2. OpenNMS Package Sources

Currently version 1.1.2 of OpenNMS is extremely stable, and adds much improvement in reporting and monitoring capability to the 1.0.2 version of OpenNMS. For this reason version 1.1.2 has been selected as the default Debian Woody version for this document set.

2.1 Apt sources for OpenNMS on Woody

The following apt-source currently exists for OpenNMS (/etc/apt/sources.list). Please check the OpenNMS.org downloads web site for mirror sites.

deb http://debian.opennms.org/ debian/opennms stable 

Like all GPL'd tools, the source code is also available using the deb-src line. To review the source code for the package, or experiment with contributions or source code modifications, add the following line to /etc/apt/sources.list.

deb-src http://debian.opennms.org/ debian/opennms stable 

The source code will be placed in a directory named opennms-1.1.2 that is created in the current directory when the following command is executed.

bash#apt-get source opennms

2.2 Notes from the package maintainers

1.0.2/1.1.1 Package Maintainer

The ONMS Debian packages have been heavily Debianized-- i.e. they follow the majority of Debian conventions and policy.  This means all the libraries are split into libsomething packages, the database schema and setup is in opennms-db, the server portion is in opennms-server, tomcat stuff in opennms-webapp, and the meta-package opennms depends on all of that to make a one-shot install easier.  Directories follow Debian FHS conventions-- /usr/bin, /usr/lib, /usr/share/opennms, /etc/opennms, etc.

In my next round of updates, I plan to start adding some Debconf pieces to prompt users for setup info, etc.  This could make the install/upgrade experience much better, and even handle complete (other machine) separation of the database.  Not sure about peeling off the webapp portion yet, or if that's even valuable.  I don't have that sort of performance issue on my net, but I can imagine large networks where keeping the DB and GUI on separate boxes from the ONMS server/pollers would be a Good Thing (TM).  :) 

-Tony Simone

1.1.2 Package Maintainer

For OpenNMS 1.1.2, Eric Evans has stepped up as the Debian maintainer.

1.1.1 - Differences from the stock OpenNMS build

There are some notable differences between the OpenNMS Debian package and what's reported at http://www.opennms.org.  Here is Tony Simone's quick summary:

1. Follows (as closely as possible) the FHS and Debian Policy.  This means    OpenNMS home is /usr/share/opennms, some jars in /usr/share/java, configs    in /etc/opennms.
2. Tomcat4 in Debian lives on port 8180, not 8080.
3. Because of #2, one of the OpenNMS listener ports was moved to 8280 (this    is for internal OpenNMS use, don't point a browser to it).
4. In Debian, the mail binary lives in /usr/bin/mail, not /bin/mail.  The    configs are updated to reflect this.
5. Default logging in /etc/opennms/log4j.properties has been scaled back to    INFO level, and log rotation sizes were reduced.  The defaults in the    OpenNMS build were too noisy and large (just my opinion).
6. *Debian Unstable ONLY* - librrd0 in Debian Sid has not been updated to use libpng3 yet.  I've    built a new version against libpng3 and put it on my server to take care    of this.  Otherwise, you end up busting a bunch of KDE and other stuff    trying to install OpenNMS.

<![CDATA[**Note from the Author: Much has changed in Debian unstable, and as of v2.0 of this document 1.1.2 packages now exist.  The process is nearly identical to the Woody installation, and may appear in future releases of this document.
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