SSP Installation Instructions

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

1. Software Prerequisites (JDK, Tomcat, PostgreSQL, Maven)
2. SSP Open Source Project build and deployment

Software Prerequisites

The following software prerequisites must be installed to build and run SSP:

• JDK 1.6 update 21 or later (JDK 1.7 is not supported as of 2012/04)
  • http://java.sun.com (openjdk works as well)
• Tomcat 6.X (Tomcat 7 is not supported as of 2012/04)
  • Download source, http://tomcat.apache.org
    • On Unix:
      • Tomcat 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/tomcat.html
    • On Mac:
      • Tomcat is available via the homebrew package manager or
      • Download at: http://tomcat.apache.org/download-60.cgi
    • On Windows:
      • Tomcat is available as a download at: http://tomcat.apache.org/download-60.cgi
• PostgreSQL 8 or later or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or newer
  
  • PostgreSQL
    
    1. Download source 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.

    2. Configure PostgreSQL

       1. Connect via pgadmin or your preferred db admin tool

       2. Create the "ssp" & "sspadmin" users and the "ssp" database.

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or newer
    • JDBC Driver
      1. Download the Microsoft SQL Server JDBC driver from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/aa937724.aspx
      2. Rename the downloaded file extension from .exe to .zip. Unzip the sqlserver-jdbc4-3.0.jar file to a directory of your choice.
      3. Place the JAR file in the Tomcat/shared/lib directory.
    • Server Connection
      1. Launch the SQL Server Management Studio application
      2. Enter your database connection info including administrator account credentials, and click Connect
    • Login Roles
      1. Navigate to Security->Logins, and right click on New Login
         

         1. Login name of "sspadmin" without the quotes

         2. Select SQL Server authentication and enter a Password of "sspadmin" without the quotes

         3. Uncheck Enforce password policy

         4. Click OK

      2. Right click on Logins again, and New Login Role

         1. Login name of "ssp" without the quotes

         2. Select SQL Server authentication and enter a Password of "ssp" without the quotes

         3. Uncheck Enforce password policy

         4. Click OK

      3. Confirm the new users exist
    • Database
      1. Navigate to and right click on Databases and click New Database
         1. Enter "ssp" without the quotes as the database name
         2. Click OK
      2. Confirm the new database exists
      3. Run the following SQL to associate the new user accounts with the correct permissions on the new database:

         • USE [ssp]
GO
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT name FROM sys.filegroups WHERE is_default=1 AND name = N'PRIMARY') ALTER DATABASE [ssp] MODIFY FILEGROUP [PRIMARY] DEFAULT
GO
IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT name  FROM sys.database_principals WHERE name = 'ssp')
BEGIN
CREATE USER [ssp] FOR LOGIN [ssp]
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datawriter', N'ssp'
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'ssp'
END
GO
CREATE USER [sspadmin] FOR LOGIN [sspadmin]
GO
EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_owner', N'sspadmin'
GO

• Maven 3.0.3 or later (until a general release is available, expected July 2012)
  • Download source http://maven.apache.org

Configure and Deploy SSP

The following configurations are required for the developer environment.

1. Create Directories

• On Unix/Mac:

  • Create a directory at /usr/local/etc/ssp

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

• On Windows:

  • Create a directory at C:\ssp

  • Make it only readable by the user that is running tomcat

• In the next step, be sure to use Windows paths formatted in Java

  • There is a context.xml file that is put into the conf directory of tomcat once the application starts.  Or you can paste it there ahead of time.

  • It is available from this project in src/main/webapp/META-INF/context.xml

  • The destination path is $CATALINA_HOME/conf/context.xml

2. Modify SSP Configuration Files

• Update the configuration files on Unix/Mac/Windows:

  • Copy the SSP source files in src/main/config/external to /usr/local/etc/ssp or C:\ssp (depending on the environment)

  • Review each file carefully to set the appropriate settings.

    • ssp-config.properties: database connectivity, users and database
    • • Unique identifier of the SSP instance
        
        • system_id
      • Values for connecting to 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.
        • db_driver_class: jdbc database connectivity syntax
        • db_dialect: Spring Hibernate dialect
        • db_username
        • db_password
        • db_admin_username
        • db_admin_password
      • Values for SSP generated emails
        
        • smtp_username
        • smtp_password
        • smtp_host
        • smtp_port
        • ssp_admins_email_addresses: recipient of system generated messages
      • Deployment options
        
        • spring.profiles.active
          • 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
    • logback.xml: properties file location
      • Example: <property file="/usr/local/etc/ssp/ssp-config.properties" /> )

• Add the following environment variables to your system, and point them to the appropriate external configuration path:

  • On Unix/Mac:

    • SSP_CONFIGDIR=/usr/local/etc/ssp

  • On Windows:

    • SSP_CONFIGDIR=C:\ssp

  Additional Information

  Optional environment and configuration parameters are defined in the Developer Environment Setup Instructions

3. Deploy SSP

• Currently the deployment file is not available anywhere, so it must be generated with maven.
• Instructions for building the SSP package

C:\projects\ssp>git clone git@github.com:Jasig/SSP.git

C:\projects\ssp\SSP-Open-Source-Project>mvn install

C:\projects\ssp\ssp-Open-Source-Project> mvn -Dmaven.test.skip=true install

• Once you have the war file, copy the ssp.war file into the webapps directory of tomcat
• Double check your settings in the config directory.
• Start Tomcat according to the manner specified for the Operating System.
• Open and browser and navigate to http://[yourdomain]:8080/ssp

If anything in it is incorrect or unclear, please leave a comment below.Unlicensed user