initcmd

The init commands initialise your Geneos install environment ready to run Geneos instances.

On it's own the init command will create a new directory (or use an existing one if it's considered empty) based on the options used. By default it will create a directory named geneos in your user's home directory unless your home directory ends in geneos (e.g. /home/geneos) in which case it tries that to avoid stuttering in the path.

The installation directory is considered empty if it exists but only contains dot files and directories - so if you are running the geneos init command as a newly created user called geneos should work as expected.

If you want to use an existing directory, including adopting an existing installation, then use the --force/-F option. The init command will create any missing directories but will not remove or change existing files. If you adopt an existing installation then see the init templates command for how to add default template files to the installation for use by new instances.

To specify a directory pass it as the only argument. It must be an absolute path.

Note: The init commands no longer support setting a USERNAME and will return an error. All commands must be run as the user that will own and manage the Geneos environment.

To also add Geneos components and install software releases you can use one of the pre-defined commands:

package init demo

package init san

package init floating

package init all

package init template

...

Adopting An Existing Installation

If you have an existing Geneos installation that you manage with the command like gatewayctl/netprobectl/etc. then you can use geneos to manage those once you have set the path to the Geneos installation.

⚠ WARNING

geneos ignores any changes to the global .rc files in your existing installation. You must check and adjust individual instance settings to duplicate settings. This can sometimes be very simple, for example if your netprobectl.rc files contains a line that sets JAVA_HOME then you can set this across all the Netprobes using geneos set netprobe -e JAVA_HOME=/path/to/java. More complex changes, such as library paths, will need careful consideration

You can use the environment variable ITRS_HOME pointing to the top-level directory of your installation or set the location in the (user or global) configuration file:

geneos set user geneos=/path/to/install

This is the directory is where the packages and gateway (etc.) directories live. If you do not have an existing installation that follows this pattern then you can create a fresh layout further below.

Once you have set your directory you check your installation with some basic commands:

geneos ls     # list instances
geneos ps     # show their running status
geneos show   # show the default configuration values

None of these commands should have any side-effects but others will. These may not only start or stop processes but may also convert configuration files to JSON format without prompting. Old .rc files are backed-up with a .rc.orig extension and can be restored using the revert command.

New Installation

New installations are set-up through the init sub-command. In it's most basic form it will create the minimal directory hierarchy and your user-specific geneos.json file containing the path to the top-level directory that it initialised. The top-level directory, if not given on the command line, defaults to a directory geneos in your home directory unless the last part of your home directory is itself geneos, e.g. if your home directory is /home/example then the Geneos directory becomes /home/example/geneos but if it is /opt/geneos then that is used directly.

If the directory you are using is not empty then you must supply a -F flag to force the use of this directory.

Demo Gateway

You can set-up a Demo environment like this:

geneos init demo -i email@example.com

or, to script this, do:

export ITRS_DOWNLOAD_USERNAME=email@example.com
export ITRS_DOWNLOAD_PASSWORD=mysecret
geneos init demo

Here you should replace the email address with your own and the command will prompt you for your password. These are the login details you should have for the ITRS Resources website.

The above command will create a directory structure, download software and configure a Gateway in 'Demo' mode plus a single Self-Announcing Netprobe and Webserver for dashboards. However, no further configuration is done, that's up to you!

Behind the scenes the command does (approximately) this for you:

geneos init
geneos install gateway -u ...
geneos add gateway 'Demo Gateway'
geneos install san -u ...
geneos add netprobe localhost -g localhost
geneos install webserver -u ...
geneos add webserver demo
geneos start
geneos ps

Self-Announcing Netprobe

You can install a Self-Announcing Netprobe (SAN) in one line, like this:

geneos init san -n SAN123 -c /path/to/signingcertkey \
    -g gateway1 -g gateway2 -t Infrastructure -t App1 -t App2 \
    -a ENVIRONMENT=Prod -a LOCATION=London -u email@example.com

This example will create a SAN with the name SAN123 connecting, using TLS, to gateway1 and gateway2, using types and attributes as listed.

A More Complete Initial Environment

geneos init all -L ./geneos.lic -u email@example.com

does this (where HOSTNAME is, of course, replaced with the hostname of the server)

geneos init
geneos install gateway -u ...
geneos add gateway HOSTNAME
geneos install san -u ...
geneos add netprobe HOSTNAME -g localhost
geneos install licd -u ...
geneos add licd localhost
geneos install webserver -u ...
geneos add webserver HOSTNAME
geneos import licd HOSTNAME geneos.lic
geneos start

Instance names are case sensitive and cannot be the same as some reserved words (e.g. gateway, netprobe, probe and more, given below).

You still have to configure the Gateway to connect to the Netprobe, but all three components should now be running. You can check with:

geneos ps