Endur/Findur Appserver VM Template

A Virtual Machine Template is needed for emdash™ integration with virtualisation technologies for Endur/Findur application servers.

This section describes the actions to create that initial Appserver Template in the context of a wider implementation.

Pre-requisites

The processes and instructions in this document have the following dependencies:

1. emdash™ is installed and the initial configuration has been completed as per the document ‘emdash Technical Config and Installation Guide’
2. Endur/Findur code has been provided by Openlink and is available on the clientftp.olf.com site
3. A sample Endur/Findur database has been provided by Openlink and is available on the clientftp.olf.com site
4. A database instance is available to host the Endur/Findur database. This can be SQL Server or Oracle.  Note that this documentation assumes SQL Server.
5. A base server VM that will be configured as the template
6. A fileshare to store the Endur/Findur application binaries
7. A fileshare to store the associated config files/folders needed by Endur/Findur (this can be shared with the fileshare above)
8. Admin rights on all infrastructure components (SQL Server, Windows Server, Fileshare) allocated to the emdash™ Service Account as configured in the emdash™ installation.
9. Openlink will supply details for their olf.com FTP site, which is used to deliver releases to Customers. On this site, the initial code and reference database should be available to download. Using an FTP Client such as FileZilla, download the files from the FTP site onto the fileshare that will be used to hold the binaries. As an example, we can call this target location \\fileshare\repository\Openlink\zipFiles The following screenshot shows an example of the zip files that will be delivered:

There are a number of files that are one of the following categories:

1. MSI installers for the ‘Core’ application.
   1. It is usual for installers for the 64-bit and 32-bit versions of Endur/Findur to be delivered.
   2. These installers will be run against the Endur/Findur application server
2. Modules packaged up as Zip files.
   1. These can be 32-bit, 64-bit or both.
   2. It is important to know what is being unpacked so it gets stored in the correct location for later processing.  These are not needed for the template, however.
3. Prepare Windows Server Image - A prerequisite is to have a server instance available, and have local administration rights on it for the account used to do this installation.

This section describes the steps needed to prepare the Windows Server that will be used for either the Thin Client Server or Endur/Findur Application Server.

Step 1 - Install Core Endur/Findur

The first step is to install the core Endur/Findur binaries onto the server using the MSI delivered by Openlink

1. Copy the 2 MSI installers provided on the FTP Site to C:\temp on the server
2. Endur/Findur 32-bit binaries. Run the MSI ending with _MsWin32 with elevated rights (Right click – Run as Administrator)
   1. This MSI prepares the server for Endur/Findur to execute successfully, downloading and installing the required system software such as SQL Client, C++ Runitime system etc.
3. Follow the prompts on the installer wizard. When you get to the point to specify the path, update it to C:\temp and apply a sub folder ‘x86’ as follows:
4. Follow the prompts on the installer wizard after setting the path as above.
   1. Note that in this example, the ‘CodeVersion’ we will store in emdash™ to relate to this build of Finur is ‘Findur_V14_1_11142015MR_11252015_1077’. This has been provided by the installer and matches the filename of the build provided by Openlink originally. 
   2. This is important as it provides traceability back to Openlink which is needed for troubleshooting and support.
5. Once the installer has finished you will find all of the unpacked Findur x86 binaries as follows:
6. Endur/Findur 64-bit binaries. Run the MSI ending with _MsWin64 from c:\temp with elevated rights (Right click – Run as Administrator)
   1. Again, this MSI prepares the server for Endur/Findur to execute successfully, downloading and installing the required 64-bit system software such as SQL Client, C++ Runitime system etc.
7. Follow the prompts on the installer wizard. When you get to the point to specify the path, update it to the path that the 32-bit binaries were unpacked into above in C:\temp but apply a sub folder ‘x64’ instead of ‘x86’ as follows:
8. Follow the prompts on the installer wizard after setting the path as above.
9. Once the installer has finished you will find all of the unpacked Findur x64 binaries as follows:

Copy unpacked Endur/Findur binaries to Repository

(Note that this step is not required if you are only generating the VM Image.)

Now that the x64 and x86 binaries have been unpacked, we need to copy them to the Repository so that they are available for emdash™ to distribute to servers and environments when required.

On the server where Endur/Findur was installed, copy the Findur_XXXX folder from C:\Temp to the repository fileshare under a new ‘Endur’ or ‘Findur’ folder, for instance:

Step 2 - Create emdash™ Environment Variable

emdash™ needs to know where to locate the Endur/Findur binaries on the server.  This may be different depending on the server – for instance some clients use a D:\ drive, others use C:\, and others have a mixture of drives within their estate.

As such, we need to set a system wide environment variable on the server called ENDUR_DRIVE_LETTER.  The value of this is drive letter where the Endur/Findur binaries will sit.

Step 3 - Add emdash Service Account to Local Admin Group

The service account that emdash is going to run under needs to be added to the local administration group on the server, so it has permissions to copy files onto it, and install Endur/Findur and Spread windows services.  You can do this by opening up Computer Management ->Local Users and Groups and opening up the properties of the Administrators group:

Step 4 - Add Endur/Findur Service Accounts to Local Security Policy

Local Security Policy needs to be updated to allow the Service Accounts to have ‘Login as a Service Rights’.  You can do this by opening up Local Security Policy on the server:

• Open Local Security Policy.
• In the console tree, double-click Local Policies, and then click User Rights Assignments.

• In the details pane, double-click Log on as a service.

• Click Add User or Group, and then add the appropriate account to the list of accounts that possess the Log on as a service right.

Note: We recommend creating an AD Group called 'EndurTestServiceAccounts' which you should add to this policy.  

You can then add the service accounts that will run the Endur/Findur runsites into the group (serviceaccount1, serviceaccount2, etc.)

Clone Server as Template and Create New Servers

It is at this point that the server is ready for Endur/Findur to be fully configured on it when it is part of an Environment.  This is the base image of Endur/Findur and is a one-off step.  New versions of Endur/Findur will not require the above steps to be run again – hence the value of this template.

Therefore, at this step clone the Server as a template so that other servers can be built from this image.

We recommend running a sysprep process to create the image, so there are no issues with servers of the same name being on the domain at the same time.  Please ask the Server Team for their preferred method of creating this image and building new servers from it.  This will differ from Customer to Customer through their preferred server technology and whether any virtualisation or cloud technologies are used.

(See here for our instructions on how to prep a template on Azure)