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title: Install the API server
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# API server setup

## Prerequisites

1. A GNU/linux (virtual) machine
2. A domain name for your api server

## Download the source tree

Please follow the instructions on the [Download page](https://arvados.org/projects/arvados/wiki/Download) in the wiki.

## Configure the API server

First configure the database:

    cp config/database.yml.sample config/database.yml

Edit database.yml to your liking and make sure the database and db user exist.
Then set up the database:
 
    RAILS_ENV=production rake db:setup

Then set up omniauth:

    cp config/initializers/omniauth.rb.example config/initializers/omniauth.rb

Edit config/initializers/omniauth.rb. Choose an *APP_SECRET* and *APP_ID*. Also set
*CUSTOM_PROVIDER_URL*.

Make sure your Omniauth provider knows about your *APP_ID* and *APP_SECRET*
combination.

You also need to update config/initializers/secret_token.rb. Generate a new secret with

    rake secret

and put it in config/initializers/secret_token.rb:

    Server::Application.config.secret_token = 'your-new-secret-here'

Finally, edit your

    environments/production.rb

file. 

First, you want to make sure that 

    config.uuid_prefix

is set to a unique 5-digit hex string. You can replace the 'cfi-aws-0' string
with a string of your choice to make that happen.

The *config.uuid_prefix* string is a unique identifier for your API server. It
also serves as the first part of the hostname for your API server, for instance

    {{ site.arvados_api_host }}

You should use your own domain instead of arvadosapi.com

Second, unless you are running on AWS, you will want to change the definition of

    config.compute_node_nameservers

If you know your nameservers and they are fixed, you can hardcode them, and
make sure to remove the code that tries to look them up from the AWS metadata:

    config.compute_node_nameservers = ['1.2.3.4','2.3.4.5','3.4.5.6']
    #require 'net/http'
    #config.compute_node_nameservers = ['local', 'public'].collect do |iface|
    #  Net::HTTP.get(URI("http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/#{iface}-ipv4")).match(/^[\d\.]+$/)[0]
    #end << '172.16.0.23'

## Apache/Passenger

Set up Apache and Passenger. Point them to the services/api directory in the source tree.

To enable streaming so users can monitor crunch jobs in real time, add
to your Apache configuration:

    PassengerBufferResponse off

## Add an admin user

Point browser to the API endpoint. Log in with a google account.

In the rails console:

    Thread.current[:user] = User.find(1)
    Thread.current[:user].is_admin = true
    User.find(1).update_attributes is_admin: true, is_active: true
    User.find(1).is_admin

This should be

     => true

## Create a token

In rails console

     a = ApiClient.new(owner:1); a.save!
     x = ApiClientAuthorization.new(api_client_id:a.id, user_id:1); x.save; x.api_token