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Installing Informer (Linux w/ Docker)

On Linux, Informer installs as pre-built Docker containers, one for Informer and others for its supporting services. You install Docker and Docker Compose first, then run Informer's install script to configure the instance and pull the containers. Read Read me first for how to obtain your repository credentials, and confirm your server meets the System requirements.

If you have any questions, reach out to Informer Support at i5support@entrinsik.com.

Download the installer​

Install Docker and Docker Compose before continuing. Then download the base installation files:

Informer 5 Linux Docker Installer

(If you need the installation scripts for versions earlier than 5.6.0, download them here.)

Extract the zip into the directory where you want Informer installed (for example, /usr/local/Entrinsik/Informer5). You should see these files:

config.https.json
config.json
docker-compose-https.yml
docker-compose.yml
informer.service.template
informer5.sh
install.sh
java.policy
start.sh
stop.sh

Install Informer​

Linux user account and permissions​

By default, only the root user can start and stop Docker containers. To use a specific account instead, add that user to the docker group created during the Docker install, and adjust ownership of the files in the installation directory accordingly.

After extracting the zip, set the execute bit on all the shell scripts in the installation directory:

chmod 770 *.sh

Run the install script​

The install script configures your local instance and pulls the Docker containers. It takes up to four parameters:

  • username: your repository username (contact Informer Support).
  • password: your repository password (contact Informer Support).
  • version: a specific Informer version (for example, 5.10.2).
  • https: (optional) configures Informer to use SSL connections. Strongly recommended. Specify the certificate format, either pfx or pem. If you plan to use your own proxy server to manage HTTPS, do not configure Informer for HTTPS.
./install.sh -u username -p password --version x.y.z [-https pfx|pem]

The script configures the instance and begins downloading and installing the containers.

Set the timezone​

For Informer to report dates and times correctly, the TZ environment variable must be set in your docker-compose.yml for your time zone. The install script tries to detect it from your server settings. If it cannot, edit docker-compose.yml and set every instance of the TZ variable.

Standard US time zone entries are:

America/New_York
America/Chicago
America/Denver
America/Los_Angeles

See the list of tz database time zones for all possible values.

Load Balancer and HTTPS​

The Informer Load Balancer runs separate processes for the core parts of the application:

  • Queries: handles all database query executions.
  • API: the main web server component, handling all UI requests.
  • Load-Balancer: acts as a proxy server and is the main entry point for all requests.
  • Scheduler (optional): handles all Job runs.

Spreading the load across processes improves performance under larger request or data volumes. Each process can have as many threads and as much memory as needed. Informer is installed with the Load Balancer pre-configured.

To use HTTPS with Informer, you must use the Informer Load Balancer or your own proxy server. Configuring HTTPS is not required, but is strongly recommended.

Using your own proxy server​

If you use your own proxy server for HTTPS, configure it with an x-forwarded setting for the Informer server, and do not configure Informer for HTTPS. You also need to turn off xfwd in the Informer Load Balancer by adding this entry in config.json:

{
  "http": "80",
  "loadBalancer": {
    "xfwd": false,
    "rules": [{
      // ... your existing load-balancer rules ...
    }]
  }
}

Start Informer​

To start or stop Informer manually, use the informer5.sh script:

./informer5.sh start|stop

The default credentials are:

  • Username: admin
  • Password: 123
Change the default password

We strongly recommend changing this password right after your first sign-in. See Passwords and MFA.

Install the Informer service​

You can install the Informer service to manage it with systemctl and start it automatically at boot. Copy informer.service to /etc/systemd/system, then enable it:

systemctl enable informer

Then manage Informer with:

systemctl start|stop informer

Elasticsearch minimum map count​

Elasticsearch 8 on Docker with Linux has a hard startup requirement: a minimum vm.max_map_count of 262144 on the host. To set it, edit /etc/sysctl.conf:

sudo vi /etc/sysctl.conf

Update or add this line:

vm.max_map_count=262144

Save the file, then apply the change:

sudo sysctl -p

This is a minimum. If it is already set to this value or higher, no change is needed.

Elasticsearch data directory ownership​

Elasticsearch 8 needs ownership of the host-side directory where its data is stored. In most cases the user ID for these files is 1000 unless configured otherwise. Set the ownership with:

chown -R 1000:0 esdata
Non-default UID

If the container is configured to use a non-default UID, replace 1000 with that ID when running the command.