Prerequisites
Operating system
In this deployment, 2016 was the chosen OS for all virtual machines.
The list of servers is the following:
- 137.74.87.161 (V-CLUST-W1): first web server.
- 137.74.87.162 (V-CLUST-W2): second web server.
- 137.74.87.163: IP of the Load Balancer in front of the web servers -> use this IP address when setting up URLs about Hopex front-end website.
- 137.74.87.164 (V-CLUST-MW1): first application (MWAS) server.
- 137.74.87.165 (V-CLUST-MW2): second application (MWAS) server.
- 137.74.87.167 (V-CLUST-S1): first SSP server.
- 137.74.87.168 (V-CLUST-S2): second SSP server.
- 137.74.87.169: IP of the Load Balancer in front of the SSP servers -> use this IP address when setting up URL of the SSP.
- 137.74.87.170 (V-CLUST-SQL): hosting the SQL Server instance.
This is the architecture schema:
Tweaks
Because we are in a deployment with no domain, and no Active Directory, some things are not possible unless additional configuration is done.
If you deploy with this kind of scenario but with servers within a domain, you won't have to perform the two following sections. And we recommend to use domain accounts instead of local ones.
Users
First, we create the same local users on all servers:
On a single server, each account can have its own password. However, for a specific username, you need to provide the same password on all servers.
This is the only way to make you access a remote share with a user that is local to your server.
hosts file
Because the DNS server won't know the correspondence between the server name, and its IP address, we use an internal mechanism of Windows to make a link between name and IP address.
On all servers, we edit the file “hosts” in “C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc”:
And put the lines that help the server to know which IP address to contact when using the hostname of the other servers:
Server Windows 2016
Install the "Web Server (IIS)" and "File Services roles" on both web front-end and application server.
From the “Server Manger”, choose this option:
Check the “File Server” is installed. If not, activate it:
We activate the “Web Server (IIS)” and its features, and click “Next”:
Then, in the „Features“ window, we activate the „ASP.NET 4.6“, and click „Next“:
We pass this screen:
Then, in the „Role Services“ part, we check that „Static Content“ is enabled:
In „Security“, we manually add „URL Authorization“ and „Windows Authentication“:
In „Application Development“, we add „ASP.NET 4.6“ and related features:
As well as „CGI“, then click „Next“:
And on „Install“:
Eventually, on „Close“:
Installing .Net 4.7
With Mega Hopex V2R1, we need to use at least version 4.6.2 of the .Net Framework.
We deployed the 4.7 version that was copied on each server:
Click „Yes“:
Accept the license terms and click „Install“:
Let the installation proceed:
Then click „Finish“:
Restart the servers:
Windows users for MEGA
When you install MEGA Hopex, at least one user is necessary to manage the process authentication. It's recommended to avoid using a user that is Local Administrator of the server. You then need an additional user, preferably in the Domain.
If it is not possible, and that all resources, such as the license file and the Mega environments, are hosted locally, it is possible to have a local user.
This user is going to be impersonified for the web applications. All actions done in MEGA Hopex will be done using the identity of this user.
In our case, we want to deploy Mega Hopex with all its features, including the Web Services part, called “HOPEX API”. Because of that, we need a second impersonate user, as you cannot use the same account for both the web front-end, and the web services.
We then have (“.\” means that those are local users):
.\HOPEXUSR: for the web front-end.
.\HOPEXAPI: for the web services.
Define the group permissions
In “Computer Management”:
The impersonate user needs to be part of both the local groups “IIS_IUSRS”, and “Distributed COM Users”.
We start with “Distributed COM Users” by opening its properties:
Click “Add”:
In our case, the users are local, so we need to make sure that the “Locations” are set to the server itself:
Then we type the names of the two account, with the ‘;' separator, and click “OK”:
Click “OK” to validate:
Same steps for the « IIS_IUSRS » group:
Define the COM rights
The impersonate user must be able to launch COM applications by default. To give that right, expand the node "Component Services" from the “server Manager”:
Then, expand the tree to see “Component Services -> Computers -> My computer”:
Do a right-click “My Computer” and choose “Properties”.
Go to the tab “COM Security” and click the “Edit Default…” button in the “Launch and Activation Permissions” zone. Add the “Distributed COM Users” group to have the “Local Launch” et “Local Activation” rights:
Add the local « Distributed COM Users » group, and give it « local launch » and « local activation » :
Grant it “Local Launch” and “Local Activation”, and click “OK” to validate:
Close the properties, and the “Component Services” feature.
Create folders
On this specific deployment, we only have a C drive available, so we will use the default installation folders for the web components, and the Mega binaries.
To gain some time later on, we create on all servers except the RDBMS server, the “C:\Program Files (x86)\MEGA” folder:
Then, on the RDBMS server, the folders that we need to create are those that will be transformed to shared folders,. The three folders are:
“C:\Environments” for the environments folders:
“C:\MegaSite” to host the clustered configuration file:
And “C:\Must” that will host the license file:
Give rights on the proper folder
Web/Application Servers
The local “IIS_IUSRS” group needs to have read/write rights on the older that will host the Hopex website and the Mega binaries.
We start with the “C:\Program Files (x86)\MEGA” folder:
Click „Add“:
Add the local “IIS_IUSRS” group:
With read and modify rights:
Same thing on “C:\inetpub\wwwroot”. By default, the group already has read access on the folder. We add the “Modify” right:
RDBMS Server
We need to grant the local users HOPEXUSR and HOPEXAPI read/write rights on three folders.
“C:\Environments”:
“C:\MegaSite”:
And “C:\Must”:
