This section outlines the process of manually installing or updating the FlowTraq web portal. It is highly recommended that you use the FlowTraq vApp to provision the web portal.

[Tip]Tip

The FlowTraq vApp includes an optimized installation of the FlowTraq HTML5 web portal. It also has a mechanism for quickly and safely upgrading when new releases are avialable.

We recommend installing FlowTraq Web on a Linux/Apache2/PHP5 stack; however, many other platforms will work.

[Note]Note

Note: While FlowTraq Web Portal can connect to remote instances of FlowTraq Server, the FlowTraq Command Line Tools (which are included with FlowTraq Server) must be installed locally for FlowTraq Web Portal to function.

[Note]Upcoming Changes

Future versions of FlowTraq Web Portal may have additional dependencies.

FlowTraq Web

  1. Using YaST, install the required software prerequisites:

    apache2
    apache2-mod_php5
    cphp5
                            
  2. Download the web GUI and unpack in your webroot:

    # cd /srv/www/htdocs
    # wget http://www.flowtraq.com/downloads/flowtraq/flowtraq_VERSION/FlowTraq-VERSION-web.tar.gz
    # gunzip -c FlowTraq-VERSION-web.tar.gz | tar xvf -
    # cp /srv/www/htdocs/flowtraq/config-sample.php /srv/www/htdocs/flowtraq/config.php
                            
    [Note]Note

    This will create a directory called flowtraq. You will be able to access the FlowTraq web user interface by browsing to the /flowtraq directory on your webserver. We recommend installing in /srv/www/htdocs/flowtraq. If you install elsewhere, be sure to configure the baseURL configuration option in config.php.

  3. Configure and launch apache. Apache needs the 'MultiViews' option to be enabled. Edit the /etc/apache2/default-server.conf and change the line that reads:

    Options None
                            

    To:

    Options Indexes MultiViews
                            

    for the default <Directory "/srv/www/htdocs"> section.

  4. The updated web interface may require your apache system to consume more memory than before. To avoid the out-of-memory condition, make the following change to: /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

    Find the line that specifies: memory_limit = XXXM And make sure it is set to (at minimum):

    memory_limit = 2048M
    [Note]Note

    This change allows PHP threads to consume more memory when needed, but only when needed. During most operations, the threads will be well below this limit.

  5. In Yast->System->Services, 'ENABLE' apache2, which will start the apache webserver.

    Now point your browser at http://127.0.0.1/flowtraq to verify that your installation was successful. Log in with username admin and password admin by default. If the Dashboard appears, but the graphs and tables do not load, then your license key may have expired. Contact FlowTraq to obtain a new license key.

This concludes the installation of FlowTraq Web.

FlowTraq Server

  1. Download and install FlowTraq Server by downloading the installer package, gunzipping it, and running it as root:

    # wget http://www.flowtraq.com/downloads/flowtraq/flowtraq_VERSION/FlowTraq-VERSION-server-unix.sh.gz
    # gunzip FlowTraq-VERSION-server-unix.sh.gz
    # sh ./FlowTraq-VERSION-server-unix.sh
                            

    It will unpack the binaries and startup scripts relevant for your OS, and install (by default) in /opt/flowtraq. Command-line tools can be found in /opt/flowtraq/clitools, and the legacy NBAD/NBI toolkit is in /opt/flowtraq/nbitools.

    For more information on installing FlowTraq Server, please see the FlowTraq Server Installation.

  2. Install a license key for FlowTraq Server. The quickest way is by appending it directly to the FlowTraq configuration file. Replace the placeholders below with your own license details:

    # echo -ne "user YOURUSERNAME\nlicense FlowTraq_FULL-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX\n\n" >> /opt/flowtraq/flowtraq.conf
    # killall -HUP flowtraq
                            

    Note that you can also install the license key through the desktop GUI.

  3. Modify your firewall settings to allow incoming NetFlow, sFlow, etc:

    # ufw allow 2055
                            

FlowTraq Web

  1. Install the required software prerequisites:

    # apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-cli
                            
  2. Download the web GUI and unpack in your webroot:

    # cd /var/www
    # wget http://www.flowtraq.com/downloads/flowtraq/flowtraq_VERSION/FlowTraq-VERSION-web.tar.gz
    # gunzip -c FlowTraq-VERSION-web.tar.gz | tar xvf -
    # cp /var/www/flowtraq/config-sample.php /var/www/flowtraq/config.php
                            
    [Note]Note

    This will create a directory called flowtraq. You will be able to access the FlowTraq web user interface by browsing to the /flowtraq directory on your webserver. We recommend installing in /var/www. If you install elsewhere, be sure to configure the baseURL configuration option in config.php.

  3. Configure and launch apache. Apache needs the 'MultiViews' option to be enabled. Edit the /etc/apache2/sites-available/default file and, if needed change the block that reads:

    Options ...
    </Directory>
                            

    To:

    Options ... MultiViews
    </Directory>
                            

    in the <Directory "/var/www"> section.

    [Note]Note

    Debian users making use of this guide will need to take the additional step of enabling the .php mimetype. This is most easily done via an addition to the Directory listing above:

            						AddType application/x-httpd-php .php
            					

    in the <Directory "/var/www"> section.

  4. The updated web interface may require your apache system to consume more memory than before. To avoid the out-of-memory condition, make the following change to: /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

    Find the line that specifies: memory_limit = XXXM And make sure it is set to (at minimum):

    memory_limit = 2048M
    [Note]Note

    This change allows PHP threads to consume more memory when needed, but only when needed. During most operations, the threads will be well below this limit.

  5. Restart apache2, which will start the apache webserver and enable your changes:

    # /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
                            

    Now point your browser at http://127.0.0.1/flowtraq to verify that your installation was successful. Log in with username admin and password admin by default. If the Dashboard appears, but the graphs and tables do not load, then your license key may have expired. Contact FlowTraq to obtain a new license key.

FlowTraq Web

  1. Install the required software prerequisites:

    # yum install httpd mod_ssl php php-process
                            
  2. Download the web GUI and unpack in your webroot:

    # cd /var/www/html
    # wget http://www.flowtraq.com/downloads/flowtraq/flowtraq_VERSION/FlowTraq-VERSION-web.tar.gz
    # gunzip -c FlowTraq-VERSION-web.tar.gz | tar xvf -
    # cp /var/www/html/flowtraq/config-sample.php /var/www/html/flowtraq/config.php
                            
    [Note]Note

    This will create a directory called flowtraq. You will be able to access the FlowTraq web user interface by browsing to the /flowtraq directory on your webserver. We recommend installing in /var/www/html. If you install elsewhere, be sure to configure the baseURL configuration option in config.php.

  3. Configure and launch apache. Apache needs the 'MultiViews' option to be enabled. Edit the /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf file and, if needed change the line that reads:

    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
                            

    To:

    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                            

    in the <Directory "/var/www/html"> section.

  4. The updated web interface may require your apache system to consume more memory than before. To avoid the out-of-memory condition, make the following change to: /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini

    Find the line that specifies: memory_limit = XXXM And make sure it is set to (at minimum):

    memory_limit = 2048M
    [Note]Note

    This change allows PHP threads to consume more memory when needed, but only when needed. During most operations, the threads will be well below this limit.

  5. Start the apache webserver, and set it to start by default:

    # service httpd start
    # /sbin/chkconfig httpd on
                            
  6. Turn off SELinux. CentOS 5 turns on SELinux by default, which prevents Apache from running outside tools via CGI, including the FlowTraq command line tools. Because /opt/flowtraq is outside the httpd_t domain, httpd cannot access it. More information can be found at http://wiki.centos.org/HowTos/SELinux

    The simplest way to deal with this is to put SELinux into permissive mode. To do so, edit /etc/selinux/config and change

    SELINUX=enforcing
                            

    To:

    SELINUX=permissive
                            

    Then run:

    # setenforce permissive
                            

    If you cannot put SELinux into permissive mode, please see the following knowledge base for a workaround which involves making FlowTraq part of the httpd security domain: Knowledge Base Article.

  7. Now point your browser at http://127.0.0.1/flowtraq to verify that your installation was successful. Log in with username admin and password admin by default. If the Dashboard appears, but the graphs and tables do not load, then your license key may have expired. Contact FlowTraq to obtain a new license key.

This concludes the installation of FlowTraq Web.

The FlowTraq Web Interface was designed to run on Unix platforms running Apache 2.2 and up and PHP 5.3 and up. Starting with FreeBSD 9.0 these packages are included the default download repository. FreeBSD versions 8.0 through 8.3 do not contain sufficiently modern versions of these packages in pre-built form. The instructions below demonstrate the installation of the FlowTraq Web Interface on a FreeBSD 8.2 system using the portsnap utility to download and install the prerequisite source packages for Apache and PHP.

To avoid conflicts in running packages, it is recommended this installation is only performed on a pristine FreeBSD system. Configure the portsnap utility with the latest port source tree and extract the sources

freebsd# portsnap fetch
freebsd# portsnap extract
		            

Configure, compile and install Apache 2.2:

freebsd# cd /usr/ports/www/apache22
freebsd# make install && make clean
		            

Configure, compile and install PHP 5.3. In the configuration menu, make sure to select the APACHE extension:

freebsd# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5
freebsd# make install && make clean
		            

Finally, a number of PHP extensions must also be compiled and installed. Specificially, make sure all of PCNTL, PDO_PGSQL, POSIX, PGSQL, SOCKETS, BZ2, ZLIB, CALENDAR, SESSION are selected:

freebsd# cd /usr/ports/lang/php5-extensions
freebsd# make install && make clean
		            

The last step in the installation process is configuring the packages for use. In many cases the defaults are sufficient:

cd /usr/local/etc/
cp php.ini-production php.ini
		            

Next are some modifications to the /usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf configuration file. Specifically:

Next enable Apache to start automatically by modifying /etc/rc.conf:

apache22_enable="YES"
		            

Start Apache:

freebsd# /usr/local/etc/rc.d/apache22 start
		            

Installing FlowTraq and FlowTraq Web is similar on all Unix-style platforms. The FlowTraq server is a delivered as a self-installing executable that must be run by the superuser. The Web Interface is a collection of files that must be unpacked in your webroot data directory. Download the most recent version of FlowTraq server first:

For more information on installing FlowTraq Server, please see the FlowTraq Server Installation.

freebsd# cd
freebsd# /usr/local/bin/wget http://www.flowtraq.com/downloads/flowtraq/flowtraq_VERSION/FlowTraq-VERSION-server-unix.sh.gz
freebsd# gunzip FlowTraq-VERSION-server-unix.sh.gz
freebsd# sh ./FlowTraq-VERSION-server-unix.sh
		            

Accept the EULA and follow the installation instructions. By default FlowTraq installs in /opt/flowtraq/ and will be enabled in your /etc/rc.conf. Download and install the Web Interface in your data directory of your webroot, by default /usr/local/www/apache22/data/, and creating the configuration file. In most cases the default config.php will be fine:

freebsd# cd
freebsd# /usr/local/bin/wget http://www.flowtraq.com/downloads/flowtraq/flowtraq_VERSION/FlowTraq-VERSION-web.tar.gz
freebsd# cd /usr/local/www/apache22/data/
freebsd# gunzip -c ~/FlowTraq-VERSION-web.tar.gz | tar xvf -
freebsd# cd flowtraq
freebsd# mv config-sample.php config.php
                    

At this point you can browse to your FreeBSD 8.2 system and use the FlowTraq Web Interace on http://freebsd/flowtraq.

The most common problems encountered when installing the web portal are:

Web root not where expected

Many newer Linux-based systems have moved from /var/www/ to /var/www/html/. It is safe to move FlowTraq Web to /var/www/html/. Care should be taken on upgrade to make note of this move, however.

Apache configuration files not where expected

If /etc/apache2/sites-available/default.conf does not exist, or does not contain the <Directory> block, check in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

MultiViews not enabled

If Apache is configured and working, but navigating to FlowTraq gives the error:

The requested URL /flowtraq/login was not found on this server.

MultiViews is not enabled. Most often, if the Apache settings have been changed, the Apache service needs to be restarted.

MultiViews enabled, but not configured for PHP

If Apache is configured and working, and the relevant config file includes MultiViews, but navigating to FlowTraq still gives the error:

The requested URL /flowtraq/login was not found on this server.

MultiViews is configured for PHP. Find the file /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/negotiation.conf and add the line:

AddType application/x-php php

Save the file and restart Apache.

Flows in Workspace showing up with wrong time in absolute queries, but not relative queries

FlowTraq Web performs automatic timestamp correction based on browser time zone when fulfilling absolute queries. However, if the timezone listed in config.php is different from the system time on which FlowTraq Web resides, this correction will be consistently off. Ensure that the timezone in config.php matches system time (note that it does not have to be correct, or the same as the user's browser; only consistent)