install_expert_dhcp_web_ui.md

ExpertDHCP Web UI Installation and Configuration

The ExpertDHCP Web UI can be deployed in different ways. In cases where resources are limited, all three components, including the the Kea DHCP server, the ExpertDHCP REST Service and the ExpertDHCP Web UI can be installed on the same host.

In other cases, where multiple Kea DHCP servers are being controlled or where redundancy is needed, the ExpertDHCP Web UI can be deployed on separate physical or virtual machines in a redundant fashion using a load balancing program such as KeepAlived.

Compatibility

This software has been tested on CentOS and CentOS Stream Linux.

Prerequisites

• NPM (Node Package Manager)
• Nginx
• git

Installation Steps

STEP 1 - Get ExpertDHCP Web UI

The ExpertDHCP repository is located at https://github.com/CenturyLink/ExpertDHCP and can be cloned using the following command.

$ cd /opt
$ git clone git@github.com:CenturyLink/ExpertDHCP.git

For the WebUI, the repository can be clone in the users home directory.

STEP 2 - Install required NPM modules

Change directory to ExpertDHCP/webui/src and execute the npm install command.

$ cd ExpertDHCP/webui/
$ npm install

The above command will create a directory called node_modules and containing NodeJS modules required by ExpertDHCP Web UI.

STEP 3 - Create production ready build

To create a ready to deploy production ready build, run the following command.

$ npm run build

If successfully run, this command will produce a build directory containing the necessary files to run the ExpertDHCP Web UI.

STEP 4 - Create users.csv and apikeys.json files

Create the users.csv file in build/conf/.

The users.csv file is a comma separated value file containing the username, the users' bcrypt encrypted passwd and a flag called "isadmin" which indicates whether the user is an admin or not.

An example of the users.csv file is given below.

$ cat users.csv
user,password,isadmin
expert,$2a$12$c******Z2ArSqeVDH6eQiPxrvUMvKnSrn2gt.W5rAY9.ioIG,1
aladdin,$2a$12$zW******vS18.3dHgm.M6iTR9Ef0gtIIRbCRDwupGK,1

user: the name of the user

password: the Bcrypt encrypted password of the user. Passwords can be encrypted at https://bcrypt-generator.com/.

isadmin: this flag can be 0 which indicates that the user is not an admin, or a 1 which indicates that the user has admin capabilities.

Create the apikeys.json file in build/conf.

The apikeys.json file is a JSON file containing API keys for servers running ExpertDHCP REST service. This key is used to authenticate API calls made to the ExpertDHCP REST service.

An example of the file is given below.

$ cat apikeys.json
{
    "10.4.8.56": "f06299185********4c6ddc2ca"
}

This file should be modified to suit local needs.

NOTE: the users.csv and apikeys.json files can be modified

STEP 5 - Configure ExpertDHCP Web UI

The ExpertDHCP Web UI configuration file config.json is located in the build/conf/ directory. This file should be modified to suit local needs. An example of this file is given below. (Lines starting with "//" characters are comments meant to explain the function of a given parameter. They should be removed for deployment).

{
  // Use the CSV auth file? If true, the CSV auth file is used for 
  // authentication.
  "useCsvAuthForMaster": true,

  // Default values that are chosen to be displayed on the landing page. The lab
  // and the server will reflect which lab and server will be displayed when the
  // user first loads the page.
  "defaults": { "lab": "LAB001", "server": "KEA001" },

  // Labs are different data centers. A list of labs can be defined here.
  "labs": [
    {
      
      // ID of the lab/datacenter
      "id": "LAB001",

      // Location of the lab/datacenter
      "location": "Denver",

      // Display name value of the lab/datacenter". This will be displayed on
      // the ExpertDHCp Web UI page.
      "value": "lab1",

      // A list of servers running ExpertDHCP REST service within this lab.
      "servers": [
        {
          // ID of the DHCP server
          "id": "KEA001",

          // Name of the DHCP server
          "title": "multiserver1631",

          // The IP address at this the ExpertDHCP service is available on this
          // DHCP server.
          "ip": "172.16.0.86",

          // The TCP port on which the ExpertDHCP service is available on this
          // DHCP server.
          "dhcpManagerPort": "5007",
          "dhcpMonitorPort": "5555"
        },
        {
          "id": "KEA002",
          "title": "cloud-dhcp-server-1",
          "ip": "10.4.8.56",
          "dhcpManagerPort": "5007",
          "dhcpMonitorPort": "5555"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

The configuration should be changed as needed, based on local requirements.

Please note that the apikeys.json file contains the appropriate API key for connecting to the corresponding ExpertDHCP REST service. For example, in the above given configuration, the apikeys.json file contains the API key for server with IP 10.4.8.56.

STEP 6 - Copy built files to Nginx root

The files built above can be copied to the Nginx root directory for deployment. Assuming that the Nginx root directory is located at /usr/share/nginx/html, use the following command to copy them recusively.

$ sudo ExpertDHCP/webui/build/* /usr/share/nginx/html/

STEP 7 - Verify if the ExpertDHCP Web UI is working

Navigate to the server running the ExpertDHCP Web UI. You should see a login page as below.

Enter one of the user credentials given in the users.csv file. Upon successful login, the user should see the following screen.