Page Comparison

Step by step instructions for building and deploying the SSP 2.

...

8.0 release.

1. Software Prerequisites (JDK, Tomcat, Maven, Ant, RDBMS)
2. SSP Platform build and deployment

...

The following software prerequisites must be installed with the appropriate environment variables to build and run SSP:ssp-platform.PNG

• JDK 1.7 8 is required starting with SSP v2.68.0.  JAVA SE jdk 1.6 7 and earlier will no longer work.  The SSP development team has also observed somewhat better GC performance with the Sun/Oracle JDK vs OpenJDK)
  • Download Location: http://java.sun.com     Increasingly 1.7 is being hidden, the last known good link is here: JAVA 1.7 If that doesn't work, use the query "java jdk 1.7 download" in a search engine.

  • Environment Variable: JAVA_Environment Variable: JAVA_HOME

    Tip
    title Java Environment Variable
    JAVA_HOME=/path/to/your/java (ie: /usr/local/java or C:\java\jdk) (optional) PATH= append the bin subdirectory to the path statement

• Tomcat 68.X (Tomcat 7 6 is not supported as of 2015/10the 2.8 release)

  1. Instructions for installing and configuring Tomcat for the SSP-Platform (uPortal 4.0).  Last known good link to download Tomcat is here: Tomcat 6.

     Warning
     title Tomcat Configuration
     It is important to complete sections:

  Environment Variables,

  1. Shared Libraries, Shared Sessions, Context and Java Heap.    1. Minimally, the catalina.properties file must contain: shared.loader=${catalina.base}/shared/lib/*.jar   2. And your active connector/s in <tomcat>/conf/server.xml must have the emptySessionPath flag set:   <Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1"     connectionTimeout="20000" redirectPort="8443" emptySessionPath="true"/>

  And increase the heap in <tomcat>/bin/setenv.sh (*nix) or <tomcat>/bin/setenv.bat (Windows). Smaller sizing is probably feasible, but the examples below match what our SSP CI envs run with. For production systems, start with a max heap of roughly half available physical memory and increase from there if necessary.
  The uPortal instructions above recommend using JAVA_OPTS for heap sizing. This can lead to problems on memory constrained systems because JAVA_OPTS will be used when trying to stop Tomcat with its own scripts. You don't typically need a large heap at all for that operation. So CATALINA_OPTS is a better choice for sizing the heap in setenv scripts, because that var will only be used for Tomcat's http-serving runtime.

  setenv.sh:

  CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms2G -Xmx2G -XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m

  setenv.bat (uPortal instructions linked to above are missing the 'set'):

  set CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms2G -Xmx2G -XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m

• Additionally, a performance improvement has been experienced by enabling compression in Tomcat

  Tip
  Add compression="force" to the server.xml in the connector like the following:   <Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1 connectionTimeout="20000" redirectPort="8443" emptySessionPath="true" compression="force" />

Maven 3.0.3 or later

• Download Location: http://maven.apache.org

Environment Variable: MAVEN_HOME

Tip

title	Maven Environment Variables

MAVEN_HOME= /path/to/your/maven (ie: /usr/local/maven or C:\tools\maven)

M2_HOME= /path/to/your/maven (ie: /usr/local/maven or C:\tools\maven)

(optional)
PATH= append the bin subdirectory to the path statementAnt 1.8.2 (use this exact version)


• Download Location: http://ant.apache.org    Last known good link: Ant Binaries

Environment Variable: ANT_HOME

Tip

title	Ant Environment Variable

ANT_HOME= /path/to/your/ant (ie: /usr/local/ant or C:\tools\ant)
(optional)
PATH= append the bin subdirectory to the path statementSencha SDK

1. 3. (new in Tomcat 8) The context must be updated with two changes. The context.xml should be modified with an updated Context tag and new lines for Resources. The following excerpt can replace the existing section. <Context crossContext="true" sessionCookiePath="/"> <!-- Default set of monitored resources. If one of these changes, the --> <!-- web application will be reloaded. --> <WatchedResource>WEB-INF/web.xml</WatchedResource> <WatchedResource>${catalina.base}/conf/web.xml</WatchedResource> <Resources cachingAllowed="true" cacheMaxSize="100000" /> <!-- Uncomment this to disable session persistence across Tomcat restarts --> <!-- <Manager pathname="" /> --> </Context> 4. Increase the heap in <tomcat>/bin/setenv.sh (*nix) or <tomcat>/bin/setenv.bat (Windows). Smaller sizing is probably feasible, but the examples below match what our SSP CI envs run with. For production systems, start with a max heap of roughly half available physical memory and increase from there if necessary. The uPortal instructions above recommend using JAVA_OPTS for heap sizing. This can lead to problems on memory constrained systems because JAVA_OPTS will be used when trying to stop Tomcat with its own scripts. You don't typically need a large heap at all for that operation. So CATALINA_OPTS is a better choice for sizing the heap in setenv scripts, because that var will only be used for Tomcat's http-serving runtime. setenv.sh: CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms2G -Xmx2G -XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m setenv.bat (uPortal instructions linked to above are missing the 'set'): set CATALINA_OPTS=-Xms2G -Xmx2G -XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m

• Additionally, a performance improvement has been experienced by enabling compression in Tomcat

  Tip
  Add compression="force" to the server.xml in the connector like the following:   <Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1 connectionTimeout="20000" redirectPort="8443" emptySessionPath="true" compression="force" />

• Maven 3.0.3 or later
  
  • Download Location: http://wwwmaven.sencha.com/products/sdk-tools/download  Note: Sencha CMD may not work well, particularly on Linux. If so use this query "SenchaSDKTools-2.0.0-beta3" in a search engine and pick the appropriate version from an alternate download source.
    

    Tip
    PATH= append the root to the path statement

    See  SSP Sencha Build Tool Usage for additional installation steps on 64-bit OSs
    
  RDBMS (support for PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server)
  
  • PostgreSQL 9.1 or laterapache.org

  • Environment Variable: MAVEN_HOME

    Tip
    title Maven Environment Variables
    MAVEN_HOME= /path/to/your/maven (ie: /usr/local/maven or C:\tools\maven) M2_HOME= /path/to/your/maven (ie: /usr/local/maven or C:\tools\maven) (optional) PATH= append the bin subdirectory to the path statement

• Ant 1.8.2 (use this exact version)
  

  • Download Location: http://

    www

    ant.

    postgresql

    apache.org

    
    
    • On Unix:
      
      • PostgreSQL is available in the package manager of most linux distributions.
        
        • Install it according to the distribution's instructions
      • Ubuntu - https://help.ubuntu.com/11.10/serverguide/C/postgresql.html
    • On Mac:
      
      • PostgreSQL is available via the homebrew package manager or as a download on the postgresql.org site.
    • On Windows:
      
      • PostgreSQL is available as a download on the postgresql.org site.
    Configure PostgreSQL
    
  • Server Connection
    
    • Launch the PG Admin application
    • In the Object Browser, navigate to and right click on Server Groups -> Servers -> PostgreSQL 9.1 (localhost:5432)
    • Click Connect and the enter the administrator password
  Login Roles
  
  • In the Object Browser, right click on Login Roles and click New Login Role
    

    • In the Properties tab, enter a Role name of "sspadmin" without the quotes

    • In the Definition tab, enter a Password of "sspadmin" without the quotes

  In the Object Browser, right click on Login Roles and click New Login Role

  • In the Properties tab, enter a Role name of "ssp" without the quotes

  • In the Definition tab, enter a Password of "ssp" without the quotes

  • Confirm the new Login Roles exist in the Object Browser
  Database
  

      Last known good link: Ant Binaries

  • Environment Variable: ANT_HOME

    Tip
    title Ant Environment Variable
    ANT_HOME= /path/to/your/ant (ie: /usr/local/ant or C:\tools\ant) (optional) PATH= append the bin subdirectory to the path statement

• Sencha SDK
  

  • Download Location: http://www.sencha.com/products/sdk-tools/download  Note: Sencha CMD may not work well, particularly on Linux. If so use this query "SenchaSDKTools-2.0.0-beta3" in a search engine and pick the appropriate version from an alternate download source.
    

    Tip
    PATH= append the root to the path statement

    
    

  • See  SSP Sencha Build Tool Usage for additional installation steps on 64-bit OSs
    
    

• RDBMS (support for PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server)
  
  • PostgreSQL 9.1 or later
    
    • Download Location: http://www.postgresql.org
      
      • On Unix:
        
        • PostgreSQL is available in the package manager of most linux distributions.
          
          • Install it according to the distribution's instructions
        • Ubuntu - https://help.ubuntu.com/11.10/serverguide/C/postgresql.html
      • On Mac:
        
        • PostgreSQL is available via the homebrew package manager or as a download on the postgresql.org site.
      • On Windows:
        
        • PostgreSQL is available as a download on the postgresql.org site.
    • Configure PostgreSQL
      
      • Server Connection
        
        • Launch the PG Admin application
        • In the Object Browser, navigate to and right click on Server Groups -> Servers -> PostgreSQL 9.1 (localhost:5432)
        • Click Connect and the enter the administrator password
      • Login Roles
        
        • In the Object Browser, right click on Databases Login Roles and click New Database
          Enter "sspLogin Role
          

          • In the Properties tab, enter a Role name of "sspadmin" without the quotes

            as the database nameEnter

          • In the Definition tab, enter a Password of "sspadmin" without the quotes

            as the database owner
          Confirm the new database exists in

        • In the Object Browser

    Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, 2012 and 2014
    
    • Server Connection
      
      • Launch the SQL Server Management Studio application
      • Enter your database connection info including administrator account credentials, and click Connect
    • Login Roles
      
      • Navigate to Security->Logins, and right click on New Login
        
        • Login name of "sspadmin" without the quotes
        • Select SQL Server authentication and enter a Password of "sspadmin" without the quote
        • Uncheck Enforce password policy
      • Right click on Logins again, and New Login Role
        
        • Login name of "ssp

          , right click on Login Roles and click New Login Role

          
          

          • In the Properties tab, enter a Role name of "ssp" without the quotes

          • In the Definition tab, enter a Password of "ssp" without the quotes

        • Confirm the new Login Roles exist in the Object Browser
      • Database
        
        • In the Object Browser, right click on Databases and click New Database
          
          • Enter "ssp" without the quotes as the database name
          • Enter "sspadmin" without the quotes as the database owner
        • Confirm the new database exists in the Object Browser
  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, 2012 and 2014
    
    • Server Connection
      
      • Launch the SQL Server Management Studio application
      • Enter your database connection info including administrator account credentials, and click Connect
    • Login Roles
      
      • Navigate to Security->Logins, and right click on New Login
        
        • Login name of "sspadmin" without the quotes
        • Select SQL Server authentication and enter a Password of "sspsspadmin" without the quote
        • Uncheck Enforce password policy
      • Confirm the new users exist
      Database
      
      • Navigate to and right Right click on Databases Logins again, and click New Database
        Enter Login Role
        
        • Login name of "ssp" without the quotes as the
        • Select SQL Server authentication and enter a Password of "ssp" without the quote
        • Uncheck Enforce password policy
      • Confirm the new users exist
    • Database
      
      • Navigate to and right click on Databases and click New Database
        
        • Enter "ssp" without the quotes as the database name
      • Confirm the new database exists
      • Run the following SQL to assign user permissions and configure the required database settings

...

...

• Create a directory for the local SSP configuration files
  
  • Example:
    
    • Unix/Linux/Mac example: /usr/local/ssp/ssp-local

    • Windows example: C:\ssp\ssp-local

  • Make the directory only readable by the user that is running Tomcat

  • Set an Environment Variable for the local configuration file location

    Tip
    SSP_CONFIGDIR=/path/to/your/local-configuration (ie: /usr/local/ssp/ssp-local or C:\ssp\ssp-local)

• ssp-config.properties
  
  • The ssp-config.properties file must be modified for database connectivity and email settings
  • Baseline File Location: ,ssp root>/src/main/config/external//ssp-config.properties  Note: If you didn't download SSP separetely, copy or download the file from here: ssp-config.properties

  • Action: Copy the baseline ssp-config.properties file into the local configuration directory created above and rename it to ssp-config.properties. Or start with an empty ssp-config.properties in that directory and add only the properties for which you need to override the default value.

    • • Configuration Values:

        Value	Description	Note
        system_id	Unique identifier of the SSP instance
        db_username	Values for connecting to the SSP database
        db_password	Values for connecting to the SSP database
        db_admin_username	Values for connecting to the SSP database
        db_admin_password	Values for connecting to the SSP database
        db_username_liquibase	Value to allow for MS SQL Server domain accounts	${db_username_liquibase} and ${db_username} should be set the same value unless you're on SqlServer, using the JTDS driver, and SSP connects to the database as domain users. If that applies to you, keep ${db_username} set to the unqualified account name, but change ${db_username_liquibase} to the fully-qualified domain account name as shown here. Include the brackets and double back-slashes. db_username_liquibase=[DOMAIN\\username] default is ${db_username}
        db_schema	Db schema for the SSP database	Examples: Postgres: public SQLServer: dbo
        db_name	Value for the SSP database
        db_url	jdbc connection syntax	For Microsoft SQL Server, either specify a port (the default is 1433) or ensure that the SQL Server Browser service is running because the SQL Server JDBC driver defaults to port 1434 which is the SQL Server Server Browser service default port. Depending on the server configuration, either may work, or you may want to explicitly specify the port and instance name, if applicable. For best results with SQL Server, the JTDS driver included with the Platform installation is recommended.  Examples of the url are provided in the sample ssp-config.properties file.   SQL Server db_url w DOMAIN USER AUTHN may look like this; substitute machine name, instance and domain names w/o <>'s db_url=jdbc:jtds:sqlserver://<machine_name>:1433/${db_name};instance=<instance_name>;domain=<domain_name>
        db_driver_class	jdbc database connectivity syntax	For best results with SQL Server, the JTDS driver included with the Platform installation is recommended.  Examples of the class are provided in the sample ssp-config.properties file.
        db_dialect	Hibernate dialect	Use of one of the org.jasig.ssp.util.hibernate.ExtendedSQLServer*Dialects is strongly encouraged if running against SQLSever. The default ssp-config.properties has an example.)
        db_conns_max_active	Values for the database connection pool	The default value will need to be increased for test and production
        db_conns_max_idle	Values for the database connection pool	The default value will need to be increased for test and production
        db_conns_max_wait	Values for the database connection pool
        db_conns_validation_query	Values for the database connection pool
        db_liquibase_enabled	Enables the liquibase script for database table management
        db_liquibase_changelog	Location for the liquibase change log
        db_liquibase_set_mssql_snapshot_isolation	Parameter for configuring a MSSQL database	IMPORTANT The default value is 'true'.  Set this value to 'false for MSSQL.  The liquibase changeset 000014.xml will be ignored.  The sql above configures the database correctly.
        db_liquibase_strip_journal_comment_markup	Parameter to enable a script to convert HTML Journal Entries to plain text
        db_liquibase_strip_tuition_paid_is_y	True value will delete the existing values forced into the database in v1.2.0, False will leave the existing values alone	This only applies to implementers who installed v1.2.0 or earlier AND populated the external_registration_status_by_term.tuition_paid field with external data
        db_liquibase_external_fa_not_null_drop_y	True value allows the table to be re-created with the correct column definitions for null values
        db_liquibase_external_apply_natural_keys	True value will apply the new primary keys to the external database	Version 2.0.0 added primary keys to the external database tables for performance and uniqueness enhancements.  If there are non-unique values in the database, the liquibase will fail to make the table changes.
        db_liquibase_manage_external_database_by_default	True value will allow SSP to manage the tables and views	If you want to take total control of SSP's external views and tables, change that property to false in your SSP_CONFIGDIR/ssp-config.properties before first startup. And once you've started up, there's really no point in ever changing that value afterwards. (If you turn it off, then decide you want SSP to manage external views and tables after all, you'll need to update config set value = 'true' where name = 'manage_integration_database' and then restart.)
        db_liquibase_convert_external_term_timestamps	True value in external_term.start_date and external_term.end_date will be interpreted in ${db_time_zone_legacy} and re-written in ${db_time_zone_legacy}.	True usually makes sense for both upgrades and fresh installs. Would only set to false if for some reason these fields have already been converted to ${db_time_zone) via some external process.
        db_batchsize	The number of records to process for database transactions.	The default value is 300.  Use of the parameter can increase performance of queries writing large sums of data into the database.  This is primarily used in the Caseload Re-assignment tool.
        student_documents_base_dir	Base Directory for student documents	The default is ${catalina.base}/ssp-uploads/student-docs It is important to not end in path separator like / or \
        student_documents_volumes	Comma seperated list of subdirectories under student documents	It is important to not end in path separator like / or \
        student_documents_file_types	Comma separated list of allowable file types that will be used to validate student document files	The initial types are pdf,gif,jpg,jpeg,doc,docx,xls,png.  It is important to not include the period/dot in the definition.  Only the type abbreviation is required.
        student_documents_max_size	Maximum size of an individual file, in bytes	The default value is 5000000
        cacheLifeSpanInMillis	This property will dictate how long lived a cache will be only external courses uses a cache	default is 86400000 = 1 day
        db_time_zone_legacy	Parameter to set the timezone for data migration	Used for migrating persistent timestamps. Prior to work on SSP-1002, SSP-1035, and SSP-1076, timestamps were stored in the JVM default timezone.  After that the application assumes they are stored in ${db_time_zone}. In order to correctly migrate existing data, though, the app needs to know the original timezone. This is almost always going to be the current JVM default timezone, hence the default value here, which is a special value instructing the app to lookup and inject that timezone into this config property. In the rare event you need to change that value, you can do so here. This would likely only be necessary if, for whatever reason you change the JVM default *after* the migrations run, which would result in a Liquibase checksum error. To avoid that, just set the relevant timezone here when and if you make that change. Default is CURRENT_JVM_DEFAULT
        db_time_zone	Timezone ID for the JVM	JVM-recognized TimeZone ID for the zone in which persistent date/time values should be interpreted. Should rarely if ever need to be overridden. If overridden, should always be set to a TimeZone that does not observe Daylight Savings Time unless trying to cope with legacy data that was stored in a DST-aware TimeZone. Once set, should never be changed else date/time values in the database will be interpreted incorrectly. (SSP does not store timezone data on persistent date/time values and implements no logic for  detecting and/or handling changes to this configuration option.) Default is UTC
        highly_trusted_ips	The list of IP addresses that are allowed to access the APIs	This is used in conjunction with high_trusted_ips_enabled in the System Configuration
        smtp_username	Value for email relay
        smtp_password	Value for email relay
        smtp_host	Value for email relay
        smtp_port	Value for email relay
        smtp_protocol	Protocol for email	Default is smtp
        ssp_admins_email_addresses	Recipient of system generated messages
        scheduled_coach_sync_enabled	Parameter to enable coach sync process
        per_coach_sync_transactions	Parameter to enable the sync process to run per coach instead of one large transaction for all coaches
        scheduled_task_cleanup_wait_millis	Max amount of time, in milliseconds, the app will wait during shutdown for any background tasks to abandon their work.	Default is 10000
        uportal_session_keep_alive_timeout	Length of time for uPortal sessions KeepAliveFilter
        oauth2_client_password_encoding_secret	Config for setting the key with which OAuth2 Client secrets are hashed before being placed into the database	See SSP OAuth2 API Authentication
        spring.profiles.active	Deployment options	dev-standalone: completely free of uPortal standalone: as the only portlet in a uPortal instance uPortal: as one of many portlets in a uPortal instance
        ssp_main_use_minifed_js	Parameter to determine the javascript file used in the deployment	When set to true, ssp-main.jsp will include a minified js called app-all.js When set to false, ssp-main.jsp will include the non-minified app.js
        ssp_trusted_code_run_as_key	When the scheduled jobs run they have to "run as" a particular user.  SSP uses SpringSecurity for this, and the application code is allowed to sudo to a different user as long as it knows the special shared secret defined in the configuration.	Default is SZP.  If you plan on running deployment-specific third-party code, or really even other webapps in the same Tomcat contains, you should probably select a more complex, deployment-specific value.
        ssp_platform_sso_ticket_service_shared_secret	Enables LTI and legacy inbound SSO mechanisms	If unset, LTI and legacy inbound SSO will be disabled. To enable those features, set to a non-empty value and ensure the same value is set as environment.build.sso.local.sharedSecret in $SSP_CONFIGDIR/ssp-platform-config.properties.
        background_jobs	Controls background jobs for multi-server deployments	The default is 'On' which allows background tasks to run. Off will disable background jobs from running and would generally only apply to multi-server deployments where only one instance will run the background jobs
        reroute_all_mail_to_address	Enables email override for email messages	If an address is specified here, this configuration is enabled and the body of the delivered message will specify the original intended recipient(s) including cc and bcc

logback.xml

• The logback.xml controls the log location and level
• Baseline File Location: <ssp root>/src/main/config/external/logback.xml   Note: If you didn't download SSP separetely, copy or download the file from here: logback.xml

• Action: Copy the baseline logback.xml file into the local configuration directory created above

• Configuration Values: Typically you only need to modify the path at which this file will find the ssp-config.properties file you configured above. E.g.:
  
  

...