Overview

Colocation Manager one of most powerful HostBill modules and an extremely rich-featured tool to help you store and manage Servers, Switches, PDUs, KVMs, Blade Systems, Zero-U devices and more. 

Installation

• After purchase go to https://hostbillapp.com/clientarea/, log-in and proceed to Services → HostBill Plugins → Colocation Manager v5 and from left-hand menu choose Download This Product
• After downloading, unzip archive contents in your main HostBill directory
• Log-in into your HostBill adminarea, proceed to Settings → Modules, locate your newly uploaded module and choose Activate

Initial Configuration

Colocation Manager v5 module for HostBill is easy to configure

Adding PDU control to customer account

• Under Settings → Modules find and activate PDU_SNMP module
• Proceed to Settings → Apps and define SNMP connection using PDU_SNMP module
  • From the list of supported device manufacturers select your device
  • Provide SNMP read & write community
  • Use Test Connection to check whether HostBill can connect to your PDU
• Repeat the steps above for each PDU you wish to control
• Proceed to Plugins → Dedicated Servers Manager → Inventory templates
  • Select inventory items that will represent your PDUs
  • Ensure those items have PDU App as an additional atribute
• Proceed to Plugins → Dedicated Servers Manager → [Your Rack]
  • Select/Add PDU item on your rack
  • From Hardware Tab, select App defined in previous steps
  • Use Load ports to load ports from your device
  • Save changes for your item
• Proceed to Orders & Accounts → Accounts, select customer account of Type: Colocation/Dedicated server
  • Under PDU tab, select PDU & ports that this account/server is attached to
  • You will now have control over customer PDU ports

Adding PDU reboots to client portal

• Connect PDU ports to customer accounts using steps above
• Proceed to Settings → Products & Services
  • Select product of Type: Colocation / Dedicated Servers
  • Proceed to Client Functions tab
  • Enable PDU Reboots Client function

Adding Switch control to customer account

• Under Settings → Modules find and activate Switch_SNMP or Switch_Telnet module
• Proceed to Settings → Apps and define SNMP connection using Switch_SNMP or Switch_Telnet module
  • From the list of supported device manufacturers select your device
  • Provide SNMP read & write community (for SNMP) or username/password for Telnet
  • Use Test Connection to check whether HostBill can connect to your Switch
• Repeat the steps above for each Switch you wish to control
• Proceed to Plugins → Dedicated Servers Manager → Inventory templates
  • Select inventory items that will represent your Switches
  • Ensure those items have Switch App as an additional atribute
• Proceed to Plugins → Dedicated Servers Manager → [Your Rack]
  • Select/Add Switch item on your rack
  • From Hardware Tab, select App defined in previous steps
  • Use Load ports to load ports from your device
  • Save changes for your item
• Proceed to Orders & Accounts → Accounts, select customer account of Type: Colocation/Dedicated server
  • Under Switch tab, select Switch & ports that this account/server is attached to
  • You will now have control over customer Switch ports

Connecting to Cacti / Observium for bandwidth billing

• Under Settings → Modules find and activate Cacti or Observium module
• Proceed to Settings → Apps, add new Cacti or Observium App connection
  • Make sure to follow oncreen guide to upload API file to your Cacti or Observium server
  • Provide admin username & password
  • Use Test Connection to check whether HostBill can connect to your Cacti or Observium app
• Proceed to Settings → Products & Services
  • Select product of Type: Colocation / Dedicated Servers
  • Under General tab configure your Bandwidth/Overage billing settings
  • Under Connect with App select Cacti or Observium and connection defined in previous steps
  • Under Client Functions you can enable Bandwidth usage graphs for clients to track graphs in client portal
  • Save changes
• Proceed to Orders & Accounts → Accounts, select customer account of Type: Colocation/Dedicated server
  • Under Bandwidth Tab click enable, and select Device/Ports to assign graphs to account & (optionally) bill for them

Connecting to Nagios

• Under Settings → Modules find and activate Nagios module
• Proceed to Settings → Apps, add new Nagios App connection
  • Provide Nagios username & password
  • Provide URL to your Nagios (URL to cgi-bin directory)
  • Use Test Connection to check whether HostBill can connect to your Nagios
• Proceed to Plugins → Dedicated Servers Manager → [Your Rack]
  • Using [Refresh] function you can fetch latest monitoring outputs from Nagios
  • HostBill tries to match devices from Nagios using hostname/labels, so make sure those match in Colocation Manager and Nagios
• If you wish your clients to have access to Nagios output as well:
  • Proceed to Settings → Products & Services, select your colo/dedi product
  • Under Connect with App add new connection, select Nagios module & app
  • Under Client functions enable Monitoring function
  • Proceed to customer account details in Orders & Accounts
  • Under Dedicated Srv Manager assign item related to the customer account

Image uploads for Inventory Templates

If image/item icons uploads in Inventory Templates is not working for you, please ensure that/includes/modules/Other/Dedimgr/admin/images/hardware have chmod 777

Enabling Top Bandwidth usage list plugin

• Ensure that guides above regarding Cacti/Observium are finished
• Under Settings → Modules find and activate Top Bandwidth usage list module
• Module will now be accessibe from Plugins menu