Install Relution on Windows Server

Preparation

Make sure your system is up-to-date. Use Windows Update to verify that you have installed the latest security updates and fixes for your version of Windows.

Install dependencies

Download the latest Java SE Runtime Environment 8uXXX (64 bit) from Oracle. At the time of writing, this is version 8u171.

If two versions are available at the same time (e.g. 8u171 and 8u172), the one with the lower version number is generally recommended for production systems.
Java 9 and Java 10 are not supported by Relution as of now.

After you’ve successfully installed Java 8, you need to configure the JAVA_HOME environment variable.

  • Right click on Computer and click Properties

  • You should see the System control panel

  • Click on Advanced system settings

  • Go to the Advanced tab

  • Click on Environment Variables

  • Click on New…​ in the System variables section

  • Enter JAVA_HOME as the variable name

  • Enter Java’s installation directory as the variable value

    (e.g. C:\Program Files\Java\jre1.8.0_171 for Java 8u171)

  • Click OK

If you have any open Command Prompt windows you need to close them before the changes take effect. Open a new Windows Command Prompt and enter the command below, followed by the enter key.

echo %JAVA_HOME%

You should see the value you entered above. Otherwise, double check your settings.

Download Relution

Download the latest Relution package to your Downloads directory. Right click the relution-package.zip and click on Extract All…​.

Move the extracted relution directory to %ProgramFiles%. Note that by default Windows creates a new directory for the extracted files, so relution is inside the relution-package directory.

Basic Relution configuration

Open a text editor (e.g. Notepad) and paste the following content:

relution:
  server:
    externalURL: %EXT_HOSTNAME_URL%
  database:
    type: mysql
    url: jdbc:mariadb://<db-hostname>/relution?useServerPrepStmts=true
    username: relution
    password: %MYSQL_PASSWORD%
  mongodb:
    enabled: false
  mail:
    username: %SMTP_USERNAME%
    password: %SMTP_PASSWORD%
    host: %SMTP_HOSTNAME%
    port: %SMTP_PORT%
  smtp:
    ttls: false
    ssl: false
    ehlo: true
  wizard:
    orga:
      name: %ORG_UNIQUE_NAME%
      fullName: %ORG_DISPLAY_NAME%
      admin:
        username: %ADM_USERNAME%
        password: %ADM_PASSWORD%
        givenname: %ADM_FIRST_NAME%
        surname: %ADM_LAST_NAME%
Make sure to edit the file and adjust it to your environment. The following parameters need to be replaced:
Placeholder Description

%EXT_HOSTNAME_URL%

The external URL of your Relution server, e.g. https://mdm.example.com

%MYSQL_PASSWORD%

The password of the relution database user

%SMTP_HOSTNAME%

The hostname of your SMTP server

%SMTP_PORT%

The port of your SMTP server (default: 25)

%SMTP_USERNAME%

The username of a user on the SMTP server

%SMTP_PASSWORD%

The password of a user on the SMTP server

%ORG_UNIQUE_NAME%

The unique name of the initial Relution organization to create. Must only contain alphanumeric characters and no blanks.

%ORG_DISPLAY_NAME%

The name of the initial Relution organization to create

%ADM_USERNAME%

The username of the organization administrator. Must only contain alphanumeric characters and no blanks.

%ADM_PASSWORD%

The initial password of the organization administrator. Change this after first sign in

%ADM_FIRST_NAME%

The name of the organization administrator

%ADM_LAST_NAME%

The family name of the organization administrator
Consider the use of a password generator to create the initial password for your administrative account. We recommend to change the password after you sign in for the first time.

Save the file as application.yml into Relution’s installation directory (e.g. "%ProgramFiles%\relution\application.yml").

Verify installation

To verify that setup until this point is correct, start the Relution service in the foreground. Open a console window and run the following commands:

cd "%ProgramFiles%\relution"
windows-bin\relution-foreground.bat

Wait for the Relution service to start up. Once the terminal output has stopped moving you should be able to connect to the service with a browser:

http://localhost:8080

If everything is working, you should see the Relution portal and you can log in with the administrative account configured in the application.yml. For security reasons you should change the password of the administrator after you sign in. Consider removing the initial organization and administrator configuration from the application.yml for security reasons.

If you receive errors, verify that you completed all steps above. Use Ctrl+C to stop the service and wait for the service to shut down. If the service does not stop, use Ctrl+C again to force it to stop.

Install as a Windows service

Install Relution as a Windows service, with the install_service.bat batch script. Open a console window as an Administrator and run the following commands:

cd "%ProgramFiles%\relution"
windows-bin\install_service.bat

The service should be started automatically after installation. Otherwise you can use the Service manager or enter net start relution at the command prompt to start the service.

Firewall configuration

If you install nginx on another machine, you need to open port 8080 on this machine, so nginx can talk to Relution. If Relution is going to be installed on the same machine you can skip these steps.

  • Open Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

  • Navigate to Inbound Rules

  • Click New Rule…​ in the Actions pane

  • Select Program

  • Click Next

  • Select This program path

  • Use Browse…​ to select the Relution’s service executable

    (C:\Program Files\relution\windows-bin\nssm.exe)

  • Click Next

  • Select Allow the connection

  • Click Next

  • Select Domain and/or Private depending on your network infrastructure

  • Click Next

  • Enter a name for the rule

  • Click Finish