Collect data in ITSI with SELinux

You may encounter these issues when you try to deploy collectd on a host that's running SELinux:

• collectd's LogFile plug-in doesn't have persmissions to write to its log.
• collectd can't establish a network connection and you see the CURL failed with status 7 error.

If you're running SELinux and want to deploy collectd, follow one of the following options so you don't encounter any failures.

Option 1:

Run the collectd process type in permissive mode:

semanage permissive -a collectd_t

SELinux won't deny access to collectd anymore, but you may still see the SELinux denial message.

Option 2:

1. Fix the blocked network connection for collectd:

   setsebool -P collectd_tcp_network_connect 1
   

2. Fix the permission denied for the LogFile plug-in. collectd's log is also available from syslog, and shouldn't require any changes to access from there. Use /var/log/collectd.log in collectd.conf for the LogFile plug-in.
3. Create the mypolicy.te file with this content:

   module mypolicy 1.0;
   
   require {
   type var_log_t;
   type collectd_t;
   class dir { add_name read write };
   class file { create open write };
   }
   
   #============= collectd_t ==============
   
   allow collectd_t var_log_t:dir { add_name write };
   allow collectd_t var_log_t:file open;
   allow collectd_t var_log_t:file create;
   

4. Compile mypolicy.te:

   $ checkmodule -M -m -o mypolicy.mod mypolicy.te
   $ semodule_package -o mypolicy.pp -m mypolicy.mod
   

5. Apply the policy package mypolicy.pp to SELinux:

   $ semodule -i mypolicy.pp