Geneos containers

Overview Copied

Gateways or Netprobes are available as Docker images to run as containers.

This is especially useful for deploying Geneos in orchestrated environments. For information about running Gateway in Kubernetes, see the Deploying Gateway into Kubernetes GitHub page.

Intended audience Copied

Users of Geneos containers should be familiar with configuring Docker containers and managing orchestrated environments.

You must ensure that containers are started with access to all ports required for the Gateway or Netprobe features you want to use. Additionally, you may need to mount directories on the host system to provide configuration files.

Please consult the official Docker or Kubernetes documentation if you require more information about managing containers.

Prerequisites Copied

To run the Geneos containers, you must have either of the following installed:

In addition, you must ensure all Geneos components have network access to each other. When using multiple containers together this may require configuring a network bridge.

Install Copied

To run Geneos containers, you must download the container image from the ITRS Docker registry.

To access the ITRS Docker registry, run:

docker login docker.itrsgroup.com

This prompts you to provide login details, these are the same as the credentials you have been provided to access the ITRS website.

If you do not have login credentials, you can request these from the ITRS Registration page.

Available versions Copied

The container images for Gateway and Netprobe are available beginning Geneos 5.4.x and newer released versions. The image names use the format <product>:<version>. You can pull the most recent version by using <product>:latest. For example:

Customize containers Copied

By default, the Geneos containers are packaged with the minimum base image and do not include Perl and Python, which are required to run action and command scripts triggered by Gateway or Netprobe.

The following steps demonstrate how to customize the Geneos Gateway container to include Perl:

  1. Access the ITRS Docker registry:

    docker login docker.itrsgroup.com

  2. Pull the Gateway or the Netprobe image:

    docker pull docker.itrsgroup.com/gateway

  3. Create a Docker file:

    FROM docker.itrsgroup.com/gateway:latest
USER root
RUN \
   microdnf -y update && \
   microdnf -y install perl

  4. Build the Docker file to create the custom image:

    docker build -t gateway:6.2-custom .

  5. Test the Docker image:

    docker run -d --rm --name my_gateway -p 7039:7039 gateway:6.2-custom

Configure Copied

You can mount directories on the host machine to provide configuration files for Geneos containers. You must ensure any directories you want to mount exist before starting containers.

Gateway configuration Copied

Gateway is configured at startup by reading a gateway.gci file. By default, the Gateway container will use an example configuration stored at /gateway/config/gateway.gci in the container. The gateway.gci file sets the location the Gateway looks for setup files and data. By default, these are /gateway/persist/setup and /gateway/persist/data respectively.

Note the following special conditions when configuring Gateway in Docker:

For more information about Gateways, see Gateway Introduction and Gateway Installation Guide.

Alternative configuration and setup files Copied

You can mount directories on the host machine to provide alternative configuration or setup files. This is a standard Docker feature.

For example, to start the Gateway container with an alternate setup directory run:

docker run -d --rm --name itrs_gw -v $(pwd)/setup:/gateway/persist/setup -p 7038:7038 docker.itrsgroup.com/gateway:<version>

You can also provide an alternative gateway.gci configuration file by setting the GATEWAY_CONFIG environment variable in the container with the contents of the alternate gateway.gci file.

For example, to start the Gateway with a gateway.gci configuration file as follows:

-resources-dir /opt/gateway/resources -demo -setup /gateway/persist/setup/gateway.setup.xml -gateway-hub https://hub.itrsgroup.com:8081

Set GATEWAY_CONFIG when running the container:

docker run -d --rm --name itrs_gw -e GATEWAY_CONFIG="-resources-dir /opt/gateway/resources -demo -setup /gateway/persist/setup/gateway.setup.xml -gateway-hub https://hub.itrsgroup.com:8081" -p 7038:7038 docker.itrsgroup.com/gateway:<version>

Netprobe configuration Copied

Netprobes are configured at startup by reading a netprobe.gci file. By default, the Netprobe container will use an example configuration stored at /netprobe/config/netprobe.gci in the container. The netprobe.gci file sets the location the Netprobe looks for setup files, by default this is /netprobe/persist/setup.

Note the following special conditions when configuring a Netprobe in Docker:

For more information about Netprobes, see Netprobe Overview and Netprobe setup.

Alternative configuration and setup files Copied

You can mount directories on the host machine to provide alternative configuration or setup files. This is a standard Docker feature.

For example, to start the Netprobe container with alternate configuration and setup directories run:

docker run -d --rm --name itrs_np -v $(pwd)/netprobe.gci:/netprobe/{*}config{*}/netprobe.gci -v $(pwd)/setup.xml:/netprobe/setup.xml -p 7036:7036 docker.itrsgroup.com/netprobe:<version>

You can also provide an alternative netprobe.gci configuration file by setting the NETPROBE_CONFIG environment variable in the container with the contents of the alternate netprobe.gci file.

For example, to start the Netprobe with a netprobe.gci configuration file as follows:

-ssl-certificate /gateway/tls/security.pem -secure

Set NETPROBE_CONFIG when running the container:

docker run -d --rm --name itrs_np -e NETPROBE_CONFIG="-ssl-certificate /gateway/tls/security.pem -secure" -p 7036:7036 docker.itrsgroup.com/netprobe:<version>

Centrally configured Gateways Copied

You can start a Gateway container using a setup files provided by Gateway Hub central configuration. For more information about centralised configuration, see Centralised Gateways.

You must specify the Gateway Hub you wish to connect to in your gateway.gci file. An example file is provided below:

# Gateway2 Config File
-resources-dir /opt/gateway/resources
-gateway-name "Demo Gateway"
-gateway-hub https://<hub_hostname>:8081
-demo

To start a Gateway container using the a gateway.gci file on the host machine, run:

docker run --name itrs_gw --rm -v $(pwd)/gateway.gci:/gateway/config/gateway.gci -p 7039:7039 docker.itrsgroup.com/gateway:<version>

This will start the Gateway and attempt to fetch setup files from the specified Gateway Hub. If no setup files exist, a blank configuration will be created and added to the central store.

If your Gateway or Gateway Hub is using custom ports, ensure these are accessible by the host machine and the Gateway container.

Publish to Gateway Hub Copied

You can publish metrics data from a Gateway container to Gateway Hub.

The Gateway must trust certificates provided by Gateway Hub. You will need to add the ca.crt file of the certificate authority that signs Gateway ub certificates to Gateway’s trusted list. For a default installation of Gateway Hub this file is located at /opt/hub/<hub_version>/tls/ca.crt.

To start a Gateway container using a ca.crt file on the host machine, run:

docker run --name itrs_gw --rm -v $(pwd)/ca.crt:/gateway/tls/ca.crt -p 7039:7039 docker.itrsgroup.com/gateway:<version>

To start publishing metrics to Gateway Hub you must configure this in the Gateway setup. You can do this using the Gateway Setup Editor following the instructions in Gateway Hub Quickstart.

Alternatively, you can add the following XML to your setup file:

<gatewayHub>
    <enabled>true</enabled>
    <publishingAddress>hub_hostname:9092</publishingAddress>
    <additionalSettings>kafka.security.protocol=ssl
 kafka.ssl.ca.location=/gateway/tls/ca.crt</additionalSettings>
</gatewayHub>
["Geneos"] ["Geneos > Netprobe"] ["User Guide"]

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