How to Use the SupportConfig Package with the GroupWise Plugin

  • 7002406
  • 20-Jan-2009
  • 30-Apr-2012

Environment

Novell GroupWise 7
Novell GroupWise 8
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
Novell Open Enterprise Server (Linux based)

Situation

Using the supportconfig package coupled with the supportconfig-plugins additional.

Resolution

Novell Support provides the supportconfig and the supportconfig-plugin packages to customers in order to gather configuration, log and error information from both the installation of the OS and from varying applications.  The GroupWise plugin is one of several plugins packaged together.


Download, Install, Run the Packages.  Submit the Results.
 
supportconfig
  1. The supportconfig package can be found on Novell's Cool Solutions Website.
    Note that there are more advanced instructions for using the config package on this site.
    These include troubleshooting the installation of the packages, changing the options, etc.
  2. Download the supportutils-1.01-26.1.noarch.rpm .
  3. Install the package by typing the following terminal command:
    rpm -Uvh supportutils-1.01-26.1.noarch.rpm
Groupwise Plugin
  1. The GroupWise plugin for the supportconfig package can be found on the OpenSuSE website.
  2. On the OpenSuSE site, choose SLED10/SLES in the drop-down and type supportconfig-plugin in the search bar.
  3. In the results area, choose the noarch .rpm package to download.
  4. Install the package by typing the following terminal command:
    rpm -Uvh supportconfig-plugins-1.02-3.1.noarch.rpm
Run the Package
  1. In the terminal window type:
    supportconfig
  2. The packages will run, sometimes for several minutes, gathering information.
  3. Once it is done, the output will show up in /var/log as a .tbz (tarball) file.
    The file will most likely have a similar name as the server and should be over 1 MB in size.
Submit the Results
  1. Contact Novell Technical Support to either upload or e-mail the .tbz file.
  2. The file can be attached to a Service Request and probably should be attached prior to the opening of a call with Novell if at all possible.

Additional Information

NOTES:
 
For customers or partners working toward a transition from NetWare/Windows to Linux, the supportconfig and the supportconfig-plugins are akin to the config.nlm from NetWare.  The supportconfig package installs by itself and will run.  When the supportconfig-plugins package is installed, it finds the original supportconfig package and amends it to run the scripts for additional Novell products.  NTS is constantly updating these scripts. Over time, the names will change, and may change more quickly than the TID will be updated.  However, the basic concepts will remain the same and the names should be closely enough associated to cause little trouble in download, install and execution.
 
The 'noarch' versions of the packages are the ones that most administrators will wish to use.  'noarch' stands for 'no architecture', which means that the package is not meant for any specific architecture and should run on any architecture on which the SuSE Linux OS itself can be installed. 
 
When installing the packages from the terminal window, it is assumed that the the command will be executed from within the same directory where the install files are located and it may require that the administrator install the packages as the root user.  The original Cool Solutions link provided in the Resolution section gives more detail on how this can be accomplished if needed.
 
The Linux OS allows the user to use 'TAB' completion for commands and names.
When installing the packages, it is possible to type:
 
rpm -Uvh supp ... 'TAB' ... and it should complete the name of the file automatically to show:
supportutils-1.01-26.1.noarch.rpm
This is meant to help reduce typing time and misspells on complex names and functions.