Forum Sentry Tutorial – How to Install Forum Sentry Software

The Forum Sentry comes in both purpose-built hardware with HSM for Cryptography offload in a 1U high hardened appliance, a variety of software versions and as a virtual machine. For this tutorial, we will show you how to install Forum Sentry on 32Bit CentOS machine, which is actually running as a VirtualBox on 64 Bit Ubuntu Machine. This example shows both, native Linux installation and how to create your own corporate virtual image vs utilizing Forum Systems virtual image.

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1. Download the Sentry software (request a no obligation free trial and we send you a link to the files). At the same time its a good idea to download the documentation and unzip it to a readily available location. The documentation includes FS_Sentry_V8.1_Software_installation_guide.pdf.

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2. After downloading FS-Sentry-8.1.299-linux.bin (or current release), make the bin file executable sudo chmod a+x fs-sentry-8.1.299-linux.bin then execute the install using sudo ./ fs-sentry-8.1.299-linux.bin command.

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3. A notice of installation and requirements is shown, requiring you to select <Enter> to begin the installation process.

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4. After reviewing, scroll through the license by selecting <Enter> then selecting <Y> to accept the license.

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5. Select <1> for default install and <Enter> again to accept the Default Install Folder and <Enter>, <Enter> again after review to install at /root/ForumSystems.

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6. After installation, Press <Enter> to exit the installer. Notice to start the Sentry service you can use the command /etc/init.d/xmlserver start|stop|status.

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7. The xmlserver service should automatically start (you can check it with the status command) and your browser launched to web page https://127.0.0.1:5050 (SSL to local host on port 5050) A warning that no certificate is found. Add and store a permanent exception.

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8. A licence screen will show, requesting you send your name, company, email and a code generated based on your machines fingerprint. Send these details to email address listed. The license file will be sent by email and will have an .xml format. Save the file and import it via the browser.

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9. You be asked to create a Username and Password for the administrator for all rights to the Sentry install.

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Conclusion

With Sentry installed on your Linux machine or in a VM, its time to take a few minutes to go over the interface to familiarize yourself with it. There is a 15 minute video that will point out the basics. Not all appliances are the same, and a simple quick install is important part of an appliance, in order to minimize maintenance and operating costs.