Private flex.bi Installation (work-in-progress)

Directory structure

flexbi_private directory contains the following subdirectories and files:

• app - for private flex.bi customizations (e.g. custom layouts or view templates)
• bin - startup and other shell scripts
• config - configuration files
• data - for storing uploaded files
• flexbi_private.jar - main application archive file
• lib - additional Ruby files or *.jar files (added if necessary)
• log - web request and queue job log files

Database setup

flex.bi will store data in additional MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle database. It is recommended that you create a separate database user for flex.bi needs (by default with name flexbi_private) which will then create additional databases on a specified database server.

By default flex.bi will use one database

The following are database server specific instructions for flex.bi database setup.

MySQL

You can create a separate user flexbi_private and grant access to all MySQL databases which start with flexbi_private prefix:

(Replace secret with chosen password). When you will specify the database connection parameters in flex.bi then a flexbi_private database will be created. Later when additional flex.bi accounts will be created then each account data will be stored in separate databases with names flexbi_jira_dwh_N where N is account ID number.

In addition you should download the MySQL JDBC driver and copy the included mysql-connector-java-*.jar to flexbi_private/libdirectory (MySQL JDBC driver is not included in Private flex.bi distribution due to GPL license restrictions).

Please also tune MySQL memory settings to speed up both data import and data queries. The following my.cnf settings are recommended:

innodb_buffer_pool_size will specify how much database data MySQL can store in memory - adjust it to your available server memory (the more data MySQL will store in memory the less disk input/output operations will be performed). If you will changeinnodb_log_file_size then it will require that you delete existing MySQL log files before starting MySQL server.

PostgreSQL

You can create separate user flexbi_private with database creation rights:

If you do not want to add the CREATEDB role to the flexbi_private user then manually create the flexbi_private database with flexbi_private user as the owner.

Each new flex.bi account will store data in a new flexbi_jira_dwh_N schema (where N is account ID number) in the same database.

Please tune PostgreSQL memory parameters. The following postgresql.conf settings are recommended:

shared_buffers will specify how much database data PostgreSQL can store in the memory - adjust it to your available server memory (the more data PostgreSQL will store in the memory the less disk input/output operations will be performed). wal_buffers affects performance of writing transaction logs to disk.

Microsoft SQL Server

Create a MS SQL Server user flexbi_private – if you use SQL Server Management Studio then select SQL Server authentication and uncheck Enforce password policy. In addition from Server Roles select dbcreator (to allow the creation of new databases) or manually create the flexbi_private database with flexbi_private user as the owner.

Each new flex.bi account will store data in a new flexbi_jira_dwh_N schema (where N is account ID number) in the same database.

Oracle

Create an Oracle database user flexbi_private:

In this configuration all flex.bi data will be stored in one flexbi_private schema.

Start application

On Mac OS X and Linux start the application with bin/start.sh shell script. Please review bin/start.sh script and if necessary customize it (e.g. increase Java memory parameters in JAVA_OPTS environment variable).

On Windows start application with bin\start.bat batch file. Please review bin\start.bat and customize it if necessary (e.g. change JAVA_OPTS).

If you get Unsupported major.minor version 51.0 error message then please check that you are using Java 7 or later (check with java -version).

Wait until you see the message Listening for HTTP requests on localhost:8080 and then open http://localhost:8080 in your browser – you should see the flex.bi settings page.

In the flex.bi settings page specify database connection parameters for flexbi_private database. By default all flex.bi account specific data will be stored in the same database (as described earlier in Database section). If you want you can select Use separate DWH database option and specify a different database where account specific schemas (with uploaded or imported data) should be stored. Database connection parameters will be stored in config/database.toml file.

In addition in the settings page please specify your flex.bi license information – the license name and key. License information will be stored in the config/flexbi.toml file.

If database and license information will be correct then you will be redirected to a sign up page where you can create the first system administration user account.

flexbi.toml configuration file

In config/flexbi.toml file you can configure different flex.bi parameters. The configuration file uses TOML format. Please see comments and commented examples for each section in this file.

If you would like to add e-mail notifications support (to invite users, reset passwords or receive notifications about failed import jobs) from flex.bi then provide SMTP server information which can be used for outgoing e-mails (mailer section in configuration file). In addition uncomment and specify default_url_options section which is used to generate full URL links back to your private flex.bi server.

In accounts section you can provide connection parameters and schema definition files for accounts with custom schema. See “FoodMart custom” account as example.

Linux service startup script

bin/init.d/flexbi.sample is a Linux service startup script which can be modified and copied to /etc/init.d/flex.bi. Please specifyflexbi_HOME variable in this script to point to flexbi_private directory full path. By default this startup script will use $flexbi_HOME/bin/start.sh to start flex.bi – if needed then create a separate copy of start.sh script if different parameters should be used when starting flex.bi as a service.

Windows service

Private flex.bi distribution by default does not include support for running as a Windows service. But you can use an application like AlwaysUp to create a Windows service that will start bin\start.bat file from the Private flex.bi installation directory.

Provide access to flex.bi from other computers

By default private flex.bi will be accessible just locally at address http://localhost:8080. If you want to provide access to private flex.bi from other computers then edit bin/start.sh or bin\start.bat and add -b 0.0.0.0 at the end of the startup command (see comments for explanation).

If you would like to change default web application port 8080 to a different port then edit bin/start.sh or bin\start.bat and add -p NNNN parameter where NNNN is the port number.

Export to PDF using PhantomJS

If you would like to export dashboard pages to PDF or send regular emails with flex.bi dashboards as PDF attachments then please install PhantomJS on your Private flex.bi server and specify its location in flexbi.toml file.

Troubleshooting

If Private flex.bi initial page does not open or opens with error message then check either console output or check the log file log/flexbi-web.log if it has any error messages.

After flex.bi has started up it will store its log files in log subdirectory:

• flexbi-web.log contains log of web requests
• flexbi-queues.log contains log of background queue jobs

Please contact flex.bi support if you have any issues with Private flex.bi installation and setup.