- archivesspace.org
- User Documentation
- Technical Documentation
- API
- Wiki
- Issue Tracker
- IRC: #archivesspace ( chat.freenode.net )
- Java 1.6 or higher; Java 1.7 or 1.8 recommended.
- At least 1024 MB RAM allocated to the application
- A supported browser
ArchivesSpace has been tested on Linux (Red Hat and Ubuntu), Mac OS X, and Windows (XP, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 & 2012 ).
MySQL is not required, but is strongly recommended for production use.
The embedded database is for testing purposes only. You should use MySQL for any data intended for production, including data in a test instance that you intend to move over to a production instance.
The quickest way to get ArchivesSpace up and running is to download
the latest distribution .zip file from the following URL:
https://github.com/archivesspace/archivesspace/releases
You will need to have Java 1.6 (or newer) installed on your machine. You can check your Java version by running the command:
java -version
When you extract the .zip file, it will create a directory called
archivesspace. To run the system, just execute the appropriate
startup script for your platform. On Linux and OSX:
cd /path/to/archivesspace
./archivesspace.sh
and for Windows:
cd \path\to\archivesspace
archivesspace.bat
This will start ArchivesSpace running in foreground mode (so it will
shut down when you close your terminal window). Log output will be
written to the file logs/archivesspace.out (by default).
Note: If you're running Windows and you get an error message like
unable to resolve type 'size_t' or no such file to load -- bundler,
make sure that there are no spaces in any part of the path name in which the
ArchivesSpace directory is located.
The first time it starts, the system will take a minute or so to start up. Once it is ready, confirm that ArchivesSpace is running correctly by accessing the following URLs in your browser:
- http://localhost:8089/ -- the backend
- http://localhost:8080/ -- the staff interface
- http://localhost:8081/ -- the public interface
- http://localhost:8090/ -- the Solr admin console
To start using the Staff interface application, log in using the adminstrator account:
- Username:
admin - Password:
admin
Then, you can create a new repository by selecting "System" -> "Manage repositories" at the top right hand side of the screen. From the "System" menu, you can perform a variety of administrative tasks, such as creating and modifying user accounts. Be sure to change the "admin" user's password at this time.
The primary configuration for ArchivesSpace is done in the config/config.rb file. By default, this file contains the default settings, which are indicated by commented out lines ( indicated by the "#" in the file ). You can adjust these settings by adding new lines that change the default and restarting ArchivesSpace. Be sure that your new settings are not commented out ( i.e. do NOT start with a "#" ), otherwise the settings will not take effect.
The archivesspace.sh startup script doubles as an init script. If
you run:
archivesspace.sh start
ArchivesSpace will run in the background as a daemon (logging to
logs/archivesspace.out by default, as before). You can shut it down with:
archivesspace.sh stop
You can even install it as a system-wide init script by creating a symbolic link:
cd /etc/init.d
ln -s /path/to/your/archivesspace/archivesspace.sh archivesspace
Then use the appropriate tool for your distribution to set up the
run-level symbolic links (such as chkconfig for RedHat or
update-rc.d for Debian-based distributions).
Note that you may want to edit archivesspace.sh to set the account that the system runs under, JVM options, and so on.
Running ArchivesSpace as a Windows service requires some additional configuration.
You can also use Apache [procrun]((http://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-daemon/procrun.html) to configure ArchivesSpace. We have
provided a service.bat script that will attempt to configure
procrun for you (under launcher\service.bat).
To run this script, first you need to download procrun. Extract the files and copy the prunsrv.exe and prunmgr.exe to your ArchivesSpace directory.
You also need to be sure that Java in your system path and also to set JAVA_HOME as a global environment variable.
To add Java to your path, edit you %PATH% environment variable to include the directory of
your java executable ( it will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\bin ). To add JAVA_HOME, add a new system variable and put the
directory where java was installed ( something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Java ).
Before setting up the ArchivesSpace service, you should also configure ArchivesSpace to run against MySQL. Be sure that the MySQL connector jar file is in the lib directory, in order for the service setup script to add it to the application's classpath.
Lastly, for the service to shutdown cleanly, uncomment and change these lines in config/config.rb:
AppConfig[:use_jetty_shutdown_handler] = true
AppConfig[:jetty_shutdown_path] = "/xkcd"
This enables a shutdown hook for Jetty to respond to when the shutdown action is taken.
You can now execute the batch script from your ArchivesSpace root directory from
the command line with launcher\service.bat. This will configure the service and
provide two executables: ArchivesSpaceService.exe (the service) and
ArchivesSpaceServicew.exe (a GUI monitor)
There are several options to launch the service. The easiest is to open the GUI monitor and click "Launch".
Alternatively, you can start the GUI monitor and minimize it in your system tray with:
ArchivesSpaceServicew.exe //MS//
To execute the service from the command line, you can invoke:
ArchivesSpaceService.exe //ES//
Log output will be placed in your ArchivesSpace log directory.
Please see the procrun documentation for more information.
Under your archivesspace directory you will see a directory called
config which contains a file called config.rb. By modifying this
file, you can override the defaults that ArchivesSpace ships with:
changing things like the ports it listens on and where it puts its data.
Out of the box, the ArchivesSpace distribution runs against an embedded database, but this is only suitable for demonstration purposes. When you are ready to starting using ArchivesSpace with real users and data, you should switch to using MySQL. MySQL offers significantly better performance when multiple people are using the system, and will ensure that your data is kept safe.
ArchivesSpace requires the MySQL Connector for Java, which must be downloaded separately because of its licensing agreement. Download the Connector and place it in a location where ArchivesSpace can find it on its classpath:
$ cd lib
$ curl -Oq http://central.maven.org/maven2/mysql/mysql-connector-java/5.1.39/mysql-connector-java-5.1.39.jar
Note that the version of the MySQL connector may be different by the time you read this.
Next, create an empty database in MySQL and grant access to a dedicated
ArchivesSpace user. The following example uses username as
and password as123.
NOTE: WHEN CREATING THE DATABASE, YOU MUST SET THE DEFAULT CHARACTER
ENCODING FOR THE DATABASE TO BE utf8. This is particularly important
if you use a MySQL client to create the database (e.g. Navicat, MySQL
Workbench, phpMyAdmin, etc.).
NOTE: If using AWS RDS MySQL databases, binary logging is not enabled by default and updates will fail. To enable binary logging, you must create a custom db parameter group for the database and set the log_bin_trust_function_creators = 1. See Working with DB Parameter Groups for information about RDS parameter groups.
$ mysql -uroot -p
mysql> create database archivesspace default character set utf8;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.08 sec)
mysql> grant all on archivesspace.* to 'as'@'localhost' identified by 'as123';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.21 sec)
Then, modify your config/config.rb file to refer to your MySQL
database. When you modify your configuration file, MAKE SURE THAT YOU
SPECIFY THAT THE CHARACTER ENCODING FOR THE DATABASE TO BE UTF-8 as shown
below:
AppConfig[:db_url] = "jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/archivesspace?user=as&password=as123&useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8"
There is a database setup script that will create all the tables that ArchivesSpace requires. Run this with:
scripts/setup-database.sh # or setup-database.bat under Windows
You can now follow the instructions in the "Getting Started" section to start your ArchivesSpace application.
ArchivesSpace provides some simple scripts for backing up a single
instance to a .zip file. You can run:
scripts/backup.sh --output /path/to/backup-yyyymmdd.zip
and the script will generate a file containing:
- A snapshot of the demo database (if you're using the demo database)
- A snapshot of the Solr index and related indexer files
If you are running against MySQL and have mysqldump installed, you
can also provide the --mysqldump option. This will read the
database settings from your configuration file and add a dump of your
MySQL database to the resulting .zip file.
If you want more control over your backups, you can develop your own scripts. ArchivesSpace stores all persistent data in the database, so as long as you have backups of your database then you can always recover.
If you are running MySQL, the mysqldump utility can dump the database
schema and data to a file. It's a good idea to run this with the
--single-transaction option to avoid locking your database tables
while your backups run. It is also essential to use the --routines
flag, which will include functions and stored procedures in the
backup (which ArchivesSpace uses at least for Jasper reports).
If you are running with the demo database, you can create periodic database snapshots using the following configuration settings:
# In this example, we create a snapshot at 4am each day and keep
# 7 days' worth of backups
#
# Database snapshots are written to 'data/demo_db_backups' by
# default.
AppConfig[:demo_db_backup_schedule] = "0 4 * * *"
AppConfig[:demo_db_backup_number_to_keep] = 7
Solr indexes can always be recreated from the contents of the database, but backing them up can reduce your recovery time if disaster strikes. You can create periodic Solr snapshots using the following configuration settings:
# Create one snapshot per hour and keep only one.
#
# Solr snapshots are written to 'data/solr_backups' by default.
AppConfig[:solr_backup_schedule] = "0 * * * *"
AppConfig[:solr_backup_number_to_keep] = 1
When recovering an ArchivesSpace installation from backup, you will need to restore:
- Your database (either the demo database or MySQL)
- The search indexes and related indexer files
Of the two, the database backup is the most crucial--search indexes are worth restoring if you have backups, but they can be recreated from scratch if necessary.
If you are using MySQL, recovering your database just requires loading
your mysqldump backup into an empty database. If you are using the
scripts/backup.sh script (described above), this dump file is named
mysqldump.sql in your backup .zip file.
To load a MySQL dump file, follow the directions in Set up your MySQL database to create an empty database with the appropriate permissions. Then, populate the database from your backup file using the MySQL client:
mysql -uarchivesspace -p < mysqldump.sql
(change the username as required and enter your password when prompted).
If you are using the demo database, your backup .zip file will
contain a directory called demo_db_backups. Each subdirectory of
demo_db_backups contains a backup of the demo database. To
restore from a backup, copy its archivesspace_demo_db directory back
to your ArchivesSpace data directory. For example:
cp -a /unpacked/zip/demo_db_backups/demo_db_backup_1373323208_25926/archivesspace_demo_db \
/path/to/archivesspace/data/
This step is optional since indexes can be rebuilt from the contents of the database. However, recovering your search indexes can reduce the time needed to get your system running again.
The backup .zip file contains two directories used by the
ArchivesSpace indexer:
- solr.backup-[timestamp]/snapshot.[timestamp] -- a snapshot of the index files.
- solr.backup-[timestamp]/indexer_state -- the files used by the indexer to remember what it last indexed.
To restore these directories from backup:
- Copy your index snapshot to
/path/to/archivesspace/data/solr_index/index - Copy your indexer_state backup to
/path/to/archivesspace/data/indexer_state
For example:
mkdir -p /path/to/archivesspace/data/solr_index
cp -a /unpacked/zip/solr.backup-26475-1373323208/snapshot.20130709084008464 \
/path/to/archivesspace/data/solr_index/index
cp -a /unpacked/zip/solr.backup-26475-1373323208/indexer_state \
/path/to/archivesspace/data/
ArchivesSpace ships with a script that can run Lucene's CheckIndex
tool for you, verifying that a given Solr index is free from
corruption. To test an index, run the following command from your
archivesspace directory:
# Or scripts/checkindex.bat for Windows
scripts/checkindex.sh data/solr_index/index
You can use the same script to check that your Solr backups are valid:
scripts/checkindex.sh /unpacked/zip/solr.backup-26475-1373323208/snapshot.20130709084008464
ArchivesSpace keeps track of what has been indexed by using the files
under data/indexer_state. If these files are missing, the indexer
assumes that nothing has been indexed and reindexes everything.
To force ArchivesSpace to reindex all records, just delete the
directory /path/to/archivesspace/data/indexer_state. Since the
indexing process is cumulative, there's no harm in indexing the same
document multiple times.
Under the scripts directory you will find a script that lets you
reset a user's password. You can invoke it as:
scripts/password-reset.sh theusername newpassword # or password-reset.bat under Windows
If you are running against MySQL, you can use this command to set a password while the system is running. If you are running against the demo database, you will need to shutdown ArchivesSpace before running this script.
ArchivesSpace can manage its own user directory, but can also be configured to authenticate against one or more LDAP directories by specifying them in the application's configuration file. When a user attempts to log in, each authentication source is tried until one matches.
Here is a minimal example of an LDAP configuration:
AppConfig[:authentication_sources] = [{
:model => 'LDAPAuth',
:hostname => 'ldap.example.com',
:port => 389,
:base_dn => 'ou=people,dc=example,dc=com',
:username_attribute => 'uid',
:attribute_map => {:cn => :name},
}]
With this configuration, ArchivesSpace performs authentication by
connecting to ldap://ldap.example.com:389/, binding anonymously,
searching the ou=people,dc=example,dc=com tree for uid = <username>.
If the user is found, ArchivesSpace authenticates them by
binding using the password specified. Finally, the :attribute_map
entry specifies how LDAP attributes should be mapped to ArchivesSpace
user attributes (mapping LDAP's cn to ArchivesSpace's name in the
above example).
Many LDAP directories don't support anonymous binding. To integrate with such a directory, you will need to specify the username and password of a user with permission to connect to the directory and search for other users. Modifying the previous example for this case looks like this:
AppConfig[:authentication_sources] = [{
:model => 'LDAPAuth',
:hostname => 'ldap.example.com',
:port => 389,
:base_dn => 'ou=people,dc=example,dc=com',
:username_attribute => 'uid',
:attribute_map => {:cn => :name},
:bind_dn => 'uid=archivesspace_auth,ou=system,dc=example,dc=com',
:bind_password => 'secretsquirrel',
}]
Finally, some LDAP directories enforce the use of SSL encryption. To
configure ArchivesSpace to connect via LDAPS, change the port as
appropriate and specify the encryption option:
AppConfig[:authentication_sources] = [{
:model => 'LDAPAuth',
:hostname => 'ldap.example.com',
:port => 636,
:base_dn => 'ou=people,dc=example,dc=com',
:username_attribute => 'uid',
:attribute_map => {:cn => :name},
:bind_dn => 'uid=archivesspace_auth,ou=system,dc=example,dc=com',
:bind_password => 'secretsquirrel',
:encryption => :simple_tls,
}]
Plug-ins and local customizations readme
Instructions for using an external Solr server
Instructions for running under a prefix.
Upgrading to a new release of ArchivesSpace
Configuring ArchivesSpace to integrate with New Relic
Additional documentation can be found on the ArchivesSpace wiki at http://wiki.archivesspace.org.
A document describing the architecture of ArchivesSpace is published at https://github.com/archivesspace/archivesspace/blob/master/ARCHITECTURE.md.
The latest technical documentation, including API documentation and architecture notes, is published at http://archivesspace.github.io/archivesspace/.
Contributors are welcome! Please read about our Contributor License Agreements for more information.
ArchivesSpace is released under the Educational Community License, version 2.0. See the COPYING file for more information.
ArchivesSpace 1.0 was developed by Hudson Molonglo in partnership with the New York University Libraries, UC San Diego Libraries, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library and with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, organizational support from LYRASIS, and contributions from diverse persons in the archives community.