2.contentACCESS setup package
The installation package makes the contentACCESS installation process very transparent and intuitive. This section leads you through the dialogs of the installation wizard and describes the step-by-step installation of the product. To run the contentACCESS setup self-extracting package, the following is required:
- .NET Framework 4.8
- Ability to run the setup as an administrator
What is included in the contentACCESS setup package?
- Under section Documentation the contentACCESS manual and the Best practices to the software can be found, and it also contains a link to the contentACCESS website.
- Under Planning the links to hardware and software requirements can be found, and the user may download the contentACCESS Analysis Tool right from here. The tool is used to measure the performance of file shares to be archived and also the speed of the desired target store. It is also used to analyze the files that will be archived and can help to set up the correct file archiving strategy.
- Under Tools you can find the Legacy MAM retrieve server setup, the Outlook forms used to transparently open the archived email messages directly from Outlook, and from here you can also download TECH-ARROW’s WinShortcutter. WinShortcutter is a collection of small and useful utilities that are primarily focused on people working in a Windows-dominant office environment with weak MAC support. It is primarily used to open MS Windows shortcuts (.LNK).
- Under Products you can read a short description about other software solutions of TECH-ARROW: contentGATE, streamGATE, officeGATE.
- The installation process of the contentACCESS server and its components can be started on the Installation page of the setup. The following components can be installed using the Installation page of the wizard:
- the contentACCESS server
- contentACCESS Central Administration – the contentACCESS configuration interface available for system administrators and tenant administrators
- contentACCESS Portal – the archive user interface also for the end users
- Preview service – allows the user to open the files’ preview in the Portal (in addition to being able to download them)
- Central login page – used to log in to the respective application with forms providers or third-party authentication providers
- contentACCESS Web services (Proxy) – to ensure secure (HTTPS) connection between the user and the contentACCESS server
- Virtual drive – a drive that’s used to display the contents of the File system archive; the drive is also mandatory to retrieve the archived files from shortcuts
- Search service (legacy) – allows the user to search in selected entities/folders using Elasticsearch 5.x. This component is included in the package only in case of an update from a previous (<6.0) contentACCESS version
- Search service (V2) – allows the user to search in selected entities/folders using Elasticsearch 8.x
- SMTP server – a server used to process emails
Why are there two Search services?
Previously, the Search service (legacy) used Elasticsearch 5.x. But this version of Elasticsearch is outdated and no longer supported by the developer, and newer bugfixes are not integrated into this version. That’s why we switched to Elasticsearch 8.x, which, on the other hand, cannot read Elasticsearch 5.x indexes (they need to be migrated to be able to search in them), and we needed to implement a new Search service (V2). Regardless, the search still works in legacy mode (with Elasticsearch 5.x), and the users can use it, but it won’t be supported or developed, and from our side, the new search functions won’t be added to it (only to the V2 mode). For users, the search is the same. The changes are only in the background (backend).
The number of search services in the package will differ depending on the installation type:
- First install or update from version >6.x – the setup contains only the Search service (V2) component. For new users, the search in the V2 mode (with Elasticssearch 8.x) option is allowed only. After the installation, the new Elasticsearch runs as GATE.contentACCESS.Elasticsearch in the Service, and the “V2” is added to the Search service.
- Update from version <6.x – the setup contains both Search services (legacy and V2), and both can be installed. The user can decide whether to search in legacy mode or switch to V2 mode. If he decides to use the new mode, then the indexes from Elasticsearch 5.x need to be migrated into the new mode. The migration is performed by our customer service.
contentACCESS components’ prerequisites are the following:
- For Central administration: Internet Information Services (IIS), .NET 4.8
- For contentACCESS Portal: IIS, MS Outlook 2010/2013 (64 bit version) or later, .NET 4.8
- For contentACCESS Proxy: IIS, .NET 4.8
- For Central login page: IIS, .NET 4.8
- For the contentACCESS Server: .NET 4.8, SharePoint Server Client components SDK (for SharePoint processing); MS Outlook 2010/2013 (64 bit version) or later (for email processing)
These prerequisites (except for MS Outlook) are installed by the setup package automatically. If any problems occur during the automatic installation, the prerequisites must be installed manually.
SharePoint Client components and the MS SQL server can be installed using the respective application file from the contentACCESS installation package library:
- SharePoint client components:
C:TECH-ARROWcontentACCESS_PackageSetupsSharePointClient - SQL Server 2012 Express:
C:TECH-ARROWcontentACCESS_PackageSetupsSQL
If the Internet Information Services (IIS) haven’t been installed automatically, the IIS features must be turned on in the Windows features. Open the Server manager => click the Roles node => click Add roles => select Web server (IIS) in the Select server roles window and turn on the features based on the table below:
| Management tools | IIS Management console |
| Application development features | .NET Extensibility 4.8 ASP .NET 4.8 ISAPI filters ISAPI extensions |
| HTTP common features | Default document HTTP errors Static content |
| Performance features | Static content compression |
| Security | Basic authentication Windows authentication |
Do not forget to check the following features in Add roles and features:
| .Net Framework 4.8 Features | .NET Framework 4.8 ASP .NET 4.8 |
| WCF Services | HTTP Activation TCP Port Sharing |
The contentACCESS components can be installed
- on one single machine,
- in a cluster system – when more servers are installed on different machines, and they are all joined with one configuration database
- in a distributed environment – when there is one contentACCESS server installed on one machine and the components are distributed (installed) on different machines
These components are described further in chapter contentACCESS components. contentACCESS installation will be described first.