Title: Observium on Alpine Linux
Date: 2016-01-31 01:15

[Observium]( https://www.observium.org ) is a Free *Network Observation and
Monitoring System (NOMS)* which collects data from devices using SNMP
and presents it via a ([super-shiny](
https://www.observium.org/docs/screenshots/ )) web interface.
It can also be described as a big shitpile of php scripts full of vulnerabilities
that you should **never** expose on the internet.
By the way, if you know who I shall contact to drop my vulns, please [email]( https://dustri.org ) me.

[![Observium logo]({static}/images/observium_logo.png)]( https://www.observium.org )

Anyway, the recommended distribution to run this is Debian/Ubuntu/RHEL/CentOS,
and I'm using [Alpine Linux]( https://alpinelinux.org/ ) as hosts in my
hypervisor, because it <s>doesn't have systemd</s> is simple, lightweight, secure,
and a breeze to maintain.

There is not much things that differ from a Debian installation,
just enough to be annoying:

- alpine uses mariadb instead of mysql (likely because Oracle has spend the
  last 10 years buying and killing open-source projects) ;
- no fancy prompt à la Debian when you install your DBMS, you have to
  initialize it with a command: `/usr/bin/mysql_install_db --user=mysql`.
- `${APACHE_LOG_DIR}` must be replaced with `/var/log/apache2/` in apache2's
  configuration file ;
- there is no `site-enable` folder in `/etc/apache2/`, you have to put the
  VirtualHost file in `/etc/apache2/conf.d` folder instead ;
- you have to enable the `mod_rewrite` module from apache2 in
  `/etc/apache2/httpd.conf` ;
- Packages have different names, and some of their paths must be [changed](
  https://www.observium.org/docs/config_options/ ) in your `config.php` file,
  like changing `/usr/bin/fping{,6}` to `/usr/sbin/fping{,6}` and `/usr/bin/mtr` to `/use/sbin/mtr`.

Here is an excerpt of my `.ash_history` from my installation process:

```bash
apk -U upgrade
apk add subversion rddtool mtr imagemagick graphviz fping python nmap
apk add apache2 mysql mysql-client php-mysqli php-json php-pear php-mcrypt php-ctype
apk add net-snmp
mkdir -p /opt/observium && cd /opt
svn co http://svn.observium.org/svn/observium/trunk observium
cp config.php.default config.php
vim config.php  # don't forget to change the paths of the aforementioned tools
/usr/bin/mysql_install_db --user=mysql
rc-service mariadb start
rc-update add mariadb default                      
/usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password <mysql root password>
mysql -u root -p
mysql> CREATE DATABASE observium DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON observium.* TO 'observium'@'localhost'
    -> IDENTIFIED BY '<observium db password>';
^d
./discovery.php -u
cat<<EOF>/etc/apache2/conf.d/observium.conf
<VirtualHost *:80>
    DocumentRoot /opt/observium/html
    <FilesMatch \.php$>
      SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
    </FilesMatch>
    <Directory />
            Options FollowSymLinks
            AllowOverride None
    </Directory>
    <Directory /opt/observium/html/>
            DirectoryIndex index.php
            Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
            AllowOverride All
            Require all granted
    </Directory>
    ErrorLog  /var/log/apache2/error.log  
    LogLevel warn
    CustomLog  /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
    ServerSignature On
</VirtualHost>
EOF
vim /etc/apache2/httpd.conf  # enable mod_rewrite
rc-update add apache2
rc-service apache2 restart
```

Also, since Alpine doesn't package `python-mysqldb`, you'll have to change
the `/opt/observium/poller-wrapper.py 2` command in your crontab to 
`/opt/observium/poller.php -h all`. You'll lose threading for the poller,
but since I don't have many machines, I don't care.

That's it, you can now open your web browser to start using your Observium
instance.