Hosting Your Own Launch Server

Hosting Your Own Launch Server

Veracity Launch is available for self hosting. Our software is packaged as a standalone executable file with no specific dependencies other than MongoDB. 

Installation

Running Veracity Launch on your own servers is as easy and downloading and running a file. Before you start, you'll need to install MongoDB, or set up a hosted MongoDB. We recommend MongoDB Atlas, though MongoDB Community Server is compatible. Launch can use any version of MongoDB later than 6.0.

Download the file from the above link. We provide a Linux build (VearcityLaunch-linux) and a Windows build (VeracityLaunch-win.exe). Executing the file will start the Launch server in its default configuration. 

You are responsible for running the executable file as a service.  Under Windows, you can use the Windows Task Scheduler, or a third party service manager like NSSM. If you use a SystemD based Linux distribution, you can use the simple service script below.

[Unit]
Description=veracitylaunch
After=network.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/home/ubuntu
ExecStart=/home/ubuntu/VeracityLaunch-linux
Type=simple
PIDFile=/run/veracitylaunch.pid
Environment=""


[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

Manual Configuration Steps

  1. Install MongoDB.
    MongoDB must be installed and running before the LRS server software starts. MongoDB is very popular and has great documentation to get you started. Note that the database does not necessarily need to be on the same server as the LRS software. In general, it's a good idea to keep the database and the webserver on different machines. If you have the Enterprise version, then you should consider creating a replica set to ensure the maximum uptime.
  2. Start MongoDB.
    MongoDB must be running before the LRS server can be configured. You'll also want to make sure that MongoDB starts each time the server reboots.
  3. Unzip the ZIP. You can find the software builds here: https://build.launch.veracity.it
  4. Locate the executable file.
    This file will be named     VeracityLaunch- followed by a string representing your operating system.
  5. Using a command prompt (or terminal), execute the file with the --configure option.
    This will begin the setup process On Linux, you may need to set the permissions on the file to allow it to execute. Also, be sure that the user running the file has write access to the direction the file is in. Otherwise, the system may not have permission to create its own configuration file.
  6. Answer the questions as presented by typing into the console and pressing enter.
    Be sure to answer     yes to the final question. This will write out an .env file that will contain your configuration settings. You may manually edit this file and restart the server to update the configuration.
  7. Run the executable again.
    The server will start up and begin serving requests on the port you specified. 

Lite vs Enterprise Mode

Depending on your license key, Launch may run in either "Enterprise" or "Lite" mode.  The software will run in Lite mode if no license key is provided. Lite mode allows you host a single learning portal. In lite mode, there is no "Platform Administrator" login. 

Enterprise Mode Features

  1. Multi-tenancy - manage multiple portals, user accounts, and quotas.
  2. System level logging, metrics
  3. Delegate™ and the Platform API

Logging in to Lite Mode for the First Time

When the server starts up in Lite mode, a learning portal and default administrator account will be created. The username is "admin@${hostname}" and the password is "Password1!". You will be required to change this password on your first login. Note that the ${hostname} value is the value from the host file when the server first starts. If you've changed it after first start, the account will have been created with the original value. The default value is locallxp.veracity.it.


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