Installing Rulex Platform

Rulex Platform software is delivered in two different architectural versions: a Standalone installation or a Cloud deployment.

The Standalone version is installed on computers or virtual machines and provides an easy entry point for all the people who want to play with their data and starts immediately to gather value from our software.

The Cloud version is instead the typical installation in enterprise environment where scaling and reducing computational hardware costs are more than an urgency. Rulex Platform supports all most important cloud providers (Azure, Google, Red Hat Openshift, AWS…).

Standalone Version

Rulex Platform’s installation process is very easy and intuitive.

You will quickly have the software up and running on your machine.

Note

Only Windows OS is currently supported.

Prerequisites

To start using Rulex Platform standalone version and to install it on your machine, you need:

  • Rulex Platform Installer: the installer is the executable which will guide you through installation phase, providing all the necessary files needed to run Rulex Platform.

  • Product Key: the Product Key is a code, provided along with the installer, which identifies all the features of the license you bought. It is an alphanumerical combination that contains:

    • The services bought and the limitations you have in their use (for example, the tasks that you have included in your package);

    • The number of users that can use the services at the same time;

    • The maximum number of sessions that can be run at the same time.

To receive the Product Key, you can contact your Rulex Point of Contact or you can fill the form linked here to receive a 14-day free trial.

Moreover, in order to use Rulex Platform in the best way possible, the machine you are using needs to comply with certain requirements (all the listed value should be intended as recommended):

Lite

Personal

Enterprise

Runtime

Microsoft Windows 10 (64 bit) - 1909 or higher
Windows Server 2016 or higher

Microsoft Windows 10 (64 bit) - 1909 or higher
Windows Server 2016 or higher

Microsoft Windows 10 (64 bit) - 1909 or higher
Windows Server 2016 or higher

CPU

CPU with x86_64 architecture

4 cores recommended, 8 cores optimum.

4 cores recommended, 8 cores optimum.

RAM

4 GB (minimum) – 8 GB (recommended)

16 GB (minimum) – 32 GB (recommended)

The following RAM prerequisites are based on an average number of cells to process:

  • 8GB for up to 500.000.000
  • 16GB for up to 1.000.000.000
  • 32GB for up to 2.000.000.000
  • 64GB for up to 4.000.000.000

Hard Disk Space

50 GB (minimum) – 200 GB (recommended)

200 GB (minimum) – 500 GB (recommended)

1TB minimum, 2TB recommended, although the exact amount of space depends on the volume of ingested data.

IOPS

1000 recommended, 2000 optimum.

1000 recommended, 2000 optimum.

1000 recommended, 2000 optimum.

Procedure

  1. Locate your Rulex Platform Installer on your personal computer.

  2. Double-click the installer file.

  3. Click Next in the welcome screen to get started.

  4. In the Terms and Conditions screen click Accept.
     If you do not accept the terms and conditions, Rulex Platform will not be installed.

    1. Insert your Product Key.

  5. Wait until the Valid Product Key message appears, then click OK.

  6. Select the required installation option:

    • Anyone who uses this computer (all users) - to allow all computer users to use Rulex.

    This option is called a machine wide installation and is available only to the system administrator of the machine.

    • Only for me (username) - to allow only the current user (i.e. yourself) to use this installation of Rulex.

  7. Click Next to install Rulex in the proposed default location, otherwise click Browse to navigate to a different folder.

  8. Click Install.

  9. Select the Run Rulex Platform if you want Rulex Platform to open automatically at the end of the installation process.

  10. Click Finish to end the installation process.

Standalone Silent installation

In some occurrences you need to install Rulex Platform standalone version silently though an automatic script.

On Windows the command to install Rulex Platform is as follows:

&".\rulex_platform_installer_x.x.x-x.exe" /S /allusers /PK="xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx"

Where the optional listed arguments perform the following:

  • /S launches an installer in silent mode

  • /allusers launches an installer for all users

  • /PK=”myproductkey” passes a Product Key to a silent installer

If the operation is successful, the command returns 0, while if it fails it returns an error code.

Possible error codes are reported in the table below:

Exit Code

Meaning

101

Error in loading dll dependencies of installer plugins

102

Error in retrieving Product Key

103

Error in license manager service connection

104

Product Key has a bad format

105

Error in license manager service logout

106

Product Key does not exist

107

Error in accessing Windows Registry for Product Key

108

Error in accessing Windows Registry for admins

109

Error in encrypting settings files

Cloud Version

Rulex Platform Cloud deployment is completely automated using the modern HELM technology which permits to script all the delivery procedure.

The following items are needed before installing the cloud version of Rulex Platform:

  • Helm Chart which acts as a package manager to manage and deploy applications in a cluster.

  • Product Key

  • First User Access, if Rulex Authentication Server is deployed.

Note

These items will be provided by the Rulex Sales team before installation.

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites are the minimum parameters required to deploy and Rulex Platform cloud:

Area

Minimum values (if applicable) / notes

Orchestrator services

Kubernetes (1.25.x or higher) or OpenShift (4.12.x or higher).

Cluster

The cluster must be sized according to the established usage, the minimum required is 4 nodes, each one with 8 vCPU, 32 GB Ram.

Ingress Controller

HTTP 2 must be enabled.

TLS Certificate

DNS

The DNS must be configured to connect to the cluster.

NFS Filesystem

The system must belong to a Storage Class Read-Write Many, with 1800 IOPS and a size of 2TB.

RabbitMQ operator

RabbitMQ will be used as an internal broker.

Docker registry

This docker registry must be mirrored with Rulex Docker Registry to download base images of Rulex Platform microservices.

Helm

Helm must be installed in the same environment as the Kubernetes CLI (or OpenShift CLI in the case of an OpenShift Orchestrator).

Network Connectivity

The client must have access to the Rulex License Manager: https://licensemanager.rulex.cloud/license

The following requirements are optional, depending on customer needs:

  • Database PostgreSQL, if Rulex Authentication Server is present. The following are recommended: * Azure Database for PostgreSQL, * Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL, * BigAnimal, * Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, * Crunchy Bridge, * Crunchy PostgreSQL for Kubernetes, * EnterpriseDB.

  • Keda, to enable Rulex Platform autoscaling.

  • Service Mesh operator, to further encrypt AMQPS calls and convert them into standard HTTPS calls (Istio Service Mesh is recommended).

Procedure

  1. Define the required parameters in the YAML settings file, whose values will then be used in the PowerShell command in Step 2.

    The following are the most important arguments to set:

    Argument

    Name

    Description

    Type

    Name

    platform.hostname

    Domain name assigned to the cluster.

    string

    Authentication Server

    msAuth.enable

    If true, the authentication server will be installed.

    bool

    Authentication Server Username

    msAuth.adminUsername

    Authentication server admin username.

    string

    Authentication Server Password

    msAuth.adminPassword

    Authentication server admin password.

    string

    Persistent volume configurations

    persistentVolume.enable

    If true, a persistent volume and the secret with the StorageAccount credentials are created.

    bool

    Persistent volume Storage class

    persistentVolumeClaim.storageClassName

    Name of the storage class.

    string

    Persistent volume Storage definition

    persistentVolume.storageDefinition

    Storage account driver and configuration.

    yaml

    Persistent volume Storage account secret

    persistentVolume.storageAccountSecret

    Storage account authentication secret.

    yaml

    Tip

    The complete list of mandatory and optional parameters is available in the dedicated page: Cloud Settings (YAML).

    Optional values have default values, which are used if such parameters are not specified in the YAML file. It is possible to find more information about the YAML format at the following link: https://yaml.org/.

    Below an example of value settings configuration file in YAML format is described.

    platform:
   hostname: <to_fill>
msAuth:
   enable: true
   adminUsername: <username>
   adminPassword: <password>
persistentVolumeClaim:
   enable: true
   storageClassName: <to_fill>
persistentVolume:
   enable: true
   storageDefinition: {}
   storageAccountSecret: {}

  2. Launch the following PowerShell commands:

    $values_settings = "<file that contains all helm settings>"

# Deploy Rulex Platform
helm install platform $helm_registry/platform --values $values_settings

# installation of the infrastructure
helm install infrastructure $helm_registry/infrastructure --values $values_settings

  3. Finalize deployment during first access

    After deployment has completed, log in to Rulex Platform using the URL <hostname>/web (e.g. test.rulex.cloud/web).

    Warning

    The following steps cover the standard scenario where the Rulex Authentication Server has been deployed.