General Installation guide

chown -R flexbi:flexbi flexbi_private

The flexbi_private directory contains the following subdirectories and files:

• app - for flex.bi Enterprise 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 an additional MySQL, PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle database. It is recommended that you create a separate database user for flex.bi (by default with the name flexbi_private) which will then create additional databases on the specified database server.

By default flex.bi will use one database

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

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `flexbi_private%`.* TO 'flexbi_private'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'secret';

innodb_buffer_pool_size = 1024M
innodb_log_file_size = 256M
query_cache_size= 16M
query_cache_type = 1
character-set-server = utf8
collation-server = utf8_general_ci

CREATE ROLE flexbi_private PASSWORD 'secret' LOGIN CREATEDB;

shared_buffers = 1024MB
wal_buffers = 32MB

CREATE USER flexbi_private IDENTIFIED BY secret DEFAULT TABLESPACE users;
GRANT CONNECT, RESOURCE TO flexbi_private;

Start application

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

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

If you get the "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 the database connection parameters for your flexbi_private database. By default all flex.bi account specific data will be stored in the same database (as described earlier in the Database section). If you want you can select the "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 the 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/eazybi.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.

eazybi.toml configuration file

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

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

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

You need to open the eazybi.toml file and edit the section "Specify your license information". Next to "name =" enter your organizations name, and in the "key = " section copy and paste your key. Example:

name = "Forward And Upward Inc."

key = """

dwadwadakjajghvt67wbrv439bt4832893e209389bv23

"""

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/flexbi. Please specify the EAZYBI_HOME variable in this script to point to the flexbi_private directories full path. By default this startup script will use $EAZYBI_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 flex.bi Enterprise installation directory.

Provide access to flex.bi from other computers

By default flex.bi Enterprise will be accessible just locally at the address  http://localhost:8080/ . If you want to provide access to flex.bi Enterprise 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 further explanation).

If you would like to change the 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 the PDF format or send regular emails with flex.bi dashboards as PDF attachments then please install PhantomJS on your flex.bi Enterprise server and specify its location in the eazybi.toml file.

Troubleshooting

If the flex.bi Enterprise initial page does not open or opens with error message then check the console output or check the log file log/eazybi-web.log for any error messages.

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

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

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