Extension ID

com.castsoftware.imaging.winsetup

Introduction

Deploying CAST can be a challenging task. Various installers must be run and many parameters/options need to be set during installation and post. To make the task easier, CAST Imaging Global Installer will install all required software in one shot, on one machine, with the minimum of required parameters/options.

The installer is aimed at those wishing to perform pilots, POCs and assessments where there is a need to install the main components for demonstration purposes all on one machine. CAST does not recommend using this installer for production environments.

What's new?

See CAST Imaging Global Installer - Release Notes for more information.

Which software is managed by CAST Imaging Global Installer?

CAST Imaging Global Installer provides the latest releases of the following CAST components:

	CAST Imaging UI
	CAST Storage Service
	CAST Imaging Console Standalone
	CAST AIP Core

How does the CAST Imaging Global Installer work?

The installer has two modes depending on the environment you are working in:

Online mode - all software is downloaded during the installation process direct from CAST Extend and then installed. This mode requires an internet connection and requires additional time for all software to be downloaded (total download is approx 2.7GB). The installer will download the latest release of each component (this may include alphas or betas).
Offline mode (i.e. no internet connection available) all software must be pre-downloaded before running the installer - this pre-downloaded software is then installed.

Prerequisites

Requirement

Required during the installation?

Required when using the components?

CAST Extend account (see https://extend.castsoftware.com/#/register)

Optional:

Online mode - YES: All software is automatically downloaded during the installation process from CAST Extend and then installed. This requires an internet connection and additional time for all software to be downloaded (total download is approx 2.7GB). The installer will download the latest releases of each piece of software.
Offline mode - NO: All software must be pre-downloaded before running the installer - this software is then installed. No CAST Extend account is therefore required.

Optional:

YES: you have an internet connection and access to the CAST Extend website is available.
NO: not required if you have installed the components on a server which does not have access to the internet (and therefore to the CAST Extend website). In this case a CAST Extend Local Server is required (see below).

CAST Extend Local Server (see https://extend.castsoftware.com/#/extension?id=com.castsoftware.aip.extendproxy&version=latest)

Optional:

YES: required if you have installed the components on a server which does not have access to the internet (and therefore to the CAST Extend website).
NO: you have an internet connection and access to the CAST Extend website is available.

Connection to a local or remote CAST Storage Service / PostgreSQL instance (see https://extend.castsoftware.com/#/extension?id=com.castsoftware.css&version=latest)

The installer will check if a CAST Storage Service / PostgreSQL instance is installed locally:

If one is not found locally, the installer will remind you that CAST Console configuration and result data is stored in a CAST Storage Service / PostgreSQL instance, and will then automatically install the most recent release of CAST Storage Service on your server. You are not obliged to use this instance if you do not want to and you are free to configure a connection to a remote instance.
If one is found locally, then the installer will skip the installation of the CAST Storage Service instance.

Deployment requirements

In addition to the prerequisites listed below, CAST recommends that you consult the Infrastructure sizing guide to view requirements for individual components.

Item Description

Operating System Microsoft Windows only

RAM

Absolute minimum: 16GB
Recommended: 32GB

While 16GB RAM is the absolute minimum required and while the installer will function with less than 32GB RAM and the CAST software will be installed, you may find that performance is impacted if you try to run all components at the same time. CAST Imaging Front end is particularly resource intensive and you may need to disable this software while running CAST Imaging Console.
The installer will install CAST AIP Core, CAST Imaging Console Standalone, CAST Imaging front end as Windows Services and will start the services at the end of the installation process. With all services running at the same time, you may find that the performance of the machine is significantly impacted.

Disk SSD or PCIe NVRAM cards, minimum space required: 20GB. The setup will prevent the installation from starting if there is not enough free disk space. When using online installation mode (software downloaded from CAST Extend), software is downloaded and stored in %TEMP% before installation.

Java JRE/JDK

A 64bit Java JRE or JDK is required to install and run Console. For more details see Deployment requirements.

CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance A CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance is required when installing and using the components. The installer will automatically install an instance on the local machine if one is not found by the installer, and you can then use this instance Alternatively, you can also use a remote CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance.

Software downloaded

If using offline mode, the installer will require the following packages on disk with the following naming conventions:

CAST Imaging UI	com.castsoftware.aip.<version>.zip
CAST Storage Service	com.castsoftware.css.<version>.zip Only required if your local machine does NOT already have a CAST Storage Service installed on it.
CAST Imaging Console Standalone	com.castsoftware.aip.console.standalone.<version>.zip
CAST AIP Core	com.castsoftware.imaging.<version>.zip Only required if your local machine does NOT already have AIP Core installed on it.

Installation path

The installer will suggest %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST, but you are free to choose a different location if necessary.

All existing installations of any of the CAST components installed by this global installer should be removed using the Add/remove Programs menu before running the global installer - the exception to this is CAST Storage Service, which if detected will cause the installer not to re-install it.

In addition, you may need to manually delete any install folders that may not have been removed automatically.

Required ports

The following ports are required by the software installed by the global installer:

Software

Default Ports

Notes

CAST Imaging front-end for Windows

8083, 8084, 9000, 9001, 9980, 7474, 7473, 7687, 6362

These ports can be changed during the installation process.

CAST Imaging Console Standalone

8081

These ports can be changed during the installation process, but CAST highly recommends that they are left at their defaults. If other ports are chosen, ensure that you do not use ports that are required by other CAST software.

Installation process

Run the installer

Run the Installer with elevated privileges:

Existing component detection

The installer will now proceed with a check for existing components installed on the server:

CAST Imaging UI	If the installer detects an existing installation of CAST Imaging UI on the local server, the following message is displayed. This will cause the installer to close and no installation will take place:
CAST Storage Service	If the installer cannot detect a CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance installed on the local server, the following message is displayed, informing you that the installer will automatically install a CAST Storage Service instance on your server:
CAST Imaging Console Standalone	If the installer detects an existing installation of CAST Imaging Console Standalone on the local server, a message is displayed. This will cause the installer to close and no installation will take place.
CAST AIP Core	If the installer detects an existing installation of CAST AIP Core on the local server, the following message is displayed. The installer will therefor skip the installation of AIP Core:

License agreement

Now accept the license agreement:

Choose the installation mode

Depending on your chosen deployment mode:

enter your CAST Extend credentials (online mode) - the installer will check that these are valid
or enter the location of the local folder (offline mode) containing the previously downloaded software packages - the installer will check that these packages exist in the chosen location:

Click Next to continue:

Choose the installation location

By default, the installation will suggest a root folder for all components (%PROGRAMFILES%\CAST). You can change this root folder to some other location, or alternatively, you can choose a custom installation folder for each component by clicking Advanced:

If the installer detects that the root path (%PROGRAMFILES%\CAST by default) exists already and you do not click the Advanced button, a warning message will be displayed and the installer will display the Advanced panel where you will need to choose a custom installation folder for each component. Note that if you have existing installations of any of the components managed by this installer located in %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST or in a different root path you choose, then the installation will fail. Please ensure that you:

either remove these existing installations
or choose custom installation folders for the components managed by this installer.

Define the listening ports and database connection details

The installer will suggest:

default listening ports for end-user access to CAST Imaging and to CAST Console
connection details to a CAST Storage Service/PostgreSQL instance on which to store one schema called "node_standalone" required by CAST Console (note that this schema will be created when all services are started if it does not exist already, and will be re-used if it already exists). You are free to use a local or remote instance. Note that if the installer will automatically install a CAST Storage Service for you, you should set the hostname to localhost and the port to 2284:

Make any changes you require, or alternatively, click the Advanced button to define listening ports for all required services:

If a port is already in use you will be informed:

A summary page is then displayed - click Install to start the installation process:

If you chose to download the required components from CAST Extend (online mode), the installer will start to action this and then the installation process will start:

When complete, the following screen will be displayed and CAST Imaging UI and CAST Console will be opened in your default browser:

What is installed?

Installation paths

All three components will be installed to the chosen location, for example:

CAST Imaging UI: 
- %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\imaging
- %PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\ImagingSystem
- %APPDATA%\CAST\ImagingSystem

CAST Console Standalone:
- %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\imaging-console

CAST AIP Core:
- %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\8.3
- %PROGRAMDATA%\CAST\CAST\8.3

CAST Storage Service:
- %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\css

Installer related files will be created in the following location:

- %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\ImagingInstaller
- %PROGRAMFILES%\CAST\ImagingInstaller\logs

Add/Remove Programs entries

CAST Imaging UI URL auto defined in CAST Console

The CAST Imaging UI URL will be automatically defined in CAST Console to ensure that you can upload application data without any other configuration changes:

Click to enlarge

What happens next?

Some initial configuration is required for both CAST Imaging UI and CAST Console before starting the process of onboarding an application: Application onboarding. This is explained below:

CAST Console

Connect to CAST Console with the following URL, or use the tab that has been opened in your default browser:

http://localhost:<CONSOLE PORT>
or
http://<my_host>:<CONSOLE PORT>

e.g:

http://localhost:8081
or
http://my_host:8081

You will be prompted to fill in various details in the initial start-up wizard (see Complete start-up wizard - v. 2.x). First enter the CAST Console global license key:

Click to enlarge

Then enter your CAST Extend API key and set any proxy requirements you have:

Click to enlarge

Then click Save and Finish:

Click to enlarge

You will now be prompted to login. Login with either of the following credentials - both have the ADMIN role and can perform all tasks and view all data:

admin/admin
cast/cast

Click to enlarge

You are now ready to onboard an application for analysis. See Application onboarding.

CAST Imaging UI

Connect to CAST Imaging UI with the following URL, or use the tab that has been opened in your default browser:

http://localhost:<IMAGING PORT>
or
http://<my_host>:<IMAGING PORT>

e.g:

http://localhost:8083
or
http://my_server:8083

You will be prompted to login. Login with the following credentials:

admin/admin

Now click the settings button highlighted below:

The following message will then be displayed - click Become Super Admin:

Finally you will be prompted to enter a CAST Imaging license key - click Update to save it: