Moving existing Elasticsearch and Kibana installation from CentOS 7 to CentOS Stream 9

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install Elasticsearch and Kibana

Despite having only two additional installed software under CentOS 7 it is not a good idea to just try upgrading only CentOS 7 to CentOS Stream 9. There is no clear and supported path for upgrading from CentOS 7 to CentOS Stream 9 and even to the older one CentOS 8 (or CentOS Stream 8). The best way is to just make a clean install of CentOS Stream 9 and copy all the Elasticsearch and Kibana files and this article is how to do it without problems.
Here is the plan to move the existing installation of Elasticsearch and Kibana services from CentOS 7 to CentOS Stream 9:

  1. Make a clean install of CentOS Stream 9
  2. Update the current Elasticsearch and Kibana installations to their last versions (from their branch or minor versions).
  3. Add Elasticsearch and Kibana repositories to the new system. Tune the system crypto policies.
  4. Install Elasticsearch and Kibana software packages, but do not start the services.
  5. Copy Elasticsearch and Kibana important files such as the index directory and the configuration directories. Check the user and group IDs of the files.
  6. Start the Elasticsearch and Kibana services.

In this example, the installation of the new server is just starting a new LXC container, which will host the Elasticsearch and Kibana services. There is no difference between using a container or a physical machine. With LXC container it is easier to copy the needed files such as the Elasticsearch index files, which may be tens of terabytes or more, and various configuration files.

STEP 1) Make a clean install of CentOS Stream 9

Check out the following article on the purpose – Network installation of CentOS Stream 9 (20220606.0) – minimal server installation or if LXC container is preferred – Run LXC CentOS Stream 9 container with bridged network under CentOS Stream 9.

Creating a LXC container of CentOS Stream 9 is really simple and fast:

[root@srv ~]# lxc-create --template download -n kibana.u1x2.com -- --dist centos --release 9-Stream --arch amd64
The cached copy has expired, re-downloading...
Downloading the image index
Downloading the rootfs
Downloading the metadata
The image cache is now ready
Unpacking the rootfs

---
You just created a Centos 9-Stream x86_64 (20230511_19:27) container.

Then tune the network following the above article. It is a good idea when configuring the network to preserve the original UUIDs and network addresses (MAC address, too) of the LXC containers network and the inner container’s interface.
So copy the UUID from /var/lib/lxc/loganalyzer-old/rootfs/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0 to the CentOS Stream 9 network configuration – /var/lib/lxc/loganalyzer/rootfs/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections/ethernet-eth0.nmconnection, which uses NetworkManager. And the LXC container’s MAC address: the variable lxc.net.0.hwaddr from /var/lib/lxc/loganalyzer/config to /var/lib/lxc/loganalyzer/config.
The last step is to run the newly installed system. No errors in the output signals for a successful start-up of the LXC container with the name loganalyzer.

[root@srv ~]# lxc-start -n loganalyzer
[root@srv ~]# 

STEP 2) Upgrade the current Elasticsearch and Kibana installations to their last versions (from their branch or minor versions).

For example, if the current Elasticsearch is version 7. It is good to upgrade it to the latest version from 7.x before proceeding with the next steps.
The current installed versions of Elasticsearch and Kibana software are from the branch 77.17.4-1 and the latest version is 7.17.10-1.
Check in the old system with (CentOS 7):

[root@loganalyzer-old ~]# yum list installed|egrep -e "(elasticsearch|kibana)"
elasticsearch.x86_64               7.17.4-1                               @elasticsearch
kibana.x86_64                      7.17.4-1                               @elasticsearch

Keep on reading!

Install Fedora 37 Xfce Desktop

This article will show the simple steps of installing a modern Linux DistributionFedora 37 Xfce Desktop with Xfce for the graphical user interface – one of the alternatives, which tries to break the domination of GNOME and partly KDE Plasma. First, it is offered the basic steps for installing the Operating system and then there are some screenshots of the installed system and its look and feel. Here is another article available with more screenshots of the installed and working Fedora 37 Xfce DesktopReview of freshly installed Fedora 37 Xfce Desktop.
Xfce offers a fast, easy and lightweight graphical environment for Linux systems and Fedora teams bring it out-of-the-box with their spins projects – Fedora Xfce Spin
This is the simplest setup. One hard disk device in the system is installed, which is detected as sda and the entire disk will be used for the installation of Fedora 37 Xfce Desktop. All disk information in sda disk device will be permanently deleted by the installation wizard!

The Fedora 36 Xfce Desktop comes with:

  • linux kernel – 6.0.7
  • Xorg X11 server – 1.20.14 and Xorg X11 server XWayland 22.1.5 is used by default
  • Xfce: 4.16, which is the latest stable as of the official Xfce site.

For more packages and versions information the user may check out the Fedora 37 server articles – Software and technical details of Fedora Server 37 including cockpit screenshots.

We used the following ISO for the installation process:
https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/37/Spins/x86_64/iso/Fedora-Xfce-Live-x86_64-37-1.7.iso
The ISO may be burnt on a disk or written on a USB stick. Just boot up from it.

SCREENSHOT 1) Boot from the UEFI DVD-ROM device.

It is the same as the USB bootable removable drive. Choose the UEFI USB drive and boot the installation live drive.

main menu
UEFI BIOS DVD-ROM boot

Keep on reading!

Install Fedora 37 KDE Plasma Desktop (KDE GUI)

This article will show the simple steps of installing a modern Linux Distribution like Fedora 37 KDE Plasma with KDE for the user graphical interface. First, it is offered the basic steps for installing the Operating system and then there are some screenshots of the installed system and its look and feel of it. Here is another article available with more screenshots of the installed and working Fedora 37 KDE PlasmaReview of freshly installed Fedora 37 KDE Plasma Desktop (KDE GUI). If the user is interested in Gnome as a graphical interface there are two articles on how to install Fedora 37 Workstation Edition, which comes with GNOME and the look and feel of the GNOME – Install Fedora Workstation 37 (Gnome GUI) and Review of freshly installed Fedora 37 Workstation (Gnome GUI)
This is the simplest setup. One hard disk device in the system is installed, which is detected as sda and the entire disk will be used for the installation of Fedora 37 KDE Plasma. All disk information in sda disk device will be permanently deleted by the installation wizard!

The Fedora 37 KDE Plasma Desktop comes with

  • Xorg X server – 22.1.5 XWayland is used by default
  • linux kernel – 6.0.7
  • KDE Plasma version: 5.24.3
  • KDE Frameworks version: 5.99.0
  • QT version: 5.15.6

For more packages and versions information the user may check out the Fedora 37 server articles – Software and technical details of Fedora Server 37 including cockpit screenshots though it is for GNOME installation.

We used the following ISO for the installation process:

https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/37/Spins/x86_64/iso/Fedora-KDE-Live-x86_64-37-1.7.iso

It is a LIVE image so you can try it before installing it. The easiest way is just to download the image and burn it to a DVD disk and then follow the installation below:

SCREENSHOT 1) Boot from the UEFI DVD-ROM device.

It is the same as the USB bootable removable drive. Choose the UEFI USB drive and boot the installation live drive.

main menu
UEFI BIOS DVD-ROM boot

Keep on reading!

Install Fedora Workstation 37 (Gnome GUI)

This article will show the simple steps of installing a modern Linux Distribution like Fedora 37 Workstation Edition with Gnome for the graphical user interface. First, it is offered the basic steps for installing the Operating system and then there are some screenshots of the installed system and its look and feel. Soon another article will show more screenshots of the installed and working Fedora 37 (Gnome and KDE plasma) – so the user may decide which of them to try first.
This is the most straightforward setup. One hard disk device in the system is installed, which is detected as sda and the entire disk will be used for the installation of Fedora Workstation 37. All disk information in sda disk device will be permanently deleted by the installation wizard!

The Fedora 37 Workstation comes with

  • Xorg X11 server – 1.20.14 and Xorg X11 server XWayland 22.1.5 is used by default
  • GNOME (the GUI) – 43.0
  • linux kernel – 6.0.7

Check out our article about what software is included in Review of freshly installed Fedora 37 Workstation (Gnome GUI).

There are previous installations howto articles for the older Fedora 36Review of freshly installed Fedora 36 Workstation (Gnome GUI), Install Fedora Workstation 31 (Gnome GUI), Install Fedora Workstation 30 (Gnome GUI).

The following ISO is used for the installation process: https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/37/Workstation/x86_64/iso/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-37-1.7.iso
It is a LIVE image so you can try it before installing. The easiest way is just to download the image and burn it to a DVD disk (or make a bootable USB flash drive) and then follow the installation below:

SCREENSHOT 1) Boot from the UEFI DVD-ROM device.

It is the same with the USB bootable removable drive. Choose the UEFI USB drive and boot the installation live drive.

main menu
UEFI BIOS DVD-ROM boot

Keep on reading!

Review of freshly installed CentOS Stream 9 Workstation (Gnome GUI)

After the tutorial of Install CentOS Stream 9 Workstation (Gnome GUI) this tutorial is mainly to see what to expect from a freshly installed CentOS Stream 9 Workstation installation – the look and feel of the GUI (Gnome – version 40).

  • Xorg X server – 1.20.11
  • GNOME (the GUI) – 40.4.0
  • linux kernel – 5.14.0

More technical details are available for the server installation, which is not different from the workstation but the GUI (Gnome) installed – Software and technical details of CentOS Stream 9 minimal install. The later article may be of interest to developers, too. The CentOS Stream 9 Workstation install may install all of the listed software for CentOS Stream 9 Server.
The idea of this tutorial is just to see what to expect from CentOS Stream 9 Workstation (Gnome)the look and feel of the GUI, the default installed programs and their look and how to do some basic steps with them. Here the reader finds more than 125 screenshots and not so many text the main idea is not to distract the user with much text and version information and 3 meaningless screenshot, which the reader cannot see anything for the user interface, but these days the user interface is the primary goal of a Desktop system. More reviews of the kind will follow in the future …

CentOS is a pretty stable Linux Distribution System, which follows the paid Red Hat enterprise RHEL 9. And if the user really just wants a stable OS with a GUI for the next let’s say 5-10 years with support and fast security updates the CentOS Stream 9 might be perfect for it! Developing on this platform should be easy, too, because it supports all kind of virtualization and despite it may not include the bleeding edge libraries and software, it is easy enough to install latest software in a full or para virtualization or a container!

For all installation and review articles real workstations are used, not virtual environments!

SCREENSHOT 1) Fedora Linux (5.14.0-119.el9.x86_64) 9

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grub 2.06 entry boot

Keep on reading!

Install CentOS Stream 9 Workstation (Gnome GUI)

This is the latest CentOS version with a graphical interface Gnome for a workstation. If you are a developer or just a Linux user, which want to have a pretty stable Operating System, the CentOS Stream 9 may be an option for you. CentOS Stream 9 is based and follows the RedHat Enterprise Linux 9 – paid Linux for the enterprise world, which is available for free thanks to the Open-source Software. CentOS Stream 9 will receive all the updates from the paid Linux system RHEL 9 and the support will be 10 years from now. 5 years of full support and 5 more years of security updates. The use of CentOS Stream 9 assures the user to have a stable and secure Linux operating system, which will not bring fundamental changes and breaks things periodically as of a more enthusiastic Linux Distributions. More information for the system here – Software and technical details of CentOS Stream 9 minimal install and Software comparison Ubuntu server 22.04 LTS vs CentOS Stream 9 head-to-head
The CentOS Stream 9 has a generic installation wizard for multiple type of installations – server, server with gui, user workstation and so on. This article is to show what options to enable to install a user workstation with CentOS Stream 9 with a graphical interface – Gnome. Most of the people think CentOS as a server Linux Distribution, but in fact, it is ideal for a workstation, too, especially with the grade of stability and security these days.
This article uses network installation with the following media: http://mirror.stream.centos.org/9-stream/BaseOS/x86_64/iso/CentOS-Stream-9-latest-x86_64-boot.iso which always points to the latest release of the CentOS Stream 9. The network installation will choose automatically the best mirror to download the packages for the system. There is an option to use an off-line installation with an 8G ISO disk. Check out for more ISOs here – http://mirror.stream.centos.org/9-stream/BaseOS/x86_64/iso/

SCREENSHOT 1) Boot from the UEFI DVD-ROM device.

It is the same with the USB bootable removable drive. Choose the UEFI USB drive and boot the installation live drive.

main menu
UEFI BIOS DVD-ROM boot

Keep on reading!

Install Fedora 36 Xfce Desktop

This article will show the simple steps of installing a modern Linux Distribution like Fedora 36 Xfce Desktop with Xfce for the user graphical interface – one of the alternatives, which tries to break the domination of Gnome and partly KDE Plasma. First, it is offered the basic steps for installing the Operating system and then there are some screenshots of the installed system and the look and feel of it. Here is another article available with more screenshots of the installed and working Fedora 36 Xfce DesktopReview of freshly installed Fedora 36 Xcfe Desktop.
Xfce offers fast, easy and lightweight graphical environment for Linux systems and Fedora teams brings it out-of-the-box with their spins projects – Fedora Xfce Spin
This is the simplest set up. One hard disk device in the system is installed, which is detected as sda and the entire disk will be used for the installation of Fedora 36 Xfce Desktop. All disk information in sda disk device will be permanently deleted by the installation wizard!

The Fedora 36 Xfce Desktop comes with:

  • Xorg X server – 1.20.14 XWayland is used by default
  • linux kernel – 5.17.5
  • Xfce: 4.16, which is the latest stable as of the official Xfce site.

For more packages versions information check out the Fedora 36 server articles – Software and technical details of Fedora Server 36 including cockpit screenshots and Software comparison Ubuntu server 22.04 LTS vs Fedora 36 server edition – head-to-head.

We used the following ISO for the installation process:
https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/36/Spins/x86_64/iso/Fedora-Xfce-Live-x86_64-36-1.5.iso
It is a LIVE image so you can try it before installing it. The easiest way is just to download the image and burn it to a DVD disk or USB stick and then follow the installation below:

SCREENSHOT 1) Boot from the UEFI DVD-ROM device.

It is the same with the USB bootable removable drive. Choose the UEFI USB drive and boot the installation live drive.

main menu
UEFI BIOS DVD-ROM boot

Keep on reading!

Network installation of CentOS Stream 9 (20220606.0) – minimal server installation

Minimal net install is useful when a dedicated server is installed from a IPMI KVM or Dell iDRAC, HP iLO, IBM IMM or where the initial client side download of files need to be minimal.
CentOS Stream 9 is receives the updates before Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and there is no versioning except the major release, which is 9. So the CentOS Stream 9 receives the updates for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 9. On monthly or less basis CentOS community releases a stable ISO with a temporary time version like this one CentOS Stream 9 (20220606.0).

Continuously delivered distro that tracks just ahead of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) development

Here are some useful URLs:

For amd64 the net of CentOS Stream 9 install bootable media is located here (now the current latest release is 20220606.0, but you may check the last release. for the time you follow this howto):

http://mirror.stream.centos.org/9-stream/BaseOS/x86_64/iso/CentOS-Stream-9-latest-x86_64-boot.iso

Note there is no minimal CD for offline installation. Boot CD is to just boot and make “network installation” installation and there is a big fat DVD of 8.1 Gbytes to install offline.

Software details of CentOS Stream 9 minimal install could be found here – coming soon. Technical details of a default CentOS Stream 9 (20220606.0) minimal installation
There is a previous major release installation article – How to do a network installation of CentOS 8 (8.0.1950) – minimal server installation

Download it and put it on a CD or USB, the boot from it and follow the steps bellow:

SCREENSHOT 1) If you booted from the DVD you would get this first screen – select “Install CentOS Stream 9” and hit Enter

main menu
Start installation

Keep on reading!

Install Fedora Workstation 36 (Gnome GUI)

This article will show the simple steps of installing a modern Linux Distribution like Fedora 36 Workstation Edition with Gnome for the user graphical interface. First, it is offered the basic steps for installing the Operating system and then there are some screenshots of the installed system and the look and feel of it. It is coming soon another article showing more screenshots of the installed and working Fedora 36 (Gnome and KDE plasma) – so the user may decide which of them to try first.
This is the simplest set up. One hard disk device in the system is installed, which is detected as sda and the entire disk will be used for the installation of Fedora Workstation 36. All disk information in sda disk device will be permanently deleted by the installation wizard!

The Fedora 32 Workstation comes with

  • Xorg X server – 1.20.14 XWayland (22.1.2) is used by default
  • GNOME (the GUI) – 42.0
  • linux kernel – 5.17.5

Check out our article about what software is included in [coming soon].

There are previous installations howto articles for the older Fedora 31Install Fedora Workstation 31 (Gnome GUI) and Install Fedora Workstation 30 (Gnome GUI).

The following ISO is used for the installation process: https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/36/Workstation/x86_64/iso/Fedora-Workstation-Live-x86_64-36-1.5.iso
It is a LIVE image so you can try it before installing. The easiest way is just to download the image and burn it to a DVD disk (or make a bootable USB flash drive) and then follow the installation below:

SCREENSHOT 1) Boot from the UEFI DVD-ROM device.

It is the same with the USB bootable removable drive. Choose the UEFI USB drive and boot the installation live drive.

main menu
UEFI BIOS DVD-ROM boot

Keep on reading!

Install and use collectd-ping under CentOS 8 to monitor latency

Tracking the network latency of the servers’ network is not an easy job. Most monitoring software is capable to monitor the state of the server, but how to monitor the state of the connectivity and the network latency and even the Internet connectivity with some respectful addresses like 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8? It should be easy to do it with ICMP and ping command but using the collectd daemon and one of its plugins offers collectd-ping from https://collectd.org/wiki/index.php/Plugin:Ping to save all the history in a time series back-end and using grafanahttps://grafana.com/ (or other graphs/histograms and etc software) to make graphs.
Using the collectd-ping plugin in conjunction with grafana may reach the similar effect as using the old and gold smokeping.
CentOS 7 included the collectd-ping plugin in its official repository, but in CentOS 8 the plugin is missing! Under Cent OS 8 the CentOS SIG OpsTools https://wiki.centos.org/SpecialInterestGroup/OpsTools includes the collectd-ping plugin in their repository. More on SIG and OpsTools may be obtained in the later page. In general, it is safe to use this repository it would not break user’s system.
Here is how to install and configure it. Real grafana examples are also included at the end.

The example here assumes there is a grafana server installed with influxdb backend.

STEP 1) Add OpsTools repository and install the collectd and collectd-ping.

The OpsTools repository is installed with centos-release-opstools package.
Here is what is going to install:

dnf install -y centos-release-opstools
dnf install -y collectd collectd-ping

Keep on reading!