Installing the Laserfiche Server

The Laserfiche Server 11 installation package includes the following items:

  • Laserfiche Server: The Laserfiche Server is the core of a Laserfiche installation, and it hosts the Laserfiche repository that contains your documents and metadata. In order to use Laserfiche, you must have the Laserfiche Server installed, but it does not necessarily need to be installed on the same computer as other Laserfiche utilities and components. You may only install as many Laserfiche Servers as you are licensed for. Laserfiche Rio installations are licensed for unlimited Laserfiche Servers; all other Laserfiche editions are licensed for a specific number of installations of the Server.

  • Laserfiche Full-Text Indexing and Search Engine: The Full-Text Indexing and Search Engine allows you to index and search the text of documents in your repository. The Full-Text Indexing and Search Engine must be installed in order to perform full-text searches, but it does not need to be installed on the same computer as the Laserfiche Server.

  • Laserfiche Administration Console:

  • Laserfiche Quick Reindex Utility: This Laserfiche Quick Reindex Utility is a command-line interface used to quickly regenerate the search index files for your Laserfiche repository. It can be used if you need to remove and recreate your search catalog, or to generate the search catalog for the first time. While it is not necessary to install this utility, it can significantly streamline reindexing. The Laserfiche Quick Reindex Utility must be installed on the Laserfiche Server computer.

Note: The core components of the installation (the Laserfiche Server, Full-Text Indexing and Search) can be distributed to separate computers by running the installation on different computers and selecting only the relevant items. Secondary items such as the Server Utilities must be installed with their parent components.

Installing the Laserfiche Server

To install the Laserfiche Server

  1. Open the installation package. A menu displaying Laserfiche installation options should appear. If it does not, run Autorun.exe from the root folder.
  2. Click the Install Laserfiche Server link. The Laserfiche Server installation will launch.

    3. Note: If the Laserfiche Server (version 8, 9, or 10) is currently installed, the installation process will automatically update it in place.

    Note: If the Laserfiche Server (version 6) is currently installed, you will receive a message informing you must uninstall Laserfiche Server 6 prior to installing Laserfiche Server 10. After uninstalling Laserfiche Server 6, restart the installation to continue.

  3. In the Language Selection step, select how you want the installation to be displayed. This language setting only affects the installer, not the product itself.
  4. If Windows Installer 4.5 is not installed, you will be prompted to install it. Follow the Windows installation instructions to complete the installation. When the installation is complete, you will need to restart your computer and then re-launch the Laserfiche Server installation.
  5. In the Welcome step, click Next to continue.
  6. If you currently have a prior version of Laserfiche installed, the Existing Installations step will be displayed. It will list the version you already have installed, which will be upgraded as part of the installation.
  7. In the End-User License Agreement step, read the license agreement. Accept it by selecting the I accept the terms in the License Agreement option. Click Next to continue.
  8. In the Custom Setup step, select the features you want to install. To see a description of a feature, select the feature in the tree. The right-hand pane will display a description of the feature and the hard drive space required to install it. See Server Features for more information.

    Note: The Laserfiche Server and the Laserfiche Full-Text Indexing and Search Service must both be installed in order to host a repository and perform full-text searches on it, but the Full-Text Indexing and Search Service can be installed on a different computer, in a separate installation operation. Note that the Laserfiche Quick Re-indexer Tool is a Search Engine component, but must be installed on the Laserfiche Server computer to run.

  9. In the Install directory options, optionally select the location to install the software. Click Next to continue.
  10. If you are installing the Laserfiche Server, the Laserfiche Product Activation step will display. In this step, specify the desired method for activating the Laserfiche Server installation. Click Next to continue.
    • If you have an activation key, select the Activate online using the following activation key option and enter the activation key in the text box. The activation process will run after the installation is complete.

      • Important: Activation uses port 443 to communicate with the Laserfiche activation server. This port must be open on your firewall for activation to complete.

    • If you received a license file, select the Activate using the following license file option and browse to the path where the Laserfiche Server license file can be found.
    • If you are activating by registering your Server with the Laserfiche Rio License Manager, select Activate using the Laserfiche Rio License Manager. In that case, you will need to complete additional steps.
  11. If you chose to activate using the Laserfiche Rio License Manager, you will be prompted to complete the following additional steps. If not, skip to step 12.
    1. In the first Register to a License Manager step, in the License Manager Server option, type the name of your Rio License Manager server computer. In the Log on as option, select whether to log in as the current Windows user or as another Windows user. Click Next to continue.
    2. In the second Register to a License Manager step, in the License database option, select the license database for your Rio installation. In the License block option, select the Laserfiche server you want to use. In most cases, there will be only one license database and only one Server license block.
    3. In the same step, select whether to use an existing registration or register a new Server instance. If you or your Rio administrator already registered this computer, select Use existing registration and then choose the computer from the list (skip to step 6). If not, select Register new instance. Click Next to continue.

      4. Note: If you are upgrading an existing installation, in most cases you should choose Use existing registration. Registering a new instance when an existing registration exists may result in unnecessary reallocation of repository named users or public portal licenses.

      Note: If the available license information seems incomplete or out of date, you may need to renew your master license to get the most current information. Click Renew Master License to do so.

    4. In the third Register to a License Manager step, optionally allocate repository named user licenses. If you don't want to allocate Laserfiche named user licenses, leave the options set to 0. 
    5. In the same step, if you will access this Laserfiche Server with WebLink Public Portal, allocate your Public Portal pilot users or processors. To allocate pilot users, select Pilot users and then select a block of users from the drop-down. To allocate processor licenses, select Processors and then choose the processor license type to use. Click Next to continue.

      6. Note: If you are using Laserfiche Directory Server for license management and you have configured organizations, the Organization path option will also be displayed on this step. Select the organization you want to use in this option. This option will not be displayed if you do not have organizations configured, or if you are not using Laserfiche Directory Server.

    6. In the final Register to a License Manager step, review the settings for your new License Manager registration. Click Next and proceed with the installation.
  12. In the Laserfiche Service Settings step, specify what user account the services you are installing will use. This step will display for the Laserfiche Server service and/or the Laserfiche Full-Text Search Engine service and will allow you to specify which user account will be used for each service.

    13. Note: If you have components distributed on different computers (for instance, if your SQL server is not on the same computer as the Laserfiche Server, or if the Full-Text Search Service is not on the same computer as the Laserfiche Server), using Local System is not recommended, as it may not have sufficient rights to access the remote components. Be sure to select an account that has sufficient rights to access all required components. See Services for more information.

    • Account name: For each service, select either Local System or << Browse... >>. If you select Browse, you will be prompted to type or search for a user name.
    • Password: Type the password for the selected account.
  13. Optional: Select the Create Windows Firewall exception option for the installation to create a Windows Firewall exception for the ports used by the Laserfiche Server. (If you do not do this, you will need to configure the ports manually. See Firewalls for more information.)
  14. In the Ready to Install step, click Install to begin the installation process.
  15. If the installed features have prerequisites that are not installed, the installation will begin by installing those prerequisites. In the Prerequisites step, review the prerequisites that will be installed.
  16. When the prerequisite installations (if any) have completed, click Next to continue.
  17. Depending on the components you chose to install, you may be notified that IIS must be reset to continue. While IIS is being reset, any other websites hosted by your IIS instance will be unavailable. Click OK to proceed, or Cancel if you cannot reset IIS at this time. If you choose Cancel, you will need to proceed from step 16 again at a time when IIS can be reset to complete the installation.
  18. The installation process will run, displaying the product or feature currently being installed and the status of the installation.

    19. Note: Various command prompt windows may open during the process; this is normal. They will close automatically.

  19. At the end of the installation, the Post-Installation Requirements step may display, prompting you to install the Activation Tool. Click Install to continue.
  20. When the installation is complete, the Completing the Laserfiche Server 10 Setup Wizard option will display. You can select View the Readme file option to display the readme after the installation has completed. Click Finish to complete the installation.

Distributing the Laserfiche Full-Text Indexing and Search Service

You can install the Laserfiche Server and the Laserfiche Full-Text Indexing and Search Service on different computers. This allows you to distribute the processing load for search and other server actions across more than one machine.

The first step when distributing the Laserfiche Full-Text Indexing and Search Service is to install it on a separate computer from the Laserfiche Server. Be sure that the users that the respective services log in as can access the computer that the other service is running on.

Tip: If you have more than one Laserfiche repository, you can install more than one instance of the Laserfiche Full-Text Indexing and Search Service, and assign one instance to each repository.

To distribute your search catalog

  1. Ensure that the Laserfiche Server and the Laserfiche Full-Text Search and Indexing Service are installed on separate computers.
  2. In the Administration Console, detach the search catalog for your repository.
  3. Navigate to the path of the detached catalog in Windows. Copy the catalog.
  4. Navigate to the computer on which you have installed the Laserfiche Full-Text Search and Indexing Service. Create a folder on that computer to host the catalog, and then paste the catalog into that folder.
  5. In the Administration Console, attach the search catalog. Be sure to specify your new search catalog host and your new catalog path.

Note: You can also move your search catalog by deleting it from the original host computer and re-creating it on the new host computer. If you choose to do so, you will need to re-index your repository before documents will be searchable.