Pre-Installation Tasks

This chapter describes the tasks that you must perform prior to installing the Cisco Broadband Access Center for Broadband Aggregationproduct.

"Cisco Broadband Access Center Server Installation Prerequisites" section

Partitioning the Hard Disk for Installation

Installing the BAC software and making it run efficiently requires significant system resources.

If you partition the disk space (2x36 GB) prior to installation of the BAC complete provisioning system, most of the space (at least 40 GB) should be allocated to the BAC installation directory (the default directory is /opt).

Setting Up the Oracle Server

The Oracle database provides storage for administrative networks, devices, network resources, and subscriber data. The Oracle database is not bundled with BAC; but Oracle is a required component. Some customers may already use Oracle for other applications. In these cases, the customer must add another use for Oracle to integrate with BAC.

This section provides the information necessary to set up Oracle to work with BAC. This section contains the following topics:

Before You Begin

Read the following information before you set up Oracle and begin installing BAC:

The Oracle 8.1.7 server and client database is integral to provisioning devices using the BAC software. Before you can install the BAC software, the Oracle database must be installed, running, and configured.
It is highly recommended that the Oracle server be installed on a machine separate from the BAC server and the Cisco CNS Network Registrar (CNS NR). If the Oracle server is installed on a separate machine from the BAC server, then the Oracle client must be installed on the BAC server.
The Oracle software is not included with the BAC software. You must purchase the Oracle software and license separately. However, you may already be running Oracle on your system.

Find out what version Oracle is and make certain that it is the version supported by BAC.
If you need a new version of Oracle, then update the current software.
Verify the file system block size of the directory in which you intend to install the Oracle database.
Check that your system is setup for minimum requirements for Oracle database
Create an Oracle database user for BAC, but write to your existing SID and existing tablespace.
Create a new tablespace, new SID, and new Oracle database user to use this new SID.
Create a new oracle database user, new SID, but use your existing tablespace.

Setting Up Oracle Before BAC Installation

If you already have Oracle installed, follow these steps to set up the Oracle server. During the Oracle installation process, you must set up tablespace for the BAC subscriber (see "Creating the Oracle Tablespace" section.

Change System Settings
Create and setup the Oracle user and groups
Install Oracle Server with default DB

Step 3 Create an oracle.csh file with your unique system variables so that the BAC installation software can use the values that you specified. You must be the Oracle user and in the $ORACLE_HOME directory. The following is an example of an oracle.csh file:

If the sqlplus prompt displays, then it indicates that the Oracle connection is set up properly. If not, check if your database instance is up, if the listener is up and if your environment is set up properly, then try connecting again.

Creating the Oracle Tablespace

The data directory you specify must already exist and have write permissions for the Oracle user. The tablespace and datafile names you assign are arbitrary. You can use any names that help you keep track of what files are associated with what database. The only requirement is that the name given to the tablespace at the time of its creation (<table_space_name> in the example) be the same as the default tablespace listed when you create the BAC user account.

The autoextend option allows Oracle to automatically extend your datafile. The maximum size of the datafile will be limited only by the available space on the file's disk.

Step 4 To create the BAC Oracle user account and grant access to it, perform the following:

You should use the chosen user name and password along with the Oracle SID (<sid>) when you specify the Oracle information during installation of the BAC product.

Cisco Broadband Access Center Server Installation Prerequisites

You must complete several tasks before you can install the BAC software and use it, as explained in the following sections:

Setting Up Groups and Users

A Broadband Access Center (BAC) group and user account is required for BAC installation and administration. You can use this user account for running BAC by creating one group and one user only. You must perform the following tasks:

Step 2 Create a BAC installation user within the BAC group you created (for example, bacgrp) for the user's group with the admintool utility or the useradd command. For example:

Setting System Variables

Before launching the BAC installation script, you must set up certain variables in your system environment.

To install the Cisco Configuration Engine successfully through the BAC software scripts, make certain that the kernel values for the following parameters in the /etc/system configuration file are present and have the following minimum values:

You must reboot the system if you update any of the above variables. If Oracle is installed on the same system as the BAC server, you must increase the kernel parameters as needed.

Checking the /opt Directory Permissions

The /opt directory must be set up with 755 permissions. As root, specify the following command from the root directory (cd /) to check the directory's permissions.

If the output shows anything other than only the user having write permission, and the user, group, and others all having read and execute permissions (drwxr-xr-x) as shown in the example, enter the following command to change the /opt directory permissions: # chmod 755 /opt

Mounting the CD-ROM Manually

If your CD-ROM is not automounted, follow this procedure to mount the CD-ROM manually.

<cddevice> is the name of the CD-ROM driver in your system. Typically, the device name is c0t6d0s2, however, it can vary from system to system. Use the correct device name for your CD-ROM drive.

<cdpath> is the CD-ROM mount point. When selecting a mount point, use an existing directory if one is available (a standard mount point is .cdrom). If you do not have an existing directory, use the UNIX mkdir command to create one.

Important BAC Pre-installation Information

This section lists information that you should know about before and after you install the BAC application.

Before Installing BAC

The Cisco BAC is a mandatory core component for Cisco Internet OSS for Broadband Aggregation solution (see the Cisco Internet OSS for Broadband Aggregation Installation and Configuration Guide). For a complete BAC provisioning product, CNS Network Registrar, CNS Notification Engine, and CNS Access Registrar should be installed in most BAC deployments.
You can implement BAC in small to very large scale deployments. The distributed nature of the BAC software supports its deployment in a variety of environments and with a variety of services and technologies. Choices you make when you install the software determine the services and technologies that you make available to subscribers.

Some of these components may already be installed in your network. Make certain that if they are that the versions of the software are compatible with BAC. For the simplest configuration, install BAC on two machines. Install CNS NR (and Oracle if you choose to do so) on one machine and BAC, with CNS AR and CNS Notification Engine on the second machine.

The order of component installation depends on whether you already have a component installed in your system, if you must upgrade to the supported software, or if you are installing BAC for the first time.

If the software is delivered as a zipped file on CD-ROM, first uncompress to a temporary directory and then untar.
Do not install multiple BAC components on the same machine, unless you have a very powerful machine.
Before you run the Cisco Configuration Engine setup, make certain that you have the following LDAP files in the /usr/bin directory:

/usr/bin/ldapadd
/usr/bin/ldapdelete
/usr/bin/ldapmodify
/usr/bin/ldapmodrdn
/usr/bin/ldapsearch
/usr/bin/ldaplist

To install the Cisco Configuration Engine successfully through the BAC software scripts, check the /etc/system directory to ensure that the following variables and minimum values are present:

SET shmsys:shminfo_shmmax = 131072000
SET semsys:seminfo_semmns = 13500
SET semsys:seminfo_semume = 100
SET semsys:seminfo_semmni = 500

Follow these rules when configuring the Cisco Broadband Access Center network:

If you use a RADIUS server, then we recommend installing the Oracle server on a different machine. By default, RADIUS uses 8 connections and each connection takes about 200MB.
When the Web GUI users exceeds 10 users, a separate Web GUI server is recommended.
Each Cisco 10000 Series can support a maximum of 32000 subscribers and each 7200 or 7400 can support a maximum of 8000 subscribers.
Distribute the CNS CE to get better performance for downloading to multiple devices.
Distribute the Web GUI if GUI the response time is getting slower when there are more users logging in.
Distribute Oracle is always recommended to get better performance.
Plan ahead for the disk size based on the number of future subscribers.

Security Policy Engine (SPE) is required with BAC and is automatically installed into the BAC installation directory. The Subscriber Access Manager component of BAC provides the interface to CNS Access Registrar. To enable the integration of Subscriber Access Manager with CNS Access Registrar, keep in mind the following considerations:

If you install CNS Access Registrar on a different server than the Oracle server, make sure you install the Oracle client on the CNS Access Registrar server.
During CNS Access Registrar installation, provide the Oracle database directory information for BAC.

In CNS Access Registrar, verify that the:

Local host setting is RADIUS clients
Local-file service setting is RADIUS services

During installation of the BAC product, you can edit the Access Registrar related $BAC_HOME/common/serviceMgr.cfg configuration file by indicating that you wish to configure the CNS Access Registrar product.
After you install BAC, you might need to make changes to the configuration of Cisco Access Registrar or apply a patch release to the software.

If you intend to use Cisco Access Registrar for AAA services, make sure it is properly configured after installing BAC. See "After Installing BAC" section for detailed information.

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