Please find inside a short guide to help you prepare your infrastructure for Mindbreeze InSpire.
Please provide us with the desired fully qualified host names for Mindbreeze InSpire (e.g. search.companyname.com), the technical contact for the implementation and suitable dates for the on-site support via our Mindbreeze InSpire contact form: https://www.mindbreeze.com/inspire-contact. Please also provide us with all data sources that you would like to link to the search. If necessary, also provide us with the authentication mechanism to be used for the search (e.g. Kerberos, SAML, etc.).
For Kerberos-based authentication with Active Directory you must set up a service user in Active Directory, e.g. mindbreeze.service. Please ensure that the following requirements are met:
To crawl the data sources, users with full read access rights for all data to be indexed should also be created. These are only used by Mindbreeze to index data.
Please note that the following network connections are activated for the Mindbreeze InSpire server:
Electrical and Other Technical Requirements for installing your Mindbreeze InSpire Appliance
Your Mindbreeze InSpire Appliance must be installed in a location meeting the temperature, electrical, refrigeration, and other requirements shown in the following tables.
Requirement | Mindbreeze InSpire |
Typical Thermal Dissipation | 2891 BTU/hr |
Operating Temperature Range Storage Temperature Range | 10°C to 35°C (50°F to 95°F) with a maximum temperature gradient of 20°C/h (36°F/h). –40°C to 65°C (–40°F to 149°F) with a maximum temperature gradient of 20°C/h (36°F/h). Note: Maximum temperature is reduced by 1°C/300 m (1°F/547 ft) above 950 m (3,117 ft). |
Operating Relative Humidity Range Storage Relative Humidity Range | 10% to 80% Relative Humidity with 29°C (84.2°F) maximum dew point. |
Maximum Operating vibration Maximum Storage vibration | 0.26 G rms at 5 Hz to 350 Hz (all operation orientations). |
Maximum Operating shock Maximum Storage shock | Six consecutively executed shock pulses in the positive and negative x, y, and z axes of 40 G for up to 2.3 ms. |
Maximum Operating altitude Maximum Storage altitude | 3048 - 2000m (10,000 - 6560 ft) 12,000 m (39,370 ft) |
Maximum System Power Consumption | 750 W |
Input Voltage (AC) | 100 - 240 V AC, autoranging |
Frequency | 50/60 Hz |
Weight | 31.5 kg (69.45 lb) at maximum configuration |
Physical Dimensions | Width: 48.2 cm (18.98 inch) Depth: 75.58 cm (29.75 inch) Height: 8.73 cm (3.44 inch) |
Industry Rack Height | 2U |
The Mindbreeze InSpire Management Center is the interface where administration and management tasks can be performed on a Mindbreeze InSpire Search Appliance.
For accessing the Mindbreeze InSpire Management Center make sure that the following network ports are accessible on the connected Mindbreeze InSpire server network interfaces.
Admin and Management Ports:
General Mindbreeze Ports:
For using the iDRAC interface of the Mindbreeze InSpire Server the following Ports have to be accessible on the Mindbreeze InSpire Server’s iDRAC network interface:
Make sure that the Mindbreeze InSpire Appliance network interface cards (NICs) are connected by wire. At least the iDRAC interface as well as one of the host NICs. Per default the Mindbreeze InSpire NICs are set to DHCP. See below on how to use iDRAC to obtain the host MAC address for reserving a DHCP lease.
The IP address of the iDRAC interface after successful connection can be viewed locally on the front panel LCD by accessing the following menu:
A short introduction about the Front Panel LCD is available at:
http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/w/wiki/3869.lcd-info-screen-and-led-alert-panel-on-poweredge-12th-generation-servers#Setting
With this information, you can retrieve from the DHCP server which IP address was leased for the network interfaces.
If DHCP is not available for the iDRAC network interface the IP Address can be set manually via the Front Panel LCD, as follows:
On the Front Panel LCD of the server also the MAC addresses of the host interfaces are listed. For viewing the MAC addresses, please follow this path:
If DHCP is available the MAC addresses of the host interfaces (either obtained in the previous step) or obtained via the iDRAC Admin portal (https://<iDRAC_IP>:443) can be used to identify/or reserve the respective DHCP leases and therefore the obtained IP addreses.
Login for the iDRAC Admin Portal:
If DHCP is not available to automatically assign network settings to the host network interfaces, the network configuration for these interfaces can be accomplished by connecting to the Virtual Console using the iDRAC Web Interface (https://<iDRAC_IP>:443).
In the Virtual Console, log in with the following credentials:
After a successful login the Network Configuration Interface is shown. Here the DNS Server and the static addresses of all the network interfaces can be configured. It is recommended to configure the DNS server only via “DNS configuration”.
If access to iDRAC is not available log in using the config user can also performed physically. See above for the steps to set the Device and DNS configuration.
After a successful network configuration the Mindbreeze InSpire Management Center is accessible via the following Secure HTTP Link: https://<ip_address>:8443 . Here the <ip_address> tag is the IP address of one of the connected network interfaces.
For accessing the Mindbreeze InSpire Management Center login credentials are required. By default, the management center can be accessed with “admin” user and “Appliance123” password.
To make sure that the Appliance can access resources within the enterprise and/or the internet one can use the “System” section. Login using the admin user and test DNS resolution via Lookup or Dig, connectivity via Ping or Traceroute (requires ICMP protocol access).
Press “Look Up!” to check that the IP address can be obtained.
Below is the short description of the main sections in the Mindbreeze InSpire Management Center.
In this section a preconfigured Mindbreeze Client Service and a Search App Editor can be accessed.
Here you can explore reports, telemetry data and statistics related to the Mindbreeze services.
By default, the PostgreSQL database of app.telemetry uses the user "telemetryuser" with the password "Mindbreeze".
In this section various advanced search parameters can be configured such as “Synonyms”, “Stemmer Vocabulary” and “Relevance”. For more information visit Mindbreeze Query Expression Transformation.
In this section different operations related to the Mindbreeze services can be performed, such as starting and stopping the services or resetting the indices (reindexing).
The detailed configuration of the Mindbreeze services and components can be accessed and modified from this section. A detailed description of the configuration settings is available on help.mindbreeze.com.
For Kerberos-based authentication using Active Directory, an NTP server that is time-synchronous with your Active Directory server has to be specified in the configuration of your Mindbreeze InSpire appliance.
You can do this in: System -> Hardware -> System Time -> Time server sync -> Timeserver hostnames or addresses.
However, only the root user can access this configuration option.
Here you can enter the URL of your NTP time server. You can also configure the synchronization time.
A Quick Start Guide to the updates of the operating system patches.
Following the patch day (the 2nd Tuesday of each month), the patches in the category of Security and Important are updated by Windows Update in our reference test system. Customers will receive an e-mail notification thereof. A staff member continuously scans, both on patch days and otherwise, for important bugfixes and informs about possible security gaps or any need for corrective action.
Mindbreeze uploads its test systems internally every Wednesday after „Patch Tuesday“ (first Tuesday of the month) on the basis of the reference system. The selected patch sets 1 und 2 are corrected. Our customers usually upload these over the holiday break or during a scheduled maintenance window.
If the tests did not reveal any security gaps or errors, no notice will be sent to the customers. However, should the tests indicate the need for corrective action, the customers will be notified by the 2nd Thursday of the month that the patches should not be uploaded, so as not to jeopardize the functionality of Mindbreeze InSpire.
The customer can implement all patches on the second Friday of every month using YUM or RPM updates (with Linux-based appliances) or Microsoft Update (Microsoft Windows-based appliances).
New versions of Mindbreeze InSpire can be installed via the Management Center. This requires the SFX file and a web browser with access to the Management Center. You can download the SFX file from the Mindbreeze website using the following link: Updates & SPI
Open the Management Center and navigate to the section “Setup” “Update“.
Use “Choose File“ to select the SFX file and click “Upload File.“ A progress bar displays the progress of the upload process.
Next, important information about the update is displayed.
If you agree to the GTC, click “I agree to the General Terms and Conditions.“
You will then see a preview of the scheduled update.
You’ll be able to check which version is being replaced (current) and which version is the updated (new) version.
Next, we recommend that you perform a "test update". Some checks are performed in the test update, but nothing is actually installed. The system remains in its original state. You can also skip this step. To perform this step, make sure that "Test Update" is selected and click "Start". During the process, detailed information is displayed at the bottom of a console.
If the test update has been successful, a "Success" notice appears.
Then select “Perform Update.“ Some options are displayed.
You can configure the following options:
“Start Services after Update“ | After the update, configured services are restarted automatically. |
“Update Plugins“ | Plugins delivered with SFX are updated |
“Force Update“ | Must be entered if an older version is installed. (“downgrade“) |
Click "Start" to finally finish the update process. Note: The services are not available during the update process! Detailed information is displayed at the bottom of a console while the update is being performed. If the update is successful, a “Success“ notice appears.
This document describes the key facts that should be regarded for backups of Mindbreeze InSpire configuration files and index data.
The backup strategy should include the following type of data and should especially be performed before installing product updates:
The last 10 revisions of the Mindbreeze configuration data files are kept in the configuration directory. Nevertheless, you should take an external backup of those files:
Important configuration files:
Furthermore, please execute export_managerconfig.sh including a path (e.g. export_managerconfig.sh /data/export) and make a backup of the folder export.
On any custom changes to the Mindbreeze Client service files or if you have deployed your own Search Apps to the Mindbreeze client service folder you should take a backup of these changes:
/opt/mindbreeze/bin/webapps
(webapps\client-service\ROOT\apps\client)
Fabasoft Mindbreeze uses a file based index. These index files can be backed up completely in a consistent state.
To save index data, perform the following steps:
Just take a copy of the main app.telemetry configuration file (infra.xml) located at following location:
/etc/app.telemetry/
Mindbreeze InSpire is delivered to customers as a preconfigured appliance. The pre-installed software components were coordinated with one another and tested for possible side effects.
It is not foreseen that customers make changes to the software status on their own, except for security updates, for which the recommended procedure is explained in the brief guide entitled:
“Brief Instruction - Continuous Updating of the Operating System Patches”.
Possible examples of adverse changes to the software status include:
Depending on the type of third-party software components, the effects this may have on Mindbreeze can vary.
The possible effects of third-party software include:
The most common problems are to be expected through the use of antivirus software and can be minimized as described in the following chapter.
To minimize any negative impact on Mindbreeze performance and stability, the following directories should be specifically excluded from virus scanning runs:
Other installation-dependent directories that should not be modified by the virus killer:
However, any type of virus scan run can have a potential negative effect on the system performance and consequently the response time behaviour of Mindbreeze. If regular system scans are unavoidable, we recommend that they be performed in maintenance windows or outside the core time in which the search is offered.
To ensure the best possible support, we ask all our customers and partners to follow our standard support process.