The FlexDeploy distribution contains the following components:
A tomcat 9 server with required libraries, and base configurations
The FlexDeploy WAR
The FlexDeploy database installation scripts
The FlexDeploy database migration scripts (for upgrading an existing FlexDeploy Tomcat installation)
The FlexDeploy plugins
Unless you are running on Windows or have been advised by Flexagon Support, consider using the Automated Linux installer instead.
Requirements
See FlexDeploy System Requirements for details on software and hardware requirements
Installation Instructions
Adjust for Windows path if you are installing on Windows platform.
Step 1. Ensure Java 8 is installed on the server.
In this example, JAVA_HOME is /u01/java/jdk1.8.0_281 but it can be anything you want. If default java is not version 8, then we will need to adjust for it during Step 7 later.
Step 2. Prepare software
FlexDeploy can be downloaded from the Flexagon Support Site. You will download specific version of FlexDeploy, download file is named Tomcat_Complete-X.X.X.X.zip, where X.X.X.X represents four digit version number.
Extract the zip file in the desired location (referred to as "FLEXDEPLOY_HOME" in this document). See example below, where zip was extracted in /u01/flexdeploy folder.
We recommend use of folder structure without any space in name.
cd /u01 mkdir -p flexdeploy cd flexdeploy unzip <location of distribution zip>/Tomcat_Complete-X.X.X.X.zip
Here is how it will look like after unzip.
Step 3. Setup database and schemas
Setup the appropriate database, if you not already done so.
Manual Installation Instructions - Database Tier - Oracle
Manual Installation Instructions - Database Tier - PostgreSQL
Step 4. Update Tomcat context.xml
Modify Tomcat configuration file (context.xml) for database connectivity depending on your database type.
Replace the contents of context.xml with the contents the context-<type>.xml if using PostgreSQL.
Replace URL and Password with the actual values.
File - <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/apache-tomcat-flexdeploy/conf/context.xml
Example JDBC URL (CONNECT_STRING)
Oracle
The JDBC short format of host:sid:port should not be used. URL must be in the format listed below as we are requiring use of UCP based connection pooling.
Example -
jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS_LIST=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=**HOSTNAME**)(PORT=**PORT**)))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=**SERVICE_NAME**)))
If RAC is used for the database, multiple nodes can be listed in the address list of the URL or it can point to the scan listener for the cluster. See below sample URL for a RAC implementation that has a primary and secondary scan listener connecting to to a service name GOLD-CLOUD. This includes connection timeout, retry, and retry delay settings.
Example -
jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION = CONNECT_TIMEOUT=120) (RETRY_COUNT=20) (RETRY_DELAY=3) (TRANSPORT_CONNECT_TIMEOUT=3) (ADDRESS_LIST =(LOAD_BALANCE=on) (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP) (HOST=primary-scan) (PORT=1521))) (ADDRESS_LIST =(LOAD_BALANCE=on) (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP) (HOST=secondary-scan) (PORT=1521))) (CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME = gold-cloud)))
PostgreSQL
Syntax - jdbc:postgresql://hostname:port/flexdeploy
Example -
jdbc:
postgresql://dkrlp01:5432/flexdeployIf you are using database name other than flexdeploy, then update URL accordingly.
Follow the instructions provided here to connect to Oracle Autonomous databases.
Oracle
<Resource name="jdbc/flexdbDS" auth="Container" type="oracle.ucp.jdbc.PoolDataSource" factory="oracle.ucp.jdbc.PoolDataSourceImpl" connectionFactoryClassName="oracle.jdbc.pool.OracleDataSource" minPoolSize="0" maxPoolSize="100" initialPoolSize="0" autoCommit="false" inactiveConnectionTimeout="300" url="**CONNECT_STRING**" user="fd_admin" password="**FD_ADMIN_PASSWORD**" fastConnectionFailoverEnabled="true" validationQuery="select 1 from dual" testOnBorrow="true" useLocalSessionState="true" defaultAutoCommit="false"/>
PostgreSQL
<Resource name="jdbc/flexdbDS" auth="Container" type="javax.sql.DataSource" factory="org.apache.tomcat.jdbc.pool.DataSourceFactory" driverClassName="org.postgresql.Driver" url="**CONNECT_STRING**" username="fd_admin" password="**FD_ADMIN_PASSWORD**" maxTotal="100" maxIdle="20" validationQuery="select 1" testOnBorrow="true" defaultTransactionIsolation="READ_COMMITTED" useLocalSessionState="true" defaultAutoCommit="false"/>
Step 5. (Optional) Update Tomcat server.xml
Modify Tomcat server.xml if necessary. If you want to use different port or setup https, the you would need to update server.xml.
File - <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/apache-tomcat-flexdeploy/conf/server.xml
By default, the Tomcat server is configured to run on port 8000. If this port is in use, change to some other unused port. Search for <Connector port="8000" protocol="HTTP/1.1" if you want to change it.
There are other ports referenced in the server.xml file as well. If the logs contain a port in use error, you can find the open ports on your machine and then search this file for ports that you find are in use and change them.
Step 6. (Optional) Update setenvoverride
Modify Tomcat Environment script (setenvoverride.sh or setenvoverride.bat) for FlexDeploy server side directories, memory specifications or JAVA_HOME.
File - <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/apache-tomcat-flexdeploy/bin/setenvoverride.sh (setenvoverride.bat on windows). Main reason to modify this file is to configure specific JAVA_HOME. Other variables can be left as is for default configurations.
Configure variable JAVA_HOME to use specific version of Java for FlexDeploy tomcat process.
Following other variables are recommended to be left unchanged from default.
Configure variable FD_APPLICATION_DIRECTORY with directory to use as the FlexDeploy application directory (See System Requirements for more information about how much space is needed.)
Configure variable FD_REPOSITORY_DIRECTORY with the directory to host the FlexDeploy artifact repository (See System Requirements for more information about how much space is needed.)
Below are default artifact and working directories created under FLEXDEPLOY_HOME when you extracted zip file.
Default setenvoverride.sh is shown below.
Modify Tomcat Environment script (setenvoverride.sh or setenvoverride.bat) for JAVA_HOME.
File - <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/apache-tomcat-flexdeploy/bin/setenvoverride.sh (setenvoverride.bat on windows)
If JAVA_HOME is already set in your environment, you can skip this step.
Unix Example - JAVA_HOME=/u01/java/jdk1.8.0_382
Windows Example - set JAVA_HOME=c:/installs/Java/jdk1.8.0_382
If you were also setting JAVA_HOME, this file would look like this.
Step 7. Update database driver (Only if using Oracle Database)
Download the latest Oracle JDBC driver from https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/appdev/jdbc-downloads.html. Click on the driver link matching your Oracle database version, and download the driver compatible with JDK8. For example,
ojdbc8-full.tar.gz
.
Be sure to download the JDBC driver matching your Oracle Database version and one which is compiled and compatible with JDK8. If you download the driver which is compiled with a newer JDK you will get errors on server startup similar to the following:
Caused by: java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: oracle/jdbc/OracleClob has been compiled by a more recent version of the Java Runtime (class file version 54.0), this version of the Java Runtime only recognizes class file versions up to 52.0 at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method) at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:756) at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
Clean up old ojdbc jars from <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>\apache-tomcat-flexdeploy\lib.
Save new driver jars from downloaded jdbc driver to <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>\apache-tomcat-flexdeploy\libext. You may have done this already as part of Step 4. Make sure that if you copied the jars for libext of your backup to your new libext, you don’t end up with multiple versions of the Oracle JDBC jars. If migrating from an old version of FlexDeploy, you may want to clean your libext folder and start with a new Oracle Database driver download.
UCP is now required for Oracle Database connections.
Linux
unzip <ojdbc8 download locaton>/ojdbc8-full.zip cd $FLEXDEPLOY_HOME/apache-tomcat-flexdeploy/lib rm ojdbc*.jar cd .. mkdir -p libext cd libext cp <jdbc driver extract location>/ojdbc-full/*.jar .
Windows
unzip <ojdbc8 download locaton>\ojdbc8-full.zip cd %FLEXDEPLOY_HOME%\apache-tomcat-flexdeploy\lib del /f ojdbc*.jar cd .. mkdir libext cd ..\libext copy <jdbc driver extract location>\ojdbc-full\*.jar .
Please put any extra libraries required inside of <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/apache-tomcat-flexdeploy/libext not <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/apache-tomcat-flexdeploy/lib. You may need to create this directory.
Step 8. Set execute permission (Linux only)
Set the shell scripts executable with this command.
chmod +x $FLEXDEPLOY_HOME/apache-tomcat-flexdeploy/bin/*.sh chmod +x $FLEXDEPLOY_HOME/*.sh
Step 9. Adjust for non-default server side directories
Skip this step if you did not modify setenvoverride for FD_APPLICATION_DIRECTORY in Step 6.
If you are using non-default server side directories, then move all the jar files from <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/application/plugins to FD_APPLICATION_DIRECTORY/plugins. At startup, FlexDeploy will load all the plugins.
Step 10. Configure Influx database
This is a required step that must be executed.
Download links for the influx database software and client, if not already downloaded.
Influx database software (Linux) - Influx database software (Windows)
Influx database client (Linux) - Influx database client (Windows)
Untar the influx database software and client to the desired location.
tar xf <tar file directory>/influxdb2-2.2.0-linux-amd64.tar.gz --strip-components 1 -C $FLEXDEPLOY_HOME/influxdb tar xf <tar file directory>/influxdb2-client-2.2.1-linux-amd64.tar.gz --strip-components 1 -C $FLEXDEPLOY_HOME/influxdb
Adjust the influx database configuration file. <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/influxdb/config/config.yaml
Linux
cd $FLEXDEPLOY_HOME mkdir -p application/vsm cd influxdb/config vi config.yaml
Check your open file limits. Influx opens a large number of files to complete its work.
ulimit -Hn
will show the open file limit for the current user. Make sure you run it as the user who will be executing FlexDeploy and Influx.
If it is less that 65536, we recommend raising it.
sudo vi /etc/security/limits.conf
where oracle is the user logged into the box to run FlexDeploy:
oracle soft nofile 16384
oracle hard nofile 65536
Windows
cd %FLEXDEPLOY_HOME% mkdir application\vsm cd influxdb\config edit config.yaml
Change the following locations: You must put absolute path as no environment variables are allowed in this file.
Linux
bolt-path: from <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/influxdb/data/influxd.bolt to <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/application/vsm/data/influxd.bolt
engine-path: from <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/influxdb/data/engine to <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/application/vsm/data/engine
sqlite-path: <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/influxdb/data/influxd.sqlite to <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/application/vsm/data/influxd.sqlite
Windows
bolt-path: from <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>\influxdb\data\influxd.bolt to <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>\application\vsm\data\influxd.bolt
engine-path: from <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>\influxdb\data\engine to <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>\application\vsm\data\engine
sqlite-path: <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>\influxdb\data\influxd.sqlite to <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>\application\vsm\data\influxd.sqlite
Setup the config file for FlexDeploy to connect to influxdb.
Create the file <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/influxdb/config/fdinflux.config with the following contents, modifed appropriately for your install.
INFLUXDB_URL=http://localhost:8086 INFLUXDB_BUCKET=flexbucket INFLUXDB_ORG=flexdeploy
Step 11. Start tomcat
If running FlexDeploy 6.0 or higher, do not use startup.sh as this will not start the influx database.
Linux
cd $FLEXDEPLOY_HOME # this will be automatically updated within a FlexDeploy credential (FD_INFLUXDB_ADMIN_TOKEN) on startup so FlexDeploy can connect with the influx database. # This will be used in the next setup step. export INFLUX_DB_TOKEN=<arbitrary value> echo ${INFLUX_DB_TOKEN} > application/vsm/.token ./StartFlexDeploy.sh
Windows
cd %FLEXDEPLOY_HOME% # this will be automatically updated within a FlexDeploy credential (FD_INFLUXDB_ADMIN_TOKEN) on startup so FlexDeploy can connect with the influx database. # This will be used in the next setup step. set INFLUX_DB_TOKEN=<arbitrary value> echo %INFLUX_DB_TOKEN% > application\vsm\.token StartFlexDeploy.bat
Once influx and tomcat servers are up, we need to run setup on the influx database.
Linux
cd $FLEXDEPLOY_HOME/influxdb INFLUX_DB_PASSWORD=<arbitrary value> rm -rf ~/.influxdbv2 ./influx setup --bucket flexbucket --token ${INFLUX_DB_TOKEN} --org flexdeploy --username=flexuser --password=${INFLUX_DB_PASSWORD} --host=http://localhost:8086 --force ./influx bucket list ID Name Retention Shard group duration Organization ID Schema Type 8eec65b90f79c55e _monitoring 168h0m0s 24h0m0s 9050d0dddc192df9implicit 4d6413cbaad04850 _tasks 72h0m0s 24h0m0s 9050d0dddc192df9implicit a3521682726cd901 flexbucket infinite 168h0m0s 9050d0dddc192df9implicit # take the ID value for the flexbucket (Name) so we can update the retention policy to 104 weeks or 2 years ./influx bucket update --id a3521682726cd901 --retention 104w
Windows
cd %FLEXDEPLOY_HOME%\influxdb set INFLUX_DB_PASSWORD=<arbitrary value> rmdir /s <user directory>\.influxdbv2 influx setup --bucket flexbucket --token %INFLUX_DB_TOKEN% --org flexdeploy --username=flexuser --password=%INFLUX_DB_PASSWORD% --host=http://localhost:8086 --force influx bucket list ID Name Retention Shard group duration Organization ID Schema Type 8eec65b90f79c55e _monitoring 168h0m0s 24h0m0s 9050d0dddc192df9implicit 4d6413cbaad04850 _tasks 72h0m0s 24h0m0s 9050d0dddc192df9implicit a3521682726cd901 flexbucket infinite 168h0m0s 9050d0dddc192df9implicit # take the ID value for the flexbucket (Name) so we can update the retention policy to 104 weeks or 2 years influx bucket update --id a3521682726cd901 --retention 104w
Note for Oracle XE Database
After starting your server, check the <FLEXDEPLOY_HOME>/apache-tomcat-flexdeploy/logs/flexdeploy.0.log file for the following error message:
ORA-12519, TNS:no appropriate service handler found
If present, increase the number of processes for the database
Using SQLPlus update processes setting.
alter system set processes=200 scope=spfile;
Stop Tomcat
Restart the XE Database
Start Tomcat
Step 12. Launch FlexDeploy in your browser.
http://hostname:8000/flexdeploy
Update hostname in URL to indicate host where FlexDeploy is installed.
Update port if you had modified server.xml for different port number.
You will need to complete Initial Registration process, where you will create admin user for login.
Step 13. Verification
Go to Administration - Plugins on FlexDeploy. Verify that Plugins are loaded. You should not see any files remaining in FD_APPLICATION_DIRECTORY/plugins folder after a few minutes.
Step 14. FlexDeploy configuration
Now that you have installed FlexDeploy, let's get start with configuration. You can do this in matter of minutes by using Blueprints concept, which is very simple configuration wizard for most common use cases.
Related Topics
- Change FlexDeploy process user on Linux
- Enabling HTTPS on FlexDeploy (Tomcat)
- Security Hardening options for FlexDeploy
- Tuning Postgres for better performance if "cold" reads are slow
- FlexDeploy Backups Repository
- Using Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with FlexDeploy
- Using FlexDeploy with a load Balancer that offloads HTTPS
- Using FlexDeploy to access external services through a proxy