Installation preparation (AEN 4.1.2)#

Download the installers

Download the installers and copy them to the corresponding servers.

RPM_CDN="https://820451f3d8380952ce65-4cc6343b423784e82fd202bb87cf87cf.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com"
curl -O $RPM_CDN/aen-server-4.1.2-Linux-x86_64.sh
curl -O $RPM_CDN/aen-gateway-4.1.2-Linux-x86_64.sh
curl -O $RPM_CDN/aen-compute-4.1.2-Linux-x86_64.sh

NOTE: The current $RPM_CDN server will be confirmed in an email provided by your priority support representative.

Record IP addresses, domain names, accounts, passwords

AEN is very sensitive to the IP address or domain name used to connect to the Server and Gateway components. If users will be using the domain name, you should install the components using the domain name instead of the IP addresses. The authentication system requires the proper hostnames when authenticating users between the services.

Fill in the domain names or IP addresses of the components below and record the user name and auto-generated password for the administrative user account in the box below after installing the AEN Server component.

Component Name or IP address Port Number
AEN Server    
AEN Gateway    
AEN Compute    
AEN_SRVC_GRP   N/A
AEN_SRVC_ACCT   N/A
Password   N/A

NOTE: These IP entries or DNS entries are referred to as <AEN_SERVER_IP> or <AEN_SERVER_FQDN>, particularly in examples of shell commands. Consider actually assigning those values to environment variables with similar names.

NOTE: AEN_SRVC_ACCT is also know as the AEN Functional ID (or NFI). This is the Linux account that runs all AEN services. The default name for this account in the setup script is wakari, though current best practice is to use aen-admin as the account name. The password to be recorded here is generated during the install procedure and goes to the AEN_SRVC_ACCT /NFI/wakari/aen-admin user.

NOTE: If you have more than one AEN Compute Node, record the name or IP address of each.

Setup variables

AEN Server address

Define an environment variable for the AEN Server address (FQDN or IP):

export AEN_SERVER=<AEN_SERVER_IP>  # <from table above>

Note that the address (FQDN or IP) specified for the AEN server must be resolvable by your intended AEN users’ web clients. You may verify your hostname as follows:

echo $AEN_SERVER

AEN Functional ID

AEN must be installed and executed by a Linux account called the AEN Service Account. The username of the AEN Service Account is called the AEN Functional ID (NFI). The AEN Service Account is created during AEN installation if it does not exist and is used to run all AEN services.

The default NFI username is wakari. Current best practices suggests using aen_admin. Set the environment variable AEN_SRVC_ACCT before installation:

export AEN_SRVC_ACCT="aen_admin"

This name will then be the username of the AEN Service Account and the username of the AEN Admin account.

When upgrading AEN, set the NFI to the NFI of the current installation.

AEN Functional Group

The name of the AEN Functional Group (NFG) is often set to “wakari” or “aen_admin” but may be given any name. This Linux group includes the AEN Service Account, so all files and directories that have the owner NFI also have the group NFG.

When upgrading AEN, set the NFG to the NFG of the current installation.

Set the AEN Functional Group with this command before installation, either using “wakari” or replacing it with your chosen name:

export AEN_SRVC_GRP="aen_admin"

AEN install sudo command

During AEN installation, the installers perform various operations that require root level privileges. By default the installers use the sudo command to perform these operations. Set the following environment variable *before* installation to override the default sudo command to perform root level operations or no command at all when the user running the installers has root privileges and the sudo command is not needed or available: AEN_SUDO_INSTALL_CMD

Examples:

export AEN_SUDO_INSTALL_CMD=""
export AEN_SUDO_INSTALL_CMD="sudo2"

AEN sudo command

By default the AEN services uses sudo -u to perform operations on behalf of other users. Such operations include mkdir, chmod, cp and mv. Set the following environment variable before installation to override the default sudo command when sudo is not available on the system: AEN_SUDO_CMD.

Note, AEN must have the ability to perform operations on behalf of other users. This environment variable cannot be set to an empty string or null. The AEN_SUDO_CMD must support the -u command line parameter similar to the sudo command.

Example:

export AEN_SUDO_CMD="sudo2"

The optional environmental variable AEN_SUDO_SH is another way to customize AEN sudo operations. When AEN executes any sudo command it will include the value of AEN_SUDO_SH if it is set.

For example, if your username is “jsmith” and these values are set:

AEN_SUDO_CMD=sudo
OWNER=jsmith
AEN_SUDO_SH=sudologger
PROJECT_HOME=/projects/jsmith/myproj

Then AEN will resolve this command:

$AEN_SUDO_CMD -u ${OWNER} $AEN_SUDO_SH rm -rf $PROJECT_HOME

To this command:

sudo -u jsmith sudologger rm -rf /projects/jsmith/myproj

In this case the sudologger utility could be a pass through utility that logs all sudo usage and then executes the remaining parameters.

NOTE: You must perform the entire procedure before closing the terminal to ensure all variable exports persists.

Note on Post-Install Customization

Review the post-installation documentation for additional information on sudo configuration options.

While root/sudo privileges are required during installation, root/sudo privileges are not required during normal operations after install, if user accounts are managed outside the software (for example, via LDAP). However root/sudo privileges are required to start the services, thus in the service config files there may still need to be a AEN_SUDO_CMD entry.

Next Steps

See the next steps needed for full AEN install below:

The following optional install procedures may need to be performed, depending on how you set up your data center:

Additional post-install information: