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Installation

Dédalo is used to manage cultural properties as archeological, ethnological, documentary heritage, memory and oral history. Dédalo is a client - server application, before install it, you will need an internet server with a Linux SO, with static ip, and a stable internet connection.

In this installation manual you will see how you can prepare your server before install Dédalo.

Dédalo uses a NoSQL architecture, an abstraction model controlled by his ontology that requires intense calculations in real time. The data format is not defined in the database and is calculated in the execution time. Besides, Dédalo creates audiovisual editions in real time when the users and visitors search in the inventory. All of these features make intense use of the processor and RAM.

For the space to store all data and media, it depends on every project. Before buying or renting a server, think about the amount of data of your project and future growth. It's very normal that the projects manage thousands or hundred thousand records and images, pdfs or audiovisual files and millions of data relations and editions. Cultural catalogues managed with Dédalo stored all data around the cultural properties and it requires a large RAID system.

Recommended server:

OS:

  • Minimal: Ubuntu 20.04 LTS/ Rocky 8 / RedHat 8
  • Recommended: Ubuntu 22.04 LTS / Rocky 9 / RedHat 9

Note: if you want, you can use other OS as MacOs or Windows, their could be fine to develop or test it, but we do not recommended these options for production.

Hardware:

  • Processor: 8 processors with 3+GHZ
  • RAM: minimal 16GB / recommended: 32 GB
  • HD for OS: 100GB+ for the system in RAID 10 (SSD)
  • HD for data: 1TB+ for the data in RAD 10 (if is possible SSD)

Network:

  • Ip stable
  • minimal: 500mb/s / recommended: 1gpbs
  • domain
  • SSL certificated

Backup:

  • 2 full copies (2 retention copies)

Note: We recommend using an external backup system, in another building of the server facilities to preserve data from physical problems such as fire or flood. Dédalo creates a backup of the database automatically, it prepares the backup file to be copied to the backup system, but, for the media files you will need to configure your server to copy these files manually.

2. Installation options

Instead install you can use our "ready to use" virtual machine with all installed and configured.

2.1. Ready-to-use Virtual Machine for V6

Then, you can use our V6 ready-to-use Virtual Machine for development:

Dedalo V6

Note: we do not recommended use this machine as production system, it could be fine to develop or learn about Dédalo. If you want to use it you will need change all passwords because are public.

2.2. Video-guide for V6 installation

Then, you can follow the steps in the V6 installation video: Dedalo V6 installation video on Ubuntu

2.3. Manual installation

Then, install Dédalo manually, commands are for Ubuntu 22.04 (only as references, you can use other GNU/Linux):

  1. Download official LTS version of Ubuntu Server.
  2. Install Ubuntu Server and all dependencies.

    1. Install PHP

      Usually Dédalo use the last version of PHP. To get the latest version of PHP you will need to install the PPA repository.

      sudo apt install ca-certificates apt-transport-https software-properties-common lsb-release
      sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php
      sudo apt update
      

      Install PHP 8.3

      sudo apt install php8.3 php8.3-cli php8.3-common php8.3-mysql php8.3-pgsql php8.3-gd php8.3-mbstring php8.3-xml php8.3-pspell php8.3-tidy php8.3-bcmath php8.3-imap php8.3-soap php8.3-opcache php8.3-fpm php8.3-zip php8.3-curl
      
    2. Install Apache and activate the modules.

      sudo apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-fcgid
      

      Active modules

      sudo a2enconf php8.3-fpm
      sudo a2enmod actions fcgid alias proxy_fcgi
      sudo a2enmod ssl
      sudo a2enmod headers
      sudo a2enmod http2
      sudo a2enmod rewrite
      
    3. Install PostgreSQL

      Get the official repository:

      sudo sh -c 'echo "deb https://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt $(lsb_release -cs)-pgdg main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list'
      wget --quiet -O - https://www.postgresql.org/media/keys/ACCC4CF8.asc | sudo apt-key add -
      

      Install it.

      sudo apt-get update
      sudo apt-get -y install postgresql
      
    4. Install MariaDB or MySQL

      Get the repository of the LTS version

      sudo apt install wget apt-transport-https
      wget https://r.mariadb.com/downloads/mariadb_repo_setup
      echo "30d2a05509d1c129dd7dd8430507e6a7729a4854ea10c9dcf6be88964f3fdc25  mariadb_repo_setup" | sha256sum -c -
      chmod +x mariadb_repo_setup
      sudo ./mariadb_repo_setup
      

      Install it.

      sudo apt-get update
      sudo apt-get install mariadb-server
      

      Run the secure installation to remove default configuration.

      sudo mariadb-secure-installation
      
    5. Install ffmpeg

      sudo apt install ffmpeg
      
    6. Install ImageMagick

      sudo apt install imagemagick
      
    7. Install PDF tools

      sudo apt install poppler-utils
      

      Optional: if you want you can use xpdf utils instead poppler.

      wget https://dl.xpdfreader.com/xpdf-tools-linux-4.05.tar.gz
      tar xpvf xpdf-tools-linux-4.05.tar.gz
      sudo mv xpdf-tools-linux-4.05/bin64/pdf* /usr/local/bin
      
  3. Download Dédalo and place it under the httpdocs directory of the web server.

    sudo wget https://github.com/renderpci/dedalo/archive/master.zip
    

    Unzip and rename it

    sudo unzip master.zip
    sudo mv dedalo-master dedalo
    

    Set the permissions of the 'dedalo' directory according to your Apache and PHP-FPM settings.

  4. Create a database in PostgreSQL named dedalo_xx (you can change the xx as you please).

    1. Enter into psql:

      sudo su - postgres
      psql
      
    2. Create a Dédalo user:

      CREATE USER dedalo_user PASSWORD 'My_super_Secret_pw';
      
    3. Create a Dédalo database and comment it:

      CREATE DATABASE dedalo_xxx
      WITH ENCODING='UTF8'
      OWNER=dedalo_user
      CONNECTION LIMIT=-1
      TABLESPACE=pg_default;
      
      COMMENT ON DATABASE dedalo_xxx
      IS 'Dédalo: Cultural Heritage and Memory management system';
      
    4. Exit form psql and postgres user:

      \q
      exit
      
    5. Create '.pgpass' file, it will be used to create backups or update ontology.

      about .pgpass file

      Dédalo use default .pgpass access to postgreSQL command tools.

      Note that .pgpass file has your postgreSQL credentials to access your database. Please read the PostgreSQL documentation about this file.

      nano .pgpass
      chmod 0600 ~/.pgpass
      
  5. Configuration. Before changing the config files you will need copy/rename the sample config files removing the word "sample", you can rename or copy this files. Please read the configuration documentation for further explanation on this.

    1. Rename sample.config.php to config.php.

      cd [...]/dedalo/config/
      mv sample.config.php config.php
      
    2. Modify [...]/dedalo/config/config.php as you need. Usually, this involves the DEDALO_ENTITY string and the OS library paths. Read the configuration documentation.

    3. Rename sample.config_db.php to config_db.php.

      cd [...]/dedalo/config/
      mv sample.config_db.php config_db.php
      
    4. Modify [...]/dedalo/config/config_db.php with your database configuration. Read the database configuration documentation.

    5. Rename sample.config_core.php to config_core.php.

      cd [...]/dedalo/config/
      mv sample.config_core.php config_core.php
      
    6. Rename [...]/dedalo/config/sample.config_areas.php to [...]/dedalo/config/config_areas.php.

      cd [...]/dedalo/config/
      mv sample.config_areas.php config_areas.php
      
    7. Modify [...]/dedalo/config/config_areas.php with your areas configuration. Read the areas configuration documentation.

  6. Open Dédalo in the browser.

  7. Follow the instructions.
  8. Once the installation process is done, log in and head to the Development Area. There, update the Ontology and register all tools.
  9. Create an admin user.
  10. Log out and log in with the admin user.
  11. Create Users and Projects as you need.

2.4. Options

If you want to install Dédalo for Oral Memory or manage audiovisual files you can considered to install the h264 module to cut audiovisual files.

Follow the instructions here