Installing PlexTrac

Prerequisites

• Machine/instance with a minimum quad-core processor, 16 GB of memory, 250 GB of storage, and connection to the internet

• CMD access to the PlexTrac server

• If using Let’s Encrypt: Ensure ports 443 and 80 are open in/outbound to allow a new certificate to be obtained when the docker containers are started

• If using a custom domain, the DNS A record must be created

Supported Host Operating Systems

• Ubuntu 20.04 or Ubuntu 22.04

• Debian Linux (Version 12, Bookworm)

• CentOS 8

• Red Hat Linux 9

• Rocky Linux 9

Delay any hardening procedures until after installation.

Installing PlexTrac

Step 1: Log in to the server that will host PlexTrac.

Step 2: As a root user (or user with root privileges), run the following commands to download the PlexTrac utility from our public GitHub repository:

wget -O /tmp/plextrac -q https://github.com/PlexTrac/plextrac-manager-util/releases/latest/download/plextrac && sudo chmod a+x /tmp/plextrac && sudo bash /tmp/plextrac initialize -v

The command will also initialize the script and perform system updates. Once complete, the shell should be returned.

Step 3: Switch the user to "plextrac".

sudo su - plextrac

Step 4: Run plextrac configure. A message “Error: Docker Hub key not found…” will appear at the end of the log, but this can be safely ignored. The key will be added in the following steps.

plextrac configure

Step 5: Edit the .env file.

nano .env

Step 6: Find the following variables in the .env and make the changes listed in the table.

Variable	Action	Example
ADMIN_EMAIL=	Add a valid email address to create the initial user in the platform.	ADMIN_EMAIL=[e-mail]
DOCKER_HUB_KEY=	Add the docker token provided by PlexTrac Support.	DOCKER_HUB_KEY=key123
CLIENT_DOMAIN_NAME=	If using a self-signed certificate, enter the IP address of the server. Otherwise, if a DNS A record was created, enter the DNS name here.	CLIENT_DOMAIN_NAME=plextrac.example.com
LETS_ENCRYPT_EMAIL=	If using Let's Encrypt, enter an email address to be notified when the certificate is about to expire.	LETS_ENCRYPT_EMAIL=[e-mail]
USE_CUSTOM_CERT=	If using a custom SSL certificate, set to true and follow step 7.	USE_CUSTOM_CERT=true/false

Step 7: If using a custom logo, favicon, or SSL certificate, follow the instructions here and here before continuing to the next step.

Step 8: Ensure that the most recent upstream version of Couchbase's database is used.

1. Edit the docker-compose.override.yml located in the installation directory of PlexTrac.

2. Uncomment theservices: line.

3. Below the services: line, add the following: so that it appears as below:
4. Save the file.

Step 9: Run plextrac install.

plextrac install -y -v

Once complete, a summary page should be printed (example below).

Step 10: Set the initial password for the global_admin account by querying the logs and extracting the URL:

plextrac logs -s plextracapi | grep password

An example query result might be:

 plextracapi-2 | timestamp=2024-03-07T01:25:20.260Z level=info message="Global Administrator initial password can be set via: https://example.plextrac.com/password?token=c236ed0e-e5e2-4dcf-ad6b-b120126b1271" service=plextracapi tid=""

Access the URL in the query result to set the initial password for the global_admin account.

Step 11: Log in using the password set in the previous step: Username: global_admin Password: [your_password]