Installing Dundas BI on Linux

Note
See the Logi Symphony documentation for details on installing Logi Symphony.

1. Overview

To install Dundas BI directly on Linux, download and run the appropriate Dundas BI Linux installer for your OS. This will install the Dundas BI Deployment Wizard, which you then use to create and manage instances of Dundas BI.

A Dundas BI instance is a named version of the Dundas BI product. As an example, you can install one instance for development, testing or staging purposes, and then have a second instance dedicated to production usage. Multiple instances of Dundas BI can also reside on the same server computer.

Besides installing Dundas BI on Linux directly, you can also run Dundas BI Docker images or use Helm Charts to deploy on Kubernetes. After installation, users can log on to access the entire application from any device running a supported web browser.

1.1. Supported Linux distributions

Dundas BI supports certain versions of the following distributions:

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
  • Ubuntu LTS
  • Debian (Dundas BI 10 and higher)

See the Dundas BI - System Requirements for your version of Dundas BI for supported version details.

Docker container images are also provided for deploying Dundas BI on other distributions or versions.

1.2. Known limitations

There are certain known limitations when running on Linux, including Docker and Kubernetes:

Unsupported data sources:

Unsupported features:

  • Logging on with Windows/Active Directory (federated authentication including Azure Active Directory is supported)
  • UNC path when using file data providers, such as CSV/flat files, Excel, XML (URLs and uploading are supported)
  • Windows authentication with data providers, including Server Windows credentials, Specified Windows credentials, Impersonated Windows credentials
  • SharePoint web part
  • XAML diagrams (SVG is supported)
  • The default font Segoe UI used in Dundas BI version 11 and earlier is typically not available on Linux when views are exported, so an alternative is used instead

Note
Linux operating systems may also be missing other commonly used fonts by default such as Arial and Times New Roman, which would cause a different font to be displayed when exporting if they are used when not installed.

2. Install the deployment wizard

To start installing Dundas BI directly on Linux, first download the installer file to your server from Dundas.

Use the .deb file for Ubuntu or Debian, or the .rpm file for RHEL.

On Ubuntu or Debian, go to the folder where the .deb installer is saved and run the following command:

sudo dpkg -i [Installer file name].deb

On RHEL, go to the folder where the .rpm installer is saved and run the following command:

sudo yum install [Installer file name].rpm

3. Run the deployment wizard

The Dundas BI Deployment Wizard lets you create and manage instances of Dundas BI on your Linux server.

Launch the Dundas BI Deployment wizard by using the following command:

sudo dundasbi --wizard

At this point you may be prompted to install the required version of .NET if you haven't already, in which case you can enter y for this to be downloaded and installed automatically.

4. Create a Dundas BI instance

The Dundas BI Deployment Wizard will open with a menu of options similar to the screenshot below.

To create a new Dundas BI instance, enter 1.

Dundas BI Deployment Wizard
Dundas BI Deployment Wizard

5. License agreement

You must agree to the terms of the Dundas BI License Agreement before proceeding. Choose whether you want to view the terms of agreement by entering y or n.

You must accept the license agreement to proceed with the installation.

Enter y to accept the license agreement.

6. Prerequisites

The installation requires a number of prerequisites to be installed before it can proceed further. If your system has all of the prerequisites, enter y to continue.

If your system is missing some of the prerequisites, install them automatically either by entering fixall to install all of them or the corresponding number to select them individually.

Once all of the checks have passed, enter y to continue.

Prerequisites
Prerequisites

7. Instance details

Enter a unique name to the Dundas BI instance.

Note that your chosen instance name cannot have any spaces or special characters. Valid characters are: a-zA-Z0-9, and underscores.

Instance details
Instance details

Enter a brief description of your instance. This is optional.

Instance details
Instance details

8. Database

Dundas BI stores its own data internally using two databases: an application database and a warehouse database.

8.1. Application database

The application database stores the configuration settings of the application and all of the objects that were created using Dundas BI.

Note that the application database is different from your data source databases, as seen below (indicated in red).

Dundas BI Architecture - Application Database (App DB)
Dundas BI Architecture - Application Database (App DB)

Choose whether to create a new application database or use an existing one. The latter option is applicable when you have an existing database that you want to use.

Application database credentials
Application database credentials

8.2. Select type

Dundas BI can store its own data using Microsoft SQL Server or the open-sourced PostgreSQL. 

Select the type of database server to use to run this instance.

Note
When using SQL Server, ensure it is configured for you to connect using SQL Server authentication.

Database server type
Database server type

8.3. Database name

Enter a database name or press Enter to use the default database name.

8.4. Application database connection

Enter the server name for the application database, which will be used to run Dundas BI.

Application database connection
Application database connection

Enter the User ID and Password for the application database.

Application database credentials
Application database credentials

The user ID and password needs to correspond to a database server account that has db_create permissions for Microsoft SQL Server or usesuper permissions for PostgreSQL.

8.5. Warehouse database connection

The warehouse database is indicated in the diagram below in red.

Dundas BI Architecture - Warehouse Database
Dundas BI Architecture - Warehouse Database

For the warehouse database connection, you can choose to use the same settings as the application database (except for the database name, which must be different) by entering y.

Enter n if you want to provide the connection settings directly as in the previous step.

Warehouse database connection
Warehouse database connection

8.6. Encrypt application database connection string

When selected, this option will encrypt the application database connection string found in the dbi.config file.

Enter y to encrypt the application database connection string.

Encrypt application database connection string
Encrypt application database connection string

9. Specify website port

You must enter a value for the website port. Ensure to enter a valid port number.

Specify website port
Specify website port

Note
This website port would typically be 1024 or higher as lower port numbers are privileged ports. This should be different than the port number you choose later for the reverse proxy to provide access to Dundas BI for users (e.g., port 80).

10. Administrator configuration

Choose a username and password for the Dundas BI administrator account. 

Administrator configuration
Administrator configuration

Enter the email address and password for the administrator.

The administrator username and password are required to log on to Dundas BI for the first time. After logging on, the administrator can change the password as desired.

11. Deployment details

Another prerequisites check may run at this point similar to the previous check above.

The next step lets you review all of the options you selected one more time before proceeding with creating the instance.

Review deployment details
Review deployment details

To proceed, type y.

Instance created successfully
Instance created successfully

12. Federated authentication

You can use federated authentication to allow users to log onto Dundas BI with their existing identities from providers such as Azure Active Directory or Google, or other providers supporting protocols such as SAML 2.0 or OpenID Connect.

If you are using federated authentication, you should use the Deployment wizard to add the federated authentication module (bridge) to your Dundas BI instance before configuring your reverse proxy in the next step below. For details, see Enabling federated authentication.

13. Configure reverse proxy

After setting up your instance, configure the reverse proxy. The following shows how you can automatically set up NGINX as your reverse proxy server based on the current configuration of your Dundas BI instance when you run this wizard step.

Note
The reverse proxy setup provided in the deployment wizard is optional if you choose to set up a reverse proxy yourself, or you can edit this configuration later.

Launch the Dundas BI Deployment wizard by using the following command.

sudo dundasbi --wizard

Dundas BI Deployment Wizard
Dundas BI Deployment Wizard

Enter the number indicated for the step Hookup Reverse Proxy to Instance, then select an instance from the list by typing the corresponding number for the instance.

Select instance
Select instance

Select whether to use SSL by selecting y or n.

SSL
SSL

Select whether to provide a name for the proxy server, and then enter the name if applicable.

Proxy server name
Proxy server name

Enter a port number that will be used to access your instance.

Note
Ensure that you specify a new port number and not the one you used when creating the Dundas BI instance. Also be aware of other restrictions such as from SELinux on RHEL.

Proxy port number
Proxy port number

Review the reverse proxy configuration details.

Review proxy configuration details
Review proxy configuration details

To proceed, enter y.

After the tasks are successful, you can access your Dundas BI website using the reverse proxy port number.

14. X Virtual Frame Buffer Service

To enable exporting dashboards, reports, and other views, the X Virtual Frame Buffer Service must be configured. In Dundas BI version 8.0.1 and later, this is done automatically as part of a prerequisites step when creating an instance, otherwise you can configure the service as described below.

Launch the Dundas BI Deployment wizard by using the following command.

sudo dundasbi --wizard

Dundas BI Deployment Wizard
Dundas BI Deployment Wizard

Enter the number indicated for the step Create X Virtual Frame Buffer Service to begin configuring the X Virtual Frame Buffer service. The prerequisites check runs. Type fixall to install any prerequisite that is not installed. 

XVFB prerequisite check
XVFB prerequisite check

After all the prerequisites are installed type y to proceed. Confirm to start creating the X Virtual Frame Buffer Service by typing y.

Confirmation
Confirmation

15. Next steps

After installation, you'll want to:

16. See also

Dundas Data Visualization, Inc.
400-15 Gervais Drive
Toronto, ON, Canada
M3C 1Y8

North America: 1.800.463.1492
International: 1.416.467.5100

Dundas Support Hours:
Phone: 9am-6pm, ET, Mon-Fri
Email: 7am-6pm, ET, Mon-Fri