flex.bi Enterprise installation guide on CentOS 8

These are instructions for flex.bi Enterprise 6.0 and later. For earlier version please contact flex.bi support.

System Requirements

Information about system requirements for flex.bi Enterprise installation can be found here: Requirements.

Make sure you have set up server entropy to avoid your server from being slow and unresponsive. See our guide for Setting up server entropy using Haveged.

Our default setup

We have chosen Linux CentOS 8 as our default server platform and MySQL/MariaDB as a database engine, so these instruction apply for this specific setup.

However, flex.bi Enterprise can also be installed on older CentOS, Redhat versions as well as other distributions of Linux, by adjusting the available software, it's versions and installation methods. For example using rpm or apt-get or yum instead of dnf or PostgreSQP instead of MySQL.

Versions mentioned here are current as of 2021.03.24 - they might of course change in the future.

Software Installation

The following are instructions for flex.bi Enterprise and the required software installation on Centos 8 operating system.

Java installation

Run the following command to install Java JDK 11:
CODE
```
sudo dnf install java-11-openjdk-devel
```
Run the following command, to test if the result matches the version you installed
CODE
```
java -version
```

MySQL Server installation

The CentOS 8 AppStream repository only contain MySQL 8.0 packages, so, to install MySQL 5.7, we need to do some prep-work.

Disable MySQL default AppStream repository.

CODE

sudo dnf remove @mysql
sudo dnf module reset mysql && sudo dnf module disable mysql

Create a new repository file..

CODE

sudo vi /etc/yum.repos.d/mysql-community.repo

Paste the following dat into the new repo file.

CODE

[mysql57-community]
name=MySQL 5.7 Community Server
baseurl=http://repo.mysql.com/yum/mysql-5.7-community/el/7/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

[mysql-connectors-community]
name=MySQL Connectors Community
baseurl=http://repo.mysql.com/yum/mysql-connectors-community/el/7/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

[mysql-tools-community]
name=MySQL Tools Community
baseurl=http://repo.mysql.com/yum/mysql-tools-community/el/7/$basearch/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

Disable MySQL 8 repository.

CODE

sudo dnf config-manager --disable mysql80-community

Enable repository for MySQL 5.7.

CODE

sudo dnf config-manager --enable mysql57-community

Install MySQL 5.7.
CODE
```
sudo dnf install mysql-community-server
```

flex.bi Enterprise installation

For security reasons we recommend creating dedicated flexbi user. Run the following command to achieve that:
CODE
```
sudo useradd flexbi
```
Move the flex.bi Enterprise installation .zip archive file to /home/flexbi directory on your server.
Run the following command to unzip the .zip archive file (file name in the example can differ from the actual file depending on the software version):
CODE
```
unzip flexbi_private_6.0.zip
```
After the unzip process finishes, you should have a new /home/flexbi/flexbi_private directory containing the following folders:
CODE
```
app
bin
config
examples
lib
log
public
spec
tmp
```
Run the following commands, to ensure that the flex.bi folder and its contents are owned by the user flexbi:
CODE
```
chown -R flexbi:flexbi flexbi_private
```

MySQL connector installation

Download the MySQL JDBC driver version 8.0.23.
Move the downloaded .zip archive to /home/flexbi directory on your server and then run the following command to unzip the archive (file name in the example can differ from the actual file depending on the software version):
CODE
```
unzip mysql-connector-java-8.0.23.zip
```
Copy the .jar file from the newly created folder to the /home/flexbi/flexbi_private/lib directory (if it doesn't exist, create it). Run the following command to achieve that (file name in the example can differ from the actual name depending on the software version):
CODE
```
cp mysql-connector-java-8.0.23/mysql-connector-java-8.0.23.jar flexbi_private/lib/
```

Setup and configuration

MySQL Server configuration

If you have large amount of records, we suggest to adjust the database engine performance by editing /etc/my.cnf file using appropriate values.
The following is an example of a good performance configuration that you can insert under the [mysqld] part of the configuration file:
CODE
```
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 1024M
innodb_log_file_size = 256M
query_cache_size= 16M
query_cache_type = 1
max_connections = 200
```
If you change the log file size after starting the MySQL server, you have to delete id_logfile0 and id_logfile1 file from /var/lib/mysql directory.

Adjust the innodb_buffer_pool_size to a level that you can actually afford on your server, taking into account Java and other application memory need
Run the following command to start MySQL Server and ensure that it will be automatically started during server startup:
CODE
```
systemctl enable --now mysqld.service
```
Run the following command, to get the automatically generated MySQL Server root user password:
CODE
```
sudo grep 'A temporary password' /var/log/mysqld.log |tail -1
```
Make note of the password shown on screen.
Start MySQL Secure Installation to change the root password, Disallow root login remotely, remove anonymous users and remove test database.
CODE
```
sudo mysql_secure_installation
```
Connect to MySQL Database as root user, using the new password.
CODE
```
mysql -u root -p
```

Run the following commands, to create a flex.bi user named flexbi_private: (Exchange secret with the actual password you want to use.)

CODE

CREATE USER 'flexbi_private'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'secret';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `flexbi_private%`.* TO 'flexbi_private'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'secret';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Firewall configuration

By default flex.bi Enterprise runs on the port 8080, so you should open ths port in your firewall.
To do this, follow these instructions:

Run the following command to open the port 8080:
CODE
```
firewall-cmd --permanent --add-port=8080/tcp
```
Run the following command to reload the firewall:
CODE
```
firewall-cmd --reload
```
Run the following command to check if the port is open:
CODE
```
firewall-cmd --list-ports
```

Google Chrome Installation

flex.bi uses Google Chrome for report exports, so for this feature to work you have to install Google Chrome.
Do do this, follow these instructions:

Get Google Chrome rpm.

CODE

wget https://dl.google.com/linux/direct/google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.rpm

Install Google Chrome from the .rpm file you just downloaded.
CODE
```
sudo dnf localinstall google-chrome-stable_current_x86_64.rpm
```

Centos 8 configuration

To ensure full functionality of the flex.bi Enterprise, you have to change the default Centos 8 crypto policy level to LEGACY.
To do this, run the following command:

CODE

update-crypto-policies --set LEGACY

flex.bi Enterprise configuration

The main tool for flex.bi Enterprise configuration is the Configure the eazybi.toml file located in the /config folder in your flex.bi direcotry.

Run the following command, to copy the eazybi.toml.sample file in the /config folder to a new file named eazybi.toml:
CODE
```
cp /home/flexbi/flexbi_private/config/eazybi.toml.sample /home/flexbi/flexbi_private/config/eazybi.toml
```

In a text editor of your choice, open the newly created eazybi.toml file and make the necessary configurations:

Add licence information:

CODE

[license]
name = "Organization name"
key = """
Paste license key here
"""

Configure general parameters, like, time zone, user registration, account creation etc.

CODE

[general]
# By default local server time zone will be used. Specify different if necessary.
# time_zone = "Europe/Riga"

# Uncomment to allow account creation only to system admins.
# disable_account_creation = true

# Uncomment to disable user registration.
# disable_user_registration = true
......

Specify default URL parameters like host and port for accessing your flex.bi Enterprise installation:

CODE

[default_url_options]
# This example is for the default http://localhost:8080 URL.
host = "localhost"
port = 8080
# This example is for the https://example.com URL.
# host = "example.com"
# protocol = "https"

Specify Mailer parameter, to set the e-mail address that will be used as the sender address for communication from the flex.bi Enterprise.
CODE
```
[mailer]
from = "noreply@example.com"
```

Configure SMPT parameters for sending out e-mails from flex.bi Enterprise.

CODE

[mailer.smtp]
# address = "smtp.gmail.com"
# port = "587"
# domain = "example.com"
# user_name = "noreply@example.com"
# password = "secret"
# authentication = "plain"
# enable_starttls_auto = true

Add a systemd initialization script for starting flex.bi service.

Copy the sample initialization script from the /bin/systemd directory of the flex.bi installation folder to the /etc/systemd/system/ directory in your server.
CODE
```
cp /home/flexbi/flexbi_private/bin/systemd/flexbi.service /etc/systemd/system/
```

Open the file with a text editor of your choice and adjust the configuration to your needs.

CODE

# Sample init script for flex.bi
[Unit]
Description=flex.bi reporting service
After=syslog.target network.target
[Service]
Type=simple
# Run the service as this user and group
User=flexbi
Group=flexbi
TimeoutSec=30
# Remember to change /home/flexbi/flexbi_private to the actual home directory of flex.bi in all places
WorkingDirectory=/home/flexbi/flexbi_private
Environment="RAILS_ENV=production"
Environment="EAZYBI_HOME=/home/flexbi/flexbi_private"
Environment="EAZYBI_PREFIX=/flexbi"
Environment="RUBYOPT=-W0"
# Adjust to available memory
Environment="JAVA_OPTS=-Xmx1024m -Xms256m -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -Djava.awt.headless=true -Dorg.eclipse.jetty.LEVEL=OFF -Djava.io.tmpdir=/home/flexbi/flexbi_private/tmp"

# Default configuration
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java $JAVA_OPTS -Dwarbler.host=localhost -Dwarbler.port=8080 -jar flexbi_private.jar


Restart=on-failure
StandardOutput=syslog
StandardError=syslog
SyslogIdentifier=flexbi
#LimitNOFILE=10000
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Run the following command to start flex.bi service and ensure it is started during server startup:
CODE
```
systemctl enable --now flexbi.service
```
To ensure secure connection using https protocol, follow instructions in our documentation page HTTPS or SSL setup.
Once the flexbi.service is started, you should be able to open the previously configured URL in your browser and start using flex.bi Enterprise.