Linux Installation Guide

Overview

This guide covers the steps necessary to perform an enterprise installation of Appian on a supported Linux operating system and configured to run on your application server. These steps assume that your installation will be performed on a single server, however, they are also used in conjunction with the High Availability and Distributed Installations page for multiple server installations.

Before starting the installation process, review the System Requirements to ensure all minimum requirements are met.

There are three main parts to an Appian installation:

1. Engine & service installation
2. Environment-specific configuration
3. Startup & site setup

Engine & services installation involves deploying the Appian installation package. Next, environment-specific configurations are made to Appian's engines and services, the application server, and relational database management system (RDBMS) so they all talk to each other. Finally, administrators perform final start-up and setup procedures to get the installation up and running.

Prerequisites

In order to successfully complete the installation steps below, several prerequisite steps must first be completed:

• Install third-party software: The RDBMS must be installed prior to Appian installation. Obtain the appropriate JDBC Driver, which is used to connect to the RDBMS.
• Obtain the temporary product licenses: A product license is required to start the Appian engines as well as the data service. To obtain a temporary product license follow Requesting and Installing a License.

• Configure the application user account: A non-root user must have the following rights assigned when running the setup.

  Directory or File	Read	Write	Execute
  APPIAN_HOME	Yes	Yes	Yes
  JAVA_HOME	Yes	No	Yes
  Installation Package	Yes	No	Yes

• Set the server system locale: The system locale must be defined in order to install Appian. In most cases, the system locale setting will already be set correctly.

Refer to the Installation Prerequisites page for more details.

Part 1: Install Appian engines and services

The first part of the installation process is to run the Appian installer, which deploys the engines, services, search server, data service, Appian Java EE application, and relevant libraries and files. After running the Appian installer, the temporary product license is placed in the appropriate directory from the prerequisite steps. This allows the administrators to obtain information about the machine necessary to acquire a long-term product license.

Run the Appian installer

The Appian installer can be downloaded from the Downloads tab on MyAppian.

To install Appian:

1. Log in using the account that will own the application.
2. Ensure that the <APPIAN_HOME> directory exists prior to executing the installer.
   • Do not use the following characters in the name of your installation directory: & ^ = ( ) <space>
   • Do not install Appian in a directory where another version of Appian is already installed. If you desire to use the same directory names, and are performing these steps as part of an upgrade, rename the older <APPIAN_HOME> directory before installing this one.
3. Execute the installation package.
   • The installer automatically puts Appian files in a default location unless you specify another directory.
   • Optional: When you reach the Destination Folder option, click Browse, and then specify the desired location for the <APPIAN_HOME> directory.
   • The installer extracts some files into the system's temporary directory (/tmp/ by default on a Linux servers). If you encounter an error that says failed to map segment from shared object when running the installer, this directory is not writable by your user. You can change which directory the installer uses for this with the env command.
   • • env TMP=/path/to/tmpdir /path/to/installer.bin
4. Set JAVA_HOME and PATH environment variables

Obtain your long-term product license

Once the installation is complete, your product license must be obtained and installed. Appian cannot be started without a valid license. The temporary license obtained earlier is only valid for 6 days. It is designed to obtain long-term licenses for your environments, for example, dev, test, and production.

To request a long-term license, follow Requesting and Installing a License. For each environment, obtain long-term product licenses for all of the servers where engines will reside as well as licenses for the data service.

Once you have obtained the long-term license, use the configure script to manage the long-term product licenses in a central repository.

Installation Steps for both will be discussed in the next part of the installation guide.

Part 2: Installation configurations

The main part of an Appian installation is setting configuration properties necessary for Appian to communicate with an RDBMS and a web server. This section is split into four parts:

• Appian Configuration
• RDBMS configurations
• External configurations
• Deployment of configurations

Appian configuration

Before making any configurations changes, perform the following parts of the configure script:

1. Running the script.
2. Create the configuration repository.
3. Backing up Appian.
4. Registering an environment.

Once you've registered an environment, the <REPO_HOME> directory will populate subdirectories with a copy of all the core configuration files. Make any desired changes within these repository directories.

The remaining menu options of the configure script are either optional or will be performed later in this installation guide.

Once the configure script has been initialized, the remaining Appian configurations need to be finalized. Changes will be made in the <REPO_HOME> directory.

• Configure site url: Sets up the environment's server, port, and domain. Configured in custom.properties.
• Generate a unique security token for the Appian engines: Appian restricts communication with the engine servers using a security token. Generating a unique security token for each environment offers an extra layer of protection for your installation.
• Generate a unique security token for the data service: Appian restricts communication with the data service using a security token. Generating a unique security token for each environment offers an extra layer of protection for your installation.
• Raise the cap on maximum engine size: This raises the amount of memory that a single execution engine will use.
• Place the K licenses in their folder: Deploy the licenses to the appropriate directory in the repository. Append the environment suffix to the end of the k3.lic and k4.lic file. For example, use k3.lic.dev for a license going to a dev environment. The Appian engines use the k3.lic while the data service uses the k4.lic.

Optional configurations

Optional configurations are performed at the discretion of the System Administrator based on the needs of a particular environment. See the Optional Configurations section of the Post-Install Configurations page for specific guidance.

RDBMS configurations

A supported relational database is required for the Appian data source, which is used exclusively for storing data relating to the Appian installation as a whole.

Whichever relational database is used, a JDBC Driver is required and should have been downloaded as part of the prerequisite steps above.

Connecting to an RDBMS

To create a data source in Appian:

1. Ensure the database user configured in the tomcatResources.xml.<ENVIRONMENT> file has the following privileges on the data source schema:
   • Create tables
   • Drop tables
   • Alter tables
   • Insert into tables
   • Update tables
   • Select tables
2. Install the driver.
3. Provide data source connection information. In the <REPO_HOME>/conf/tomcatResources.xml.<ENVIRONMENT> file, define the JNDI name, server, port, and database name. The JNDI name in the tomcatResources.xml.<ENVIRONMENT> must match the name referenced in custom.properties.

External configurations

These steps occur outside the configure script repository and Appian installation directory.

• Configure disk cleanup: Appian engines and logs generate a lot of data. These configurations ensure that old logs and processes do not max out disk space.
• Exclude Appian engines from antivirus scanning: Antivirus software running on the Appian engines can cause performance issues.

Deployment

Once all of the necessary configurations are made, it's time to deploy the configure script's repository. Deployment consists of two steps: verification and deployment. The configure script has these steps built in.

To properly deploy Appian using the configure script, follow the instruction in the validating configurations and deploying configurations sections of the configure script page.

Configurations can successfully be verified by reviewing the files in the <APPIAN_HOME> directory.

Part 3: Startup and setup

Once all of the configurations are deployed, it's time to start Appian and verify the installation was successful. Before starting Appian and signing into it, a system administrator user account will need to be generated. Additionally, the service manager requires a password to run its scripts.

Generate a password for the service manager

Use the password script to generate a service manager password. This password is used on any of the service manager scripts as a way to protect against anyone without proper access from running administrative scripts.

Start Appian

Follow the instructions on Starting and Stopping Appian to properly start Appian.

Sign in to Appian

To sign in to Appian:

1. In a browser, navigate to https://<host-name>/suite/design/users.
2. Log in with the username Administrator and temporary password admin.
3. Change the system administrator's password when prompted.
4. Click on the Create User button and create a new user of type System Administrator.

The default Administrator account cannot access the Admin Console, so a separate account is required to complete the following steps.

Verify system settings

Review and make changes to the default settings in the Admin Console.

Setup business data sources

The business data source creates a connection between Appian application objects and your business data. Setting up your business data source is handled through the Admin Console. Multiple business data sources can be configured for a single environment.

Troubleshooting

Question: I have configured Appian services to run under daemon, and I have a full product license, but Appian won't start. Running the k command from the console also displays the message k3.lic instead of my license details. Why is that?

If Appian is configured to run as daemon, you must create a symbolic link to the k directory from the /home/ directory (of the user account that is running Appian) to the /home/ directory of the root user. Otherwise, the root user appears to the system to have an invalid license. Also, modify etc/exports to provision read only rights for the directory where k is installed.

Uninstalling Appian

To uninstall Appian, delete the APPIAN_HOME directory.

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