How to Install Observium on FreeBSD Latest

Observium is an open-source, auto-discovering network monitoring platform. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps to install Observium on FreeBSD Latest.

Prerequisites

Before we proceed with the installation, make sure that you have:

Root access or a user with root privileges
Access to the terminal or console

Step 1: Update system packages

Firstly, we need to update the operating system packages to their latest version by executing the following command:

$ sudo pkg update && sudo pkg upgrade

Step 2: Install required packages

Next, we need to install additional packages that are required for Observium to function properly. The command below installs Apache, PHP, SNMP, and other essential packages:

$ sudo pkg install apache24 php74 php74-extensions php74-tokenizer php74-xml php74-zlib php74-session php74-simplexml php74-mysqli php74-mbstring php74-json php74-opcache php74-openssl php74-curl php74-dev snmpd rrdtool bash

Step 3: Configure Apache

After installing the required packages, we need to configure the Apache web server to run Observium. Open the Apache configuration file using your preferred text editor:

$ sudo vi /usr/local/etc/apache24/httpd.conf

Add the following lines to the configuration file:

Alias /observium /usr/local/www/observium
<Directory "/usr/local/www/observium">
  Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
  AllowOverride All
  Order allow,deny
  Allow from all
  Require all granted
</Directory>

Save and close the file.

Step 4: Download and extract Observium

Download the latest version of Observium from the official website using the following command:

$ sudo wget https://www.observium.org/observium-community-latest.tar.gz

Extract the downloaded archive using the following command:

$ sudo tar -zxvf observium-community-latest.tar.gz -C /usr/local/www/

Step 5: Set directory permissions

Set the ownership of the Observium directory to the Apache user www and chmod it to 777 using the following command:

$ sudo chown -R www:www /usr/local/www/observium
$ sudo chmod -R 777 /usr/local/www/observium

Step 6: Run Observium installation script

To install the Observium database, run the following command:

$ sudo /usr/local/www/observium/discovery.php -u

Enter the MySQL database details when prompted. If asked to create a new database, enter ‘yes’.

Step 7: Configure Observium

Once the database installation is complete, we need to configure Observium. Navigate to the Observium directory using the following command:

$ cd /usr/local/www/observium

Copy the sample configuration file by running:

$ sudo cp config.php.default config.php

Edit the configuration file using your preferred text editor and update the database credentials:

$config['db_extension'] = 'mysqli';
$config['db_host'] = 'localhost';
$config['db_user'] = '<database-username>';
$config['db_pass'] = '<database-password>';
$config['db_name'] = '<database-name>';

Replace <database-username>, <database-password>, and <database-name> with your MySQL database credentials.

Step 8: Start Observium

Finally, start the Observium daemon using the following command:

$ sudo ./discovery.php -u
$ sudo ./poller.php -h all
$ sudo ./alerts.php

Now, access the Observium web interface by opening a web browser and navigating to http://<your-server-ip-address>/observium. You should be able to log in using the default username and password:

Username: admin
Password: admin

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install and configure Observium on FreeBSD Latest. If you encounter any issues, refer to the official documentation at https://docs.observium.org/ for further assistance.