Introduction

In ≥ 2.1.0-funcrel, CAST provides one single Java JAR installer for a "standalone" deployment, as a separate download media available on CAST Extend (https://extend.castsoftware.com/#/extension?id=com.castsoftware.aip.console.standalone&version=latest):

This installer is targeted at deployments on Microsoft Windows on one single machine. The installer includes all required services in one single Java JAR installer:

• Console front-end service
• One single Node back-end service

Limitations of the standalone Java JAR installer

• Only one single Node can be managed in Console - this is the Node service provided in the Java JAR installer with Console front-end service. As such the Nodes panel in the Admin Center is not available.
• Authentication method is limited to local authentication only - LDAP/Active Directory/SAML/SSO with OAuth are not supported (Keycloak service is not provided). In addition, all logins will always be assigned the ADMIN role (can view all data and configuration options).
• Integration with embedded Dashboards requires a manual process using the cast-integrated-health-engineering-dashboard-<version>.zip file provided in the installation media (note that in ≥ 2.4, this limitation has been removed with the provision of an interactive Java JAR installer).
• There is no migration path to enterprise releases of Console - in other words, if you have analyzed applications using the standalone release, and you then decide you require more than one Node for analysis purposes or you require enterprise authentication (integration with LDAP/Active Directory) it is not possible to migrate your existing applications to an enterprise release installation.
• Not supported for deployment on Linux instances.

Using standalone mode with automation tools

When using Console ≥ 2.3 in standalone mode with automation tools such as the Console RestAPI (AIP Console - Interactive API documentation) or the Console automation tools (https://extend.castsoftware.com/#/extension?id=com.castsoftware.aip.console.tools&version=latest), you should ensure that you authenticate in basic mode (i.e. no need to use an API Key - just use your password). For example, when using the Console automation tools, pass your login using the --user parameter and your password using the --apikey parameter (see https://github.com/CAST-Extend/com.castsoftware.aip.console.tools/blob/master/aip-console-tools-cli/README.md):

AddVersion --user="admin" --apikey="admin" -n "my_app" -f "C:/work/codes/my_code.zip" --auto-create --timeout 300 -s http://localhost:8081 -v "my_version"

Launching the installer

To start the installation of the standalone Java JAR installers, double click the executable JAR file as provided with the installation media. If you are unable to execute the .JAR file, use the following command to open the JAR in GUI mode:

java -jar AIP-Console-Standalone-<version>.jar

Step 1 - Run the installer

The installation wizard will be displayed:

• If the wizard cannot locate a previous installation of the standalone install in the default installation location or in the Window Registry, then the Install option will be automatically selected.
• If the wizard locates a previous installation of the standalone install in the default installation location or in the Window Registry, then the Upgrade an existing installation option will be automatically selected.

Click Next to continue:

Choose a location on the local machine that will be used for the standalone installation. The setup will suggest: %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\AIP-Console-Standalone but you are free to choose a different location. If the folder does not already exist, the installation wizard will create it. Click Next to continue:

Choose a location for your installation "data" - this location will contain by default items such as logs and properties files and the delivery/deploy/shared folders (although these can be changed post install). The setup will suggest: %PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\AIP-Console-Standalone but you are free to choose a different location. The installation wizard will set Full Access permissions on these folders to all authenticated users. Click Next to continue:

Fill in the information that is required for your installation with regard to the location of AIP Core on the local machine and connection details for the CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance (this is required to store persistence information). By default, the CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance you define will ALSO be configured as a storage host for all application schemas and the Measurement schema. Click Next to continue.

Fill in the information that is required for your installation with regard to the Windows Service. You are not obliged to install the standalone service as a Windows Service: if you choose not to, you will need to start the service using a provided batch file (shortcuts to this batch file can be created in the following step). Click Next to continue:

Choose whether to create shortcut icons and Start menu entries for your installation. The installation will start when you click Next:

The installation process will start. Click Next when complete:

The installation process is complete:

Step 2 - Initial configuration

Ensure the service up and running

The next step is to first ensure that the service is up and running.

• If you installed it as a Windows Service and chose to start the service as well, the service should be up and running correctly.
• If you installed it as a Windows Service and chose NOT to start the service, you will need to start the service.
• If you did NOT install it as a Windows Service, you will need to run the following batch files to start the service: %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\AIP-Console-Standalone\tools\aip-node-app.bat

Connect to Console front-end and complete start-up wizard

Now connect to Console using the following URL - change the port number if you entered a custom port during the installation:

http://localhost:8081/

If the installation and start-up have completed successfully, you will see the following start-up wizard. This displayed the first time you login to Console. The wizard provides a user-friendly method to configure various mandatory settings and options, such as:

• Entering a license key
• Configuring access to CAST Extend / use of a proxy caching server

Each step in the wizard is explained in detail in Complete start-up wizard - v. 2.x. 

When the wizard is complete, the login screen will be displayed:

Login with either of the following credentials - both have the ADMIN role and perform all tasks and view all data:

• admin/admin
• cast/cast

Configure your CAST Storage Service or PostgreSQL instances - optional

By default, the CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance you defined during the Java JAR installation process will be configured as a storage host for all application schemas and the Measurement schema:

In the vast majority of cases for a standalone deployment, there is no need to make any further configuration changes, however, you can add in additional CAST Storage Services/PostgreSQL instances should you need to. See Configure your CAST Storage Service or PostgreSQL instances - v. 2.x.

Step 3 - deploy Dashboards

Embedded dashboards

≥ 2.4.x

Please see the information in Embedded CAST Dashboard deployment process using Java JAR installer.

2.0.x - 2.3.x

<unpacked_zip>\startup.bat

<unpacked_zip>\dashboard-service-install.bat

<unpacked_zip>\configurations\application.properties

## DATASOURCE (DataSourceAutoConfiguration & DataSourceProperties)
# properties which will be considered by spring-boot automatically to create the bean for datasource at run time
# Connection to PostgreSQL database
restapi.datasource[0].url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:2282/postgres
restapi.datasource[0].username=operator
restapi.datasource[0].password=CastAIP
restapi.datasource[0].poolname=Resource1
restapi.datasource[0].minimumIdle=10
restapi.datasource[0].maximumPoolSize=20

## DATASOURCE (DataSourceAutoConfiguration & DataSourceProperties)
# properties which will be considered by spring-boot automatically to create the bean for datasource at run time
# Connection to PostgreSQL database
restapi.datasource[0].url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:2282/postgres
restapi.datasource[0].username=operator
restapi.datasource[0].password=CastAIP
restapi.datasource[0].poolname=Resource1
restapi.datasource[0].minimumIdle=10
restapi.datasource[0].maximumPoolSize=20

## DATASOURCE
# Resource1 is the datasource name used in domains.properties
# Adapt server name (localhost) and port (2282) if required
# You can add multiple datasources if you want to connect to multiple CSS Servers. Datasource name must be unique
# You have to configure your domains names and relative schema names in domains.properties
restapi.datasource[0].url=jdbc:postgresql://localhost:2282/postgres
restapi.datasource[0].username=operator
restapi.datasource[0].password=CastAIP
restapi.datasource[0].poolname=Resource1
restapi.datasource[0].minimumIdle=10
restapi.datasource[0].maximumPoolSize=20

restapi.datasource[1].url=jdbc:postgresql://192.168.200.105:2282/postgres
restapi.datasource[1].username=operator
restapi.datasource[1].password=CastAIP
restapi.datasource[1].poolname=Resource2
restapi.datasource[1].minimumIdle=10
restapi.datasource[1].maximumPoolSize=20

restapi.datasource[0].minimumIdle=10
restapi.datasource[0].maximumPoolSize=20

<unpacked_zip>\configurations\domains.properties

AAD=Resource1,general_measure

<unpacked_zip>\configurations\application.properties

server.port=8087

Microsoft Windows - startup.bat
java -jar -Xmx1024m -Xms256m cast-integrated-health-engineering-dashboard-<version>.jar

Linux - startup.sh
JAVA_OPTS="-Xmx1024m -Xms256m"

Standalone dashboards

See Standalone CAST Dashboard deployment process.

Optional post-installation configuration steps

Most options listed below are exposed in the following configuration file:

%PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\AIP-Console-Standalone\application-standalone.yml

When changes are made, save the file and then restart the service to ensure the changes are taken into account.

Configure data paths

Out of the box, Console will be configured to use the following paths to fetch and store data required and generated during an analysis:

These paths can be modified post install if required, however, CAST does not recommend changing them once Applications have been delivered and analyzed. To change the paths, edit the application-standalone.yml file, locate the following lines and modify them as necessary:

application:
	paths:
		...
		delivery-folder: C:/ProgramData/CAST/AIP-Console-Standalone/delivery
		deploy-folder: C:/ProgramData/CAST/AIP-Console-Standalone/deploy
		shared-folder: C:/ProgramData/CAST/AIP-Console-Standalone/shared

Save the file and then restart the service.

Configure Console user logins

Console Standalone uses local authentication with logins declared in the application-standalone.yml file. Out of the box, the following logins are available

To edit these logins (change the password for example), or to add additional logins, locate the following lines and modify them as necessary:

# Standalone users  
users:
    - username: admin
      password: CRYPTED2:0352F19CC37A1694DF51131A05A350FC
    - username: cast
      password: CRYPTED2:3FE5B3676B861218F6C339CFEFC9367B

For example to add an additional login called corp, with the password corp (encrypted), add the following:

# Standalone users  
users:
    - username: admin
      password: CRYPTED2:0352F19CC37A1694DF51131A05A350FC
    - username: cast
      password: CRYPTED2:3FE5B3676B861218F6C339CFEFC9367B
	- username: corp
	  password: CRYPTED2:B5E4BDDEEE58E67BCD4085D8AFF590A7

Save the file and then restart the service.

Change the Console front-end port

If you want to change the port on which Console is running (which is determined during the initial installation), locate the following lines in the application-standalone.yml file and modify them as necessary:

server:
  port: 8081

Save the file and then restart the service.

Change location of AIP Core

If you have changed the installation location of AIP Core, you will need to update Console. To do so, locate the following lines in the application-standalone.yml file and modify them as necessary:

application:
  paths:
    ...
    data-folder: C:/Program Files/CAST/8.3

Save the file and then restart the service.

Change the default CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance

If you need to change the default CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance defined during the installation process, locate the following lines in the application-standalone.yml file and modify them as necessary:

  datasource:
    url: jdbc:postgresql://localhost:2282/postgres?currentSchema=node_standalone
    username: operator
    password: CRYPTED2:90B1A6EC1618661401B724DB5AC34595

Save the file and then restart the service.

Configure SSO (single sign-on) for CAST Imaging installed on Microsoft Windows

If you would like to access CAST Imaging using your CAST Console credentials, you can configure a SSO (single sign-on) mechanism in CAST Imaging that will allow this. When you click through to CAST Imaging directly from the icons available in CAST Console, you will be redirected to the CAST Console login page the first time you do so and you should then enter you CAST Console credentials - if the credentials are correct you will then be redirected back into CAST Imaging without needing to enter separate CAST Imaging login credentials. Subsequent sessions in the same browser will not require a login.

To do so, edit the following file on the machine on which CAST Imaging is installed:

%APPDATA%\CAST\ImagingSystem\login\application.properties

Find the following line:

security.mode=local

and change it to:

security.mode=standalone

Then ensure that the following line is present in the file (it is usually located at the very end of the file). This line tells CAST Imaging where CAST Console is located and on what port it is running (by default it assumes that CAST Console is on the same machine as CAST Imaging and is using the default port number):

security.standalone.console.url=http://localhost:8081

Firstly:

• if this line is not present in the application.properties file, add it.
• then, ensure that there is no white space at the very end of the line - if there is, delete the extra white space

You should then modify the URL to match your environment. The URL should match exactly how you routinely access Console. Therefore:

• if you use http://localhost:8081 to access Console, you can leave the URL as it is.
• if you use a hostname or IP address (http://myhostname:8081 or http://<ip_address>:8081) to access Console, you must modify the line to match this.
• if CAST Console is running on the default port 8081, you can leave the port number as it is.
• if CAST Console is using a custom port (i.e. not 8081), change the port number in the URL to match the custom port

For example, using an IP address and a custom port:

security.standalone.console.url=http://192.168.200.12:9081

Finally, save the .properties file and then finally restart the CAST Imaging - Imaging Login Microsoft Windows Service to ensure the changes are taken into account.

Configure SSO (single sign-on) for embedded CAST Dashboards installed on Microsoft Windows

If you would like to access the embedded CAST Dashboards using your CAST Console credentials, you can configure a SSO (single sign-on) mechanism in the embedded CAST Dashboards that will allow this. When you click through to CAST Dashboards directly from the icons available in CAST Console, you will be given the choice to login via CAST Console, in which case you will be redirected to the CAST Console login page and you should then enter you CAST Console credentials - if the credentials are correct you will then be redirected back into the embedded CAST Dashboards without needing to enter separate embedded CAST Dashboards login credentials. Subsequent sessions in the same browser will not require a login.

To do so, edit the following file on the machine on which the embedded CAST Dashboards RESTAPI is installed:

%PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\Dashboards\Console-SE-HDED\application.properties

Firstly, ensure that the following line is set to "integrated":

security.mode=integrated

Now, update (or add) the security.standalone.enabled line and set it to true:

security.standalone.enabled=true

Next, update (or add) the key security.standalone.console.url and set it to the URL and port of your CAST Console installation - this should be http://localhost:8081. This line tells the embedded CAST Dashboard where CAST Console is located and on what port it is running. If CAST Console is running on a custom port, ensure you enter the correct port:

security.standalone.console.url=http://localhost:8081/

Save the .properties file and then finally restart the embedded CAST Dashboard service to ensure the changes are taken into account. When accessing either the Health Dashboars or Engineering Dashboard direct from CAST Console, you will have the option to login using your CAST Console credentials:

Clicking on the "Login with Imaging Console Standalone" will open the CAST Console login form. After providing credentials, you will be redirected to either the Health or Engineering Dashboards with access to the specific application.

Automated (unattended) installation

It is possible to run the installer in unattended mode using predefined settings stored in a specific file - see the instructions below.

Create and configure .defaults files

The first step is to create a .defaults file (you can name this however you want, for example unattended.defaults). This file contains the settings and options that you want to use for your unattended installation. An example is provided below containing all available options. Please refer to the GUI installation above for an explanation of the available options. Fill in the options to suit your own deployment scenario:

# AIP Console Standalone installer config values
# Installation folder for executables
INSTALL_PATH=C:/Program Files/CAST/AIP-Console-Standalone/bin
# Type of installation
# Automatically detected by the installer, but you can overwrite it using this parameter
# setup.mode=install
# Data folder
dataFolder=C:/Program Files/CAST/AIP-Console-Standalone/data
# CAIP folder path
caipFolder=C:/Program Files/CAST/8.3
# Port for the standalone server
serverPort=8081
# Postgres DB URL to use for AIP Node and as initial CSS server
dbServerUrl=localhost:2284
# Database Name
dbName=postgres
# Schema Name
dbSchemaName=node_standalone
# Username
dbUser=operator
# Password
dbPassword=CastAIP

# Install as a service
windows.service.install=false
# Start service after installation
windows.service.startAfterInstall=false
# Use a user account for the service
windows.service.isUserAccount=false
# User account name/password (don't forget the domain in the username; should be like DOMAIN\\USER)
windows.service.user=
windows.service.password=

# Create shortcuts on desktop
DesktopShortcutCheckboxEnabled=true

Run the installer with the .defaults file

To run the installer in unattended mode, run the following command, changing the .default filename to the one you wish to use and updating the name of the .jar file:

java -jar AIP-Console-Standalone-<version>.jar -defaults-file unattended.defaults -auto

Troubleshooting

During the unattended installation, some elements will be checked automatically and may result in an installation failure:

• "Invalid CAIP folder location": please check that the caipFolder property points to an existing installation of AIP Core
• "Unable to access database": please make sure the information to access the database is properly set.
• "Unable to start service": after installation, the service may not be started properly. Please check in the Windows Services that the service details were set correctly and check that the service can be started.

What is installed?

When the installation process is complete, the following will have been installed:

Service

The service will be installed to the location specified in the installer:

%PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\AIP-Console-Standalone

Data folder

The service will be installed to the location specified in the installer:

%PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\AIP-Console-Standalone

Shortcuts

If you chose to create a shortcut during the installation it will be created. This can be used to start up the service (the shortcut points to a batch file):

Windows Service

The following Windows Service will be created if you enabled the relevant option - and started if you also enabled that option:

Database schema

A database schema called node_standalone (or equivalent custom name) will be automatically created on the configured CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance when the service is started for the first time.

RAM considerations for Windows Services and startup batch scripts

 "Out of the box", the Windows Services and batch scripts made available to run the services are configured to run with conservative RAM memory allocations as shown in the table below:

This means that even though the host server may have 64GB RAM available (for example), it will only give a maximum of 1GB to the JVM in which each service runs. You may therefore find that this is not sufficient and you may receive low memory/out of memory errors when running analyses or snapshots. If this is the case, CAST recommends increasing the Xmx and Xms values until your low memory/out of memory exceptions have been resolved as explained below.

See Configuring RAM for AIP Console front-end and AIP Nodes for more information about changing the RAM allocations.

Uninstall process

A dedicated uninstaller is available which can be accessed via the Microsoft Windows Add or remove programs control panel:

Clicking Uninstall will launch the Java uninstaller:

This uninstaller is configured to remove:

• the contents of the %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\AIP-Console-Standalone installation folder (or the equivalent custom location)
• the %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\AIP-Console-Standalone folder itself if required (tick the Force the deletion of option)
• any shortcuts on the desktop
• any Start menu entries
• the Windows service

This uninstaller will not remove the following items:

• the folder and content of the %PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\AIP-Console-Standalone data folder (or the equivalent custom location)
• the deployed cast-integrated-health-engineering-dashboard-<version>.zip file, used for access to CAST dashboards
• any CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL schemas:
  • associated with the Applications you have created through Console
  • the persistence schema node_standalone (or the equivalent custom schema)
• any instances of AIP Core