Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB

JaredBusch

As always, this assumes that you are starting from the Fedora 29 Minimal install.

Also, as always, prepend everything with sudo or switch to root sudo su -

You must have your FQDN properly setup prior to doing this or Let's Encrypt will shit on you.
If you do not need/want Let's Encrypt, you can ignore that step.

Make sure your install is fully updated.

dnf upgrade -y --refresh

If the upgrade put in a new kernel, reboot.

reboot

Install required packages for MeshCentral

dnf install -y mongodb mongodb-server nano nodejs npm

Start MongoDB, and enable it to start on boot.

systemctl enable --now mongod

Open the firewall. If you use the Intel stuff, you need more ports.

firewall-cmd --add-port=http/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --add-port=https/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --reload

Create the directory to install MeshCentral into.

mkdir -p /opt/meshcentral

Change into that directory and install MEshCentral via `npm`

cd /opt/meshcentral
npm install meshcentral

Now launch MeshCentral for the first time. Obviously replace the FQDN in the examples with your real FQDN

node ./node_modules/meshcentral --cert mc.domain.com

Once it is done setting up the initial certificates, shut it back down with `ctrl+C`

Edit the config file now to enable MongoDB and Let's Encrypt

nano /opt/meshcentral/meshcentral-data/config.json

Uncomment the Mongo DB lines by removing the _ from the front.

    "MongoDb": "mongodb://127.0.0.1:27017/meshcentral",
    "MongoDbCol": "meshcentral",
    "WANonly": true,

Uncomment the Let's Encrypt section and update the values.

Set production to true and update the email and names field (domain name)

  "letsencrypt": {
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "names": "mc.domain.com",
    "rsaKeySize": 3072,
    "production": true
  },

Make a start/stop file for MeshCentral

This is optional, but when troubleshooting, it can be useful.

touch /opt/meshcentral/mcstart
cat > /opt/meshcentral/mcstart << EOF
node ./node_modules/meshcentral > stdout.txt 2> stderr.txt &
EOF
touch /opt/meshcentral/mcstop
cat > /opt/meshcentral/mcstop << EOF
pkill -f node_modules/meshcentral
EOF

Make them executable

sudo chmod 755 mcstart
sudo chmod 755 mcstop

Now start it up again

/opt/meshcentral/mcstart

You can check for errors or status by looking at
Status: tail /opt/meshcentral/stdout.txt
Errors: tail /opt/meshcentral/stderr.txt

While it is running, go create your first account (it becomes admin).

http://fqdn

Once you are logged in, log out and shut it down.

/opt/meshcentral/mcstop

Now let's create some systemd service files to run it properly.

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/meshcentral.service

Put this in it.

Special Note: MeshCentral is perfectly capable of being run by an unprivilieged user. But that breaks the current update process. As this is in heavy development, I highly recommend just running this service as root right now.

[Unit]
Description=MeshCentral Server
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /opt/meshcentral/node_modules/meshcentral
WorkingDirectory=/opt/meshcentral
User=root   
Group=root
Restart=always
# Restart service after 10 seconds if node service crashes
RestartSec=10
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now you should be able to start and stop it with normal systemd commands.

Let's start it and enable it to start on boot.

sudo systemctl enable --now meshcentral.service

You should see this if you check the status.

[jbusch@mc meshcentral]$ sudo systemctl status meshcentral
● meshcentral.service - MeshCentral Server
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/meshcentral.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Mon 2019-01-21 17:42:17 CST; 4s ago
 Main PID: 2962 (node)
    Tasks: 22 (limit: 1149)
   Memory: 134.6M
   CGroup: /system.slice/meshcentral.service
           ├─2962 /usr/bin/node /opt/meshcentral/node_modules/meshcentral
           └─2973 /usr/bin/node /opt/meshcentral/node_modules/meshcentral --launch

Jan 21 17:42:17 mc.domain.com systemd[1]: Started MeshCentral Server.
Jan 21 17:42:20 mc.domain.com node[2962]: MeshCentral HTTP redirection server running on port 80.
Jan 21 17:42:21 mc.domain.com node[2962]: MeshCentral v0.2.6-o, WAN mode.

JaredBusch

Go back to https://fqdn and you should see this.

black3dynamite

I would also recommend running systemctl daemon-reload to reload the unit file too.

pmoncho

@JaredBusch

Like you, I had issue with updates while using MongoDB (on Ubuntu which I know you dislike). I used NeDB and all was fine. Did you try an install with NeDB and have the same issues?

JaredBusch

@pmoncho said in Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB:

@JaredBusch

Like you, I had issue with updates while using MongoDB (on Ubuntu which I know you dislike). I used NeDB and all was fine. Did you try an install with NeDB and have the same issues?

I had no issues.

Assuming this goes live, I will have hundreds of sessions. It does not sound like the NeDB is designed for that.

scottalanmiller

@JaredBusch said in Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB:

@pmoncho said in Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB:

@JaredBusch

Like you, I had issue with updates while using MongoDB (on Ubuntu which I know you dislike). I used NeDB and all was fine. Did you try an install with NeDB and have the same issues?

I had no issues.

Assuming this goes live, I will have hundreds of sessions. It does not sound like the NeDB is designed for that.

Correct, NeDB is really for non-production or very small scale use.

scottalanmiller

NeDB is basically a MongoDB compatible file driver written in JavaScript. It's just JS code, so super slow, that runs in the application threading that reads the file on disk. Perfect for testing and tiny workloads, but would use a lot of CPU and be super slow for production.

JaredBusch

@pmoncho said in Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB:

@JaredBusch

Like you, I had issue with updates while using MongoDB (on Ubuntu which I know you dislike). I used NeDB and all was fine. Did you try an install with NeDB and have the same issues?

If you run this as a restricted user, it will not be able to update itself. that is normal.

pmoncho

@JaredBusch said in Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB:

@pmoncho said in Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB:

@JaredBusch

Like you, I had issue with updates while using MongoDB (on Ubuntu which I know you dislike). I used NeDB and all was fine. Did you try an install with NeDB and have the same issues?

If you run this as a restricted user, it will not be able to update itself. that is normal.

Oh ok. I misunderstood. My bad.

bnrstnr

mkdir -P /opt/meshcentral

Minor detail, but I'm guessing that this was supposed to be a lower-case -p?

Awesome guide, as always. Thank you

JaredBusch

@bnrstnr said in Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB:

mkdir -P /opt/meshcentral

Minor detail, but I'm guessing that this was supposed to be a lower-case -p?

Awesome guide, as always. Thank you

Yes, fixed.

NashBrydges

MongoDB removed from Fedora 30?

https://www.marksei.com/fedora-30-new-features-wheres-coreos/

JaredBusch

@NashBrydges said in Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB:

MongoDB removed from Fedora 30?

Yup, we knew this.

JaredBusch

The official Mesh Central guide shows to use the MongoDB community edition.
http://info.meshcentral.com/downloads/MeshCentral2/MeshCentral2InstallGuide.pdf

I don't have the time to deal with this right now though.

NashBrydges

@JaredBusch Thanks for this. Will give it a try.

scottalanmiller

@NashBrydges said in Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB:

MongoDB removed from Fedora 30?

https://www.marksei.com/fedora-30-new-features-wheres-coreos/

MongoDB licensing makes it hard to include, and many people don't want it because it is not licensed correctly for distribution.

NashBrydges

Followed @JaredBusch link to instructions and worked like a charm.

hobbit666

Worked fine for me on Fedora 30.
Only change was the MogoDB install. I had to add a repo for it and use dnf -y install mongodb-org

scottalanmiller

Any reason so many people are using MongoDB? How big are these installs?

JaredBusch

@scottalanmiller said in Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB:

Any reason so many people are using MongoDB? How big are these installs?

Because it was the recommendation from the developer at the time.

I would not do it now based on the information recently release din the other thread.

Install MeshCentral2 on Fedora 29 with MongoDB

Make sure your install is fully updated.

If the upgrade put in a new kernel, reboot.

Install required packages for MeshCentral

Start MongoDB, and enable it to start on boot.

Open the firewall. If you use the Intel stuff, you need more ports.

Create the directory to install MeshCentral into.

Change into that directory and install MEshCentral via npm

Now launch MeshCentral for the first time. Obviously replace the FQDN in the examples with your real FQDN

Once it is done setting up the initial certificates, shut it back down with ctrl+C

Edit the config file now to enable MongoDB and Let's Encrypt

Uncomment the Mongo DB lines by removing the _ from the front.

Uncomment the Let's Encrypt section and update the values.

Set production to true and update the email and names field (domain name)

Make a start/stop file for MeshCentral

Make them executable

Now start it up again

While it is running, go create your first account (it becomes admin).

Once you are logged in, log out and shut it down.

Now let's create some systemd service files to run it properly.

Put this in it.

Now you should be able to start and stop it with normal systemd commands.

Let's start it and enable it to start on boot.

Change into that directory and install MEshCentral via `npm`

Once it is done setting up the initial certificates, shut it back down with `ctrl+C`