Installation

Installation Overview

The N-Squared Closed User Groups software is released in multiple packages to provide the various logical components for a complete platform.

Instructions for installing these packages are given below.

Once installed, the appropriate configuration must be applied in order to bring the platform into service.

OS Support

All N2CUG packages are designed to be installed on Linux-based systems such as Red Hat Linux and Debian. Installation is performed using standard package management tools:

• yum/dnf and rpm on Red Hat systems.
• apt, apt-get and dpkg on Debian systems.

N2CUG is officially supported on the following systems:

• Red Hat systems:
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
• Debian systems:
  • Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
  • Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

In practice, N2CUG will run on any relatively modern Debian- or Red Hat-based distribution with appropriate adjustments to these installation instructions.

Minimum Server Requirements

Each logical component has slightly different recommended minimum requirements:

In cases where components are co-installed, the more demanding figures should be used.

Installation Planning

At minimum, an N2CUG platform must be able to perform the functions of the GUI, API, SVC, and DB logical components for feature-completeness. These may be on separate physical or virtual servers, or co-hosted as required. There may also be multiple instances of any component type, as required for business continuity or expected traffic load.

When planning the footprint of an N2CUG platform, the following recommendations apply for production environments:

• At least two SVC nodes should be present, with each able to take the projected full load of call traffic. This allows maintenance of one node at a time while still providing service. It is expected that the signalling network will perform the appropriate loadsharing of calls during both day-to-day activities and maintenance windows. Note that each call, once started, will be affined to a single SVC node.
• Similarly, if BSS/OSS continuity is required, multiple API nodes can be used in an active/active setup. These can be loadshared to as required by your IP infrastructure.
• If multiple API instances are used, consider also having multiple DB instances to prevent a single point of failure. There must always be a single active primary database used for all provisioning and updates, with as many replica databases as required for API or SVC nodes. It is generally considered good practice for each API and SVC node to have their own database instance, but this is not required.

Installation Disclaimer

No installation guide can cover every pre-requisite or potential eventuality of package installation. While N-Squared has documented the expected N2CUG installation steps, sometimes a target environment may differ in an unexpected manner and require additional or alternative steps actions to achieve an operational N2CUG environment. Please contact N-Squared to discuss such situations.

Package Availability

Individual packages for manual installation are available on request from N-Squared as part of a licensed software or services agreement.

N-Squared may alternately furnish access details for a software repository that can be integrated with your OS package management tools or satellite repository server directly for ease of installation and maintenance.

Package Versions

All packages distributed by N-Squared will include the following parts to identify them uniquely:

• <NAME> - the name of the package, as referred to in these instructions.
• <M> - the major revision number of the package.
• <m> - the minor revision number of the package.
• <p> - the point release number of the package.
• <b> - the build number of the package release.

Package names take a slightly different format, depending on the OS type.

Installation Instructions

Instructions for the installation of each logical component are given in the following sub-sections:

• SVC nodes
• GUI nodes
• API nodes
• DB nodes

There is no required order of installation for N2CUG components. However, in order to complete the appropriate configuration of the platform, all planned components should be fully installed before such configuration is started.

Note that specific steps may have to be performed prior to component installation on Red Hat or Debian systems.