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Linux Installation

1. Install required software

  1. 1.1) Install the Java 6 JDK (you don't need NetBeans or Java EE). Asset Bank requires Java 5 or higher (on the server) and we recommend Java 6 (Please do not install the Java 7 JDK). We recommend that you use the Server JVM which means that you should download the JDK instead of the JRE, because the JRE only comes with the Client JVM.
  2. 1.2) Install Tomcat version 6.0.26 (Please do not install Tomcat 7). See points 3 and 8 for notes about configuring Tomcat.
  3. 1.3) If you do not already have a database, install the latest version of MySql. Currently we recommend MySQL 5.0 Community Edition.
  4. 1.4) Make sure that the image libraries are installed for the formats you want to support. For example, commonly required libraries are:
  5. 1.5) Install ImageMagick (http://www.imagemagick.org/). We currently recommend installing ImageMagick version 6.6.6.3.
  6. 1.6) Install ExifTool.
    If you need to install from source then follow the above link or download version 8.68 and install as follows: gzip -dc Image-ExifTool-#.##.tar.gz | tar -xf -
    cd Image-ExifTool-#.##
    perl Makefile.PL
    sudo make install     Exiftool will be installed to /usr/local/bin by default. Make sure this is in the PATH for the user running Tomcat.
  7. 1.7) If you want Asset Bank to support RAW formats, install DCRAW. This is a single C file, which should be compiled (e.g. using gcc -o dcraw -O4 dcraw.c -lm -ljpeg -llcms) and placed in the PATH. (e.g. /usr/bin). On Red Hat you can use the package manager to install it (i.e. yum install dcraw).
  8. 1.8) If you want to convert video files, install FFmpeg (http://ffmpeg.mplayerhq.hu/download.html). Step-by-step instructions for building and installing Ffmpeg on Linux.
  9. 1.9) After installing software make sure that any services that are critical to Asset Bank running (Tomcat, MySQL, SMTP etc.) are set to automatically startup if they stop. This will make sure Asset Bank doesn't require manual intervention to get back up and running if the server ever goes down unexpectedly.

2. Install the webapp

  1. 2.1) Download the Asset Bank zip: assetbank.zip
  2. 2.2) Unzip the installation package to a convenient location on your hard drive. This will create a directory called 'asset-bank'.
  3. 2.3) Shutdown Tomcat (if it is running).
  4. 2.3) Move the directory 'asset-bank' into [Tomcat]/webapps.

3. Configure Tomcat

  1. 3.1) For security reasons, don't run Tomcat as root. For example, create a user called 'tomcat' and run as that.
  2. 3.2) Ensure that the user that will be running Tomcat (usually called ‘tomcat’) has recursive read/write permissions on the following directories. For example, set tomcat to be the owner recursively.
    • [tomcat]/webapps/asset-bank
    • [tomcat]/logs
    • [tomcat]/work
    • [tomcat]/temp
  3. 3.3) Copy the file [tomcat]/asset-bank/WEB-INF/manager-config/tomcat/setenv.sh into [tomcat]/bin.
    Edit this file to ensure that the memory settings for Tomcat are suitable for your server. This step is necessary as by default Tomcat will not be given optimal memory to run as a production server.
  4. 3.4) Turn off automatic deployment and reloading of the Asset Bank application by Tomcat.
    • Open the file [Tomcat]\conf\server.xml in a text editor.
    • Search for the string "autoDeploy". You should see something similar to <Host name="localhost" appBase="webapps" unpackWARs="true" autoDeploy="true" xmlValidation="false" xmlNamespaceAware="false">
    • If there are multiple host entries look for the one which applies to your Asset Bank application.
    • Set autoDeploy="false"
    • When Tomcat is installed auto reloading of applications is turned off by default. If for any reason you have changed this please ensure that reloadable is set to false for the Asset Bank application. See http://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-4.1-doc/config/context.html for details.

4. Edit ApplicationSettings.properties

The settings file is in [tomcat]/asset-bank/WEB-INF/classes

Most of the settings in this file can stay as they are. Settings that you must change:

  • imagemagick-path - this should point to the directory containing the image magick executables (e.g. 'convert'). This is usually /usr/local/bin or /usr/bin.
  • The FTP properties (beginning 'ftp') - see below for more information about FTP.
  • emailSMTP - set to the URL of your SMTP mail server.

If you are installing an Enterprise version of Asset Bank that has Multi-Language enabled, please refer to this knowledge base article.


5. Install license

You will have received a license file license.lic by email. This is valid for 30 days (for evaluation) or indefinitely (for production).

Copy the license file license.lic to
[Tomcat]/webapps/asset-bank/WEB-INF/classes.


6. Set up the database

Follow the database setup instructions in Database & Advanced Setup.


7. (Optional) Set up FTP for Bulk Upload

By default, users can upload files for 'Bulk Upload' using a Flash control or Java applet, which is shown on the first page of the Bulk Upload process.

If you do not want your users to use Flash or the applet for bulk upload, users can upload their files for Bulk Uploading using FTP. To enable this you need to install or enable an FTP server. If you don't have a preference, we recommend VSFTP.

You then need to create an FTP user, for example called assetbank-ftp. For security reasons this user should be jailed in their home directory.

The property 'bulk-upload-directory' in the ApplicationSettings.properties file should point to the home directory of the FTP user. The easiest way to do this is to create a symbolic link in [tomcat]/asset-bank called 'bulk-upload', pointing to the FTP user's home directory. If you do this then you don't need to change the value of the setting as it is that by default.

Both the FTP user and Tomcat need to be able to read and write to this 'bulk-upload' directory. The easiest way to do this is by ensuring that the Tomcat user and the FTP user are in the same group and giving group read/write permissions on the directory.

To use FTP rather than the applet, ensure that the setting 'bulk-upload-use-applet' is set to false.


8. Tomcat memory tuning

Tomcat's default memory allocation is not optimal for a production server. If you have 1GB or more of RAM, you should change the amount of memory that is available to Tomcat.

  1. Copy the file [Tomcat]\webapps\image-bank\WEB-INF\manager-config\tomcat\setenv.sh into the directory [Tomcat]\binand adjust the numbers within (see the comment at the top of the file).
  2. You should restart Tomcat after changing these settings.

9. Start the Application

  1. 9.1) Start or restart Tomcat.
  2. 9.2) Ready to run - you should be able to access the Asset Bank on http://localhost:8080/asset-bank/ from a browser on the server, or http://[server ip address]:8080/asset-bank/
  3. 9.3) Login as the default admin user:
  4. Username: admin
    Password: password
  5. 9.4) Change the password of the default admin user ‘admin’ by going to the 'Your Profile' link in the top right. This is important as it is easy to forget that this user exists once you start adding your own, and it is especially important, for obvious security reasons, if your Asset Bank is available online. Alternatively, remember to delete this user as soon as you have added one or more other admin users.

10. Upgrade to the latest version

The installer may not contain the most recent version of Asset Bank (although it should be close!) To upgrade your Asset Bank to the latest version (assuming you have a license that allows it), then please follow these instructions.

NOTE: If you use a SQL Server or Oracle database please remember to run the optimisation script against the relevant database after the upgrade has completed.

Running the script after the upgrade will result in some errors being reported, as some of the tables/fields no longer exist. This is not a problem and they can be safely ignored.

11. Integrate Tomcat with Apache (optional)

See integrating Tomcat with Apache.


12. Backup procedure

You need to ensure that the database and files are backed up regularly (we advise nightly). For information on backing up and restoring Asset Bank please read our knowledge base article.

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