Installing Seeq Server

Overview

This article covers the installation and upgrading the Seeq Server.

Hardware Requirements

Seeq Server hardware is a critical factor affecting user experience. Since Seeq is a self-service analytics application, computational load on the server can vary dramatically based on user activity. CPU, memory and storage performance are of particular importance.

The following table details the minimum hardware requirements for Seeq Server given the number of active users (where "active" denotes users that are accessing the system within a few hours of each other).

If Seeq's REST API or SDKs are being used to automate calculations in the background, you will need to account for the additional load in your hardware specification.

As you scale your deployment of Seeq, please consult Seeq Support for additional guidance to take your particular situation into account.

Seeq may be installed on a physical machine or virtual machine (VM). VMs are most commonly used.

Seeq recommends that dedicated resources are allocated to Virtual Machines in environments such as VMWare ESXi and HyperV as shared resources can result in varying performance.

Seeq recommends the instance types of AWS m5a series & Azure DxS series with disk sizes between 800 - 1200GB to provide the required IOPS. It is not recommended to use burstable instances such as AWS T2 & T3 series or Azure B series as these can result in varying performance.

Downloads

Please download Seeq Server from the links on the Product Download page. For earlier versions, pre-release versions, our connector SDK, please contact Seeq support.

Network Communication Ports

By default, only port 34216 needs to be accessible by other computers. This may require firewall settings modification. All other ports are used for inter-process communication on the computer where the Seeq Server runs.

To change this default port, update the Network/Webserver/Port option as described in Configuring Seeq.

The Seeq Server processes open several "internal" ports in the range 34210-34230; in the event that this block of ports conflicts with other applications on the server, you can configure this range by updating the Network/Ports/StartingPort option as described in Configuring Seeq.

Network firewalls are a common source of problems inhibiting proper use of Seeq applications. The Seeq Server machine typically has a firewall installed, and it should be modified to allow external connections to the Seeq Server port.

Hardware firewalls that are part of the infrastructure must be configured to allow connections to the Seeq Server machine and, in particular, must allow WebSocket connections.

Network Hostname

Seeq can only be accessible from one network hostname. Seeq will attempt to redirect clients to the configured hostname. By default, this hostname will be the machine name of the server. If this name doesn't resolve on user computers Network/Hostname will need to be configured as described in Configuring Seeq.

Data Folder Location

You can control the location of Seeq data as detailed in Changing the Seeq Data Folder Location.

Endpoint Privilege Management Software / Privileged Access Management Software

Some companies also employ Endpoint Privilege Management Software (a.k.a. Privileged Access Management Software) - which is typically centrally managed and acts as a tool to manage which software is allowed or disallowed to be installed.

If this software is present please temporarily disable it during Seeq software installs and upgrades else it may stop the install/upgrade of Seeq part way through the process.

Endpoint Security Software

Some Endpoint Security Software products like Carbon Black can cause difficulties when installing, updating and starting starting the Seeq application as they seek administrative permission to execute certain scripts & binaries.

It is recommended that the Seeq Server installation folder & Seeq data directory are both allow listed to execute scripts & binaries to avoid these types of issue.

Excluding Seeq Processes from Endpoint Monitoring

The following executables must be added to your Endpoint Monitoring exclusionss. The filenames are relative to the folder that Seeq Server is installed to (e.g., /opt/seeq/seeq-server).

jdk/files/bin/java
jre8/files/bin/java
python/files/python
renderer/image/nodejs/files/node
renderer/image/chromium/files/chrome-linux/chrome
postgres/files/bin/postgres
nginx/files/nginx

Excluding Seeq Data Folders from Endpoint Monitoring

The Seeq data folders must be added to your Endpoint Monitoring exclusions. See Understanding Data Locations for more information on the Data Folder location.

Installing Seeq

The Seeq installer needs to be run with administrative "root" permissions.  As such, you will need to ensure that the "sudo" package is installed and that the user installing seeq has "sudo" permissions.  The installation of "libssl-dev" is also required prior to executing the Seeq installer.   These packages are present in nearly all Ubuntu distros by default.

To install Seeq Server, download the Linux installer tarball, extract it and run the install script like so:

$ wget https://download.seeq2.com/<download link>
$ tar xvf seeq-server-<version>-64bit-linux.tar.gz
$ sudo ./seeq-server-installer/install -g /var/opt/seeq -u seeq

This will install the Seeq Server binaries to /opt/seeq/seeq-server, Seeq's data will be stored in /var/opt/seeq, a new user called seeq will be created, and a service (aka daemon) to run Seeq Server in the background called seeq will also be registered. NOTE: At the tail end of the installation, Seeq installs some packages from apt on Ubuntu or dnf/yum on RHEL, and therefore the need to have internet access on the target server or a local mirror that can be configured on the instance.

In order to make Seeq accessible via public hostname for installation on AWS EC2 set seeq hostname to AWS public hostname. 

$ seeq config set Network/Hostname your-host-name

Once the install script is finished and optional hostname setting is performed, start up Seeq Server like so:

$ sudo seeq service enable
$ sudo systemctl start seeq

Once you create an account on your new Seeq Server, request and install a license to move forward.

Advanced Configuration

You may want to configure your Seeq ports and/or secure your sever with TLS as well.