PowerConnect Cloud Installation

Overview

The PowerConnect Cloud software can be installed as a standalone agent or as a Splunk Modular Input running on an on-premises Splunk Heavy Forwarder or Splunk Cloud:

• Standalone - the PowerConnect agent runs as a standalone piece of software. This requires a host (two for HA) running on-premises or in a cloud provider as infrastructure as a service.

• Splunk Cloud - the PowerConnect agent runs as a modular input inside Splunk Cloud. It is installed via the Splunk Cloud UI and requires no additional infrastructure

• Splunk on-premises - the PowerConnect agent runs as a modular input inside a Splunk Heavy Forwarder. It can leverage an existing Splunk HF assuming it has sufficient head room or can be installed on a dedicated instance

Deployment Options

Standalone Installation

Hardware Requirements

• x86 64-bit chip architecture

• 4 CPU cores at 2GHz or greater

• 6GB RAM

• 1GB storage

• A 1Gb Ethernet NIC

• A 64-bit Linux distribution

Software Requirements

• A modern 64 bit Linux distribution

• Java 11 (OpenJDK or Oracle)

• A modern browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc.)

Network Requirements

• HTTP inbound on port 3000 to connect to the PowerConnect Cloud Web UI

• HTTPS outbound on port 443 to connect to SAP Cloud

• HTTP or HTTPS outbound on port 8088 to connect to the Splunk HTTP Event Collector (Splunk on premises or Splunk Cloud)

• TCP 5701 between PowerConnect Cloud agent nodes if running as a cluster

Pre-Installation Steps

• Create a directory on the target server where the PowerConnect Cloud software will be installed

sudo mkdir /opt/powerconnect

• Create a group for the powerconnect user

sudo groupadd powerconnect

• Create a user on the target server that will own and run the PowerConnect Cloud software

sudo useradd -m -g powerconnect -d /opt/powerconnect powerconnect

• Set the default shell to bash for the powerconnect user

sudo usermod --shell /bin/bash powerconnect

• Make sure the PowerConnect user has full ownership of the PowerConnect directory

sudo chown -R powerconnect:powerconnect /opt/powerconnect

Installation Steps

• Download the PowerConnect Cloud package tarball file

• Copy the tarball file to the target server where PowerConnect Cloud will run

scp powerconnect-cloud-1.0.0.tgz <target-server>:/tmp

• Login to the target server as the PowerConnect user

• Unpack the package to the PowerConnect folder

tar -zxvf powerconnect-cloud-1.0.0.tgz -C /opt/powerconnect

• Switch to the PowerConnect folder

cd /opt/powerconnect

• Make sure PowerConnect Cloud start script is executable

chmod +x bin/powerconnect.sh

• Set the POWERCONNECT_SECRET environment variable. This is used by the keystore where client ids and secrets are stored.

export POWERCONNECT_SECRET=<secret>

Make a note of this secret as it’s required each time the PowerConnect Cloud Agent is started

• Start PowerConnect Cloud

bin/powerconnect.sh start

• Browse to http://<powerconnect-server>:3000 to access the PowerConnect Cloud web UI
  

Splunk Cloud Installation

Installation Steps

• Login to your Splunk Cloud environment as a user with administrator privileges

• On the menu on the left click Find More Apps
  

  

• In the Search box under Browse More Apps enter “PowerConnect” and press Enter
  

  

• In the results go to SAP PowerConnect Cloud for Splunk and click Install
  

  

• Enter your Splunkbase credentials, accept the terms and conditions and click Login and Install
  

  

• Once the installation has completed click Done
  

  

• Return to the Launcher by clicking on the Splunk Cloud icon in the top left and you should see the PowerConnect Cloud app has been installed
  

  

• Click on the PowerConnect Cloud for Splunk app to open its Home page then click the Configuration tab and enter your license key

  

• Click Apply License

• The PowerConnect Cloud Modular Input is now ready for Inputs to be configured

Splunk On-Premises Installation

Installation Steps

• Login to the Splunk Web UI of the Splunk Heavy Forwarder as an admin user

• In the Launcher app click the Manage Apps icon on the side menu
  

  

• Click the Install app from file button at the top right of the screen

  

• Click the Choose file button and select the PowerConnect Cloud modular input tarball, then click Upload

  

• If a restart is required click the Restart Now button and click OK to confirm

  

• After restarting the PowerConnect Cloud app should be visible in the Launcher app

  

• Click on the PowerConnect Cloud for Splunk app to open its Home page then click the Configuration tab and enter your license key

  

• Click Apply License

• The PowerConnect Cloud Modular Input is now ready for Inputs to be configured

  
  

SAP Cloud Foundry Installation

Installation Steps

• Download the PowerConnect Cloud SAP Cloud Foundry package and manifest file

• Make sure you have the Cloud Foundry command line tools installed

• Copy the PowerConnect Cloud package and manifest file to a folder for deployment

• Modify the manfiest file and enter a password for the POWERCONNECT_SECRET environment variable
  

  CODE

  ---
  applications:
  
  - name: powerconnect-cloud
    memory: 1024M
    timeout: 300
    random-route: true
    path: ./powerconnect-cloud.zip
    buildpacks:
      - https://github.com/cloudfoundry/java-buildpack.git
    env:
      POWERCONNECT_SECRET: <insert password here>
      JBP_CONFIG_OPEN_JDK_JRE: "jre: { version: 11.+ }"
      JBP_CONFIG_DIST_ZIP: "arguments: ['start']"

• If required update the memory settings, by default the manifest will create a 1GB instance

• Deploy the package

  CODE

  cf push

• After a minute or two the process should finish and the PowerConnect Cloud agent should be in “started” state
  

  

• The Cloud Foundry environment does not have persistent storage so we need to use the SAP Object Storage service for the PowerConnect Cloud agent to be able to persist its configuration

• Follow the documentation here to create an object store service and bind it to the PowerConnect Cloud app - https://help.sap.com/doc/3e17a6e11f3e46f4af9f33387471e3e0/Cloud/en-US/ObjectStore-EN.pdf

• Once the Object Store service has been bound to the PowerConnect Cloud app restage the app

  CODE

  cf restage powerconnect-cloud

• The PowerConnect Cloud application should now be running and leveraging object storage as it’s datastore

  CODE

  cf env

• Get the url that the PowerConnect Cloud agent UI is running on

  CODE

  cf apps

• Copy the value under routes and paste into your web browser and the PowerConnect Cloud UI should be displayed