Quick start Install Upgrade

Quick start

This is a guide to getting started quickly with a standalone instance of BeyondCron on a single server.

Getting started

This is a guide to installing a standalone instance of BeyondCron on a single server.

Upgrading BeyondCron

This is a guide to upgrading BeyondCron.

Requirements

• Linux operating system with at least:
  • 1 CPU
  • 1 GB Memory
  • 2 GB Swap space
  • 500GB of free disk
• Java 11 or greater
• git 1.7 or greater
• ssh
• sudo

Optional

• SQL database, AWS DynamoDB or ETCD for configuration management
• SQL database or AWS DynamoDB/S3 for job execution logging

1 Install and configure BeyondCron

1. download and run quick start script

username% cd /tmp
username% wget https://beyondcron.com/downloads/quick-start
username% sudo bash quick-start

Downloading beyondcron_5.241101.0…
Installing beyondcron_5.241101.0…

Would you like BeyondCron to be able to: [R] reboot this server [A] execute any command as root [N] have no ability to execute commands as root: answer

Initing SSH keys for bc-daemon

Creating user name (full name) in BeyondCron as an administrator enter password for user: •••••••• confirm password: ••••••••

Would you like to load the example jobs [Y/N]: answer

Congratulations, BeyondCron is now installed on this server.

To login to BeyondCron, either:

1: as jsmith run the command “/usr/local/bin/bc-cli”, or
2: open http://example.com:8080/?user=jsmith in a web browser.

For more information on please visit: https://beyondcron.com/kb/

The installation will create the following:

• operating system users:
  bc-daemon
bc-web
• ssh directory and keys ~bc-daemon/.ssh/…
• sudo configuration file /etc/sudoers.d/90-beyondcron
• application directory /opt/beyondcron containing bc-agent, bc-cli, bc-server & bc-web.
• symbolic link /usr/local/bin/bc-cli → /opt/beyondcron/bin/bc-cli
• service environment files:
  /etc/bc-agent.conf
/etc/bc-server.conf
/etc/bc-web.conf
• data directory /var/bc-server/data
• log4j2 configuration files:
  /var/bc-agent/log4j.yaml
/var/bc-server/log4j.yaml
/var/bc-web/log4j.yaml
• log files on init systems:
  /var/log/bc-agent.log
/var/log/bc-server.log
/var/log/bc-web.log

It will also register and start the services bc-agent, bc-server & bc-web.

guick-start.sh will fail if:

• Java 11+ is not already installed
• git 1.7+ is not already installed
• BeyondCron is already install
• the quick start script is not executed using sudo
  

1 Install BeyondCron

Debian RedHat zip

1. install BeyondCron and start daemons

username% cd /tmp
username% wget https://beyondcron.com/downloads/beyondcron_5.241101.0_all.deb
username% sudo dpkg -i beyondcron_5.241101.0_all.deb

1. install BeyondCron packaging signature

username% cd /tmp
username% wget https://beyondcron.com/downloads/beyondcron_pub.asc
username% sudo rpm --import beyondcron_pub.asc

2. install BeyondCron and start daemons

username% wget https://beyondcron.com/downloads/beyondcron-5.241101.0-0.noarch.rpm
username% sudo rpm -i beyondcron-5.241101.0-0.noarch.rpm

The installation will create the following:

• operating system users:
  bc-daemon
bc-web
• application directory /opt/beyondcron containing bc-agent, bc-cli, bc-server & bc-web.
• symbolic link /usr/local/bin/bc-cli → /opt/beyondcron/bin/bc-cli
• service environment files:
  /etc/bc-agent.conf
/etc/bc-server.conf
/etc/bc-web.conf
• data directory /var/bc-server/data
• log4j2 configuration files:
  /var/bc-agent/log4j.yaml
/var/bc-server/log4j.yaml
/var/bc-web/log4j.yaml
• log files on init systems:
  /var/log/bc-agent.log
/var/log/bc-server.log
/var/log/bc-web.log

It will also register and start the services bc-agent, bc-server & bc-web.

the installation will fail if:

• Java 11+ is not already installed
• git 1.7+ is not already installed
  

If you wish to run BeyondCron under your own user id:

1. download BeyondCron distribution file

username% cd /install/directory/parent
username% wget https://beyondcron.com/downloads/beyondcron-5.241101.0.zip
username% unzip beyondcron-5.241101.0.zip

2. start bc-server

username% ./beyondcron/bin/bc-server —data /data/directory &

2021-09-23T10:26:25,630 [main] INFO com.beyondcron.server.App – bc-server 5.241101.0
…

Where /data/directory is the name of an existing directory in which bc-server will store its data.

3. start bc-agent

username% ./beyondcron/bin/bc-agent &

2021-09-23T10:26:25,630 [main] INFO com.beyondcron.agent.App – bc-agent 5.241101.0
…

4. start bc-web

username% ./beyondcron/bin/bc-web &

2021-09-23T10:26:25,630 [main] INFO com.beyondcron.web.App – bc-web 5.241101.0
…

2 Configure ssh

The BeyondCron user bc-daemon requires passwordless ssh access to each server on which BeyondCron is running, and every server on which jobs are executed as follows:

Source	Destination	Source user	Destination user
BeyondCron server	BeyondCron server	bc-daemon	bc-daemon
BeyondCron server	job host	bc-daemon	bc-daemon

In order to execute jobs on other servers, BeyondCron requires that you have passwordless ssh access to those servers.

3 Configure sudo

bc-agent executes jobs via sudo. As such you must allow bc-daemon on each server where Beyondcron is installed, and on servers on which job commands are executed, to sudo to job users.

A minimal sudo entry to allow bc-agent to execute commands for any user except root, is:

bc-daemon ALL=(ALL,!root) NOPASSWD: ALL

You can add this entry to /etc/sudoers, or if the directory /etc/sudoers.d exists, to a BeyondCron specific sudoers file such as /etc/sudoers.d/90-beyondcron.

If you wish to allow bc-agent to execute commands as root, the safest option is to explicitly define each command that you wish to allow bc-agent to execute. e.g. to allow BeyondCron to reboot the server:

bc-daemon ALL=(ALL,!root) NOPASSWD: ALL, (root) SETENV: /usr/bin/tee,/usr/bin/kill,/sbin/reboot

bc-agent uses the tee command to save the command output, and kill to stop running commands, so they should always be included in the commands that bc-agent can sudo to when allowing bc-agent to execute commands as root.

Alternantivey, if you wish to allow bc-agent to execute any command as root, you can use the following entry:

bc-daemon ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

If you wish BeyondCron to execute jobs as users other than your own user id, it is recommended to install BeyondCron as a service using either the Debian or RedHat packages.

4 Set up a Beyondcron admin user

Unix BeyondCron

If the host operating system is configured to use LDAP or another name sevice for user authentication, BeyondCron can be configured to authenticate using the Unix service. The Unix service however cannot be used when the host operating system is using /etc/passwd & /etc/shadow. Instead you should define users within BeyondCron.

To designate yourself as a BeyondCron adminstrator in your LDAP directory service:

1. create the group bc_admin

2. add yourself to the new bc_admin group.

3. enable the Unix user service within BeyondCron

username% sudo -u bc-daemon /usr/local/bin/bc-cli --admin
BeyondCron % config set beyondcron.user.service Unix
BeyondCron % user service reload

Confirm that the user service is connected and can see the LDAP users

BeyondCron % user service show

User service Unix – connected 14:43:58 23/05/2020

BeyondCron % user list

User Description ------ ------------- bsmyth William Smyth jsmith John Smith ...

BeyondCron % exit

2. confirm that you can login to BeyondCron using bc-cli

username% /usr/local/bin/bc-cli

bc-cli

username’s password: ••••••••

BeyondCron % exit

If host operating system is not using LDAP or another name sevice, use BeyondCron’s default internal user service.

To create yourself as a BeyondCron adminstrator:

1. create an admin user within Beyondcron using bc-cli

username% sudo -u bc-daemon /usr/local/bin/bc-cli --admin
BeyondCron % user add username
BeyondCron % user password username secret
BeyondCron % user role add username admin
BeyondCron % exit

2. confirm that you can login to BeyondCron using bc-cli

username% /usr/local/bin/bc-cli

bc-cli

username’s password: ••••••••

BeyondCron % exit

see bc-server user service Unix for additional configuration details.

see commands user overview for additional user configuration details.

4 Set yourself up as a BeyondCron admin user

1. create a BeyondCron user with the same name as your Unix user

username% /usr/local/bin/bc-cli --admin
BeyondCron % user add username
BeyondCron % user password username secret
BeyondCron % user role add username admin
BeyondCron % exit

2. confirm that you can login to BeyondCron using bc-cli

username% /usr/local/bin/bc-cli

bc-cli

username’s password: ••••••••

BeyondCron % exit

2 First steps

Login to BeyondCron using bc-cli or bc-web

For help visit the Knowledge base

3 Purchase a license

5 First steps

Login to BeyondCron using bc-cli or bc-web

For help visit the Knowledge base

6 Purchase a license

Without a license, BeyondCron will run unrestricted for 1 month, and afterwards will be limited to 5 defined jobs running on a single bc-server. If you wish to define more than 5 jobs, or run bc-server in a clustered configuration, a license is required.

For license pricing, see the BeyondCron store.

When purchasing a license, you will need to get your BeyondCron instance, the easiest way to do this is as follows:

1. using bc-cli or bc-web terminal, get the server license request url:

BeyondCron % server license request

Store URL: https://example.com/store/?instance=0:7fdf823b&jobs=20&servers=1&example

If executed within the bc-web terminal, the command output will be a link similar the to following:

Store URL: https://example.com/store/ open_in_new

2. click or, copy and paste the url into your web browser.

1 Upgrade BeyondCron

1. upgrade BeyondCron

username% cd /tmp
username% wget https://beyondcron.com/downloads/beyondcron_5.241101.0_all.deb
username% sudo dpkg -i beyondcron_5.241101.0_all.deb

username% cd /tmp
username% wget https://beyondcron.com/downloads/beyondcron-5.241101.0-0.noarch.rpm
username% sudo rpm -U beyondcron-5.241101.0-0.noarch.rpm

username% cd /install/directory/parent
username% wget https://beyondcron.com/downloads/beyondcron-5.241101.0.zip
username% unzip beyondcron-5.241101.0.zip

2. restart bc-server

username% pkill bc-server -data /data/directory
username% ./beyondcron/bin/bc-server &

2021-09-23T10:26:25,630 [main] INFO com.beyondcron.server.App – bc-server 5.241101.0
…

Where /data/directory is the name of an existing directory in which bc-server stores its data.

3. restart bc-agent

username% pkill bc-agent
username% ./beyondcron/bin/bc-agent &

2021-09-23T10:26:25,630 [main] INFO com.beyondcron.agent.App – bc-agent 5.241101.0
…

4. restart bc-web

username% pkill bc-web
username% ./beyondcron/bin/bc-web &

2021-09-23T10:26:25,630 [main] INFO com.beyondcron.web.App – bc-web 5.241101.0
…