Server setup and installation

From PowerFolder Wiki

Contents 1 Preface 2 Server installation and setup 2.1 Requirements 3 Linux 3.1 Preparation 3.2 Installation 3.3 Starting/Stopping/Restarting 3.4 Rotate logs 4 Windows 4.1 Preparation 4.2 Installation and setup 4.3 Stopping/Restarting 5 Adding user accounts 6 Admin user account reset 7 Troubleshooting 8 Related documentation

Preface

This guide explains how to install and run PowerFolder Server.

Server installation and setup

Requirements

• PowerFolder Server zip distribution-file. Contact us for download information.
• Server license key.
• Linux or Windows server with Java Runtime Edition 6.0 (Update 11 or higher) and at least 512MB memory (1GB recommended).
• Firewall that allows inbound TCP connections on port 1337 and 8080.
• SMTP Mail gateway service. Linux usually provides this service by default, but might need some configuration before it can be used. It is also possible to use an external mail provider for this.
• (Required) Fix DNS hostname, fix IP or at least a DynDNS.
• (Recommended) A encrypted drive or partition to store all user data. We recommend LUKS.
• (Optional) a HTTP server to add SSL encryption to the webinterface. We recommend Apache HTTP Server.

Linux

Preparation

1. It is recommend to create a special user account, which runs PowerFolder Server. Running as root is highly discouraged.
2. Create a installation directory, that hosts the PowerFolder jar file, debug logs and the configuration file. Recommendation "~/powerfolder". PowerFolder Server gets executed in this installation directory.
3. Check and configure the system according to our configuration notes for Linux.
4. Copy the server license key file into the installation directory.

Installation

1. Extract the server tar-gz-distribution file into the installation directory.
2. Edit "PowerFolder.sh" and change the line 37 (POWERFOLDER_INSTALL) if installation directory is not "~/powerfolder".
3. Rename file "PowerFolder.config.sample" to "PowerFolder.config".
4. Start the server by executing "./PowerFolder.sh start".
5. Open a browser and point it to http://localhost:8080 to open the admin console.
6. Login with the default admin user account (Username: king, Password: $qu33n!).
7. Click "Admin", then "Preferences". Fill out all required fields and click "Save".
8. Restart PowerFolder server by executing "./PowerFolder.sh restart".
9. PowerFolder Server is now configured. You may now add new user accounts via the admin console.

Starting/Stopping/Restarting

1. The script "PowerFolder.sh" offers various command line options like "start", "stop", "restart", "kill" and "status".

Rotate logs

To rotate the debug log files you can add the following commands to your crontab (crontab -e), to have log files from the day before gzipped and older logs than 14 days deleted automatically (just adjust the path to your PowerFolder debug directory):

15 0 * * * find /home/username/powerfolder/debug/ -mmin +10 -type f -name "*log.txt" -exec gzip {} \; >/dev/null 2>&1

30 0 * * * find /home/username/powerfolder/debug/ -mtime +14 -type f -name "*log.txt.gz" -exec rm {} \; >/dev/null 2>&1

Windows

Notes:

• It is recommended to run PowerFolder Server as system service. Batch scripts are included to install, uninstall, start and stop the service.
• If not running as service PowerFolder Server runs in console mode only.

Preparation

1. It is recommend to create a special user account, which runs PowerFolder Server. Running PowerFolder as Administrator is highly discouraged.
2. Create a installation directory, that hosts the PowerFolder jar file, log files and the configuration file. The PowerFolder Server gets executed in this installation directory.
3. Copy the server license key file into the installation directory.

Installation and setup

1. Extract the server zip-distribution file into the installation directory.
2. Rename file "PowerFolder.config.sample" to "PowerFolder.config".
3. Execute the batch file "InstallService.bat" to install PowerFolder as service.
4. Start the server by executing "StartService.bat" or via Windows services control panel. Alternatively execute "PowerFolder.bat" to start in console mode.
5. Open a browser and point it to http://localhost:8080 to open the admin console.
6. Login with the default admin user account (Username: king, Password: $qu33n!).
7. Click "Admin", then "Preferences". Fill out all required fields and click "Save".
8. Restart PowerFolder server by executing "StopService.bat" followed by "StartService.bat".
9. PowerFolder Server is now configured. You may now add new user accounts via the admin console.

Stopping/Restarting

To stop the server use the Windows services control panel or execute "StopService.bat" in the installation path.

Adding user accounts

You may now start to create new user accounts. Open the admin console in your web browser and click "Admin", then "Add account".

Admin user account reset

Stop PowerFolder Server. Edit the Server configuration file and add these lines to reset the admin username and password.

Troubleshooting

By default PowerFolder Server creates log files after startup in the subdirectory "logs".

If the server seems not to start, try to start it by hand with the following command line in the installation directory:

java -Xmx256m –jar PowerFolder-server.jar –s

Copy the console output and file a ticket with it's contents attached.

Example console output of a successful server start:

Check java

Check the installed java version with command line: java -version

You require a official Java Runtime Environment (Java2SE) at least version 1.6.0 from Sun Microsystems.

Related documentation

• Server Overview
• Server maintenance folder
• Server admin console
• Server client deployment
• Setup of a Linux server in console mode
• Server configuration file
• Configuration file