Getting Started

The installers for NPA come in two packages - a zip file and a tar.gz file. These are essentially the same, other than the format, but zip tends to be better suited for Windows, and tar for UNIX/Linux. So, you will need the appropriate file for your platform. Get the latest release from the downloads page.

UNIX and Linux

When installing to UNIX or Linux, follow these instructions:

  1. Copy the npa-releaseX.tar.gz file to the server you are installing to, in a temporary location (e.g /tmp).

  2. Change to the location, and untar the file:
    3. cd /tmp
    mkdir npa
    mv npa-*.tar.gz npa
    cd npa
    tar xzvf npa-*.tar.gz

  3. Run the installation script as the root user. This will create an NPA user and group, along with an init.d startup script, and install the files:

    4. su
    For Linux:
    ./install_npa_linux.sh
    For Solaris:
    ./install_npa_solaris.sh

    If everything works correctly, you should see messages of success for the installation of the files and service.

  4. You need to make sure that a correct version of java is used to start NPA. For Solaris, there will likely be and installed version already in the path. Check the version as so:
    5. java -version
    Version 1.5.0+ of the Sun JDK or OpenJDK should work ok. GCJ however does not work correctly. If using GCJ, it's recommended you install a Sun JDK and then use the 'alternatives' command to add it as the preferred JDK. There is also the option to set the JAVA_HOME in the configuration for NPA, which is covered in the configuration section.

  5. Once everything is setup, you can start and stop npa by running these commands as root:
    /etc/init.d/npa start
    /etc/init.d/npa stop

  6. Please now refer to configuration to setup the checks and the details of the Nagios server.

Windows

When installing to Windows, there is not presently an installer, but hopefully this will be rectified in the near future.

  1. Copy the npa-releaseX.zip file to the server you are installing to, in a temporary location (e.g c:\temp).

  2. Use the windows unzip tool to unzip the files into an appropriate directory: e.g. c:\npa

  3. Check that you have an appropriate version of java installed. To do this, open a command prompt and type:
    java -version
    If you get an error, you should add java to the path, by going to Control Panel > system > Advanced > Envrionment Variables and editing the PATH variable to include your java binary directory. The version should display 1.5.0 or above.
  4. Configure NPA to talk to your Nagios server by editing the defaults.groovy file, as described on the configuration page.
  5. To test NPA, run the c:\npa\bin\npa.bat file which will start NPA in the foreground. You can monitor the wrapper.log and npa.log files for any issues.
  6. Once you are happy that NPA is functioning correctly, you can install it as a service. To do this, run c:\npa\bin\InstallApp-NT.bat
  7. Start the service with the following command:
    net start npa
Uninstallation
To remove the NPA service, run the c:\npa\bin\UninstallApp-NT.bat file.