SSP v2.0.0 Installation Instructions

Step by step instructions for building and deploying the SSP 2.0.0 release.

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

Software Prerequisites

The following software prerequisites must be installed with the appropriate environment variables to build and run SSP:

• JDK 1.6 update 21 or later (JDK 1.7 is not supported as of 2013/01)
  
  • Download Location: http://java.sun.com 

  • Environment Variable: JAVA_HOME

    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 6.X (Tomcat 7 is not supported as of 2013/01)

  • Instructions for installing and configuring Tomcat for the SSP-Platform (uPortal 4.0)

    Tomcat Configuration

    It is important to complete sections: Environment Variables, Shared Libraries, Shared Sessions, Java Heap.  Minimally, the catalina.properties file must contain:

     

    shared.loader=${catalina.base}/shared/lib/*.jar

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

    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 Loation: http://maven.apache.org

  • Environment Variable: MAVEN_HOME

    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://ant.apache.org

  • Environment Variable: ANT_HOME

    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

    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 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
        
        • 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
    
    • 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" without the quotes
        • 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
        
        

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

For MSSQL 2008 or later:

ALTER DATABASE MyDatabase
 SET ALLOW_SNAPSHOT_ISOLATION ON
ALTER DATABASE MyDatabase
 SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON

Configure and Deploy SSP-Platform

The following configurations are required to build and deploy SSP-Platform.

1. Download the SSP-Platform Release

2. SSP Configuration Files

• 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

    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 modifed for database connectivity and email settings
  • Baseline File Location: ssp-config.default.properties

  • Action: Copy the baseline ssp-config.default.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_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.
    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.
    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
    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
    oauth2_client_password_encoding_secret	Config for setting the key with which OAuth2 Client secrets are hashed before being placed into the database

logback.xml

• The logback.xml controls the log location and level
• Baseline File Location: 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.:
  
  

<property file="C:/ssp/ssp-local/ssp-config.properties" />

• Additional configuration options
  
  • Adjust the log levels for each log appender as necessary
  • Enable the smtpAppender (disabled by default)
  • Further details regarding managing the logback.xml are included in XML comments within the file

3. Modify SSP-Platform Configuration Files

• build.properties
  
  • Copy The build.properties.sample file is copied or renamed in the current directory.  The parameter defines the location of Tomcat.
  • File Location: <platform-src-dir>/build.properties.sample
  • Action: Create a copy of that file in the same directory, renaming it it build.properties.
  • Configuration Values: Set server.home to the path below which your Tomcat webapps directory is located.

server.home=C:/path/to/your/tomcat/install

• pom.xml (For Microsoft SQL  only)
  

  • JDBC driver for SSP-Platform if not using PostgreSQL

    The pom.xml should only be changed with extreme care.  The Microsoft SQL Server jdbc driver needs to be identified in the build.  The parameter defines the location of the driver in the local repository.

  • File Location: <platform-src-dir>/pom.xml

  • Configuration Values: parameters

  • Action: modify the jdbc.* parameters to refer to the JTDS driver instead of the PostgreSQL driver:
    
    

    JDBC driver identified in the pom.xml

            <!-- The JDBC Driver used by SSP -->
            <jdbc.groupId>net.sourceforge.jtds</jdbc.groupId>
            <jdbc.artifactId>jtds</jdbc.artifactId>
            <jdbc.version>1.2.4</jdbc.version>

• local.properties
  
  • The local.properties file must be modifed for database connectivity and email settings
  • File Location: <platform-src-dir>/filters/local.properties

  • Configuration Values:

  Value	Description
  environment.build.hibernate.connection.driver_class	jdbc driver file For best results with SQL Server, the JTDS driver included with the Platform installation is recommended.
  environment.build.hibernate.connection.url	jdbc connection syntax For best results with SQL Server, the JTDS driver included with the Platform installation is recommended.
  environment.build.hibernate.connection.username	jdbc connection database username
  environment.build.hibernate.connection.password	jdbc connection database password
  environment.build.hibernate.dialect	jdbc connection dialect For best results with SQL Server, the JTDS driver included with the Platform installation is recommended.

4.  Build SSP-Platform

• Use the following command to build, deploy, and initialize the SSP-Platform project:
  
  

Build the full site and database by running ant initportal


Other deployment options:

testdb: Tests the database settings and connectivity

initdb: Drop uPortal tables in the db & recreate them with configured seed data (src/main/data, not including the "quickstart" folder).

deploy-ear: Build entire uPortal (incl. all wars), deploy entire uPortal to Tomcat.

deploy-war: Build & deploy _just the uPortal war_ (i.e. not portlets, etc.).

deployPortletApp: Deploy one (already-built) portlet war file to Tomcat (example ant deploPortletApp -DportletApp=..\SSP-Open-Source-Project/target/ssp.war)

• Additional step for Microsoft SQL Server to update column types

• Restart Tomcat

5. Test Deployment

• Start Tomcat and point your browser to http://localhost:8080/ssp-platform
  Click Sign In, and use the credentials user: admin password: admin

6. Production Deployment Tips

• Delete Demo Users

  You should delete or change the passwords for the uPortal users created for demonstration purposes, especially in a production deployment. This can be done through the user interface: Manage Users ->  Find an Existing User -> [Enter user ID from list below] -> [Click result] -> Delete or Edit, then change password. Demo users:

  • advisor0
  • ken
  • student0
  • student1

  Non-private installs should also either change the admin user's password or add some other user to the Portal Administrators group and delete the admin user.

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