Alfresco Environment Validation and "Day Zero" Configuration

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BP-1 - Alfresco Environment Validation & "Day Zero" ConfigurationPeter MonksDirector, Professional Services, Alfresco

twitter: @pmonks, @AlfrescoPS

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Agenda

“Day Zero” Configuration

• Alfresco’s default configuration• What is “Day Zero” configuration?• Why perform it, and when?• Configuration steps

Environment Validation

• What is environment validation?• Why perform it, and when?• Validation steps• Environment Validation Tool

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• Validate environment suitability for installation of Alfresco

• Specifically:• Validate against Supported Platforms• Validate environment:

• Server hardware• OS configuration• 3rd party applications• Database configuration• Network characteristics

What is environment validation?

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• Why?• To pro-actively avoid issues, before they occur

• When?• Prior to installing Alfresco for any purpose:

• Evaluation• Development• QA / Test• Production mirror• Production• Disaster recovery

• All installations benefit from this process!

Why perform it, and when?

Copyright © Hergé / Moulinsart

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• Supported Platforms• http://www.alfresco.com/services/subscription/supported-platforms/

• Server hardware• CPU clock speed (2.5+Ghz)• 32 bit vs 64 bit

• OS configuration• File handles (Unix-like OSes – 4096+)• Port availability• Availability of JLAN DLLs (Windows)

Validation Steps

http://www.alfresco.com/services/subscription/supported-platforms/

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• 3rd party applications• OpenOffice• ImageMagick• SWFTools

• Database configuration• Character encoding (UTF8)• MySQL database engine (InnoDB)

• Network characteristics• DNS configuration (for clustering)• Database server

• Connectivity• Packet loss• Latency

Validation Steps (cont.)

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BUT WAIT!

CAN’T THIS BE AUTOMATED?

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Why yes it can…

…introducing the “Environment Validation Tool”!

Environment Validation Tool


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• What does it do?• Checks Supported Platforms†

• Checks environment†

• How do I run it?• Command line Java program• Dependencies:

• JDK 1.2+ (1.4+ in next version)• JDBC driver

• Can be run prior to installation (or even download) of Alfresco

• How do I get it?• Available for download from Alfresco Knowledge Base

† Some manual validation may still be necessary.

Environment Validation Tool

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Environment Validation Tool Demo

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• Optimized for evaluation of Alfresco

• Assumptions:• Single user

• Minimal traffic & concurrency

• Small content set• Low-end machine (laptop)

• Resulting configuration:• Maximizes available functionality• Optimizes resource usage over performance / scalability

∴ NOT SUITABLE FOR TEST OR PRODUCTION!

Alfresco’s Default Configuration

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1. Environment Validation

2. Reconfiguration of Alfresco for:• High traffic• Concurrent transactions• Large content sets• Production grade hardware

What is “Day Zero” configuration?

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• Why?• To pro-actively avoid issues, before they occur

• When?• Prior to installing Alfresco for:

• Development• QA / Test, particularly performance test• Production mirror• Production• Disaster recovery

• Even evaluation environments can benefit, if going beyond “kicking the tyres”

Why perform it, and when?

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• Increase maximum heap (-Xmx) to at least 1GB• If the server has sufficient RAM, ideally:

• 1.5GB on 32bit JVM• 2+GB on 64bit JVM

• Configured in alfresco.[sh|bat] startup script:

• Attend session “BP-2 - Scale your Alfresco Solutions” for more on tuning

Configuration Steps – JVM Heap

…export JAVA_OPTS='-Xms512m –Xmx2048m -Xss1024k -XX:MaxPermSize=256m -XX:NewSize=256m -server'…

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• Set “dir.root” to an absolute path

• Configured in alfresco-global.properties:

Configuration Steps – dir.root

…## Sample custom content and index data location#-------------dir.root=/var/lib/alfresco/alf_data…

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• Ensure your database can accept 300 connections per Alfresco instance (cluster node)

• Configuration specifics vary, depending on your database

Configuration Steps – Database Connections

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• Add “db.pool.max” property and set it to 275


Configuration Steps – db.pool.max

…## Sample database connection properties#-------------db.name=alfrescodb.username=alfrescodb.password=alfrescodb.host=localhostdb.port=3306db.pool.max=275…

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• Add “hibernate.jdbc.fetch_size” property and set it to 150• Note: not used by some databases, but a good habit to change it

anyway


Configuration Steps – JDBC Fetch Size

…## Sample database connection properties#-------------db.name=alfrescodb.username=alfrescodb.password=alfrescodb.host=localhostdb.port=3306db.pool.max=275hibernate.jdbc.fetch_size=150…

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• Enable JODConverter based integration with OpenOffice


Configuration Steps – JODConverter

…## External locations#-------------ooo.exe=sofficejodconverter.officeHome=./OpenOffice.orgjodconverter.portNumbers=8101ooo.enabled=falsejodconverter.enabled=trueimg.root=./ImageMagickswf.exe=./bin/pdf2swf…

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• Set absolute paths for 3rd party components


• These settings are a little confusing!

Configuration Steps – 3rd Party Component Locations

…## External locations#-------------ooo.exe=sofficejodconverter.officeHome=/opt/OpenOffice.orgjodconverter.portNumbers=8101ooo.enabled=falsejodconverter.enabled=trueimg.root=/usr/localswf.exe=/usr/local/bin/pdf2swf…

Path to OpenOffice Installation directory

Path to directory containing bin/convert executable.

Path and filename of pdf2swf executable.

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• Configured in jmxrmi.access and jmxrmi.password• Create these files by copying from alfresco-jmxrmi.* templates

• Usernames configured in jmxrmi.access (not normally changed):

• Passwords configured in jmxrmi.password (must change!):

• More documentation on JMX credentials at:http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/management/agent.html


Configuration Steps – Set JMX Credentials (Enterprise)

…monitorRole readonlycontrolRole readwrite…

…monitorRole change_asapcontrolRole change_asap…

http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/guides/management/agent.html

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• Database-related misconfigurations are the single biggest source of performance issues

• Ensure all database-related “Day Zero” configuration changes are comprehensively applied

• Ensure your database is regularly tuned and maintained

• A certified DBA is required to properly support a production Alfresco database†!

† Only a part time role, but critical nonetheless.

A final word on databases

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In Conclusion

1. Thoroughly validate your environment

2. Install Alfresco

3. Diligently perform “Day Zero” configuration

4. Start Alfresco (for the 1st time)

5. ???

6. Profit!!

“Day Zero Activities”


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Q&AAny questions?


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Learn MoreEnvironment Validation Tool (KB)“Zero Day Configuration Guide” (KB)wiki.alfresco.comforums.alfresco.comtwitter: @AlfrescoECM Copyright © Hergé / Moulinsart

Alfresco Environment Validation and "Day Zero" Configuration

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