Installation Guide

Openfire is a powerful instant messaging (IM) and chat server that implements the XMPP protocol. This document will guide you through installing Openfire. For a full list of features and more information, please visit the Openfire website: http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/

Installation

Windows

Run the Openfire installer. The application will be installed to C:\Program Files\Openfire by default.

Note: On Windows systems we suggest using a service to run Openfire (read the Windows Service section below). When using Openfire Launcher on Windows Vista or newer with UAC protection enabled, it has to be run with Run as administrator option, to be able to write changes to config and embedded database (if used) stored in C:\Program files\Openfire\ folder. If Openfire is running via launcher without Run as administrator option from Program files it can't get proper permissions to write changes. It shows errors (in red) when running the launcher and during the setup will require the current password for the administrator account (although this is a new installation and normally it doesn't ask for it). This is an effect of missing permissions and Openfire not being able to initialize the database and other resources.

Linux/Unix

/opt/openfire

rpm -ivh openfire_X_Y_Z.rpm

/opt

/usr/bin

tar -xzvf openfire_X_Y_Z.tar.gz mv openfire /opt

Note: the .tar.gz build does not contain a bundled Java runtime (JRE). Therefore, you must have JDK or JRE 1.7.0 or later installed on your system. You can check your java version by typing "java -version" at the command line and (if necessary) upgrade your Java installation by visiting java.com.

Setup Overview

To complete the installation of Openfire, you'll need to perform each of the following steps:

Database - if you choose to use an external database, you must prepare your database for Openfire.
Setup - Use the built-in web-based setup tool to setup and verify the server configuration.
Admin Console - use the web-based admin tool to manage the server.

This document also includes information on:

Running under Windows
Running under Unix/Linux
Installing and using plugins

Files in the Distribution

The files in your distribution should be as follows (some sub-directories omitted for brevity):

openfire/
 |- readme.html
 |- license.html
 |- conf/
 |- bin/
 |- jre/
 |- lib/
 |- plugins/
     |- admin/
 |- resources/
     |-database/
     |-security/
 |- documentation/

The conf directory is where Openfire stores configuration files.
The bin directory contains the server executables. Depending on which distribution you installed, different executables will be available.
The jre directory contains a Java runtime that is bundled with the Windows and RPM versions of Openfire.
The lib directory contains libraries necessary for running Openfire.
The plugins directory contains server plugins. By default, Openfire ships with a web-based admin console plugin.
The resources/database directory contains SQL schema files to create new Openfire databases, as well as upgrade scripts for existing installations.
The resources/security directory is where Openfire maintains keystores to support SSL connection security.
The documentation directory contains server documentation.

Setup the Database

Openfire can store its data in an embedded database or you can choose to use an external database such as MySQL or Oracle. If you would like to use an external database, you must prepare it before proceeding with installation. View the database setup documentation for more information.

Setup the Server

A web-based, "wizard" driven setup and configuration tool is built into Openfire. Simply launch Openfire (platform-specific instructions below) and use a web browser to connect to the admin console. The default port for the web-based admin console is 9090. If you are on the same machine as Openfire, the following URL will usually work: http://127.0.0.1:9090. Initial setup and administration can also be done from a remote computer using LAN IP address instead or hostname if it is resolvable by the remote computer. Windows Server administrators should add http://127.0.0.1 address to Internet Explorer's Trusted Sites list, if Enhanced Security configuration is enabled in Internet Explorer. Otherwise they will get a blank screen.

Admin Console

After completing the above steps, Openfire will be configured and you can use the web-based admin console to administer the server. The URL should be the same as you used to setup the server unless you changed the port during the setup.

Running Openfire in Windows

If you used the Openfire installer, a shortcut for starting the graphical launcher is provided in your Start Menu. Otherwise, run openfire.exe in the bin/ directory of your Openfire installation. A button on the on the launcher allows you to automatically open your web browser to the correct URL to finish setting up the server:

Windows Service

If you're running Openfire on Windows, you will likely want to run Openfire as a standard Windows service after initial setup. If you used the Windows installer, a openfire-service.exe file will be in the bin directory of the installation. You can use this executable to install and control the Openfire service.

From a console window, you can run the following commands:

openfire-service /install -- installs the service.
openfire-service /uninstall -- uninstalls the service.
openfire-service /start -- starts the service
openfire-service /stop -- stops the service.

You can also use the Services tool in the Windows Control Panel to start and stop the service.

Note: the graphical launcher is not compatible with the Windows service. If you install the service, you should use service controls as described above to control the server rather than the graphical launcher.

Upgrading Note: you should stop Openfire service before running the installer to upgrade to the newer version.

Custom Parameters

Advanced users may wish to pass in parameters to the Java virtual machine (VM) to customize the runtime environment of Openfire. You can do this by creating openfire.vmoptions files in the bin/ directory of your Openfire installation. For the Windows service, you'd create a new text file called openfire-service.vmoptions. Each parameter to the VM should be on a new line of the file. For example, to set the minimum heap size to 512 MB and max VM heap size to 1024 MB, you'd use:

-Xms512m
-Xmx1024m

To create parameters for the normal launcher, create a file called openfired.vmoptions (since the openfire.exe launcher invokes the openfired.exe executable to actually start the server).

Running Openfire in Linux/Unix

If you are running on a Red Hat or Red Hat like system (CentOS, Fedora, etc), we recommend using the RPM as it contains some custom handling of the standard Red Hat like environment. Assuming that you have used the RPM, you can start and stop Openfire using the /etc/init.d/openfire script.

# /etc/init.d/openfire Usage /etc/init.d/openfire {start|stop|restart|status|condrestart|reload} # /etc/init.d/openfire start Starting openfire:

If you are running on a different Linux/Unix varient, and/or you have used the .tar.gz 'installer', you can start and stop Openfire using the bin/openfire script in your Openfire installation:

# ./openfire Usage: ./openfire {start|stop} # ./openfire start Starting openfire

If you would like to install Openfire as a service, two scripts are provided in the bin/extra directory:

redhat-postinstall.sh -- automatically installs Openfire as a service on Red Hat. It does so by creating a "jive" user and then copying the openfired script to your init.d directory. This script must be run as root. Please see the comments in the script for additional information.
openfired -- script to run Openfire as a service. You must manually configure this script. See the comments in the script for additional details.

It is not recommended that you use either of these scripts if you installed via RPM. The RPM has already taken care of what these scripts take care of.

Custom Parameters

Advanced users may wish to pass in parameters to the Java virtual machine (VM) to customize the runtime environment of Openfire. If you installed via RPM, you can customize this by editing /etc/sysconfig/openfire and looking at the OPENFIRE_OPTS option. If you installed via .tar.gz, you will need to tweak your startup script to fit your needs.

Plugins

Plugins add additional features and protocol support to Openfire. After setting up your Openfire installation, you may want to download and install plugins to enhance your server. Plugins can be downloaded from the plugins page on igniterealtime.org or directly inside the administration console.

Installing Plugins

If you download a plugin from inside the Openfire administration console, it will automatically be installed. If you manually download the plugin (packaged as a .jar file), you can deploy it by copying the plugin file to the plugins/ directory of your Openfire installation. A plugin monitor will automatically extract the plugin into a directory and install the plugin in Openfire. You may also use the "upload plugin" feature in the admin console (under the Plugins tab) to load a plugin from your local file system to the server.

Note: For nearly all plugins, a restart of the Openfire server software is not required. You should be able to install and remove plugins on-demand without impacting Openfire.

Managing Plugins

Plugins can be managed inside the Openfire admin console. You can also manually delete a plugin at any time by deleting its JAR file (Openfire will automatically remove the plugin from memory and delete it's directory when you do so).