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This guide describes how to install PowerFolder Server on Linux based operating systems.

1. Before you start

Some points to note:

1. Please check the minimum requirements, which are necessary to install and run PowerFolder Server. Further details can be read on the Server System Requirements page.
2. Make sure you either requested a trial license or purchased a commercial license for PowerFolder Server. You will need the account email you requested/purchased with and the current password for the account to activate the server.
3. You must be able to operate a Linux command prompt to continue. If not, please contact your system operator to assist you or take a look at our managed Cloud Server products.
4. We recommend to create a dedicated user for running PowerFolder Server on the system and create a home folder for that user, where you place the program files and resources as described later on this page.

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Creating a dedicated user Creating a dedicated user

Creating a dedicated user

On most Linux based systems the process of creating a user and a home directory for this user can be accomplished by a simple command:

useradd -m <username> # Creates the user and sets his home directory

Adjusting limits for open file handles

Since PowerFolder Server needs to work with a lot of files, it is strongly recommended to raise the maximum number of possible open files, so you don't run into problems when your installation is becoming larger.

On most Linux systems this can be done by editing the file /etc/security/limits.conf and adding two lines below: 

<user> soft nofile 128000
<user> hard nofile 256000

 <user> needs to be replaced by the name of the dedicated user you created above.

Some systems may require the PAM module to limit sessions to be loaded:

 session required pam_limits.so

 Fixes the log file error: Too many open files

Adjusting limits for inotify watches

PowerFolder Server is using inotify to watch for changes in the filesystem. For the same reason the open file handles limit was raised before, we also need to raise the number of the maximum possible inotify watches.

This can be done by instructing the kernel to raise the limit using the command below:

echo '262144' > /proc/sys/fs/inotify/max_user_watches

However the above command is just temporary till the server restarts. To make this change permanent, you have to edit the file /etc/sysctl.conf and add/edit the line below:

fs.inotify.max_user_watches=262144

 Fixes the log file error: Error watching /mnt/PowerFolders/myfolder : No space left on device

Adding support for UTF-8

PowerFolder needs to be able to store files with UTF-8 encoded filenames to support clients which synchronize files using special characters from other languages.

Please make sure the Linux Kernel you are running supports this. In the Linux Kernel configuration please set File systems > Native language support > Default NLS Option to UTF-8 and make sure NLS UTF-8 is checked at the end of the list.

The PowerFolder-Server.sh startup script already includes setting the locales to the correct values, however you can also add the two lines below to the .profile file in the home directory of the user, who runs PowerFolder Server. If it doesn't exist you can create it there.

export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

In the care that the support for UTF-8 is not available, run the following comand as sudo: 

sudo locale-gen "en_US.UTF-8"

Disabling SELinux

Some Linux distributions come with SELinux pre-installed and activated. SELinux is known to interfere with the PowerFolder Server reverse proxy and HTTP tunneling mechanism, which is also used in cluster environments. Therefore SELinux needs to be disabled before running PowerFolder Server. To disable SELinux:

1. Open /etc/selinux/config with a text editor

2. Change the value for SELINUX to disabled. Example: 

   Code Block
   SELINUX=disabled

   
   

3. Reboot the machine.

4. Check if SELinux is now disabled:

   Code Block
   cat /selinux/enforce

   
   If it's disabled the returned value should be 0.