Installation Overview

There are two kinds of machines in a ControlTier environment:

• Manager Machine (ControlTier Server): Runs the ControlTier Workbench server (web app) and has the ControlTier client software installed. The roles of the manager machine is to act as a repository of data and release artifacts, provide the tools to define and manage automation, and the point from which centralized management of applications on client machines can be performed.
   
  
• Client Machine (ControlTier Client): A machine that has the ControlTier Client software deployed on it. Examples of these machines are web servers, application server, database, mail, portal, custom/proprietary apps, cluster components, etc. The ControlTier Client provides a framework and local repository for managing the application service(s) or automated process. The ControlTier Client is composed of two software packages, the AntDepo framework and the Commander extension (installed as a library for AntDepo to use). AntDepo is a stand alone open source project, but is under the ControlTier umbrella. When the Commander extension is installed, AntDepo becomes the "ControlTier Client". For more information on AntDepo, please visit AntDepo.org.

It you are new to ControlTier, it is highly recommended that you use the ControlTier Installer to get started. The Installer installs and configures both the ControlTier Server and the ControlTier Client on a single machine. The Installer also installs an archive of the Headlines Project (sample project).

Instructions for using the ControlTier Installer

ControlTier uses SSH for remote execution. The SSH configuration must allow the manager machine to dispatch commands to client machines. Therefore, SSH is assumed to be installed and configured appropriately to allow this access. Also, SSH should not prompt for a password.