How to Install Alfresco Community Edition on RHEL/CentOS 76 and Debian 8?

Alfresco Community Edition is a powerful open-source document management system that provides a platform for storing, managing, and sharing files across an organization. This article walks through the installation steps for Alfresco Community Edition on two popular Linux distributions RHEL/CentOS 7.6 and Debian 8.

Prerequisites

Before beginning the installation, ensure your system meets the following requirements

• Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 8 or above

• PostgreSQL database server for data storage

• LibreOffice 6.2 or above for document previewing capabilities

• Minimum 4GB RAM and 10GB disk space

Installing on RHEL/CentOS 7.6

Step 1: Install Java Runtime Environment

Install OpenJDK 11 from the default CentOS repository

sudo yum install java-11-openjdk-devel

Verify the installation

java -version

Step 2: Install and Configure PostgreSQL

Install PostgreSQL database server

sudo yum install postgresql-server postgresql-contrib

Initialize the PostgreSQL database

sudo postgresql-setup initdb

Start and enable PostgreSQL service

sudo systemctl start postgresql
sudo systemctl enable postgresql

Create an Alfresco database user

sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE USER alfresco WITH PASSWORD 'alfresco';"
sudo -u postgres createdb -O alfresco alfresco

Step 3: Download and Install Alfresco Community Edition

Download the latest Alfresco Community Edition installer

wget https://download.alfresco.com/cloudfront/release/community/201911-GA/alfresco-community-install-201911-linux-x64.bin

Make the installer executable and run it

chmod +x alfresco-community-install-201911-linux-x64.bin
sudo ./alfresco-community-install-201911-linux-x64.bin

During installation, select PostgreSQL as the database and provide the credentials created earlier (username: alfresco, password: alfresco).

Step 4: Start Alfresco Service

sudo /opt/alfresco-community/alfresco.sh start

Installing on Debian 8

Step 1: Install Java Runtime Environment

Update package repositories and install OpenJDK 11

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install openjdk-11-jdk

Step 2: Install and Configure PostgreSQL

Install PostgreSQL with additional contrib modules

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib

Create the Alfresco database and user

sudo -u postgres psql -c "CREATE USER alfresco WITH PASSWORD 'alfresco';"
sudo -u postgres createdb -O alfresco alfresco

Step 3: Install Required Dependencies

Install LibreOffice and additional tools for document processing

sudo apt-get install libreoffice imagemagick ghostscript libreoffice-pdfimport libwpd-tools

Step 4: Download and Install Alfresco Community Edition

Download the installer and make it executable

wget https://download.alfresco.com/cloudfront/release/community/201911-GA/alfresco-community-install-201911-linux-x64.bin
chmod +x alfresco-community-install-201911-linux-x64.bin

Run the installer with PostgreSQL configuration

sudo ./alfresco-community-install-201911-linux-x64.bin

Start the Alfresco service

sudo /opt/alfresco-community/alfresco.sh start

Accessing Alfresco

Once installation is complete, access Alfresco through your web browser

• Alfresco Share: http://localhost:8080/share/

• Alfresco Repository: http://localhost:8080/alfresco/

Default login credentials are admin/admin. Change these credentials immediately after first login for security purposes.

Post-Installation Configuration

After successful installation, consider these configuration steps

• Firewall Configuration: Open ports 8080 and 8443 if using a firewall

• Memory Settings: Adjust JVM memory settings in alfresco-global.properties

• SSL Configuration: Configure HTTPS for secure access in production environments

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Conclusion

Alfresco Community Edition provides a robust document management platform with features like version control, workflow automation, and collaboration tools. Following these installation steps ensures a proper setup on both RHEL/CentOS 7.6 and Debian 8 systems. Remember to secure your installation by changing default passwords and configuring appropriate firewall rules.