This page is about an installation of a simplified easydb 5, under Windows Server 2019, which can store up to about 500 GB of uploads.

This is not a recommended standard installation method of easydb. It is for small and very simple installations, and due to the Windows platform, still experimental.

This installation method hides all Linux technology from you inside a prepared VM. If you have Linux knowledge, we advise you to instead use another installation method, as these allow to change the easydb later: Disk size, authentication mechanisms, etc..

• For Debian or Ubuntu Linux see here.
• For RedHat Linux see here.

Requirements

• Windows Server 2019 (we tested these instructions with a fresh install)

• DHCP server, reachable by the below created VM. The VM automatically does client-side DHCP at startup. The DHCP server can be created with tools included in Windows Server 2019. For an example of how to do this, see further below: DHCP-Server.

• A powershell with administrative access on the Windows Server. In this example we use the account “Administrator” and the current working directory is C:\Users\Administrator during the following commands.

• The download password and the frontend password from us.

More general requirements for hardware: Prerequisites - but that page assumes a Linux installation.

Installation

Commands to download (8,5 GB) and start the VM:

$secpasswd = ConvertTo-SecureString "download_password" -AsPlainText -Force

$cred = New-Object System.Management.Automation.PSCredential ("partner", $secpasswd)

Start-BitsTransfer -Source "https://download.easydb.de/easydb.vhdx.zip" -Destination "easydb.vhdx.zip" -Credential $cred -Authentication Basic

[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.IO.compression.filesystem")

[System.IO.Compression.ZipFile]::ExtractToDirectory("easydb.vhdx.zip",".")

Install-WindowsFeature -Name Hyper-V -IncludeAllSubFeature -IncludeManagementTools -Restart

New-VM -Name easydb -MemoryStartupBytes 16GB -VHDPath C:\Users\Administrator\easydb.vhdx

Make the VM able to reach a DHCP-Server before the next command:

Start-VM -VMName easydb

Make port 80 reachable for your browser. With our DHCP-example, a supported browser, e.g. Chrome on the Windows Server itself would already be able to surf to the easydb, at http://10.3.1.2.

Initial login

Log into the easydb webfrontend with login name root and the frontend password you need from us. The easydb should be ready for this in less than two minutes after starting the VM.

We strongly recommend that you change your password immediately. After you have logged into the web frontend, there is a button for your user profile, at the top, right hand side.

DHCP-Server

Here an example on how to create a DHCP service that the VM will be able to reach - a local service, in this case:

During our testing we created a virtual switch of type Internal, in the “Hyper V Manager”. We then added to the Windows Server the static IP 10.3.1.1(netmask 255.255.0.0), pointing at this new virtual switch.

The feature “DHCP server” was then added to this Windows Server and bound to only listen at 10.3.1.1. The DHCP server serves the single IP 10.3.1.2 as a lease and informs clients that 10.3.1.1 is the Router IP and about a DNS Server IP (for example 8.8.8.8).

The VM was connected to the virtual switch - all just before the Start-VM command.

You may not need the following to get the easydb running.

Miscellaneous

• If you just want to access the easydb via IP address, 10.3.1.2 in the example above, then do not associate a DNS name with this IP address. The VM checks this via a DNS reverse lookup during startup. If this lookup returns a DNS name, then the URL of the easydb is not configured as http://IP-ADDRESS but as https://DNS-NAME - note the “s” in https! To make this URL work correctly you have to put a reverse proxy in front of the easydb, which has a valid https-certificate matching that DNS name.

• To automatically download nightly updates, inside the VM, for Debian Linux and for easydb: make the VM able to reach the Internet. During our testing we used New-NetNAT -Name “NATNetwork” -InternalIPInterfaceAddressPrefix 10.3.0.0/16. The updating processes will reach for several sources via http and https. So avoid blocking or proxying these.

• The VM uses the account “partnertest” to download easydb updates. This will be disabled at some point in the future, as it requires an update contract with us. For a contract, please reach us at e.g. support@programmfabrik.de.

• The IP ranges 172.17.0.0/16 and 172.18.0.0/16 are already used inside the VM, so avoid using those in a relevant network nearby.

• The vhdx file will be 19 GB big after unpacking and may grow up to about one terabyte (there are about 910 GibiBytes free inside linux, so roughly you can upload 500 GB of files into the easydb before the filesystem is full or has to be increased).

• The VM has a SSH server running at port 22. Login is allowed for user1 with the linux password for user1 which you can get from us. It is not needed to get the easydb running. If you have linux knowledge we recommend to use a linux installation method instead, entirely. See the top of this page for links.