Minimum requirements. The AnthillPro server will run on any modern business machine:

Recommended system requirements. For larger deployments (e.g., you will be running thousands of processes a day), most users have found the following guidelines helpful:

Agents are designed to be minimally intrusive, and should only require 64-256 MB of memory and 100 MB on disk. Additional requirements are determined by the processes the agent will run.

For small evaluations, it is possible to install the agent on the same physical machine as the server; however, this should be avoided for large deployments of AnthillPro.

For further assistance in determining agent requirements (e.g., a heavily used build machine), please contact support.

The AnthillPro server must run against the 32-bit JDK for the Windows 2003 64-bit server. However, the 64-bit JDK can be used for agents that run builds. Because AnthillPro does not require a multi-gigabyte heap, there is little advantage to using a 64-bit JVM for any operating system. However, for those on a 64-bit Windows platform, AnthillPro supports it with a 32-bit JVM; for other 64-bit platforms, AnthillPro uses a 64-bit JVM:

When installing the agent in a production environment, most people typically create a dedicated user that is responsible for running the agent (i.e., they create an "Anthill" user on the machine the agent is being installed on).

In general, the agent will need the appropriate rights in order to communicate with the AnthillPro server; to communicate with any tools AnthillPro will integrate with (e.g., repository, testing tool, issue tracking tool, e-mail/IM, etc.); and to perform other tasks you will want AnthillPro to perform. Each agent should have permission to:

To install the AnthillPro agent:

To manually install the AnthillPro agent as a Windows service:

To run the AnthillPro agent:

When installing the agent in a production environment, most people typically create a dedicated user that is responsible for running the agent (i.e., they create an "Anthill" user on the machine the agent is being installed on).

In general, the agent will need the appropriate rights in order to communicate with the AnthillPro server; to communicate with any tools AnthillPro will integrate with (e.g., repository, testing tool, issue tracking tool, e-mail/IM, etc.); and to perform other tasks you will want AnthillPro to perform. Each agent should have permission to:

To install the Agent:

To run the AnthillPro agent, follow the steps below:

Once the DB2 Server database and user have been created, you will need to obtain the correct JDBC driver that allows AnthillPro to connect to the DB2 database.

If you receive errors during the installation, please copy the error output and contact support.

To install the AnthillPro server with Oracle, you need to download either the zip or tar.gz distribution. Once you have the distribution downloaded, you may unpack it, but do not start the installation yet.

Before installation, you will need to obtain a JDBC driver for the AnthillPro server to use. (Use the JDBC driver for Oracle 10.2 or higher, regardless of what version of the database is used.) The JDBC driver is the Java code that allows the server to connect to the Oracle database. Oracle should provide a JDBC jar file with its installation. The driver is unique to the version of Oracle you are running. You need to locate the JDBC jar file and copy it into the expanded installation directory.

The JDBC jar file needs to be copied to the anthill3-install/lib/ext directory.

Proceed with the normal installation instructions until you reach the choice of database. You will be prompted for the type of database you want to use. Enter oracle to use an Oracle database. When you choose Oracle, you will also need to provide information specific to the Oracle database. First, you need to provide the JDBC driver class that AnthillPro will use to connect to the database. The default value is oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver. You may need to check your Oracle installation or driver file to see if the class is different.

Second, you will be prompted for the JDBC connection string. The format of the connection string is dictated by the JDBC driver. See Oracle documentation.

Typically, it will match the following format:

jdbc:oracle:thin:@[DB_URL]:[DB_PORT]

Eg. jdbc:oracle:thin:@localhost:1521

After providing the JDBC connection string, you will be prompted for the user and password. Enter those and complete the installation normally. If you receive errors during the installation, please copy the error output and contact support.

First, create a database and a user in your SQL Server database before installing AnthillPro. You can do this by running the following commands (change the password to something secure):

CREATE DATABASE anthill3;

USE anthill3;

CREATE LOGIN anthill3 WITH PASSWORD = 'password';

CREATE USER anthill3 FOR LOGIN anthill3 WITH DEFAULT_SCHEMA = anthill3;

CREATE SCHEMA anthill3 AUTHORIZATION anthill3;

GRANT ALL TO anthill3;

Once the Microsoft SQL Server database and user have been created, you will need to obtain a JDBC driver for the AnthillPro server to use. The JDBC driver is the Java code that allows the server to connect to the Microsoft SQL Server database. On their web site, Microsoft provides a JDBC driver jar to download. Please download the driver version that corresponds to your version of Microsoft SQL Server.

You need to locate the JDBC jar file and copy it into the AnthillPro expanded installation directory. The JDBC jar file needs to be copied to the anthill3-install/lib/ext directory.

Proceed with the normal installation instructions until you reach the choice of database. You’ll be prompted for the type of database you want to use, enter sqlserver to use the Microsoft SQL Server database. When you choose Microsoft SQL Server, you will also need to provide information specific to the database. First, you need to provide the JDBC driver class that AnthillPro will use to connect to the database. The default value is com.microsoft.sqlserver.jdbc.SQLServerDriver. You may need to check your Microsoft SQL Server driver download to see if the class is different.

Second, you will be prompted for the JDBC connection string. The format of the connection string is dictated by the JDBC driver. See Microsoft SQL Server documentation.

Typically, it will match the following format:

jdbc:sqlserver://[DB_URL]:[DB_PORT];databaseName=[DB_NAME]

Eg. jdbc:sqlserver://localhost:1433;databaseName=anthill3

After providing the JDBC connection string, you will be prompted for the user and password. Enter those and complete the installation normally. If you receive errors during the installation, please copy the error output and contact support.

To install the AnthillPro server with MySQL (with InnoDB storage), you need to download either the zip or tar.gz distribution. Once you have the distribution downloaded, you may unpack it, but do not start the installation yet.

First, create a database and a user in your MySQL database before installing AnthillPro. You can do this by running the following commands (change the password to something secure):

CREATE DATABASE anthill3;

GRANT ALL ON anthill3.* TO 'anthill3'@'%' 
IDENTIFIED BY 'password' WITH GRANT OPTION; 

Before installation, you will need to obtain a JDBC driver for the AnthillPro server to use. The JDBC driver is the Java code that allows the server to connect to the MySQL database. MySQL should provide a JDBC jar file with its installation. The driver is unique to the version of MySQL you are running. You need to locate the JDBC jar file and copy it into the expanded installation directory. The JDBC jar file needs to be copied to the anthill3-install/lib/ext directory.

Proceed with the normal AnthillPro installation instructions until you reach the choice of database. You will be prompted for the type of database you want to use, so enter mysql to use a MySQL database. When you choose MySQL, you will also need to provide information specific to the MySQL database. First, you need to provide the JDBC driver class that AnthillPro will use to connect to the database. The default value is com.mysql.jdbc.Driver. You may need to check your MySQL installation or driver file to see if the class is different.

Second, you will be prompted for the JDBC connection string. The format of the connection string is dictated by the JDBC driver. See MySQL documentation.

Typically, it will match the following format:

jdbc:mysql://[DB_URL]:[DB_PORT]/[DB_NAME]

Eg. jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/anthill3

After providing the JDBC connection string, you will be prompted for the user and password. Enter those and complete the installation normally. If you receive errors during the installation, please copy the error output and contact support.

Once the PostgreSQL Server database and user have been created, you will need to obtain the correct JDBC driver that allows AnthillPro to connect to the PostgreSQL database.

If you receive errors during the installation, please copy the error output and contact support.

Locate the Tomcat server configuration file, server.xml, which is in $ANTHILL3_HOME/opt/tomcat/conf. Add a connector child element to the service element (this should be near the top of the file):

<Connector port="8009" minProcessors="5" maxProcessors="256" 
protocol="AJP/1.3" />

AnthillPro must be restarted for this to take effect.

Configuring Apache to use mod_jk is somewhat complicated. First, for Apache 2.0, use mod_jk version 1.2.19. You may need to look in the Tomcat project archives to find the appropriate binary. Later versions only support Apache 2.2. After downloading, extract mod_jk.so and add it to the Apache modules directory.

Add the following to Apache’s httpd.conf:

LoadModule jk_module modules/mod_jk.so

JkWorkersFile "conf/workers.properties"

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName anthill3.example.com
  JkMount /* anthill3
</VirtualHost>

Create a file called workers.properties in the Apache conf directory:

worker.list=anthill3
worker.anthill3.type=ajp13
worker.anthill3.host=anthill3.example.com
worker.anthill3.port=8009

The worker.anthill3.host should match the value of ServerName in httpd.conf and worker.anthill3.port must match the value of the Connector port in server.xml.

For Apache 2.2, use mod_jk version 1.2.21 or later. The binaries are accessible via the normal Tomcat/Jk connector download page. The configuration is identical to Apache 2.0.

In addition to mod_jk, Apache 2.2 adds a new proxy module, mod_proxy_ajp designed to work with Tomcat. This module is part of Apache 2.2, so a separate download is not necessary.

The Tomcat configuration is the same as above.

Add these lines to httpd.conf:

LoadModule proxy_module modules/mod_proxy.so
LoadModule proxy_ajp_module modules/mod_proxy_ajp.so

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName anthill3.example.com
  ProxyPass / ajp://internal.example.com:8009/
  ProxyPassReverse / ajp://internal.example.com:8009/
</VirtualHost>

The above directions assume the Anthill UI is running as the root context (that is, the UI would be viewable at http://anthill3.example.com/), but it is possible to run the UI with a different context path (e.g., http://www.example.com/anthill3). This is not a fully supported configuration and upgrading may become difficult.

To change the context path from / to /anthill, do the following: Edit server.xml and change the context element to have path="/anthill" and docBase="anthill". Then, rename $ANTHILL3_HOME/opt/tomcat/webapps/ROOT to $ANTHILL3_HOME/opt/tomcat/webapps/anthill.

In httpd.conf, update the URLs in the JkMount and ProxyPass... directives:

JkMount /anthill/* anthill3

or:

ProxyPass /anthill ajp://internal.example.com:8009/anthill 
ProxyPassReverse /anthill ajp://internal.example.com:8009/anthill

Additionally, add JkMount and ProxyPass... lines for the AnthillPro Help:

JkMount /anthillpro-help/* anthill3

or:

ProxyPass /anthillpro-help ajp://internal.example.com:8009/anthillpro-help

ProxyPass /anthillpro-help ajp://internal.example.com:8009/anthillpro-help 
ProxyPassReverse /anthillpro-help ajp://internal.example.com:8009/anthillpro-help

In order to use SSL between the server and agent, both the sides need a private key created in a keystore. This key and keystore is created during the installation process of the server and agent. There should be a ah3.keystore file in the conf directory of each installation. If there is not, please contact support for assistance.

In order to turn SSL on, make sure the server is running and go to the Web UI. Go to the System tab and click the server Settings link under the Server menu. In the new window, enable the Use SSL Between Server and Agents setting. After this, restart the server. That completes the server configuration for enabling SSL.

For each agent installed, you must first shutdown the agent, and then go to the conf/agent directory and edit the agent properties file. The settings in the file that controls the SSL communication is locked/server.secure. If this property is not present you will need to add a line. It should look like: locked/server.secure=true.

Start the agent, and go in to the server Web UI to verify that the agent shows up as online. To further test that communication is working properly, go to the System tab and click the Agents link under the Environment menu. Select an agent from the Agent List, and then select the Properties tab to validate the agent properties are retrieved correctly.

In order to do mutual authentication between server and agent communication, you must facilitate a public key exchange between the two. To do this, export the public key from the certificate keystore and import it into the keystore of that which you are communicating with: Export the server key and import it into the agent keystore, and export the agent key and import it into the server keystore. You will also need to ensure that every agent using mutual authentication has the locked/server.mutual_auth=true property in the agent.properties file.

If you need to list the certificates that are loaded into a keystore, you can run the following from the same directory:

keytool -list -keystore ah3.keystore -storepass changeit

To configure an agent, click on the name of that agent. That will display the page shown below. Most of the information here will be configured at installation time, but you can change the agent’s name any time.

See also Configure Agent(s).

The Properties tab (see below) on the agent configuration page allows you to view or set custom variables on the agent.

See also Configure Agent(s).

Manage user access on the Security tab. Administrators can define what roles have access to read, write, or determine security for agents.

See also Configure Agent(s).