INFO: run netdata on ubuntu 14.04 LTS

[ktsaou]

Ubuntu 14.04 LTS is EOL, but still if you have such a server, netdata can be run with this:

add a repo to get libuv1-dev (https://stackoverflow.com/a/49628607/4525767)

add-apt-repository ppa:acooks/libwebsockets6

export CFLAGS to disable the requirement of openssl host verification. This will lesser your security, but still the version of openssl installed on ubuntu 14.04 LTS cannot do better.

# as root, run:
export CFLAGS="-DACLK_SSL_ALLOW_SELF_SIGNED"
bash <(curl -Ss https://my-netdata.io/kickstart.sh)

With the above netdata is installed and it can communicate with netdata.cloud too.

(I haven't verified the kickstart works, because I used netdata-installer.sh from the go-live branch)

[lassebm]

I've observed that while CFLAGS are persisted in .environment by kickstart.sh, it's ignored and overwritten by netdata-updater.sh, breaking the workaround during the nightly updates.

[prologic]

I've observed that while CFLAGS are persisted in .environment by kickstart.sh, it's ignored and overwritten by netdata-updater.sh, breaking the workaround during the nightly updates.

I have noticed this too. Btw what CFLAGS are you referring to here? I need to get back to this and get this working and working with Netdata cloud. The PR changes are not quite enough.

[lassebm]

@prologic I need -DACLK_SSL_ALLOW_SELF_SIGNED for cloud connectivity on Ubuntu 14.04.

[prologic]

@prologic I need -DACLK_SSL_ALLOW_SELF_SIGNED for cloud connectivity on Ubuntu 14.04.

Perfect! Let me add that to this PR and do you mind helping me re-test this? I'm not sure I have an Ubuntu 14.04 VM but I'll go spin one up...

[lassebm]

@prologic Sure, no problem.

[zack-shoylev]

There are (related) CentOS, Ubuntu 14, Debian 7 issues:
#9152
#9153
@ktsaou told me this is probably caused by SSL problems with self-signed certs. On some systems autoconf may have to allow self-signed and also host verification will have to be disabled.

[prologic]

Allowing self-signed certs is one thing, turning off host verification is rather dangerous and should be considered very carefually/seriously. @amoss What do you want to have happen here?

[amoss]

I don't think that we should turn off security features without explicit consent from the user.

[prologic]

I don't think that we should turn off security features without explicit consent from the user.

110% Agreed.

[stale]

This issue has been inactive for 30 days. It will be closed in one week, unless it is updated.

[prologic]

Waiting on reviews for the final PR #8916

[stale]

This issue has been inactive for 30 days. It will be closed in one week, unless it is updated.

[prologic]

What are we ding about this issue? Its been open for some time now... I've sort of lost the plot a bit here.

[amoss]

@joelhans Please can you confirm that this is documented and then close the issue?

[joelhans]

Installing on 14.04 should be possible with the PR Costa himself wrote to address this issue: #9198

The caveats of installing on 14.04 are documented in two places:

https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/agent/packaging/installer#older-distributions-ubuntu-1404-debian-8-centos-6-and-openssl
https://learn.netdata.cloud/docs/agent/claim#claiming-on-older-distributions-ubuntu-1404-debian-8-centos-6

This seems sufficient to me, so I'm closing the issue.

[prologic]

Thanks @joelhans !