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Version: 1.9

Installation

ADS is a Java web application that can either be run via a Docker container package or run as a jar-file from the command line.

Running ADS in a Docker container​

Note: This assumes that Docker is already installed, and that the ADS distribution .zip file has been downloaded.

Installing the application​

  1. Extract the distribution .zip file to the folder from where you want to run ADS.
  2. Navigate to the docker/ folder of the extracted distribution.
  3. Open the file credentials.txt in a text editor.
  4. Update the placeholder values for Access key ID and Secret access key with the values provided by Axiomatics. (These are the same values that were use in setting up AWS CLI.)
  5. Save and close credentials.txt.
  6. Copy a valid ADS license file to the docker/ folder. (This file is provided separately by Axiomatics.)
  7. Run docker-compose up --build on the same folder. This starts the installation process.

Note: This step of the installation requires an Internet connection as some components will be downloaded from a secure Axiomatics repository during the process.

When the message "Application command 'server' was executed successfully." is displayed in the console, the installation is finished and the application is running.

Stopping the application​

The application will run in the foreground, thus using CTRL+C will stop the Docker containers and the application will shut down.

Restarting the application​

To restart the application, navigate to the docker/ folder inside of the distribution and run:

docker-compose up

Running ADS on the command line​

Before running the command to start ADS, the following items must also be set up and available.

  • The Access Decision Service jar file. See Preparing to install ADS.
  • The Access Decision Service license key file (provided separately by Axiomatics), with a file reference to it in the license property in the deployment configuration file. See License for more information.
  • A deployment configuration file. See the section Deployment configuration for a description of the settings.
  • An authorization domain configuration file, with a file reference to it in the domain property in the deployment configuration file. See the section Authorization domain configuration for a description of this configuration.

Starting the application​

ADS is a Java application and needs to be started with the required resources added to the classpath.

On Windows:

java -cp "access-decision-service-<version>.jar;JDBC.jar" com.axiomatics.ads.App server <path\to\>deployment.yaml

On Linux:

java -cp access-decision-service-<version>.jar:JDBC.jar com.axiomatics.ads.App server <path/to/>deployment.yaml

The main class is com.axiomatics.ads.App.

Note: 1. When adding a jar file to the classpath, all of its dependencies must be included. 2. When using the classpath option to retrieve files, the files must either be packaged in a jar or zip file, or accessed using the directory reference to where the file is located.

When the message "Application command 'server' was executed successfully." is displayed in the console, the application is running.

Configuration validation​

The check command parses and validates the configuration of the application.

java -jar access-decision-service-<version>.jar check <path/to/>deployment.yaml

It can be used to verify that the deployment configuration file, user file, and the license file are correct.

By default, errors are output to stderr, for example:

<path/to/>deployment.yaml has an error:
* license License is corrupt or not valid: <path/to/>file

If no errors are found, an OK message is given.

Application version information​

The default logging level for ADS is WARN. If set to INFO, during start-up, ADS will log one line with version information about the application and the operating system, etc. The logged information includes:

  • Application Name
  • Application Vendor
  • Application Version
  • Application Build Version
  • CLI Arguments
  • Java Home Directory
  • Java Vendor
  • Java Version
  • Operating System Architecture
  • Operating System Name
  • Operating System Version

The information may be useful to have when communicating with customer support. See System information about how to access this data via an administration endpoint.

Checking that ADS is running​

To verify that ADS is running smoothly, you can run a simple healthcheck by running a GET request:

  GET http://localhost:8081/healthcheck

This will result in Status: 200 OK and a JSON reply, like the following:

{
  "Access Decision Service Health": {
    "healthy": true,
    ...
  },
  "deadlocks": {
    "healthy": true,
    ...
  }
}

See also the section Healthcheck for more information.

Next steps​

  • The instructions above assume ADS is started with a basic deployment configuration file. This file can be further edited to adapt to your configuration requirements. See the section Deployment configuration for more information.
  • There are also additional configurations you may want to consider for your implementation of ADS. See the section Additional configuration for more information.