[sles-beta] Supportconfig Analysis Tools with SLE12

[Jason Record]

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Quick Setup Guide for SLES/SLED 12 Supportconfig Analysis (SCA) Tools

The SCA Tools analyze supportconfig archives for known issues and then create an SCA Report with the analysis results. Novell Technical Support has been using the SCA Appliance internally for years to reduce service request resolution times. Every inbound supportconfig is analyzed with the SCA Appliance, and the SCA Report is attached to the service request for engineers to evaluate. The SCA Tools are now available with SLES/SLED 12.

There are two tools; the data center solution and a command line tool. Both tools analyze supportconfig files and create an HTML report with the result. They both use the same patterns. They both have the ability to save the supportconfig archives they analyze if the archive mode is enabled. The patterns are modular, allowing the SCA Tools to analyze SLE10, SLE11, SLE12, OES, HAE and other products for which patterns have been written. You can write your own custom patterns in any programming language you like. Supportconfig analysis is done off the production server. Only a supportconfig is run on the server.

So, what's the difference between the two tools?

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- SCA Appliance 
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This is the data center solution requiring a Web and LAMP stack to store all the analysis results. It runs as a server-side tool and does not require any user interaction. Simply upload supportconfigs to it, and they get analyzed. View the SCA Reports through a web interface. It is meant to be scalable for analyzing a lot of supportconfigs on a regular basis. Available on SLES media only.

Prerequisites:
1. Web and LAMP Pattern
2. Web and Scripting Module (You must register the server at install time to select this module)

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Install Using Anonymous FTP (Non-interactive, good for cron jobs)
# zypper install sca-appliance-* sca-patterns-* vsftpd
# systemctl enable apache2.service
# systemctl start apache2.service
# systemctl enable vsftpd.service
# systemctl start vsftpd.service
# yast ftp-server (Select Authentication, Enable Upload, Anonymous Can Upload, Finish, Yes to Create /srv/ftp/upload)
# chkconfig mysql on
# rcmysql start
# mysql_secure_installation (Creates a MariaDB root password)
# setup-sca -f

Usage
Upload any supportconfig to the SCA Appliance Server via anonymous FTP. All supportconfigs will be analyzed and stored in the database. Open the http://<your_sca_appliance_ip>/sca/ URL to view the SCA Reports. The Web interface password is set using the setup-sca tool.

Examples:
  supportconfig -U "ftp://<your_sca_appliance_ip>/upload/"
  supportconfig -U "scp://<your_sca_appliance_ip>/srv/ftp/upload/"
  ftp -u "<your_sca_appliance_ip>:/upload/nts_<supportconig_file>.tbz" /path/to/local/nts_<supportconfig_file>.tbz
  scp /path/to/local/nts_<supportconifg_file>.tbz <your_sca_appliance_ip>:/srv/ftp/upload

You could include 'supportconfig -QU "ftp://<your_sca_appliance_ip>/upload/"' in cron jobs on servers to be analyzed on a regular basis.

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Install Using SCP /tmp (Requires supportconfig interaction when typing the SSH password)
# zypper install sca-appliance-* sca-patterns-*
# systemctl enable apache2.service
# systemctl start apache2.service
# chkconfig mysql on
# rcmysql start
# mysql_secure_installation
# setup-sca

Usage
Upload any supportconfig to the /tmp directory on the SCA Appliance Server. All supportconfigs will be analyzed and stored in the database. Open the http://<your_sca_appliance_ip>/sca/ URL to view the SCA Reports. The password is set using the setup-sca tool.

Examples:
  supportconfig -U "scp://<your_sca_appliance_ip>/tmp"
  scp /path/to/local/nts_<supportconifg_file>.tbz <your_sca_appliance_ip>:/tmp


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- SCA Command Line Tool
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This is an end-user, command line tool that does not require a web server or database. It just uses the patterns to analyze a server and generates an HTML report file. It requires user interaction. It is meant to be on your laptop so you can analyze any server you may need to quickly check out. The analysis is done on your server; only the supportconfig runs on the production server. You don't have to wait to start using the SCA Tool. You can download it off of OBS. I have included some instructions below. The SCA Tool is nice when you don't want to have a VM on your laptop just to analyze a server here and there. Available on SLES and SLED media.

Install
# zypper install sca-server-report sca-patterns-*

Examples:

# scatool -s
Runs supportconfig on the local host and analyzes its output. It saves the HTML report file to the same location at the supportconfig with the same name, but ending in .html.

# scatool -a /var/log/nts_localhost_131107_1315.tbz
Analyzes the supportconfig archive file specified. The path can be a tarred compressed supportconfig archive or a suportconfig extracted directory, either will work. The HTML report file is saved in the save location as the supportconfig archive or directory.

# scatool -sk -o /opt/sca/reports/
Runs supportconfig on the local host. It saves the HTML report file in the output path specified instead of the default path of the supportconfig tarball. Keeps the supportconfig tar ball for future reference.

# scatool -a sles_server.company.com
Establishes an ssh connection to sles_server.company.com to run a supportconfig on the server. The supportconfig is then copied back to the local host to be analyzed. The HTML report file is saved to the default /var/log directory.

See scatool(8) and scatool.conf(5)