1. Install required software

1.1) Install the Java 8 JDK (available on the linked download page - you may have to scroll down find it) NetBeans or Java EE aren't required. We recommend that you use the Server JVM which means that you should download the JDK instead of the JRE, because the JRE only comes with the Client JVM.

1.2) Install a recent version of Tomcat 7. We currently recommend version 7.0.69. Use the JRE that you installed in step 1.1 (by default this will be C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.x_x). In the installation wizard, on the 'Choose Components' panel, deselect Manager and Documentation, then expand the Tomcat item and select Core, Service and Native. Now click Next.
We recommend you install to “C:\tomcat” or “D:\tomcat” rather than in the Program Files directory, to make it easier to administer the web application, (and to avoid potential security issues on Windows 2008 Server).

1.3) If you do not already have a database, install Mysql. Currently we recommend MySQL 5.5 Community Edition. If you want to use MS SQL Server see: advanced configuration.

1.4) Install Ghostscript. For your convenience, here is the Windows installer for Ghostscript. If you are running 64 bit Windows please install the 64 bit version of Ghostscript and make sure to add the installation path to your system's path variable.

1.5) Install ImageMagick into C:\Program Files\ImageMagick (this is where Asset Bank's default settings expect it to be) and make sure to add the installation path to your system's path variable.

NOTE: when installing ImageMagick 7 or above you must select the "Install legacy components" option otherwise Asset Bank will not function correctly We currently recommend ImageMagick version 7.0.4.7, which can be downloaded here: 32-bit Windows, 64-bit Windows.

1.6) Install Notepad ++ to ensure that configuration and log files can be edited and viewed efficiently.

1.7) After installing software make sure that any services that are critical to Asset Bank running (Tomcat, MySQL, SMTP etc.) are set to automatically start up if they stop. This will make sure Asset Bank doesn't require manual intervention to get back up and running if the server ever goes down unexpectedly. If you are planning on connecting Asset Bank to your SQL Server database using Integrated Windows Authentication then you need to run Tomcat as the AD user that will be used to connect.

If the application is considered business critical then you could also set up URL monitoring.

2. Download Asset Bank

2.1) Download the Asset Bank installation package: asset-bank.zip

2.2) Unzip the installation package to a convenient location on your hard drive.

2.3) Check the contents:

• asset-bank-database: folder containing database setup scripts
• asset-bank: Asset Bank application files

3. Install the Asset Bank application

3.1) Shutdown Tomcat (if it is running).

3.2) Move the directory 'asset-bank' into [Tomcat]/webapps.

3.3) Add the folder [Tomcat]/webapps/asset-bank/WEB-INF/manager-config/win-tools to your PATH environment variable (ensure that this entry is entered before the ImageMagick path e.g. put it at the start).

If you are not using the default webapp name (e.g. if you renamed the asset-bank directory) then include the corresponding path in the PATH variable. (My Computer > Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables. Path is in the bottom under System Variables.)

4. Install license

You will have received a license file license.lic by email. This is valid for 14 days (for evaluation) or indefinitely (for production).

Copy the license file license.lic to [Tomcat]\webapps\asset-bank\WEB-INF\classes.

5. Configure Tomcat

5.1) You need to change the default memory allocation for Tomcat as the default is not optimal for a production server.

For Tomcat run as a service: Run the Tomcat Service Manager utility [Tomcat]\bin\tomcat7w.exe, unless you already have this running as a tray icon. On the Java tab, set values for memory pool. We recommend the default settings:

• Initial memory pool=2048
• Maximum memory pool=4096.

5.2) For Tomcat run from the command line:
Copy the file [Tomcat]\webapps\asset-bank\WEB-INF\manager-config\tomcat\setenv.bat into the directory [Tomcat]\bin and adjust the numbers within (see the comment at the top of the file).

5.3) ONLY use this section if you want Tomcat to access the application on port 80 and do not want to use a separate web server. If you want to use IIS ignore this section and move on to 5.4! (see section 8, below), Tomcat has a production-quality web server built in - you just need to change the port it listens on from 8080 to 80. To do this:
- Open the file [Tomcat]\conf\server.xml in a text editor.
- Search for the string <Connector port="8080" and replace 8080 with 80.

5.4) Open the file [Tomcat]\conf\server.xml in a text editor and add the attribute URIEncoding="UTF-8" to the “Connector” elements, as shown here:

<Connector port="80" protocol="HTTP/1.1"

connectionTimeout="20000"
redirectPort="8443"
URIEncoding="UTF-8" />

<Connector port="8009" protocol="AJP/1.3" redirectPort="8443" URIEncoding="UTF-8"/>

5.5) Follow the configuration described in this Knowledge Base article to set the "mappedfile" init parameter to "false". This step is necessary as by default Tomcat will not be able to display certain pages within Asset Bank.

6. Set up the database (MySQL)

The following quick steps apply if you are using a MySQL Database. For SQLServer, or if you want to do the setup manually, see Advanced configuration.

6.1) Open a command prompt on the server and move to the asset-bank-database directory, which was created when you unzipped the file 'asset-bank.zip'.

6.2) By default, the MySQL installation creates a "root" account with no password. In this case, simply run database-setup.cmd, which will do all database setup for you. Otherwise run database-setup.cmd root-password where root-password is the MySQL root password.

6.3) You can edit the file database-setup.cmd to suit your server environment.

6.4) Copy asset-bank-database\mysql-connector-java-x.x.x-bin.jar into [Tomcat]\lib directory.

6.5) Create the file [Tomcat]\webapps\asset-bank\WEB-INF\classes\database-local.properties.Set it's contents to be the following lines with the variables in square brackets replaced appropriately:

database.url = jdbc:mysql://[databaseServer]:3306/[databaseName]?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8
database.username = [username]
database.password = [password]

7. Configurable settings

Asset Bank configuration changes can be made by changing the settings file,[Tomcat]\webapps\asset-bank\WEB-INF\classes\ApplicationSettings.properties.

To make sure that Asset Bank can send emails, then please update the following settings:

# The SMTP server for outgoing emails:
emailSMTP=localhost

# SMTP PORT (leave blank for default 25)
emailSMTPPort=

# SMTP authentication username (leave blank for no authentication)
emailSMTPUsername=

# SMTP authentication password (optional)
emailSMTPPassword=

It is possible to change the date formats in Asset Bank. Please refer to this article.

If you are installing an Enterprise version of Asset Bank that has Multi-Language enabled, please refer to this knowledge base article.

8. (Optional) Set up a web server

If Asset Bank is to be hosted on the web, you might want to set up a web server such as Apache or IIS. If you need instructions on how to get these web servers to talk to Tomcat then see: integration with a web server .

9. Start the Application

9.1) Restart Tomcat. If you have installed Tomcat as a service then you will need to restart the service.

9.2) Ready to run - you should be able to access the Asset Bank on http://localhost/asset-bank/ from a browser on the server, or http://[server ip address]/asset-bank/
from any other computer on your network. Note: If you did not follow step (5.2) or (8) then you will need to specify port 8080, e.g. http://[server ip address]:8080/asset-bank/

9.3) The application will start with a “Setup Wizard” which will allow you to easily set up your Asset Bank. Note: On first run the “Setup Wizard” will ask you for a password to prevent access from non-admin users. This password can be changed using the setting setup-wizard-password in the ApplicationSettings file.

9.4) Login as the default admin user:

Username: admin
Password: password

9.5) Change the password of the default admin user ‘admin’ by going to the 'Your Profile' link in the top right. This is important as it is easy to forget that this user exists once you start adding your own, and it is especially important, for obvious security reasons, if your Asset Bank is available online. Alternatively, remember to delete this user as soon as you have added one or more other admin users.

10. Upgrade to the latest version

The installer may not contain the most recent version of Asset Bank. To upgrade your Asset Bank to the latest version (assuming you have a license that allows it), then please follow these instructions.

11. Backup procedure

You need to ensure that the database and files are backed up regularly (we advise nightly). Please follow the link to see more information on backing up Asset Bank

The disc usage of the Asset Bank installation should also be monitored to ensure that the application does not run out of room. This includes where the Asset Bank assets are stored and the Tomcat logs.

If you want to uninstall Asset Bank

Please proceed to uninstall all of the pre-requisite software - as mentioned in step 1 - and drop the database that was generated during step 6. To complete the uninstall, stop Tomcat, delete the Tomcat]\webapps\asset-bank folder and restart Tomcat. You may also wish to revert changes to your Tomcat installation as mentioned in step 5 and changes made to your web server in step 8.