Tag: alfresco

  • How To: Installing Alfresco 6 on Ubuntu Server

    This posting will descibe the installation process of Alfresco 6 on an Ubuntu Server.

    The following prequeries are required:

    • Working Ubuntu server (18.04.3 LTS) with access to the internet
    • SSH or Terminal access to Ubuntu

    On another version of Ubuntu the installation process will be similiar.

    We will use the following locations:

    • Installation path Alfresco 6: /usr/local/alfresco
    • Data path where alfresco should store the repository content: /mnt/data/alfresco-data/

    1. Install the requirements

    Alfresco requires the following software on the destination system:

    • Java JDK (we use OpenJDK)
    • PostgreSQL Server & Client (for managing the database)
    • ImageMagick
    • LibreOffice
    • FFmpeg

    Installing Java JDK

    sudo apt-get install openjdk-11-jre
    sudo apt-get install openjdk-11-jdk

    Installing PostgreSQL

    sudo apt-get install postgresql

    Installing the client:

    sudo apt-get install postgresql-client

    Set admin password for Postgresql:

    sudo -u postgres psql

    Set the password:

    \password postgres

    Display the data-directory:

    SHOW data_directory;

    Quit the client:

    \q 

    Create alfresco db user:

    sudo -u postgres createuser -P -d alfresco

    Enter the password twice.

    Create alfresco database:

    sudo -u postgres createdb -O alfresco alfresco

    Installing ImageMagick

    sudo apt-get install imagemagick imagemagick-doc

    Installing LibreOffice

    sudo apt-get install libreoffice libreoffice-l10n-de libreoffice-help-de

    Installing FFmpeg

    sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

    2. Download and extract Tomcat

    • Create an folder where Alfresco and tomcat should be installed, e.g.: /usr/local/alfresco/ (This is also the ‘root’ or ‘base’ folder of the alfresco instance)
    • Create an folder where the content of alfresco should be stored, e.g.: /data/alfresco/
    • Download an extract tomcat: https://docs.alfresco.com/community/tasks/alf-tomcat-install.html 

    3. Download and extract the alfresco system

    4. Configure Alfresco

    • Follow this guide to install Alfresco (Step 7 of installing tomcat application server can be skipped beacuse we do not use mutual TLS): https://docs.alfresco.com/community/tasks/alf-tomcat-install.html
    • Install Alfrsco search services without mutual TLS: https://docs.alfresco.com/search-community/tasks/solr-install-withoutSSL.html
    • Define the location for storing solr content in alfresco-search-services/solrhome/conf/shared.properties:
      #solr content store location
      solr.content.dir=/mnt/data/alfresco-data/alf_data/solr/contentstore
    • Start solr:
      ./solr/bin/solr start -a "-Dcreate.alfresco.defaults=alfresco,archive“
    • To execute the apply_amps.sh script it is necessary to set the $JAVA_HOME variable:
      export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-11-openjdk-amd64
    • Configure alfresco-global.properties, use this file as template and modify it. Finally copy it to: usr/local/alfresco/tomcat/shared/classes/
    • Install/Deploy the amp files using the following command:
      sh ./bin/apply_amps.sh
    • Check if you have the appropriate folder structure in the root folder of alfresco:
      |– alf_data
      |– alfresco-pdf-renderer
      |– alfresco-search-services
      |– amps
      |– amps_share
      |– bin
      |– licenses
      |– modules
              |– platform
              |– share
      |– tomcat

    5. Test alfresco

    • Test if solr is running: http://localhost:8983
    • Start Tomcat by executing the following command from the tomcate directory: ./bin/startup.sh
    • Open http://localhost:8080 and login (Default: admin/admin)
    • Tail with tail -f ./logs/catalina.out the log files of tomcat
    • With ps -ef | grep tomcat you can see if an instance of tomcat is running
    • With kill PID you can kill tomcat
    • Share and alfresco are creating its own log files, called alfresco.log and share.log
    • Configure the storage path of the log files of alfresco: https://blyx.com/2014/02/18/alfresco-tip-logs/

    6. Put an apache server in front of alfresco

    1.  Install apache:
      sudo apt-get install apache2
    2. After installing Apache2, the commands below can be used to stop, start and enable Apache2 service to automatically start up everytime the server starts:
      sudo systemctl stop apache2.service
      sudo systemctl start apache2.service
      sudo systemctl enable apache2.service
    3. Enable Apache2 Proxy Modules:
      sudo a2enmod proxy
      sudo a2enmod proxy_http
    4. Restart Apache:
      sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
    5. Create a new site configuration in /etc/apache2/sites-available/ with the name alfresco.conf
    6. Put the following configuration into the file:
      <VirtualHost *:80>
      ServerName alfresco.mydomain.com
      ServerAlias alfresco
      ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
      ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
      CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combinedProxyRequests Off
      <Proxy *>
      Order deny,allow
      Allow from all
      </Proxy>

      ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
      ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/<Location />
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
      </Location>
      </VirtualHost>
    7. Save the file.
    8. Enable the configuration and restart apache2.service:
      sudo a2ensite alfresco.conf
      sudo systemctl restart apache2.service
    9. With a2dissite and the conf file you can remove a site configuration
    10. Now alfresco is reachable form apache on port 80.
    11. Change the url and the port in alfresco-global.properties
    12. Add the following settings to the tomcat connector in server.xml (/usr/local/alfresco/tomat/conf/):
      proxyName="files.nettania.net" proxyPort="443"
    13. Restart tomcat

    7. Install SSL Certificate and reconfigure apache to use https

    1.  Install modul ssl:
      sudo a2enmod ssl
    2. Restart apache service:
      sudo service apache2 restart
    3. Create a csr request and get the crt and the key from your SSL Provider (You can use the csr generator from your SSL provider)
    4. Put/Copy the crt and key file to (this is the default storage location for certifcates):
      /etc/ssl/certs/
    5. Configure the virtual host to support ssl. Change the content of /etc/apache2/sites-available/alfresco.conf to:
      <VirtualHost *:443>
      SSLEngine on
      SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/alfresco_nettania_net.crt
      SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/certs/alfresco.nettania.net.keyServerName alfresco.nettania.net
      ServerAlias alfresco
      ServerAdmin Administrator@mydomain.com
      ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
      CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combinedProxyRequests Off
      <Proxy *>
      Order deny,allow
      Allow from all
      </Proxy>ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
      ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/<Location />
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
      </Location>
      </VirtualHost>
    6. Change the connector in tomcat´s server.xml to the following configuration:
      <Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"
      connectionTimeout="20000"
      proxyName="alfresco.mydomain.com"
      proxyPort="443"
      scheme="https"
      secure="true" />
      With this configuration you can prevent the following problems:
      • Possible CSRF attack noted when asserting referer header
      • The browser informs that some content might be not secure
    7. Restart Apache and tomcat and test the configuration

    Links