RHEL: Install Pivotal GemFire from RPM

RHEL: Install Pivotal GemFire from RPM

If your operating system is Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), you have the option to use the RPM distribution to install Pivotal GemFire. Complete the installation procedure on every virtual and physical machine that will run GemFire.

When you install Pivotal GemFire on RHEL from RPM, the software is installed by default into /opt/pivotal/Pivotal_GemFire_XXX where XXX corresponds to the version of GemFire (for example, Pivotal_GemFire_821) that you have installed. The Pivotal GemFire installation is owned by the gemfire user in the pivotal group.

Prerequisites

The following tasks are prerequisites for installing Pivotal GemFire from RPM:
Note: You can also get Pivotal GemFire from your salesperson.

Procedure

Use the following procedure to install Pivotal GemFire from RPM:
  1. From the RHEL computer on which you will install Pivotal GemFire, log in as the root user or as an unprivileged user.
  2. Execute the following rpm command. If necessary, use sudo to run the command as root. For example:
    RHEL 6: 
    prompt# sudo -E rpm -ivh pivotal-gemfire-8.2.1-18207.el6.noarch.rpm
    RHEL 7: 
    prompt# sudo -E rpm -ivh pivotal-gemfire-8.2.1-18207.el7.noarch.rpm

    The rpm command begins the install process, resolves dependencies, and displays the packages it plans to install.

  3. If the installation is successful, you see a [100%] installation status message. For example: 
    Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:pivotal-gemfire        ########################################### [100%]
    The rpm command:
    • Installs Pivotal GemFire into the /opt/pivotal/Pivotal_GemFireXXX where XXX corresponds to the version of GemFire (for example, Pivotal_GemFire_821) that you have installed.
    • If the user does not already exist, adds a gemfire non-interactive user (in a group called pivotal) and sets the owner of all directories and files under /opt/pivotal to gemfire.

      Note that you cannot login directly as the gemfire user because interactive login has been disabled. Rather, you must login as the root user or as a privileged user using sudo, and then su - gemfire.

    • Sets up the commands listed in Commands and Services Installed by the RPM.
  4. Configure the JAVA_HOME environment variable.
    If you will be using the gfsh command-line utility or managing servers and locators with the ServerLauncher and LocatorLauncher APIs, then you must set JAVA_HOME to a JDK installation. For example: 
    JAVA_HOME=/usr/java/jdk1.8.0_60
export JAVA_HOME
  5. Add GemFire scripts to your the PATH environment variable. For example:
    PATH=$PATH:$JAVA_HOME/bin:/opt/pivotal/Pivotal_GemFire_821/bin
export PATH
  6. The following step only applies to environments where you are running GemFire processes or GemFire client applications outside of gfsh. The gfsh (as well as the deprecated cacheserver) script sets these environment variables for you. If you are running GemFire processes or applications outside of gfsh, then configure the following environment variables for GemFire.
    • Set the GEMFIRE environment variable to point to your GemFire installation top-level directory. (You should see bin, lib, dtd, and other directories under GEMFIRE.) The following variables definitions are examples; your installation path may vary depending on where you install GemFire and the version you are installing. 
      GEMFIRE=/opt/pivotal/Pivotal_GemFire_821
export GEMFIRE
    • Configure your GF_JAVA environment variables as shown in these examples. GF_JAVA must point to the java executable file under your JAVA_HOME. (If you have not done so already, you should also set your JAVA_HOME variable to a supported Java installation.) 
      GF_JAVA=$JAVA_HOME/bin/java
export GF_JAVA
  7. Type gfsh version at the command line and verify that the output lists the version of Pivotal GemFire that you wished to install. For example:
    # gfsh version
v8.2.1
    If you want more detailed version information such as the date of the build, build number and JDK version being used, type gfsh version --full.
  8. Repeat this procedure for every virtual or physical machine on which you will run Pivotal GemFire.
  9. If you need to uninstall GemFire, see How to Uninstall GemFire.

Commands and Services Installed by the RPM

When you install Pivotal GemFire from RPM, the RPM also installs the following:
  • Creates the symlink in /usr/bin/gfsh that points to the installed location of gfsh. This way the user can execute gfsh from any directory.
  • Installs a cacheserver service. This allows you to manage a default cache server with the following commands: 
    /sbin/service cacheserver start
/sbin/service cacheserver stop
/sbin/service cacheserver restart
Note: The installation of these commands and services is only available when installing from RPM.

The cacheserver service obtains its default configuration from /etc/pivotal/gemfire/cacheserver.conf.

Inside the configuration file, the following default properties are defined:
  • Location of the cacheserver script: 
    CACHESERVER_SCRIPT=/opt/pivotal/Pivotal_GemFire_821/bin/cacheserver
  • Current working directory for the server: 
    CACHESERVER_WORK_DIR=/var/log/pivotal/gemfire/cacheserver
  • Declarative cache configuration for the cache server: 
    CACHE_XML_FILE=/opt/pivotal/gemfire/Pivotal_GemFire_821/defaultConfigs/cache.xml
  • Location of the gemfire.properties file for the cache server: 
    JAVA_OPTS="-DgemfirePropertyFile=/opt/pivotal/gemfire/Pivotal_GemFire_821/defaultConfigs/gemfire.properties"
    You can modify this configuration to point your cacheserver service to a customized gemfire.properties file. In gemfire.properties, you can specify the name property, which will allow you to manage this cache server using the gfsh command-line utility.

Edit the cacheserver.conf file to configure the cacheserver service. You can also define your own additional cacheserver services. See /etc/sysconfig/cacheserver for instructions.

What to Do Next

After you install Pivotal GemFire from RPM, perform the following tasks:
Parent topic: Installing Pivotal GemFire