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Windows 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 (Windows Service Installer) (Please do not install Tomcat 7). When prompted, use the JRE that you installed in step 1.1 (by default this will be C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.6.x_x). In the installation wizard, under Tomcat select the Core Service and Native components.
    We recommend you install to “c:\tomcat” or “d:\tomcat” rather than in the Program Files directory, to make it easier to administer the web application, (and to avoid potential security issues on Windows 2008 Server).
  3. 1.3) If you do not already have a database, install Mysql, either use the 32 bit version or the 64 bit version. If you want to use MS SQL Server or Oracle, see: advanced configuration.
    Note: MySQL needs to be in your path in order to run the database scripts. Make sure that you check the option 'Include Bin Directory in Windows PATH' on the 'Windows Options' step of the MSQL configuration wizard.
  4. 1.4) Install Ghostscript. For your convenience, here is the Windows installer for Ghostscript. If you are running 64 bit windows please install the 64 bit version of Ghostscript and make sure to add the installation path to your system's path variable.
  5. 1.5) 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. Download Asset Bank

  1. 2.1) Download the Asset Bank installation package: assetbank-install.zip
  2. 2.2) Unzip the installation package to a convenient location on your hard drive.
  3. 2.3) Check the contents:
    • database: folder containing database setup scripts
    • assetbank-installer.jar: installer for Asset Bank

3. Install the Asset Bank application

  1. 3.1) Run the application installer using one of the following methods:
    • Simply double click on assetbank-installer.jar. It should execute automatically. If it doesn't, do one of the following:
    • Right click on the file and select Open With > Java.
    • On the command line, run java -jar assetbank-installer.jar
  2. 3.2) Follow the instructions in the installer.
    Note: you must be logged in as an administrator for your machine to run the installer.
  3. 3.3) If you are using an x64 version of Windows then you need to install ImageMagick, because the version included in the installer is 32 bit:
    • Delete the directory C:\Program Files\ImageMagick
    • Download the x64 version of ImageMagick (the 32 bit version can be found here)
    • Install ImageMagick into C:\Program Files\ImageMagick (this is where Asset Bank's default settings expect it to be).

4. 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).

  1. 4.1) Copy the license file license.lic to [Tomcat]\webapps\asset-bank\WEB-INF\classes. Normally [Tomcat] is C:\Program Files\Apache Software Foundation\tomcat 5.x.

5. Configure Tomcat

  1. 5.1) You need to change the default memory allocation for Tomcat as the default is not optimal for a production server.
  2.  5.1.1) For Tomcat run from the command line:
    Copy the file [Tomcat]\webapps\asset-bank\WEB-INF\manager-config\tomcat\setenv.bat into the directory [Tomcat]\bin and adjust the numbers within (see the comment at the top of the file).
  3.  5.1.2) For Tomcat run as a service (Tomcat 5+):
    Run the Tomcat Service Manager utility [Tomcat]\bin\tomcat6w.exe, unless you already have this running as a tray icon.
    On the Java tab, set values for memory pool. We recommend the default settings:
    • Initial memory pool=512
    • Maximum memory pool=1024.
    You can also set other parameters here - however typing memory parameters directly into the Java Options tab does not seem to work properly.
  4.  5.1.3 ) You will also need to set the MaxPermSize, this is done by running the following in a command prompt under [tomcat home]\bin:
    tomcat6 //US//Tomcat6 ++JvmOptions="-XX:MaxPermSize=256m"
    You should restart Tomcat after changing these settings.

  1. 5.2) If you want to access the application on port 80 and do not want to use a separate web server (see section 8, below), then Tomcat has a production-quality web server built in - you just need to change the port it listens on from 8080 to 80.
    To do this:
  2. - Open the file [Tomcat]\conf\server.xml in a text editor.
  3. - Search for the string <Connector port="8080" and replace 8080 with 80.
  4. 5.3) If you wish to use the Asset Bank application updater you will need to turn off automatic deployment and reloading of the Asset Bank application by Tomcat.
    • When Tomcat is installed auto deployment of applications is turned on by default. To disable this feature:
      - 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.

6. Set up the database (MySQL)

The following quick steps apply if you are using a MySQL Database. For Oracle or SQLServer, or if you want to do the setup manually, see Advanced configuration.

  1. 6.1) Open a command prompt on the server and move to the database directory, which was created when you unzipped the file 'assetbank-install.zip'.
  2. 6.2) By default, the MySQL installation creates a "root" account with no password. In this case, simply run database-setup.cmd, which will do all database setup for you. Otherwise run database-setup.cmd root-password where root-password is the MySQL root password.
  3. 6.3) You can edit the file database-setup.cmd to suit your server environment.

7. Configurable settings

Asset Bank configuration changes can be made by changing the settings file, [Tomcat]\webapps\asset-bank\WEB-INF\classes\ApplicationSettings.properties.
This file is well documented, so you should be able to figure out how to change each setting from the comments.

Most of the default settings will be ok: those that you are likely to want to change are at the top, for example the name of your SMTP server.

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


8. (Optional) Set up a web server

If Asset Bank is to be hosted on the web, you might want to set up a web server such as Apache or IIS. If you need instructions on how to get these web servers to talk to Tomcat then see: integration with a web server.


9. Start the Application

  1. 9.1) Restart Tomcat. If you have installed Tomcat as a service then you will need to restart the service.
  2. 9.2) Ready to run - you should be able to access the Asset Bank on http://localhost/asset-bank/ from a browser on the server, or http://[server ip address]/asset-bank/
  3. from any other computer on your network.
    Note: If you did not follow step (5.2) or (8) then you will need to specify port 8080, e.g. http://[server ip address]:8080/asset-bank/
  4. 9.3) Login as the default admin user:
  5. Username: admin
    Password: password
  6. 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. Backup procedure

You need to ensure that the database and files are backed up regularly (we advise nightly). Asset Bank comes with a Windows script for backing up your data.

You can find this in [Tomcat]\webapps\asset-bank\WEB-INF\manager-config\backup. Look in README.txt for instructions and advice on how to set up your backup procedure.

For further information on backing up and restoring Asset Bank please read our knowledge base article.


If you want to uninstall Asset Bank

  1. Download the Asset Bank uninstaller: assetbank-uninstall.zip
  2. Unzip the uninstaller to a convenient location on your hard drive.
  3. Check the contents:
    • assetbank-uninstaller.jar: uninstaller for Asset Bank
  4. Stop the Tomcat server.
  5. Run the uninstaller using one of the following methods:
    • Simply double click on assetbank-uninstaller.jar. It should execute automatically. If it doesn't, do one of the following:
    • Right click on the file and select Open With > Java.
    • On the command line, run java -jar assetbank-uninstaller.jar
  6. The uninstaller will remove the files and settings added during installation.
  7. Note: you must be logged in as an administrator for your machine to run the uninstaller.


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