bin/scvcli set opennms.broker minion minion
Restart the Minion after updating the credentials
[root@localhost /root]# $ systemctl restart minion
The credentials are configured separately since they are encrypted on disk.

Step 5: Verifying Connectivity

Connect to Karaf Shell of the Minion
ssh -p 8201 admin@localhost
Verify connectivity with the OpenNMS Horizon
admin@minion()> minion:ping
Connecting to ReST...
OK
Connecting to Broker...
OK
admin@minion()>

2.4. Installing on Debian

  1. Setup OpenNMS Horizon to allow Minion communication

  2. Installation of the opennms-minion meta package which handles all dependencies

  3. Starting Minion and access the Karaf console over SSH

  4. Configure Minion to communicate with OpenNMS Horizon

  5. Verify the connectivity between Minion and OpenNMS Horizon

All commands on the command line interface need to be executed with root permissions.

Step 1: Setup OpenNMS Horizon to allow Minion communication

Communication between a Minion and OpenNMS Horizon uses REST API and a messaging system, by default ActiveMQ. An authenticated user in OpenNMS Horizon is required for these communication channels. The security role ROLE_MINION includes the minimal amount of permissions required for a Minion to operate.

As an example we use in this guide the user name minion with password minion. Change the credentials accordingly.
Create a user minion in the OpenNMS Horizon web user interface

  1. Login the web user interface with a user which has administrative permissions

  2. Go in the main navigation to "Login Name → Configure OpenNMS → Configure Users, Groups and On-Call Roles → Configure Users"

  3. Add a new user with login name minion and password minion and click Ok

  4. Assign the security role ROLE_MINION, optional fill in a comment for what location and purpose the user is used for and click Finish

  5. The minion user should now be listed in the User List

Configure ActiveMQ to allow communication on public network interface
vi ${OPENNMS_HOME}/etc/opennms-activemq.xml
Remove comments for the transport connector listening on 0.0.0.0 and save
<transportConnector name="openwire" uri="tcp://0.0.0.0:61616?useJmx=false&amp;maximumConnections=1000&amp;wireformat.maxFrameSize=104857600"/>
Restart OpenNMS Horizon
systemctl restart opennms
Verify if port 61616/tcp is listening on all interfaces
ss -lnpt sport = :61616
State   Recv-Q  Send-Q  Local Address:Port  Peer  Address:Port
LISTEN  0       128     *:61616             *:*   users:(("java",pid=1,fd=706))

Step 2: Install the repository and Minion package

Add apt repository in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opennms.list and add GPG key
echo 'deb https://debian.opennms.org stable main \
      deb-src https://debian.opennms.org stable main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opennms.list
wget -O - https://debian.opennms.org/OPENNMS-GPG-KEY | apt-key add -
apt update
Install the Minion package
apt -y install opennms-minion

The following packages will be automatically installed:

  • opennms-minion: The Minion meta package

  • opennms-minion-container: The Karaf OSGi container with Minion branding and additional management extensions

  • opennms-minion-features-core: Core utilities and services required by the Minion features

  • opennms-minion-features-default: Service-specific features

The Minion packages setup the following directory structure:

[root@localhost /usr/share/minion]# $ tree -L 1
.
├── bin
├── deploy
├── etc
├── lib
├── repositories
└── system

Additionally, symbolic links are set up pointing to /etc/minion and /var/log/minion to match Debian’s expected filesystem layout.

The Minion’s startup configuration can be changed by editing the /etc/default/minion file. It allows to override the defaults used at startup including:

  • Location of the JDK

  • Memory usage

  • User to run as

Step 3: Starting the Minion and test access to Karaf Shell

Configure systemd to start Minion on system boot
systemctl enable minion
Startup Minion
systemctl start minion
Test access to Karaf shell with user admin and password admin and exit with <ctrl-d>
ssh -p 8201 admin@localhost

Step 4: Configure Minion to communicate with OpenNMS Horizon

Login to the Karaf Shell on the system where your Minion is installed with SSH
ssh -p 8201 admin@localhost
Configure the Minion’s location and endpoint URLs for communication with OpenNMS Horizon
[root@localhost /root]# $ ssh -p 8201 admin@localhost
...
admin@minion()> config:edit org.opennms.minion.controller
admin@minion()> config:property-set location Office-Pittsboro
admin@minion()> config:property-set http-url http://opennms-fqdn:8980/opennms
admin@minion()> config:property-set broker-url failover:tcp://opennms-fqdn:61616
admin@minion()> config:update
Include the failover: portion of the broker URL to allow the Minion to re-establish connectivity on failure. For a reference on the different URL formats, see ActiveMQ URI Protocols.
Configure the credentials to use when communicating with OpenNMS Horizon
admin@minion()> scv:set opennms.http minion minion
admin@minion()> scv:set opennms.broker minion minion
Another way to configure credentials is to use the scvcli utility in your Minion bin directory.
Example of configuring credentials with the command line utility scvcli
[root@localhost /root]# $ cd /opt/minion
[root@localhost /opt/minion]# $ ./bin/scvcli set opennms.http minion minion
[root@localhost /opt/minion]# $ ./bin/scvcli set opennms.broker minion minion
Restart the Minion after updating the credentials
[root@localhost /root]# $ systemctl restart minion
The credentials are configured separately since they are encrypted on disk.

Step 5: Verifying Connectivity

Connect to Karaf Shell of the Minion
ssh -p 8201 admin@localhost
Verify connectivity with the OpenNMS Horizon
admin@minion()> minion:ping
Connecting to ReST...
OK
Connecting to Broker...
OK
admin@minion()>

3. Sentinel

This section describes how to install the Sentinel to scale individual components of OpenNMS Horizon.

At the moment only flows can be distributed using Sentinel. In the future more components will follow.

3.1. Before you begin

Setting up a OpenNMS Horizon with Sentinel requires:

  • Instance of OpenNMS Horizon needs to be exact same version as Sentinel packages

  • Packages are available as RPMs for RHEL-based systems and DEBs for Debian-based systems

  • OpenNMS Horizon needs to be installed and communication to the REST (8980/tcp) and ActiveMQ (616161/tcp) endpoints is possible

  • At least one Minion needs to be installed and successful communicate with the OpenNMS Horizon

Depending on the installed operating system, the path for Sentinel is different. If the instruction refers to ${SENTINEL_HOME}, the path is resolved to the following directories:

Table 5. Directory Structure

RHEL

/opt/sentinel

Debian

/usr/share/sentinel

3.2. Installing on RHEL

  1. Setup OpenNMS Horizon to allow Sentinel communication

  2. Installation of the opennms-sentinel meta package which handles all dependencies

  3. Starting Sentinel and access the Karaf console over SSH

  4. Configure Sentinel to communicate with OpenNMS Horizon

  5. Verify the connectivity between Sentinel and OpenNMS Horizon

All commands on the command line interface need to be executed with root permissions.

Step 1: Setup OpenNMS Horizon to allow Sentinel communication

This step is exactly the same as for Minion. Even the role name ROLE_MINION can be used, as there does not exist a dedicated role ROLE_SENTINEL yet.

Therefore, please refer to section Setup OpenNMS Horizon to allow Minion communication.

Even if we have to configure the communication to the OpenNMS Horizon exactly the same as for Minion no ReST requests are made and may be removed at a later state.

Step 2: Install the repository and Sentinel package

Connect with SSH to your remote RHEL system where the Sentinel should be installed.

Install the Yum repository
yum install -y https://yum.opennms.org/repofiles/opennms-repo-stable-rhel7.noarch.rpm
rpm --import https://yum.opennms.org/OPENNMS-GPG-KEY
Install the Sentinel package
yum -y install opennms-sentinel

With the successful installed packages the Sentinel is installed in the following directory structure:

[root@localhost /opt/sentinel]# $ tree -L 1
.
|-- bin
|-- COPYING
|-- data
|-- deploy
|-- etc
|-- lib
`-- system

The Sentinel’s startup configuration can be changed by editing the /etc/sysconfig/sentinel file. It allows to override the defaults used at startup including:

  • Location of the JDK

  • Memory usage

  • User to run as

Step 3: Starting the Sentinel and test access to Karaf Shell

Configure systemd to start Sentinel on system boot
systemctl enable sentinel
Startup Sentinel
systemctl start sentinel
Test access to Karaf shell with user admin and password admin and exit with <ctrl-d>
ssh -p 8301 admin@localhost

Step 4: Configure Sentinel to communicate with OpenNMS Horizon

Login to the Karaf Shell on the system where your Sentinel is installed with SSH
ssh -p 8301 admin@localhost
Configure the Sentinel’s location and endpoint URLs for communication with OpenNMS Horizon
[root@localhost /root]# $ ssh -p 8201 admin@localhost
...
admin@sentinel()> config:edit org.opennms.sentinel.controller
admin@sentinel()> config:property-set location Office-Pittsboro
admin@sentinel()> config:property-set http-url http://opennms-fqdn:8980/opennms
admin@sentinel()> config:property-set broker-url failover:tcp://opennms-fqdn:61616
admin@sentinel()> config:update
Include the failover: portion of the broker URL to allow the Sentinel to re-establish connectivity on failure. For a reference on the different URL formats, see ActiveMQ URI Protocols.
Even if the id, location and http-url must be set the same ways as for Minion, this may change in future versions of Sentinel.
Configure the credentials to use when communicating with OpenNMS Horizon
admin@sentinel()> scv:set opennms.http minion minion
admin@sentinel()> scv:set opennms.broker minion minion

Username and password is explicitly set to minion as it is assumed that they share the same credentials and roles.

Another way to configure credentials is to use the scvcli utility in your Sentinel bin directory.
Example of configuring credentials with the command line utility scvcli
[root@localhost /root]# $ cd /opt/sentinel
[root@localhost /opt/sentinel]# $ ./bin/scvcli set opennms.http minion minion
[root@localhost /opt/sentinel]# $ ./bin/scvcli set opennms.broker minion minion
Restart the Sentinel after updating the credentials
[root@localhost /root]# $ systemctl restart sentinel
The credentials are configured separately since they are encrypted on disk.

Step 5: Verifying Connectivity

Connect to Karaf Shell of the Sentinel
ssh -p 8301 admin@localhost
Verify connectivity with the OpenNMS Horizon
admin@sentinel()> feature:install sentinel-core
admin@sentinel> health:check
Verifying the health of the container

Verifying installed bundles      [ Success  ]
Connecting to OpenNMS ReST API   [ Success  ]

=> Everything is awesome
admin@sentinel()>
The health:check command is a newer and more flexibel version of the original minion:ping command. Therefore on Sentinel there is no equivalent such as sentinel:ping.

3.3. Installing on Debian

  1. Setup OpenNMS Horizon to allow Sentinel communication

  2. Installation of the opennms-sentinel meta package which handles all dependencies

  3. Starting Sentinel and access the Karaf console over SSH

  4. Configure Sentinel to communicate with OpenNMS Horizon

  5. Verify the connectivity between Sentinel and OpenNMS Horizon

All commands on the command line interface need to be executed with root permissions.

Step 1: Setup OpenNMS Horizon to allow Sentinel communication

This step is exactly the same as for Minion. Even the role name ROLE_MINION can be used, as there does not exist a dedicated role ROLE_SENTINEL yet.

Therefore, please refer to section Setup OpenNMS Horizon to allow Minion communication.

Even if we have to configure the communication to the OpenNMS Horizon exactly the same as for Minion no ReST requests are made and may be removed at a later state.

Step 2: Install the repository and Sentinel package

Add apt repository in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opennms.list and add GPG key
echo 'deb https://debian.opennms.org stable main \
      deb-src https://debian.opennms.org branches/features-sentinel main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opennms.list
wget -O - https://debian.opennms.org/OPENNMS-GPG-KEY | apt-key add -
apt update
Install the Sentinel package
apt -y install opennms-sentinel

The Sentinel packages setup the following directory structure:

[root@localhost /usr/share/sentinel]# $ tree -L 1
.
|-- bin
|-- COPYING
|-- data
|-- debian
|-- deploy
|-- etc
|-- lib
`-- system

Additionally, symbolic links are set up pointing to /etc/sentinel and /var/log/sentinel to match Debian’s expected filesystem layout.

The Minion’s startup configuration can be changed by editing the /etc/default/sentinel file. It allows to override the defaults used at startup including:

  • Location of the JDK

  • Memory usage

  • User to run as

Step 3: Starting the Sentinel and test access to Karaf Shell

Configure systemd to start Sentinel on system boot
systemctl enable sentinel
Startup Sentinel
systemctl start sentinel
Test access to Karaf shell with user admin and password admin and exit with <ctrl-d>
ssh -p 8301 admin@localhost

Step 4: Configure Sentinel to communicate with OpenNMS Horizon

Login to the Karaf Shell on the system where your Sentinel is installed with SSH
ssh -p 8301 admin@localhost
Configure the Sentinel’s location and endpoint URLs for communication with OpenNMS Horizon
[root@localhost /root]# $ ssh -p 8201 admin@localhost
...
admin@sentinel()> config:edit org.opennms.sentinel.controller
admin@sentinel()> config:property-set location Office-Pittsboro
admin@sentinel()> config:property-set http-url http://opennms-fqdn:8980/opennms
admin@sentinel()> config:property-set broker-url failover:tcp://opennms-fqdn:61616
admin@sentinel()> config:update
Include the failover: portion of the broker URL to allow the Sentinel to re-establish connectivity on failure. For a reference on the different URL formats, see ActiveMQ URI Protocols.
Even if the id, location and http-url must be set the same ways as for Minion, this may change in future versions of Sentinel.
Configure the credentials to use when communicating with OpenNMS Horizon
admin@sentinel()> scv:set opennms.http minion minion
admin@sentinel()> scv:set opennms.broker minion minion

Username and password is explicitly set to minion as it is assumed that they share the same credentials and roles.

Another way to configure credentials is to use the scvcli utility in your Sentinel bin directory.
Example of configuring credentials with the command line utility scvcli
[root@localhost /root]# $ cd /opt/sentinel
[root@localhost /usr/share/sentinel]# $ ./bin/scvcli set opennms.http minion minion
[root@localhost /usr/share/sentinel]# $ ./bin/scvcli set opennms.broker minion minion
Restart the Sentinel after updating the credentials
[root@localhost /root]# $ systemctl restart sentinel
The credentials are configured separately since they are encrypted on disk.

Step 5: Verifying Connectivity

Connect to Karaf Shell of the Sentinel
ssh -p 8301 admin@localhost
Verify connectivity with the OpenNMS Horizon
admin@sentinel()> feature:install sentinel-core
admin@sentinel> health:check
Verifying the health of the container

Verifying installed bundles      [ Success  ]
Connecting to OpenNMS ReST API   [ Success  ]

=> Everything is awesome
admin@sentinel()>
The health:check command is a newer and more flexibel version of the original minion:ping command. Therefore on Sentinel there is no equivalent such as sentinel:ping.

4. Install other versions than stable

Installation packages are available for different releases of OpenNMS Horizon or Minion. You will need to choose which release you would like to run and then configure your package repository to point to that release. Configuring a package repository will enable you to install and update the software by using standard Linux software update tools like yum and apt.

The following package repositories are available:

Table 6. OpenNMS package repositories
Release Description

stable

Latest stable release. This version is recommended for all users.

testing

Release candidate for the next stable release.

snapshot

Latest successful development build, the "nightly" build.

branches/${BRANCH-NAME}

Install from a specific branch name for testing a specific feature that is under development. Available branches can be found in https://yum.opennms.org/branches/ or https://debian.opennms.org/dists/branches/.

To install a different release the repository files have to be installed and manually modified.

In Debian systems modify the repository file in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/opennms.list.

deb https://debian.opennms.org snapshot main(1)
deb-src https://debian.opennms.org snapshot main(1)
EOF
wget -O - https://debian.opennms.org/OPENNMS-GPG-KEY | apt-key add -
apt update
1 Change from stable to snapshot

On RHEL systems you can install a snapshot repository with:

yum -y install https://yum.opennms.org/repofiles/opennms-repo-snapshot-rhel7.noarch.rpm
For branches use repofiles/opennms-repo-branches-${branch-name}-rhel7.noarch.rpm.

The installation procedure is the same as with the stable version.

5. Setup Minion with a config file

Beside manually configuring a Minion instance via the Karaf CLI it is possibleto modify and deploy its configuration file through configuration management tools. The configuration file is located in ${MINION_HOME}/etc/org.opennms.minion.controller.cfg. All configurations set in Karaf CLI will be persisted in this configuration file which can also be populated through configuration management tools.

Configuration file for Minion
id = 00000000-0000-0000-0000-deadbeef0001
location = MINION
broker-url = tcp://myopennms.example.org:61616
http-url = http://myopennms.example.org:8980/opennms

The Minion needs to be restarted when this configuration file is changed.

In case the credentials needs to be set through the CLI with configuration management tools or scripts, the ${MINION_HOME}/bin/client command can be used which allows to execute Karaf commands through the Linux shell.

6. Running in non-root environments

This section provides information running OpenNMS Horizon and Minions processes in non-root environments. Running with a system user have restricted possibilites. This section describes how to configure your Linux system related to:

  • sending ICMP packages as an unprivileged user

  • receiving Syslog on ports < 1023, e.g. 514/udp

  • receiving SNMP Trap on ports < 1023,e.g. 162/udp

6.1. Send ICMP as non-root

By default, Linux does not allow regular users to perform ping operations from arbitrary programs (including Java). To enable the Minion or OpenNMS Horizon to ping properly, you must set a sysctl option.

Enable User Ping (Running System)d
# run this command as root to allow ping by any user (does not survive reboots)
sysctl net.ipv4.ping_group_range='0 429496729'

If you wish to restrict the range further, use the GID for the user the Minion or OpenNMS Horizon will run as, rather than 429496729.

To enable this permanently, create a file in /etc/sysctl.d/ to set the range:

/etc/sysctl.d/99-zzz-non-root-icmp.conf
# we start this filename with "99-zzz-" to make sure it's last, after anything else that might have set it
net.ipv4.ping_group_range=0 429496729

6.2. Trap reception as non-root

If you wish your Minion or OpenNMS Horizon to listen to SNMP Traps, you will need to configure your firewall to port forward from the privileged trap port (162) to the Minion’s default trap listener on port 1162.

Forward 162 to 1162 with Firewalld
# enable masquerade to allow port-forwards
firewall-cmd --add-masquerade
# forward port 162 TCP and UDP to port 1162 on localhost
firewall-cmd --add-forward-port=port=162:proto=udp:toport=1162:toaddr=127.0.0.1
firewall-cmd --add-forward-port=port=162:proto=tcp:toport=1162:toaddr=127.0.0.1

6.3. Syslog reception as non-root

If you wish your Minion or OpenNMS Horizon to listen to syslog messages, you will need to configure your firewall to port forward from the privileged Syslog port (514) to the Minion’s default syslog listener on port 1514.

Forward 514 to 1514 with Firewalld
# enable masquerade to allow port-forwards
firewall-cmd --add-masquerade
# forward port 514 TCP and UDP to port 1514 on localhost
firewall-cmd --add-forward-port=port=514:proto=udp:toport=1514:toaddr=127.0.0.1
firewall-cmd --add-forward-port=port=514:proto=tcp:toport=1514:toaddr=127.0.0.1

7. Use R for statistical computing

R is a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. OpenNMS Horizon can leverage the power of R for forecasting and advanced calculations on collected time series data.

OpenNMS Horizon interfaces with R via stdin and stdout, and for this reason, R must be installed on the same host as OpenNMS Horizon. Note that installing R is optional, and not required by any of the core components.

The R integration is not currently supported on Microsoft Windows systems.

7.1. Install R on RHEL

Install the EPEL repositories
yum install epel-release
Install R
yum install R

7.2. Install R on Debian

Install R
apt -y install r-recommended

8. Using a different Time Series Storage

OpenNMS Horizon stores performance data in a time series storage which is by default JRobin. For different scenarios it is useful to switch to a different time series storage. The following implementations are supported:

Table 7. Supported Time Series Databasees

JRobin

JRobin is a clone of RRDTool written in Java, it does not fully cover the latest feature set of RRDTool and is the default when you install OpenNMS Horizon. Data is stored on the local file system of the OpenNMS Horizon node. Depending on I/O capabilities it works good for small to medium sized installations.

RRDTool

RRDTool is active maintained and the de-facto standard dealing with time series data. Data is stored on the local file system of the OpenNMS Horizon node. Depending on I/O capabilities it works good for small to medium sized installations.

Newts

Newts is a database schema for Cassandra. The time series is stored on a dedicated Cassandra cluster which gives growth flexibility and allows to persist time series data in a large scale.

This section describes how to configure OpenNMS Horizon to use RRDTool and Newts.

The way how data is stored in the different time series databases makes it extremely hard to migrate from one technology to another. Data loss can’t be prevented when you switch from one to another.

8.1. RRDtool

In most Open Source applications, RRDtool is often used and is the de-facto open standard for Time Series Data. The basic installation of OpenNMS Horizon comes with JRobin but it is simple to switch the system to use RRDtool to persist Time Series Data. This section describes how to install RRDtool, the jrrd2 OpenNMS Java Interface and how to configure OpenNMS Horizon to use it.

8.1.1. Install RRDTool on RHEL

Following this guide does not cover data migration from JRobin to RRDTool.
To install jrrd2 enable the OpenNMS YUM repository ensure the repositories are enabled. You can enable them with yum-config-manager --enable opennms-repo-stable-common,opennms-repo-stable-rhel7.
A more current version of RRDTool is in the OpenNMS YUM repository. The provided versions can be shown with yum info rrdtool. This guide uses the RRDTool provided in the OpenNMS repository. When using the CentOS provided RRDTool package verify the path to the rrdtool binary file.

Step 1: Install RRDTool and the jrrd2 interface

Installation on RHEL
yum -y install rrdtool jrrd2

Step 2: Configure OpenNMS Horizon to use RRDTool

cat << EOF | sudo tee /opt/opennms/etc/opennms.properties.d/timeseries.properties
org.opennms.rrd.strategyClass=org.opennms.netmgt.rrd.rrdtool.MultithreadedJniRrdStrategy
org.opennms.rrd.interfaceJar=/usr/share/java/jrrd2.jar
opennms.library.jrrd2=/usr/lib64/libjrrd2.so
org.opennms.web.graphs.engine=rrdtool # optional, unset if you want to keep Backshift as default
EOF
The visualization with the graph engine is optional. You can still use the default graphing engine backshift by not setting the org.opennms.web.graphs.engine property and use the system default.

Step 3: Restart OpenNMS Horizon and verify setup

find /opt/opennms/share/rrd -iname "*.rrd"

With the first data collection, RRDTool files with extension .rrd will be created. The JRobin files with extension .jrb are not used anymore and are not deleted automatically.

8.1.2. Reference

The following configuration files have references to the RRDTool binary and may be changed if you have a customized RRDTool setup.

Table 8. References to the RRDtool binary
Configuration file Property

opennms.properties

rrd.binary=/usr/bin/rrdtool

response-adhoc-graph.properties

command.prefix=/usr/bin/rrdtool

response-graph.properties

command.prefix=/usr/bin/rrdtool
info.command=/usr/bin/rrdtool

snmp-adhoc-graph.properties

command.prefix=/usr/bin/rrdtool

snmp-graph.properties

command.prefix=/usr/bin/rrdtool
command=/usr/bin/rrdtool info

8.1.3. Install RRDTool on Debian

Following this guide does not cover data migration from JRobin to RRDTool.
A more current version of RRDTool is in the OpenNMS YUM repository. The provided versions can be shown with apt show rrdtool. This guide uses the RRDTool provided in the OpenNMS repository. When using the Debian/Ubuntu provided RRDTool package verify the path to the rrdtool binary file.

Step 1: Install RRDTool and the jrrd2 interface

Installation on RHEL
apt -y install rrdtool jrrd2

Step 2: Configure OpenNMS Horizon to use RRDTool

cat << EOF | sudo tee /usr/share/opennms/etc/opennms.properties.d/timeseries.properties
org.opennms.rrd.strategyClass=org.opennms.netmgt.rrd.rrdtool.MultithreadedJniRrdStrategy
org.opennms.rrd.interfaceJar=/usr/share/java/jrrd2.jar
opennms.library.jrrd2=/usr/lib/jni/libjrrd2.so
org.opennms.web.graphs.engine=rrdtool # optional, unset if you want to keep Backshift as default
EOF
The visualization with the graph engine is optional. You can still use the default graphing engine backshift by not setting the org.opennms.web.graphs.engine property and use the system default.

Step 3: Restart OpenNMS Horizon and verify setup

find /usr/share/opennms/share/rrd -iname "*.rrd"

With the first data collection, RRDTool files with extension .rrd will be created. The JRobin files with extension .jrb are not used anymore and are not deleted automatically.

8.1.4. Reference

The following configuration files have references to the RRDTool binary and may be changed if you have a customized RRDTool setup.

Table 9. References to the RRDtool binary
Configuration file Property

opennms.properties

rrd.binary=/usr/bin/rrdtool

response-adhoc-graph.properties

command.prefix=/usr/bin/rrdtool

response-graph.properties

command.prefix=/usr/bin/rrdtool
info.command=/usr/bin/rrdtool

snmp-adhoc-graph.properties

command.prefix=/usr/bin/rrdtool

snmp-graph.properties

command.prefix=/usr/bin/rrdtool
command=/usr/bin/rrdtool info

8.2. Newts

Newts is a time-series data store based on Apache Cassandra. Newts is a persistence strategy, that can be used as an alternative to JRobin or RRDtool.

It is currently not supported to initialize the Newts keyspace from Microsoft Windows Server operating system. Microsoft Windows based Cassandra server can be part of the cluster, but keyspace initialization is only possible using a _Linux-_based system.

8.2.1. Setting up Cassandra

Cassandra is only required when using Newts. If your OpenNMS Horizon system is not using Newts, you can skip this section.

It is recommended to install Cassandra on a dedicated server, but is also possible to run a node on the OpenNMS Horizon server itself. This installation guide describes how to set up a single Cassandra instance on the same system as OpenNMS Horizon for the purpose of evaluating and testing Newts. These steps are not suitable for a production Cassandra Cluster. If you already have a running cluster you can skip this section.

For further information see Cassandra Getting Started Guide. Before setting up a production cluster make sure to consult Anti-patterns in Cassandra.

RHEL

This section describes how to install the latest Cassandra 3.0.x release on a RHEL based systems for Newts. The first step is to add the DataStax community repository and install the required GPG Key to verify the integrity of the RPM packages. After that install the package with yum and the Cassandra service is managed by Systemd.

This description was built on CentOS 7.2.
Cassandra 3.x requires Java 8+.
Add the DataStax repository
vi /etc/yum.repos.d/datastax.repo
Content of the datastax.repo file
[datastax]
name = "DataStax Repo for Apache Cassandra"
baseurl = https://rpm.datastax.com/community
enabled = 1
gpgcheck = 1
Install GPG key to verify RPM packages
rpm --import https://rpm.datastax.com/rpm/repo_key
Install latest Cassandra 3.0.x package
yum install dsc30
Enable Cassandra to start on system boot
chkconfig cassandra on
Start cassandra service
service cassandra start
Verify whether the Cassandra service is automatically started after rebooting the server.
Debian

This section describes how to install the latest Cassandra 3.0.x release on a Debian-based system for Newts. The first step is to add the DataStax community repository and install the required GPG Key to verify the integrity of the DEB packages. After that install the packages with apt and the Cassandra service is added to the runlevel configuration.

This description was built on Debian 8.3 and Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.
Cassandra 3.x requires Java 8+.
Add the DataStax repository
vi /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cassandra.sources.list
Content of the cassandra.sources.list file
deb https://debian.datastax.com/community stable main
Install GPG key to verify DEB packages
wget -O - https://debian.datastax.com/debian/repo_key | apt-key add -
Install latest Cassandra 3.0.x package
apt-get update
apt-get install dsc30

The Cassandra service is added to the runlevel configuration and is automatically started after installing the package.

Verify whether the Cassandra service is automatically started after rebooting the server.
Microsoft Windows

This section describes how to install the latest Cassandra 3.0.x release on a Microsoft Windows Server based systems for Newts. The first step is to download the graphical installer and register Cassandra as a Windows Service so it can be manged through the Service Manager.

This description was built on Windows Server 2012.
Cassandra 3.x requires Java 8+.
Download the DataStax graphical installer for Cassandra from PowerShell or a Browser
cd C:\Users\Administrator\Downloads
Invoke-WebRequest https://downloads.datastax.com/community/datastax-community-64bit_3.0.6.msi -Outfile datastax-community-64bit_3.0.6.msi

Run the Windows Installer file from PowerShell or through Windows Explorer and follow the setup wizard to install. During the installation, accept the options to automatically start the services. By default the DataStax Server, OpsCenter Server and the OpsCenter Agent will be automatically installed and started.

The DataStax OpsCenter Server is only required to be installed once per Cassandra Cluster.
If you install the DataStax OpsCenter make sure you have Chrome or Firefox installed.

8.2.2. Configure OpenNMS Horizon

Once Cassandra is installed, OpenNMS Horizon can be configured to use Newts.

cat << EOF | sudo tee /opt/opennms/etc/opennms.properties.d/timeseries.properties
# Configure storage strategy
org.opennms.rrd.storeByForeignSource=true
org.opennms.timeseries.strategy=newts

# Configure Newts time series storage connection
org.opennms.newts.config.hostname=$ipaddress$
org.opennms.newts.config.keyspace=newts
org.opennms.newts.config.port=9042
EOF
The org.opennms.newts.config.hostname property also accepts a comma separated list of hostnames and or IP addresses.

Once Newts has been enabled, you can initialize the Newts schema in Cassandra with the following:

Initialize Newts keyspace in Cassandra
${OPENNMS_HOME}/bin/newts init

Optionally, you can now connect to your Cassandra cluster and verify that the keyspace has been properly initialized:

Verify if the keyspace is initialized with cqlsh
cqlsh
use newts;
describe table terms;
describe table samples;

Restart OpenNMS Horizon to apply the changes.