Install Rudder Root server on SLES

Table of Contents

Configure the package manager
Add the Rudder packages repository
Install your Rudder Root Server

Configure the package manager

Rudder requires three packages that are not always packaged by SuSE on all versions:

  • PostgreSQL 9
  • Java RE (version 7 at least).

PostgreSQL 9 can be installed through the OpenSuSE build service: https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/server:database:postgresql or through the system repositories, on post-SP1 systems.

The Java RE 7 can be found either using the OpenSuSE build service, or through Oracle's website: http://www.java.com

Also, Rudder server requires the git software, that can be found on SLES SDK DVD under the name git-core.

[Warning]Warning

SLES 11 will try to install PostgreSQL 8.3 by default, which is not supported by Rudder and will cause various glitches in the web interface, as well as reporting failures.

It is really mandatory to either add the OpenSuSE build service repository, or install postgresql91-server (if available) beforehand to prevent the system from choosing the default PostgreSQL implementation.

[Warning]Warning

You may encounter a segmentation fault in Zypper in the following cases:

  • On SLES 11 when trying to install Rudder rpm files locally with Zypper (for example with zypper install rudder-agent-version.release-1.SLES.11.x86_64.rpm)
  • On SLES 12 GA when installing Rudder packages, locally or from the repository

This is due to a bug (bnc#929483 on SuSE bugtracker) in Zypper’s RPM headers parsing. You can either:

  • Only for SLES 11, install the packages directly from the repository, as described below
  • Upgrade your libzypp package to a version including the fix provided by SuSE (upgrade for SLES11SP3 and for SLES12)
  • Use the rpm command to install packages locally (for example with rpm -i rudder-agent-version.release-1.SLES.11.x86_64.rpm)
[Warning]Warning

Zypper seems to be quite tolerant to missing dependencies and will let you install rudder-server-root even if you are missing something like git-core for example, if nothing provides it or you did not install it beforehand.

Special care should be taken during initial installation not to say "Continue anyway" if Zypper does complain a dependency can not be resolved and asks what to do.

Add the Rudder packages repository

Each package that is published by Rudder Project is signed with our GPG signature. To ensure the packages you will install are official builds and have not been altered, import our key into rpm using the following command:

rpm --import https://www.rudder-project.org/rpm-repos/rudder_rpm_key.pub

Our key fingerprint is:

pub  1024R/6F07D355 2012-11-09 Rudder Project (RPM release key) <security@rudder-project.org>
      Key fingerprint = 1141 A947 CDA0 4E83 82C1  B9C4 ADAB 3BD3 6F07 D355

Then run the following commands as root:

zypper ar -n "Rudder SLES repository" http://www.rudder-project.org/rpm-3.1/SLES_11/ Rudder
zypper refresh

This will add the Rudder package repository, then update the local package cache.

Install your Rudder Root Server

To begin the installation, you should simply install the rudder-server-root metapackage, which will install the required components:

zypper in rudder-server-root
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