Explain setup like I'm 5 please

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Kody Whitt

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Aug 7, 2020, 4:29:27 PM8/7/20
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Hi all,

If anyone saw my last post you know that the institution that I work for is looking at AToM. Luckly we have a IT dept to handle all the stuff I dont know. Unlunkly I have just started working with another historical outfit that is looking at AToM that does not have an IT dept. So it looks like I may have to set up the server for them myself. I have zero experience with servers. So if you guys could explain to me like Im 5 what kind of job am i looking at here? This new outfit has a very small grant funded budget so hiring someone to do it isn't really an option.

will this server work for atom? our use case is that two museum workers myself and another person will be entering in data into AtoM and I do not expect a very high number of public users at all. I would be surprised if we surpassed 10 public users at any one time.
https://www.amazon.com/HP-Proliant-DL160-Server-Renewed/dp/B085JNDLH2/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=server&qid=1596830229&sr=8-5 

My next big question is what OS should be used on it? I know the docs say that windows and Ubuntu are supported. But again I have never touched any server environment so I dont even know if putting a OS on a server is the same process as it is with a PC.

After those two questions I think I can follow the documentation alright as it seems pretty step by step. But if someone could give me the broad strokes what I should expect I would be really thankful!

E Morgan

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Aug 7, 2020, 4:40:38 PM8/7/20
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Ditto for me!

Thank you,

Edwina

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Karl Goetz

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Aug 7, 2020, 6:58:32 PM8/7/20
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Hi Kody,

Please seriously consider the following options before buying hardware:
  • Partner with another organisation which has AtoM and put your stuff in their instance
  • Get a Virtual private server, optionally with a managed AtoM instance on it
I don't know what your 'historical outfit's hosting environment entails, but things you'll need to be aware of managing servers:
_all that said_, if you can balance the extra cost of hardware/hosting/network/backups with a vps (which seem to sit in the $30-40 per month price bracket) it may be cheaper to go physical.

When it comes to the operating system you only have one option if you want support: Ubuntu. I hope this doesn't come across as rude, but if you need it explained like you are 5, you need to choose the supported option.

"Artefactual does not test installations on non-Ubuntu platforms, so we are only able to offer limited support - we suggest trying to coordinate with other users via our User forum."


thanks,
Karl.

From: ica-ato...@googlegroups.com <ica-ato...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Kody Whitt <klw...@email.vccs.edu>
Sent: Saturday, 8 August 2020 6:29 AM
To: AtoM Users <ica-ato...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [atom-users] Explain setup like I'm 5 please
 
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Dan Gillean

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Aug 10, 2020, 11:32:23 AM8/10/20
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Hi Kody and Edwina, 

First, I think that Karl has offered some good initial advice. If this institution is just getting set up, then investing in a server to host on-site with no one available who is familiar with system administration may become a burden. I suspect you'll find yourself doing more IT work and less archival work initially! In addition to Karl's 2 suggested alternatives (partnering with an institution who already has a server; using a cloud offering to install and manage AtoM) I will also add that finding a hosting provider who will install and maintain AtoM for you is a third option. Artefactual offers a number of different tiers of hosted AtoM instances (details on our website here - and we can provide you with hosted servers in the US if required, though we're based in Canada), and there are other providers as well - in the U.S., I know that LibraryHost has begun offering AtoM hosting. 

In terms of just virtual server providers, we've had good experiences installing AtoM using OVH and/or DigitalOcean servers and virtual machines. I'm sure other vendor options could work as well. The important thing is to ensure that you can install all the dependencies in the right versions, and that you're given enough access and control (such as command-line access inside your VM) to do the installation process. 

That said, I will try to answer some of your questions, and you can decide how to proceed with a bit more insight as to what's involved. 

We offer some general hardware recommendations in our documentation here: 
Processor: 2 vCPUs @ 2.3GHz
Memory: 7GB
Disk space (processing): 50GB at a minimum for AtoM’s core stack plus more storage would be required for supporting any substantial number of digital objects.

While it is possible to run AtoM on less than the example specs we offer here, this is what we use for our standard hosting, and what we recommend for small to medium institutions. 

The server you've linked to from Amazon does look like it could work. However, note that this is an older model from ~2009ish - you may end up finding you're missing more modern ports, or have issues getting all the underlying dependencies upgraded, so expect to spend a bit more time with the set up. Note as well that this type of server is intended to be mounted on a rack (to allow better airflow around it and keep it cool) - I wouldn't suggest just leaving it on a table, as it will likely heat up faster. However, you could certainly find ways to work around that without investing in a server rack. 

We do recommend installing the latest version of AtoM (release 2.6), as we've added a number of performance enhancements to this release that resolve a number of previously reported issues when working with larger hierarchies. For the 2.6 version, we're currently strongly recommending that everyone use Ubuntu 18.04 as the base operating system. This is what we use in development and release testing - while other Linux flavors, and/or older versions of Ubuntu can be made to work (you'll see a lot of people posting variations in their forum posts), you may find a mismatch of available dependencies that will take extra effort to work out - and if this is new to you, then going with what's known to work and following the steps exactly will be the safest way forward. 

AtoM has always been built on a Linux based stack. If you look at our Windows "documentation," it basically says that if you're running a Windows server, then we recommend installing a Linux Ubuntu virtual machine (VM) on it, and then following the installation instructions from there. If you're not familiar with managing virtual appliances, and your decision to get a server is primarily based around AtoM use, then installing Windows as your base operating system is just going to add complexity to the installation process. 

If you're brand new to working with the command-line, we have some CLI 101 slides here:
A quick online search will also return dozens of other introductory tutorials, cheat sheets, and related resources. It will probably also help you understand some of the later steps of the installation process, as well as  how to do some basic maintenance and troubleshooting, to look over the following slides and documentation pages. The slides cover some of the more common AtoM command-line tasks, some of which are used in the installation process. Please note that the slides are a couple years old, so some restart commands have changed - where there is disagreement, trust the commands included in the Troubleshooting page (and the documentation in general):
If you decide to proceed, let us know how it goes! Remember, the documentation and the forum will be your friends. If you get stuck, try to provide as much detail as possible about what you're using, what you did, what the outcome was, and what you expected to happen (see our post suggestions for support here), and we'll try to lend a hand! 

Cheers, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory
he / him


On Fri, Aug 7, 2020 at 4:29 PM Kody Whitt <klw...@email.vccs.edu> wrote:
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Kody Whitt

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Aug 10, 2020, 2:03:58 PM8/10/20
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Thanks so much for all the help guys, I definitely think getting the server management out of my untrained hands is the best bet. I got the ok from my director to put together a proposal that if accepted by both organizations would have our IT team managing the server and in return our students would be given open access to any historical records that the other org has. I think this is the best bet from everyone involved as its a win win, failing that I will be recommending a VPS
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