RHEL / Rocky Linux with TSDB built from source

Follow this installation guide if you cannot install the TimescaleDB extension from binary packages because they are not available for your OS version or you do not have access to the TimescaleDB repository.

Do NOT install TimescaleDB extension from EPEL repository.
This version is missing some key features required by XorMon.

Supported OS versions:
  • RHEL 8, 9
  • Rocky Linux 8, 9
Overview of XorMon requirements:
  • Node.js 24.x
  • PostgreSQL 16 or 17
  • Python 3.11+
  • TimescaleDB Community Edition (latest)
Prerequisites
  • HW sizing
  • supported Linux OS
  • access to internet repositories
  • 5 GB of free space in the "/home" filesystem for the application
  • enough free space in the "/var" filesystem for the data (see Sizing)
Host OS installation procedure
  • Disable SELinux (as root)

    • one-liner
      sed -i 's/^SELINUX=.*/SELINUX=disabled/g' /etc/selinux/config
    • edit manually
      vi /etc/selinux/config
      SELINUX=disabled

    Reboot
    reboot

  • Create xormon user (as root)
    adduser xormon
passwd xormon
  • Increase user system limits (as root)
    vi /etc/security/limits.conf
    Append following lines before the end of the file
    xormon          hard    stack           -1
xormon          soft    stack           -1
xormon          hard    data            -1
xormon          soft    data            -1
xormon          hard    nofile          32768
xormon          soft    nofile          32768
xormon          hard    nproc           64000
xormon          soft    nproc           64000
  • Install required packages (as root)

    • Enable CodeReady Builder (RHEL) or PowerTools (Rocky Linux) repository

      RHEL 8.x
      subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-8-x86_64-rpms
      RHEL 9.x
      subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-x86_64-rpms
      Rocky Linux 8.x
      dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools
      Rocky Linux 9.x
      dnf config-manager --enable crb
    • Install packages
      dnf install perl ed libxml2 epel-release gnupg net-tools sblim-wbemcli libaio wget curl strace 
dnf install perl-TimeDate perl-XML-Simple perl-XML-SAX perl-XML-LibXML perl-Env perl-CGI perl-Data-Dumper
dnf install perl-LWP-Protocol-https perl-libwww-perl perl-Time-HiRes perl-IO-Tty openldap-clients perl-Time-Piece 
dnf install perl-JSON perl-JSON-PP perl-JSON-XS net-snmp-perl net-snmp-utils
dnf install libjpeg-devel zlib-devel libpng-devel libjpeg-turbo-devel libjpeg-turbo-utils
dnf install perl-DBI perl-DBD-ODBC unixODBC unixODBC-devel freetds perl-DBD-Pg
      • RHEL / Rocky Linux 8.x only
        dnf install perl-Net-INET6Glue
      • RHEL / Rocky Linux 9.x only
        dnf install perl-FindBin
    • Python

      Required only for prediction graphs
      You can run XorMon without it if you have trouble downloading necessary Python modules 
      dnf install python3-virtualenv python3-pip libpq-devel python3-devel gcc-c++ gcc

  • Install Java 11

    Required only by Hitachi Export Tool for Hitachi VSP monitoring.
    Skip if you don't need to monitor Hitachi VSP storage systems. 
    dnf install java-11-openjdk-headless
  • Install Node.js (as root)

    • Installation from repository
      dnf module enable nodejs:24
dnf install nodejs
npm update -g npm
node -v
    • Manual installation
      You can download and install Node.js from prebuil binaries if you cannot access the repository directly.
      https://nodejs.org/dist/latest-v24.x/
      # download archive
cd /tmp
wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v24.13.0/node-v24.13.0-linux-x64.tar.xz

# extract archive to /usr/local
cd /usr/local
tar xf /tmp/node-v24.13.0-linux-x64.tar.xz --strip-components=1

# check node version
node -v

# remove archive
rm /tmp/node-v24.13.0-linux-x64.tar.xz
    Allow the node binary to use privileged ports (< 1024) so that XorMon can run on the standard HTTPS port (443).
    Otherwise, XorMon will run on port 8443.
    setcap 'cap_net_bind_service=+ep' `which node`
  • Install PostreSQL 16 (as root)

    • Enable PostgreSQL 16 module
      dnf module enable postgresql:16
dnf module switch-to postgresql:16
    • Remove 'libpq-devel'
      dnf remove libpq-devel
    • Install PostgreSQL 16
      dnf install postgresql postgresql-contrib postgresql-server postgresql-server-devel
  • Build TimescaleDB extension from source (as root)

    • Install prerequisite packages
      dnf install git cmake gcc
    • Clone TimescaleDB source code
      cd ~
git clone https://github.com/timescale/timescaledb
cd timescaledb/
git checkout 2.23.1
    • Build and install TimescaleDB
      cd ~/timescaledb/
./bootstrap
cd ./build && make
make install
  • Initialize and configure PostgreSQL

    • Initialize DB
      postgresql-setup initdb
systemctl enable --now postgresql
systemctl stop postgresql
    • TimescaleDB Tune

      It is recommended to run 'timescaledb-tune' during the initial setup.
      However, the installation requires downloading additional packages from the Internet.
      Skip this step, if you do not have access to Internet repositories.

      Install timescaledb-tune using Go. 
      dnf install golang
go install github.com/timescale/timescaledb-tune/cmd/timescaledb-tune@latest
      Run timescaledb-tune
      /root/go/bin/timescaledb-tune -yes -pg-config /usr/bin/pg_config -conf-path /var/lib/pgsql/data/
    • Configure
      sed -i "s/^#shared_preload_libraries =.*/shared_preload_libraries = 'timescaledb'/g" /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf
sed -i 's/ident$/scram-sha-256/g' /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf
sed -i 's/#synchronous_commit = on/synchronous_commit = off/' /var/lib/pgsql/data/postgresql.conf
    • Start PostgreSQL
      systemctl start postgresql
    • Set password for user postgres 
      sudo -u postgres psql

postgres=# \password postgres
postgres=# ALTER USER postgres VALID UNTIL 'infinity';
postgres=# \q
      Make note of the password. It will be needed later during XorMon installation.

  • Configure firewall (optional, as root)

    Required ports

    XorMon UI
    port 8443 or the standard HTTPS port 443
    depending on whether you have enabled binding low numbered ports for Node.js.

    OS Agent
    port 8162

    Configure ports
    firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=8443/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=https --permanent
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=8162/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload
firewall-cmd --list-port

  • Follow XorMon application install