PhixFlow Help

Installing PhixFlow

Owned by Andrew Stoddart
Last updated: Jun 20, 2019 by Fiona Sargeant (Unlicensed)

Introduction

This section describes how to install a new instance of PhixFlow.

Pre-conditions

Before installation starts it is assumed that all system pre-requisites have been completed as documented in Planning your PhixFlow System, specifically that

  • you have installed a database server,
  • you have configured a database instance / schema and user / login credentials
  • you have installed a (Linux or Windows) server to act as the web-application (webapp) host

and, optionally, that

  • you have installed a Linux or Windows server to act as the reverse proxy / HTTPS proxy

Installation

For a complete installation, follow these instructions as given.

Install Tomcat

Download and install the Apache Tomcat web-application (webapp) server.

Download / Unpack PhixFlow

If you have not been given the PhixFlow package to install, you can download any published version from our support FTP site. Please contact PhixFlow Support for details.

Logon to the webapp host and unpack the PhixFlow release package.

Configure the Database

Use the installer to populate the database.

Install the PhixFlow Web Application

Copy the PhixFlow webapp from the unpacked release package into Tomcat and configure it. See Install PhixFlow Webapp for details.

Start PhixFlow

You should now be able to start Tomcat, start the PhixFlow client and login as the startup user (password: 'Startup').

System Configuration

Configure the directories under System Directories. See System Configuration for details.

The Temporary File Location is especially important as it is used when Exporting / Importing files.

Create Users

You should immediately create new users, including at least one administrator, then disable or delete the startup user.

Configure HTTPS

PhixFlow should always be configured to allow HTTPS connections to the webapp and to disable HTTP access.

Using default ports on Linux

If you want to make your web server visible on the default ports (http: 80, https: 443) on Linux, we recommend using a reverse proxy.

In this configuration, the reverse proxy runs as root, which allows it to use privileged ports (up to 1000), and forwards requests to the web server which runs as a non-privileged user (normally 'tomcat'), on non-privileged ports (above 1000).

Tomcat on Linux

Do not run Tomcat as root on Linux as this constitutes a security risk.

Reverse Proxy

We recommend using a reverse proxy to terminate the HTTPS session and to forward web requests using HTTP to the Tomcat server. This solution requires that the proxy and tomcat servers run on a private network (or on the same server), and that the tomcat server is not directly accessible by normal users.

To install a reverse proxy on Linux, see Install the 'pound' reverse proxy.

To configure IIS as a reverse proxy on Windows, see here.

Tomcat

It is also possible to configure HTTPS directly in tomcat.

Configure for Resilience (optional)

PhixFlow can be configured to have a hot stand-by webapp shadowing the active webapp, such that the standby webapp will automatically take over in the event that the active server fails.

See Configuring for Resilience for details.

Configure for Active Directory Users (optional)

PhixFlow can be configured to allow users to be validated against one or more Active Directory servers in addition to users that are defined locally within the PhixFlow database.

See Configure Active Directory Integration for details.

Configure for SAML / Single Sign-on Users (optional)

PhixFlow can be configured to allow users to be validated against a single SAML Identity Provider in addition to users that are defined locally within the PhixFlow database.

See Configure SAML Integration for details.

Other Resources

The following pages may contain additional useful resources.

Database URLs

SQLServer Integrated Authentication


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