What to think about when you're planning to install Alfresco

1. What to think about
when you’re planning
to install Alfresco
Angel Borroy
developer @ keensoft

2. Disclaimer
“No source code were developed during
the making of this presentation.
In fact, no coding abilities are required at all.

3. CONCEPTS
Thinking of installing Alfresco

4. Before installing
Components
Catalog
Technology
Stack
Subsystems
Extensions
Sizing
Admin
Installing Validating

5. After installing
Training Supporting
“We can think about this later,
nevertheless it’s also a matter of thinking
AuditingImporting

6. COMPONENTS CATALOG
Before installing

7. Components catalog - Programs
Components
Catalog
Program Default location (wizard)
Java java
Repo tomcat/alfresco.war
Activiti tomcat/alfresco.war
Share tomcat/share.war
SOLR tomcat/solr4.war
solr4
AOS tomcat/vti_bin.war
tomcat/ROOT.war
LibreOffice libreoffice
ImageMagick common/bin
GhostScript common/bin
pdf2swf common/bin
PostgreSQL postgresql

8. Components catalog - Protocols
Components
Catalog
Protocol Default port
HTTP(s) 8080 (8443)
WebDAV 8080 (8443)
SPP 8080 (8443)
AJP 8009
CIFS SMB 445
NetBIOS 137, 138, 139
NFS 2049
FTP 21
IMAP 143
SMTP 25
LibreOffice 8100
JMX 50500
Web
Server
80
443

9. Components catalog - APIs
Components
Catalog
API Type Use
CMIS Remote HTTP (REST / SOAP)
Alfresco RepositoryREST Remote HTTP (JSON / HTML)
Alfresco Repository
JavaScript
Embedded
Server JavaScript
(Rhino)
Alfresco Repository
Freemarker Template
Embedded Freemarker (FTL)
Alfresco Share JavaScript Embedded
Client JavaScript
(Aikau / YUI)
Alfresco Surf Platform Embedded
Server Java (Spring
Surf)
Alfresco Java Public Embedded Server Java (Spring)

10. TECHNOLOGY STACK
Before installing

11. Technology stack - Server
Technology
Stack
Element Alternatives
OS Linux, Mac OS, Windows
JDK Oracle JDK, OpenJDK
Application Server Apache Tomcat
Jboss, WebLogic, WebSphere
Web Server Apache HTTP, NGINX
Amazon ELB
Database PostgreSQL, MariaDB,
MySQL
Storage NAS / NFS
Content Transformer LibreOffice
Image Transformer ImageMagick
GhostScript GS
Alfresco
Enterprise
Supported
Platforms
X

12. Technology stack - Client
Technology
Stack
Element Alternatives
OS Linux, Mac OS, Windows
Browser Chrome, Firefox, Safari
Explorer, Edge
Opera
Office LibreOffice 4, 5
Microsoft Office 2016, 2013, 2011, 2010
Mobile iOS, Android
Alfresco
Enterprise
Supported
Platforms

13. SUBSYSTEMS
Before installing

14. Subsystems
Subsystems
Subsystem Config location
Activities Feed activities-jobs.properties
Audit repository.properties (audit.*)
Authentication NTLM alfresco-authentication.properties
LDAP ldap-authentication.properties
AD ldap-ad-authentication.properties
EXT external-authentication.properties
KERB kerberos-authentication.properties
PASS passthru-authentication-context.properties
Email inboundSMTP.properties
outboundSMTP.properties
imap-server.properties
File Servers file-servers.properties
Transformers transformers.properties
openoffice-transform.properties
imagemagick-transform.properties
Search common-search.properties
solr-search.properties
Google Docs
AOS

15. Subsystems
Subsystems - Authentication
http://docs.alfresco.com/community/concepts/auth-subsystem-types.html

16. EXTENSIONS
Before installing

17. Extensions
Extensions
Addon URL
Site Home Page Plus https://github.com/keensoft/alfresco-site-home-page-plus
Alfresco ESign Cert https://github.com/keensoft/alfresco-esign-cert
Alfresco My Files Quota https://github.com/keensoft/alfresco-myfiles-quota
Alfresco Datalist Constraints https://github.com/keensoft/alfresco-datalist-constraints
Alfresco Site Home Page https://github.com/keensoft/alfresco-site-home-page-plus
Alfresco OCR https://github.com/keensoft/simple-ocr-action
Alfresco Datalist Constraints https://github.com/keensoft/alfresco-datalist-constraints
Alfresco JS Console https://github.com/share-extras/js-console
Share Site Creators https://github.com/jpotts/share-site-creators
Uploader Plus https://github.com/softwareloop/uploader-plus
Share Site Logo Customize https://github.com/douglascrp/alfresco-share-site-logo-
customization
Alfresco Audit Analysis and Reporting http://sourceforge.net/projects/aaar/files/
Java Melody https://github.com/javamelody/javamelody
Make your own list

18. Extensions
Extensions
https://github.com/OrderOfTheBee/addons/wiki
https://github.com/OrderOfTheBee/addons/wiki/Technical-inclusion-criteria

19. Extensions - Development
• Content Model
– Searching
• Custom actions
– Archiving
– Publishing
• Custom (simple) workflows
• Share theme customization
Extensions
Document
Centric
vs
Human Centric

20. SIZING
Before installing

21. Sizing
• Number of users
– 10% can be considered as concurrent
• Storage volume estimation
– 2x content
– 0,2x search indexes
• Identifying requirements by element
Sizing

22. Sizing
Sizing
Component Requirements
Web Server RAM
Thread pool
Apache Tomcat Alfresco
Apache Tomcat Share
RAM
CPU
Thread pool
Apache Tomcat SOLR4 RAM
CPU
Thread pool
LibreOffice RAM
CPU
Database RAM
Thread pool
Storage HD

23. Sizing - Scaling
Sizing

24. ADMIN
Before installing

25. Admin
• Testing (and documenting) every required
operation*
– Starting and stopping Alfresco
– Monitoring
– Tuning adjustments
– Backup and restoring
– Upgrading
– Log files management
– Working with Alfresco modules
Admin
* YES: you have to test all these operations BEFORE
installing in a production environment

26. INSTALLATION PROCESS
During installing

27. Installing
• Wizard installer
– https://www.alfresco.com/alfresco-community-download
• Installing from scratch
– https://wiki.alfresco.com/wiki/Community_file_list_201602-GA
• Third party distros
– Order of the Bee, Lotfux
• Amazon AWS (marketplace)
• Alfresco SPK
Installing

28. Installing
• Documenting every step
– Base software installation
• Frontend, database, required programs…
– Alfresco installation
– Configuration
• SOLR, IMAP, SMTP, LDAP AD, CIFS, Kerberos, SPP…
– Extension
– Tuning
Installing
The fewer configuration files modified, the easier
upgrading and maintaining will be

29. VALIDATING
During installing

30. Validating
• Testing services availability
– Repository https://server.org/alfresco
– Share https://server.org/share
– Admin console https://server.org/alfresco/s/admin
– Monitoring https://server.org/alfresco/monitoring
– SOLR https://server.org/solr4
– CMIS
• https://server.org/alfresco/api/-default-
/public/cmis/versions/1.1/atom
– SPP https://server.org/alfresco/aos
– WebDAV https://server.org/alfresco/webdav
– CIFS smb://server.org/alfresco
Validating

31. Validating
• Capacity planning
– Alfresco Benchmark Framework*
– Custom developed
• CMIS client https://chemistry.apache.org/
– Alfresco Repo
• Selenium WebDriver http://www.seleniumhq.org/projects/webdriver/
– Alfresco Share
• Apache Jmeter http://jmeter.apache.org/
– Alfresco Repo
– Alfresco Share
Validating
* Use it at your own risk: nice for enormous
installations but oversized for smaller one

32. Validating
• Functional validation
– Customizations manual
– Using real data
– Identifying circuits of use
– Execution
• Hand made
• Automating
– Selenium Webdriver enhanced by LeadFoot
Validating

33. CROP TRUST
Use Case

34. Use case – Crop Trust

35. Use case – Crop Trust
Element Adaptation Comments
Share REQUIRED Main user web interface, used for Edit
Online Office documents and also
useful for system and diagnostic
operations
Repo REQUIRED Main Alfresco functionality
SOLR 4 REQUIRED Required for searching and indexing
LibreOffice REQUIRED Recommended as Share is installed
ImageMagick REQUIRED Recommended as Share is installed
GhostScript REQUIRED Recommended as Share is installed
pdf2swf UNNEEDED Not required if any organization
browser support HTML 5
Activiti REQUIRED Main Alfresco functionality
CIFS REQUIRED Main use case requirement
WebDAV REQUIRED Alternative to CIFS
FTP OPTIONAL Useful for large volume loads
IMAP REQUIRED Useful for organizing emails and
attachments
SMTP REQUIRED Useful to notify Alfresco users
SPP REQUIRED As a second alternative to CIFS and
for Edit Online from web browser
Activities Feed REQUIRED Alfresco Share functionality, it can be
enabled/disabled by user
Audit UNNEEDED Low impact without an analytics app
Authentication REQUIRED Based on ldap-ad, passthru and
Kerberos
Email REQUIRED Useful to notify Alfresco users
File Servers REQUIRED CIFS
Transformers REQUIRED Recommended as Share is installed
Google Docs OPTIONAL Google Docs Alfresco addon must to
CMIS REQUIRED
Alfresco Repository REST OPTIONAL
Alfresco Repository JavaScript UNNEEDED
Alfresco Repository Freemarker
Template
UNNEEDED
Alfresco Share JavaScript UNNEEDED
Alfresco Surf Platform UNNEEDED
Alfresco Java Public UNNEEDED
Components
Catalog
SOLR 4 REQUIRED Required for se
LibreOffice REQUIRED Recommended
ImageMagick REQUIRED Recommended
GhostScript REQUIRED Recommended
pdf2swf UNNEEDED Not required
browser suppo
Activiti REQUIRED Main Alfresco f
CIFS REQUIRED Main use case r
WebDAV REQUIRED Alternative to
FTP OPTIONAL Useful for large
IMAP REQUIRED Useful for or
attachments
SMTP REQUIRED Useful to notify
SPP REQUIRED As a second al
for Edit Online
Activities Feed REQUIRED Alfresco Share
enabled/disable
Audit UNNEEDED Low impact wi
Authentication REQUIRED Based on ld
Kerberos
Email REQUIRED Useful to notify
File Servers REQUIRED CIFS
Transformers REQUIRED Recommended
Google Docs OPTIONAL Google Docs A
be patched bef
sending oA
alfresco.com1
CMIS REQUIRED CMS integratio
1
https://github.com/Alfresco/google-docs/issues/7
Subsystems

36. Use case – Crop Trust
Element Supported version (or upper)
OS Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS x64
JDK Oracle JDK 8 U31 x64
Application
Server
Apache Tomcat 7.0.59
Web Server Apache HTTP server 2.21
Database PostgreSQL 9.3.5
MySQL 5.6.19a / MariaDB 10.0.14
Amazon Aurora
Storage NAS / NFS2
Content
Transformer
LibreOffice 4.2.5.2
Image
Transformer
ImageMagick 6.8.6-6
SWF
Previewer
SWFTools 0.9.2
Ghostscript GS 8.7.0
Finder 10.9.1
Addon Adaptation Comments
Site Home Page
Plus
OPTIONAL A simpler version is available: Document
Library as home page for every Site
(fixed and non configurable).
Alfresco Firma OPTIONAL User certificates allows signature
operations, but there are some doubts
about legal concernments.
Alfresco Site
Groups
UNNEEDED OOTB group management is enough.
Alfresco My Files
Quota
UNNEEDED OOTB quota control is enough.
Alfresco
Agreement Filter
UNNEEDED No legal concernments have been
identified on using Alfresco inside the
organization.
Alfresco Datalist
Constraints
OPTIONAL Users will be able to maintain their own
lists, but is left for future analysis to
determine how often are these values
changing.
Alfresco OCR REQUIRED Some documents are incorporated from
a scanner and even some other are only
paper based, so OCR should be a must.
Share Site
Creators
REQUIRED No everyone in the organization should
create sites.
Uploader Plus OPTIONAL Based on classification policy (restrictive
or allowable).
Share Site Logo
Customize
UNNEEDED No so deeper visual customization is
required.
Alfresco Unzip
Action
UNNEEDED No ZIP documents are managed by
users.
Alfresco Audit
Analysis and
Reporting
UNNEEDED Not by now.
EML previewer REQUIRED On using IMAP, EML pre-visualization is
a must.
Extensions
Technology
Stack

37. Use case – Crop Trust
Component Requirements
Web Server 512 Kb RAM
Default thread pool
Apache Tomcat
Alfresco
3 GB RAM
2x server CPU >= 2.0 GHz
Default thread pool
Apache Tomcat
SOLR4
3 GB RAM
2x server CPU >= 2.0 GHz
Default thread pool
LibreOffice 2 GB RAM
Database 1 GB RAM
Default thread pool
Storage 120 GB
200 MB/s or higher
Sizing

38. Use case – Crop Trust
Validating
Installing Admin

39. HAVE WE FINISHED YET?
After installing

40. After installing
Training Supporting AuditingImporting
“What to think about once you’ve
installed Alfresco”
Maybe next year

41. What to think about
when you’re planning
to install Alfresco
Angel Borroy
developer @ keensoft