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12 Steps to Install and Configure Alfresco on UNIX / Linux

by Ramesh Natarajan on May 24, 2010
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Alfresco is the best open source content management system. This has a rock solid document management foundation, with several functionality built on top of it. Alfresco provides web based content management, collaboration platform, Content Management Interoperability Services (CMIS), records management and image management. Alfresco has enterprise edition and free community edition. See the difference between them here. If you have an in-house IT team, just go with the Alfresco community edition. It is straight-forward to install and configure Alfresco. In this article, let us review how to install and configure alfresco community edition on UNIX / Linux platform using 12 easy steps.

1. Install Alfresco Community Tomcat Bundle

Download Alfresco from the community edition download page.
#c d~

#w g e tOa l f r e s c o c o m m u n i t y t o m c a t 3 . 3 . t a r . g zh t t p : / / d l . a l f r e s c o . c o m / r e l e a s e / c o m m u n i t y / b u i l d 2 7 6 5 / a l f r e s c o c o m m u n i t y t o m c a t 3 . 3 . t a r . g z ? d l _ f i l e = r #m k d i r/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / #c d/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / #t a rx v f z~ / a l f r e s c o c o m m u n i t y t o m c a t 3 . 3 . t a r . g z

2. Modify Alfresco Global Properties

alf_data parameter identifies the location of alfresco data store, where all the documents will be stored. Make sure this is pointing to an absolute path as shown below. Initially this directory will not be present. This alf_data directory will be created when we start the alfresco for the 1st time.
#v i/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / t o m c a t / s h a r e d / c l a s s e s / a l f r e s c o g l o b a l . p r o p e r t i e s d i r . r o o t = / o p t / a l f r e s c o / a l f _ d a t a #l sl/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / a l f _ d a t a l s :/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / a l f _ d a t a :N os u c hf i l eo rd i r e c t o r y

3. Verify MySQL connector is installed

Just double-check to make sure the mysql connector is installed in the proper location, as shown below.
#l sl/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / t o m c a t / l i b / m y s q l c o n n e c t o r j a v a 5 . 1 . 7 b i n . j a r r w x r x r x1r o o tr o o t7 0 9 9 2 2J a n1 21 1 : 5 9/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / t o m c a t / l i b / m y s q l c o n n e c t o r j a v a 5 . 1 . 7 b i n . j a r

4. Create the Alfresco MySQL databases

If you dont have MySQL, install it as using yum groupinstall, or based on LAMP install article, or based on mysql rpm article. After installing MySQL, create the alfresco database using the db_setup.sql script as shown below.
#c d/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / e x t r a s / d a t a b a s e s / m y s q l #m y s q lur o o tp< d b _ s e t u p . s q l E n t e rp a s s w o r d : #l sl/ v a r / l i b / m y s q l / a l f r e s c o / t o t a l4 r w r w -1m y s q lm y s q l5 4M a y 71 1 : 2 5d b . o p t

5. Verify that Alfresco MySQL databases got created

#m y s q lur o o tp E n t e rp a s s w o r d : m y s q l >s h o wd a t a b a s e s ; + + |D a t a b a s e | + + |i n f o r m a t i o n _ s c h e m a| |a l f r e s c o | |m y s q l | |t e s t | + + 4r o w si ns e t( 0 . 0 0s e c ) m y s q l >

6. Update the db.url in the global property files

Update the db.url parameter in the alfresco-global.properties file to point to localhost:3306 as shown below.
#v i/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / t o m c a t / s h a r e d / c l a s s e s / a l f r e s c o g l o b a l . p r o p e r t i e s d b . u r l = j d b c : m y s q l : / / l o c a l h o s t : 3 3 0 6 / a l f r e s c o

7. Start Alfresco Server

Start the alfresco server. This will start the tomcat application server that was bundled with the alfresco.
#c d/ o p t / a l f r e s c o #. / a l f r e s c o . s hs t a r t U s i n gC A T A L I N A _ B A S E : / o p t / a l f r e s c o / t o m c a t U s i n gC A T A L I N A _ H O M E : / o p t / a l f r e s c o / t o m c a t U s i n gC A T A L I N A _ T M P D I R :/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / t o m c a t / t e m p U s i n gJ R E _ H O M E : / u s r / j a v a / j d k 1 . 6 . 0 _ 1 8

While the alfresco tomcat server is starting up, check the /opt/alfresco/alfresco.log for any possible issues. When alfresco.sh is executed for the 1st time, it will do some database setup, and youll see following messages in the alfresco.log (only the 1st time). Executing database script /opt/alfresco/tomcat/temp/Alfresco/*.sql All executed statements: /opt/alfresco/tomcat/temp/Alfresco/*.sql Applied patch [org.alfresco.repo.admin.patch.PatchExecuter] Look for the line in the log file where it says Alfresco started, which indicates that Alfresco was started successfully. Following are few sample lines from alfresco.log.

#t a i lf/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / a l f r e s c o . l o g 2 1 : 2 9 : 2 5 , 4 3 1I N F O [ o r g . a l f r e s c o . r e p o . d o m a i n . s c h e m a . S c h e m a B o o t s t r a p ]E x e c u t i n gd a t a b a s es c r i p t/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / t o m c a t / t e m p / A l f r e s c o / A l f r e s c o S c h e m a 2 1 : 2 9 : 2 7 , 2 4 5I N F O [ o r g . a l f r e s c o . r e p o . d o m a i n . s c h e m a . S c h e m a B o o t s t r a p ]A l le x e c u t e ds t a t e m e n t s : / o p t / a l f r e s c o / t o m c a t / t e m p / A l f r e s c o / A l f r e s c o S c h e m a = = =A p p l i e dp a t c h = = = I D :p a t c h . d b V 3 . 0 0 C r e a t e A c t i v i t i e s E x t r a s R E S U L T : S c r i p tc o m p l e t e d = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 2 1 : 3 0 : 0 3 , 7 5 6I N F O [ o r g . a l f r e s c o . s e r v i c e . d e s c r i p t o r . D e s c r i p t o r S e r v i c e ]A l f r e s c oJ V M-v 1 . 6 . 0 _ 2 1 b 0 6 ;m a x i m u mh e a ps i z e9 1 0 . 2 5 0 M B 2 1 : 3 0 : 0 3 , 7 5 6I N F O [ o r g . a l f r e s c o . s e r v i c e . d e s c r i p t o r . D e s c r i p t o r S e r v i c e ]A l f r e s c os t a r t e d( C o m m u n i t y ) :C u r r e n tv e r s i o n3 . 3 . 0( 2 7 6 5 )s c h e m a4 0 0 9-O

8. Verify the alf_data directory creation

When you start the alfresco for the 1st time, it will create the alfresco data repository as shown below.
#l sl/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / a l f _ d a t a t o t a l3 2 d r w x r x r x2r o o tr o o t4 0 9 6M a r2 51 6 : 2 6a u d i t . c o n t e n t s t o r e d r w x r x r x2r o o tr o o t4 0 9 6M a r2 51 6 : 2 6c o n t e n t s t o r e d r w x r x r x2r o o tr o o t4 0 9 6M a r2 51 6 : 2 6c o n t e n t s t o r e . d e l e t e d d r w x r x r x3r o o tr o o t4 0 9 6M a r2 51 6 : 2 6l u c e n e i n d e x e s

9. Verify that Alfresco Server is Running

Make sure alfresco server is running successfully. View the alfresco.log file to make sure there are no errors.
#p se f|g r e pia l f r o o t 9 2 8 0 15 11 6 : 2 5p t s / 0 #t a i lf/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / a l f r e s c o . l o g

0 0 : 0 0 : 3 0/ u s r / j a v a / j d k 1 . 6 . 0 _ 1 8 / b i n / j a v aX m s 1 2 8 mX m x 5 1 2 mX X : M a x P e r m S i z e = 1 6 0 ms e r v e rD a l f r e s c o . h o m e = .-

10. Login to Alfresco Explorer or Alfresco Share

Alfresco has two ways to access the application Alfresco Explorer and Alfresco Share. Go to http://localhost:8080/alfresco to launch the Alfresco explorer Go to http://localhost:8080/share to launch the Alfresco share

Default alfresco administrator uid/pwd is admin/admin. Change it immediately after you login.

11. Change the default password for the alfresco database

Use the mysql update command to change the password for the alfresco user as shown below.
#m y s q lur o o tpm y s q l E n t e rp a s s w o r d : R e a d i n gt a b l ei n f o r m a t i o nf o rc o m p l e t i o no ft a b l ea n dc o l u m nn a m e s Y o uc a nt u r no f ft h i sf e a t u r et og e taq u i c k e rs t a r t u pw i t hA W e l c o m et ot h eM y S Q Lm o n i t o r . C o m m a n d se n dw i t h;o r\ g . Y o u rM y S Q Lc o n n e c t i o ni di s5 1 S e r v e rv e r s i o n :5 . 0 . 7 7S o u r c ed i s t r i b u t i o n T y p e' h e l p ; 'o r' \ h 'f o rh e l p .T y p e' \ c 't oc l e a rt h eb u f f e r . m y s q l >U P D A T Eu s e rS E Tp a s s w o r d = P A S S W O R D ( ' d o n t t e l l a n y b o d y ' )W H E R Eu s e r = ' a l f r e s c o ' ; Q u e r yO K ,2r o w sa f f e c t e d( 0 . 0 0s e c ) R o w sm a t c h e d :2 C h a n g e d :2 W a r n i n g s :0 m y s q l >

12. Modify the configuration file to reflect the new alfresco password.
Update the db.password parameter in the alfresco-global.properties file as shown below.
#v i/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / t o m c a t / s h a r e d / c l a s s e s / a l f r e s c o g l o b a l . p r o p e r t i e s d b . n a m e = a l f r e s c o d b . u s e r n a m e = a l f r e s c o d b . p a s s w o r d = d o n t t e l l a n y b o d y

After this, stop/start MySQL database and restart Alfresco Tomcat server. As a final step, make sure to take a backup of alfresco mysql database using mysqldump or mysqlhotcopy and /opt/alfresco directory.
#s e r v i c em y s q l dr e s t a r t #/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / a l f r e s c o . s hs t o p #/ o p t / a l f r e s c o / a l f r e s c o . s hs t a r t
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Tags: Alfresco, Alfresco alf_data, Alfresco Installation Guide, alfresco-global.properties, alfresco.sh, Install Alfresco on CentOS, Install Alfresco on Mac, Install Alfresco on Ubuntu, Install Alfresco on Windows { 4 comments read them below or add one } 1 m June 12, 2010 at 7:53 am The first wget command fails file not found I believe. Considering the howto is less than a month old, I am guessing alfresco changes things rather rapidly. Also note that downloading the community bundle (http://dev.alfresco.com/downloads/nightly/dist/) and following your instructions results in a JAVA_HOME env variable missing error. I got it all up and running, however, I would recommend you update your howto, or, make the steps generic enough where they are not dependent solely on copy/paste commands. You are spoon feeding far too much. 2 Vijayalakshmi June 24, 2010 at 3:32 am I am trying to install Alfresco3.3 in linux server. When i use the first command: # wget -O alfresco-community-tomcat-3.3.tar.gz http://process.alfresco.com/ccdl/?file=release/community/build-2765/alfresco-community-tomcat-3.3.tar.gz it saves a file alfresco-community-tomcat-3.3.tar.gz in my current directory. But when i check for its file type, it is a HTML document text. Hence when i execute the following command, # tar xvfz /usr/save/alfresco-community-tomcat-3.3.tar.gz i end up in error. Please let me know the right way of downloading the file from command line. 3 Joel February 9, 2011 at 10:07 am thank you a lot for this tutorial ! 4 SriRam October 1, 2013 at 3:09 am Hi I had installed the alfresco as per the documentation above but alfresco is not creating the alf_data dir and i dont see any errors on alfresco logs or tomcat out logs. Any help will be appreciated. alfresco log 13:55:16,727 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.DeclarativeRegistry] Registered 225 Web Scripts (+0 failed), 232 URLs 13:55:16,729 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.DeclarativeRegistry] Registered 8 Package Description Documents (+0 failed) 13:55:16,729 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.DeclarativeRegistry] Registered 0 Schema Description Documents (+0 failed) 13:55:16,923 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.AbstractRuntimeContainer] Initialised Spring Surf Container Web Script Container (in 4220.6357ms) 13:55:17,075 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.TemplateProcessorRegistry] Registered template processor freemarker for extension ftl 13:55:17,263 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.ScriptProcessorRegistry] Registered script processor javascript for extension js 13:55:17,412 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.TemplateProcessorRegistry] Registered template processor freemarker for extension ftl 13:55:17,444 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.ScriptProcessorRegistry] Registered script processor javascript for extension js 13:55:17,668 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.TemplateProcessorRegistry] Registered template processor freemarker for extension ftl 13:55:17,705 INFO [org.springframework.extensions.webscripts.ScriptProcessorRegistry] Registered script processor javascript for extension js catalina.out 13:55:17,075 INFO [extensions.webscripts.TemplateProcessorRegistry] Registered template processor freemarker for extension ftl 13:55:17,263 INFO [extensions.webscripts.ScriptProcessorRegistry] Registered script processor javascript for extension js 13:55:17,412 INFO [extensions.webscripts.TemplateProcessorRegistry] Registered template processor freemarker for extension ftl 13:55:17,444 INFO [extensions.webscripts.ScriptProcessorRegistry] Registered script processor javascript for extension js 13:55:17,668 INFO [extensions.webscripts.TemplateProcessorRegistry] Registered template processor freemarker for extension ftl 13:55:17,705 INFO [extensions.webscripts.ScriptProcessorRegistry] Registered script processor javascript for extension js Oct 01, 2013 1:55:20 PM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol start INFO: Starting Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8080 Oct 01, 2013 1:55:20 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start INFO: Server startup in 95584 ms Leave a Comment Name E-mail Website

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