Red Hat

On RHEL, Fedora and compatible distributions the Nexus Telemetry Fleet collector installs from a signed rpm repository. The packages are published for x86_64 and aarch64. The systemd service is nf-collector. Installing the package starts it. Until the enrol command joins it to a fleet server, the service exits and systemd starts it again every 5 seconds.

Install

The Add telemetry collector window generates these commands with the real values. They write the repository file for the stable channel and install the package.

bash
sudo rpm --import https://nexustelemetry.com/nexustelemetry-public.asc
sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/nexustelemetry-fleet.repo <<'EOF'
[nexustelemetry-fleet]
name=Nexus Telemetry Fleet (stable)
baseurl=https://fleet-downloads.nexustelemetry.com/rpm/stable/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
repo_gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://nexustelemetry.com/nexustelemetry-public.asc
EOF
sudo dnf install -y nf-collector

gpgcheck verifies each package and repo_gpgcheck verifies the repository metadata, both against that key.

Installing the package creates the nexus-fleet service user, writes /etc/nexus-fleet/collector.toml on a first install only, and does not enable the setup page. Set setup_page = "1" in collector.toml to enrol from a browser instead.

Enrol

Run the enrol command with sudo. The data directory belongs to the service user.

bash
sudo nf-collector enrol --server <your-address> --token <token> --name '<terminal name>'

The service picks the new certificate up at its next restart, within seconds. If the terminal has not appeared on the dashboard after a minute, restart the service.

An enrolled collector refuses a second enrol command. To enrol it again with a new token, add --force. The collector gets a new certificate and keeps its record on the dashboard.

Service

Installing the package starts the service and enables it at boot.

Action Command
Stop sudo systemctl stop nf-collector
Start sudo systemctl start nf-collector
Restart sudo systemctl restart nf-collector
Status systemctl status nf-collector

Installing the package also enables a second systemd unit, nf-collector-updater.path. It runs as root and applies an update started from the dashboard by running dnf.

Logs and paths

What Where
Binary /usr/bin/nf-collector
Config /etc/nexus-fleet/collector.toml, written on first install only, with collector.example.toml in the same directory
Data directory /var/lib/nexus-fleet
Logs journalctl -u nf-collector, and a rolling copy at /var/lib/nexus-fleet/logs/collector.log, 5 files of 10 MB each
Service names nf-collector, nf-collector-updater.path and nf-collector-updater.service
Service user nexus-fleet

Update

Update on the dashboard installs the newer version with dnf. By hand, upgrade the package.

bash
sudo dnf upgrade -y nf-collector

dnf verifies the package signature, restarts the service on the new binary, and the collector stays on the channel it was installed from. An updated collector keeps its certificate and its record. Do not enrol it again.

Remove

To reinstall the collector later on the same host, remove the package. The data directory is retained. Do not decommission the collector on the dashboard.

bash
sudo dnf remove -y nf-collector

The dashboard shows the terminal as offline until the collector is reinstalled. The readings, the config, the logs and the service user stay on the host, and the reinstalled collector reconnects to the same record.

Purge

To remove the collector permanently, decommission it on the dashboard first, while it is online. The collector deletes its enrolment and the dashboard marks its record decommissioned. Remove on the dashboard deletes the record. See Retire and revoke. Then remove the package, and after it the data directory, the config, the logs and the service user, which dnf remove keeps.

bash
sudo dnf remove -y nf-collector
sudo rm -rf /var/lib/nexus-fleet /etc/nexus-fleet /var/log/nexus-fleet
sudo userdel nexus-fleet

No collector files remain on the host. A collector installed on the host later enrols as a new collector, with a new record on the dashboard.