Installing

Important

!Before installing, make sure you meet the Pre-Requisites.

*Alpana Server will create folders and SQL databases.

Download installer

See here to download the installer.

Running the Alpana Server installer

Login with administrator rights to the machine where you want to install Alpana Server.

Start the Alpana Server installer .msi file to start the installation.

At the installer welcome message, click Next :

Accepting EULA

Accept the End User License Agreement and click Next :

Configuring website folder

Alpana Server will be installed as IIS websites in this machine.
Use this page to configure the folder on the disk where the website files will be hosted :

Configuring SSL or DNS

Use this page to optionally configure :

• SSL : insert a certificate to let users connect to your Alpana Server website using HTTPS
• DNS : bind a domain name to let users connect to your Alpana Server using a friendly name like www.alpana.io, or write a static IP address that is not currently available
  

Tenant names as subdomains

If you use DNS with a domain name, you will be able to create subdomains.
The installer can be configured to automatically generate a subdomain for each created Tenant.
For example, if your domain is “mydomain.com”, and you have 3 Tenants, they each will have the following URL :

• tenant “Default” : URL http://default.mydomain.com
• tenant “CustomerX” : URL http://customerx.mydomain.com
• tenant “CustomerY” : URL http://customery.mydomain.com
  

Configuring address and ports of websites

Alpana Server actually consists of two IIS websites :

• the Back-End Site is where the application runs. Users will connect to this site for publishing from Alpana Designer, for logging in using Alpana Mobile, or when using the API
• the Front-End Site is where the web portal is made available. Users will connect to this site to view dashboards from a web browser.
  

This means that you will need two free ports on the host machine. The two ports the installer provides by default are usually unused but if they are already taken by another app or service please select different ones.

If you have several IP addresses (Network Interface Cards), select the desired IP address from the list, or “localhost”.

!When selecting “localhost”, Alpana Server will not be reachable from another computer.

!Please make sure that those ports are open in the firewall and accessible to the client machines.

*When using a domain name, Alpana will not respond with the IP address. See Troubleshooting.

Configuring the SQL connection

Alpana Server stores its state inside a SQL database.
Use this page to configure the connection string to the database.
This connection string must allow the installer to create databases and give permissions to users.

*Two databases are created : the Alpana Server database for storing the state of Alpana Server, and the Buffer database for temporarily storing some dashboard data.

!The Alpana Server database is created by default with recovery mode Simple.

Server

This is the address of the SQL Server instance you need to access. Possible values are :

• . or localhost : local server
• : server named with a NetBIOS name
• : server accessible through a IP v4 address
• : server accessible through a IP v6 address
• \ : connect to a specific instance. For SQL Express, it may be necessary to use \SQLEXPRESS
• ,1433 : 1433 is the default port for SQL Server, but can be changed like this
  

Database

The desired name for the Alpana database.

Authentication Mode

“SQL Server” : will use SQL Server authentication with “User name” and “Password”.

“Windows” : will use Windows Authentication from the Windows user that generates the query.

Note on Windows Authentication

Please note that two Windows users will be using this connection string :

• The Windows user who runs the installer. The installers authenticates to SQL as this Windows user to create databases and transfers rights to the second user below :
• The Windows user who runs the Application Pool of the IIS Website for Alpana Server. Its name is IIS APPPOOL\Alpana3App. The Alpana Server app will use this user to connect to its owned databases. The dashboard Connections will use this user to connect to dashboard data if the Connections are configured with Windows Authentication.
  

!Both Windows users must have the necessary permissions to SQL.
In particular, the Windows user you are using to run the Alpana Server installer must have admin privileges in SQL.

Note on SQL Authentication

Please note that when selecting SQL Authentication, the SQL user for authenticating as the IIS Application Pool of the Alpana Server (IIS APPPOOL\Alpana3App) will not be created in the SQL Server.
If you need some dashboards to be able to use Windows Authentication in their database Connections, then you will need to manually create the SQL user for IIS APPPOOL\Alpana3App and give it the necessary permission to the databases of those Dashboards.

Completing the installation

Confirm the configuration by clicking Install :

Launch Alpana Server

Upon completion, you can opt to Launch Alpana Server :

This will open your default web browser to navigate on the Front-End.

If you un-check this option, you may still start the websites at a later time.

Installation troubleshooting

If you encounter some issues during or after installation, see Installation Troubleshooting and contact Support.

Next Steps

After successfully installing, you will have perform the Post-Installation steps.

!Application startup takes some time, this is normal.
When starting the IIS website, your browser should display a “loading” animation for some time (usually about 1min).

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