Prerequisites

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Recommended EC2 Instance: t3a.xlarge.

Consider larger instance types (t3a.2xlarge or higher) for production environments with heavier loads

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If upgrading from older versions, follow the steps:

Verify and Update Java Installation
Check Current Java Version

java -version

Remove Older Java Versions. If the version is older than java-17

1. List installed Java packages:

rpm -qa | grep java

2. Uninstall outdated versions (replace with actual results from above):

   rpm -e <package-name>
   

Important:

1. Only remove Java versions older than 21
2. Reinstall Java-21 if needed using:

   sudo yum install java-21-openjdk
   

Prerequisites

1. Install OpenJDK 21

   sudo yum install java-21-openjdk
   

2. Verify the java installation by running the following command:

   java -version
   

3. Install wget :

   sudo yum install wget -y
   

4. Adjust System Limits
   Increase VM Map Count (for Elasticsearch compatibility)
   Temporary change:

   sysctl -w vm.max_map_count=262144
   

   Add the line to the file to set this permanently in /etc/sysctl.conf :

   vm.max_map_count=262144
   

5. Verify:
   To check the map count you can use the following command:

   sysctl -q vm.max_map_count
   

6. Configure File Descriptor Limits
   Increase ulimit value and validate system settings
   To change the file descriptor setting, add the line to the file /etc/sysctl.conf.

   fs.file-max=100000
   

   Apply the changes by running the following command:

   sysctl -p
   

   To change the ulimit setting, edit the file /etc/security/limits.conf and set the hard and soft limits:

   *          soft      nofile     100000  
   *          hard      nofile     100000
   

   After these changes, please reboot the server by running the following command:

   sudo reboot
   

   Check the ulimit settings by running the following command:

   ulimit -a
   

Installation

Prerequisites
Root access (use sudo su if not root)

1. Create a SearchBlox user by running the following commands:

   sudo adduser searchblox
   sudo passwd searchblox
   

2. SearchBlox has to be installed in /opt folder. Navigate directory to /opt by running the following command:
   cd /opt

3. Download SearchBlox rpm package by running the following command:

   sudo wget https://d2fco3ozzrfhhd.cloudfront.net/v11.0.3/searchblox-11.0.3-0.noarch.rpm
   

4. Install the rpm package by running the following command:

   sudo rpm -ivh searchblox-11.0.3-0.noarch.rpm
   

5. Change permission for few folders by running the following commands:

   sudo chown -R searchblox:searchblox /opt/searchblox
   sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/searchblox/bin
   sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/searchblox/opensearch/
   sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/searchblox/logs
   sudo chmod -R 755 /opt/searchblox/connectors
   

6. Install and run the SearchAI PrivateLLM models and ollama.service from the following section:
   SearchAI PrivateLLM models

7. Start SearchBlox services by running the following command:

   systemctl start searchblox
   

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Note:

SearchBlox service will start opensearch services internally unlike previous versions. If service start up gives any issues, enable searchblox.service using the command below:
systemctl daemon-reload

8. Stop SearchBlox services by running the following command:

   systemctl stop searchblox
   

9. To verify the status of the SearchBlox service please use the following command:

   systemctl status searchblox
   

Verify Installation

• Console Access
  Wait 30 seconds after service startup
  Access the management console at:
  https://<your-server-ip-or-hostname>:8443/console/
  Use the credentials created during setup

• You can also verify if SearchBlox has started successfully by viewing the status.log file in the /opt/searchblox/webapps/ROOT/logs folder. Please confirm the message "Started Successfully" is shown in the log.

  cat /opt/searchblox/webapps/ROOT/logs/status.log | grep "Started Successfully"
  

📘

Note

• To learn more on Troubleshooting visit: Logging and Troubleshooting

• To learn about accessing SearchBlox visit: Overview of SearchBlox

• To learn about tuning after installation visit: Installation Tuning

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SearchBlox Admin Console Access using IP Address or Domain Name

• You can use your IP instead of localhost in the URL to access the SearchBlox Admin Console.
• If a domain name is mapped to the IP address, you can use the domain name:
  https://exampledomain:port/console
  https://exampledomain:port/search/index.html

Steps to Install and Run SearchAI PrivateLLM

1. After SearchBlox installation from Installation section, Download the Models folder from the following link.
   SearchAI PrivateLLM Models

   # Download models package
   wget https://d2fco3ozzrfhhd.cloudfront.net/ollama/models.zip -P /tmp/
   
   

2. After downloading , extract the models folder.

   # Extract and replace models
   unzip /tmp/models.zip -d /tmp/
   

3. Navigate to /opt/searchblox/ollama/models and replace the models folder with the downloaded one.

   sudo rm -rf /opt/searchblox/ollama/models
   sudo mv /tmp/models /opt/searchblox/ollama/
   

4. To create a service file, navigate to /etc/systemd/system/ and create a ollama.service file by running the following command:

   vi /etc/systemd/system/ollama.service
   

5. Update the /etc/systemd/system/ollama.service file with following script:

   ollama.service

   [Unit]
   Description=Ollama Service
   After=network-online.target
   [Service]
   WorkingDirectory=/opt/searchblox/ollama/bin
   ExecStart=/opt/searchblox/ollama/bin/ollama serve
   User=root
   Group=root
   Restart=always
   RestartSec=3
   Environment="OLLAMA_MODELS=/opt/searchblox/ollama/models/"
   [Install]
   WantedBy=default.target
   

6. Provide execute permission for ollama.service file by executing the following command:

   # Set proper permissions
   sudo chmod 755 /etc/systemd/system/ollama.service
   sudo chmod 755 /opt/searchblox/ollama/bin/ollama
   

7. Enable the ollama.service by running the following command:

   systemctl daemon-reload
   

8. Start ollama Service by running the following command:

   systemctl start ollama`
   

9. To check the models run the following command:

   ./opt/searchblox/ollama/bin/ollama list
   

10. To download the model run the following command:

```
./opt/searchblox/ollama/bin/ollama pull qwen2.5
```

11. To stop Ollama Service run the following command:

    systemctl stop ollama`
    

12. To auto start ollama service when system reboots run the following command:

    systemctl enable ollama
    

Change SearchBlox Server Port

SearchBlox Server runs on port 8443 by default.

You can change the port by following the steps as shown in the following:

1. Stop SearchBlox service

   sudo systemctl stop searchblox
   

2. Edit the file _/opt/searchblox/start.d/https.ini_ and add the below line to set the required port number:
   jetty.ssl.port=443

   sudo vi /opt/searchblox/start.d/https.ini
   

jetty.ssl.port=443  # Replace with your desired port

3. Save the file https.ini
4. Start SearchBlox service

   sudo systemctl start searchblox
   

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Port Update

Fix the permission denied error while using searchblox service on less than ports 1024, run the below commands:
Check the Java Path

readlink -f $(which java)

Set the capability to bind low ports for non-root searchblox user.

setcap cap_net_bind_service+ep <javapath>

Uninstall

Stop Services:

sudo systemctl stop searchblox
sudo systemctl stop ollama  # If PrivateLLM is installed

Uninstall or remove SearchBlox by running the following command:

sudo yum remove searchblox

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Note

For clean SearchBlox uninstallation, it is required to remove SearchBlox directory, /opt/searchblox manually by running the following command:
rm -rf /opt/searchblox

Disk Encryption

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Additional Disk is required for disk encryption

• Installation of cryptsetup
  for RHEL / CentOS

  `yum install cryptsetup-luks`
  

• LUKS Format disk
  Note: while formatting the disk we have to give some password

  cryptsetup luksFormat /dev/sdb
  

WARNING!
========
This will overwrite data on /dev/sdb irrevocably.
Are you sure? (Type uppercase yes): YES
Enter LUKS passphrase:
Verify passphrase:

• Luks open
  Note: We have to use the password created earlier while formatting the disk.

  cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sda data
  

Enter passphrase for /dev/sdb:

• Create a filesystem

  mkfs -t ext4 /dev/mapper/data
  

mke2fs 1.42.13 (17-May-2015)
Creating filesystem with 52428288 4k blocks and 13107200 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 1c71b0f4-f95d-46d6-93e0-cbd19cb95edb
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
	32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 
	4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872
Allocating group tables: done                            
Writing inode tables: done                            
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

• Mounting the new file system at /opt

  mount /dev/mapper/data  /opt
  

• To get UUID

  blkid /dev/mapper/data
  

/dev/mapper/data: UUID="0a228c13-06d8-4739-99c3-f596c2dcce8e" TYPE="ext4"

• We need to add the UUID into /etc/fstab like this and save it
  Note: We need to add the UUID into etc/fstab file

LABEL=cloudimg-rootfs   /        ext4   defaults,discard        0 0
UID="4539b70d-66ab-4c07-b2a2-d4583f461a2f"   /secret   ext4 defaults 0 0
UID="4539b70d-66ab-4c07-b2a2-d4583f461a2f"   /opt      ext4 defaults 0 0
UUID="0a228c13-06d8-4739-99c3-f596c2dcce8e"   /opt  ext4  defaults 0  0
===================================================

• To close encryption

  cryptsetup luksClose /dev/mapper/data
  

• To open encryption

  cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/mapper/data
  

CentOS Full Disk Encryption

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Important Note

Before installation of OS, the entire root volume can be encrypted using the following steps for GUI based CentOS systems

1. To enable the disk encryption please go to installation destination

2. While installing Centos7 Installation Enable the Encryption.

3. Next create Disk Encryption Passphrase.

4. On reboot you would get the following prompt to enter the passphrase so that you can successfully unlock the drive:

5. Please use the command as in the following screenshot to verify the disk Encryption

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NOTE:

If you face any trouble in starting opensearch and in logs if you find the error as Opensearch status RED follow the steps given here:

• Set the OPENSEARCH_JAVA_HOME by running the following command:
• If you have installed java from Prerequisites section, use the below command:
• export OPENSEARCH_JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-17-openjdk-amd64
• If java is installed in different path, change the value.
• export OPENSEARCH_JAVA_HOME=<java installation path>