Netdata add-on installer and service patch for IPFire

Simple Netdata add-on installer and service patch for the IPFire web interface.

Current versions

• Script: 0.3.0
• Netdata: 1.47.0-1

Content

• Features
• Installation
• Update
• Uninstall
• Reset
• Fix broken permissions
• Service
• Known issues
  • Netdata plugins does not get started
    • Workaround
    • Screenshots
• Roadmap
• Community
• Thanks
• Author

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Features

The installer script will allow you to do the following:

• Install / Update / Remove / Reset the add-on
• Fix broken permissions
• Backup and restore config files when running remove or reset commands
• Add / Remove the patch on the services page (removed)

Installation

1. Install git with Pakfire
2. Clone the project and run the patch:

# pakfire install -y git
# git clone https://github.com/Jiab77/ipfire-netdata-addon-service-patch.git
# cd ipfire-netdata-addon-service-patch
# ./install.sh -h

Once done, simply reload the page(s).

You can remove git right after from Pakfire once installed. git is just required for downloading and updating the project to get the latest versions.

Update

# cd ipfire-netdata-addon-service-patch
# ./install.sh -u

You can also use --update if you prefer the long version.

Uninstall

# cd ipfire-netdata-addon-service-patch
# ./install.sh -r

You can also use --remove if you prefer the long version.

Reset

# cd ipfire-netdata-addon-service-patch
# ./install.sh -R

You can also use --reset if you prefer the long version.

Fix broken permissions

This feature should be ran automatically during the install process but if you have used --no-fix then you have to do it manually.

# cd ipfire-netdata-addon-service-patch
# ./install.sh -f

You can also use --fix-perms if you prefer the long version.

Service

The Netdata service will be added to the IPFire services page by injecting a custom line inside the CGI file.

NOTE

This feature has been removed from the script.

Known issues

Here is the list of known issues and related workarounds.

Netdata plugins does not get started

When I was looking for the Unbound service graph in Netdata, I've discovered that the go.d.plugin was not running and was not displayed when running the ps fax | grep netdata command.

It took few hours to debug it but I could finally find the reason why simply no plugin could be started by analyzing the file /opt/netdata/var/log/netdata/collector.log and discovered that all plugin got permission denied errors:

Collector logs

# cat /opt/netdata/var/log/netdata/collector.log.1 | grep -i "permission denied" | sort -u | head -n20
sh: line 1: exec: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/charts.d.plugin: cannot execute: Permission denied
sh: line 1: exec: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/cups.plugin: cannot execute: Permission denied
sh: line 1: exec: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/ebpf.plugin: cannot execute: Permission denied
sh: line 1: exec: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/fping.plugin: cannot execute: Permission denied
sh: line 1: exec: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/go.d.plugin: cannot execute: Permission denied
sh: line 1: exec: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/ioping.plugin: cannot execute: Permission denied
sh: line 1: exec: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/perf.plugin: cannot execute: Permission denied
sh: line 1: exec: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/python.d.plugin: cannot execute: Permission denied
sh: line 1: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/charts.d.plugin: Permission denied
sh: line 1: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/cups.plugin: Permission denied
sh: line 1: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/ebpf.plugin: Permission denied
sh: line 1: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/fping.plugin: Permission denied
sh: line 1: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/go.d.plugin: Permission denied
sh: line 1: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/ioping.plugin: Permission denied
sh: line 1: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/perf.plugin: Permission denied
sh: line 1: /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d/python.d.plugin: Permission denied

I then looked at the /opt/netdata/usr/libexec/netdata/plugins.d folder and seen that all the *.plugin files had their GID defined to the group id 999.

The problem here is that the group id 999 does not exist on IPFire...

You can check it on your side by running these commands:

• Search for the group id 999

  # grep -c "999" /etc/group
  0

• Search for the user id 999

  # grep -c "999" /etc/passwd
  0

While if you are running the same commands but with netdata instead:

• Search for the group name netdata

  # grep -c "netdata" /etc/group
  1

• Search for the user name netdata

  # grep -c "netdata" /etc/passwd
  1

Workaround

So... What does all of this means? Well... it means that there is probably a permission issue during the install process or during the package building process.

To be sure of that and also find a way to fix that permission issue, we'll need to find which files are impacted and set to the wrong group id.

Here is how to do so:

# find /opt/netdata -group 999 2>/dev/null | wc -l
321

Woow... that's quite a lot 😅 Just forget to fix them all manually 😆

Ok so let's stop the Netdata service, fix the permissions, restart the service and see how it goes after that!

# /etc/init.d/netdata stop
Stopping real-time performance and health monitoring...                                          [  OK  ]

# find /opt/netdata -group 999 | wc -l
321

# find /opt/netdata -group 999 -exec chown -c root:netdata {} \; | wc -l
321

# find /opt/netdata -group 999 | wc -l
0

# /etc/init.d/netdata start
Starting real-time performance and health monitoring...

# /etc/init.d/netdata status
netdata is running with Process ID(s) 20865 20863 20859.

Now, if you check the screenshots in the next section, you should get a similar result on your side.

Don't worry, you'll not have to do all this technical things, I've already implemented everything in the install.sh script 😉

If you want to fix your current installation, you just need to run the following command:

# cd ~/ipfire-netdata-addon-service-patch
# ./install.sh -f

You can also use --fix-perms instead if you prefer long arguments.

Or if you want to be more radical and reset your Netdata installation, you can run this command instead:

# cd ~/ipfire-netdata-addon-service-patch
# ./install.sh -R

You can also use --reset instead if you prefer long arguments.

If for whatever reasons you want to reset your Netdata installation without fixing the permissions, you can run this command:

# cd ~/ipfire-netdata-addon-service-patch
# ./install.sh -R --no-fix

That's all! Hope that all of this could have been helpful for everyone. 🙇‍♂️

Screenshots

• Before fixing permissions

  

• After fixing permissions

  

Roadmap

• Create initial version
• Make the script better
• Fix permissions issues
• Implement script update feature
• Finish the service code
• See if the kickstart method can be supported

Community

You can find the discussion around this project here.

Thanks

Huge thanks to @siosios for his work on the Netdata package for IPFire!

Author

• Jiab77