Installing Tachyon

In this lab, we will install all Tachyon components onto the same server which we have prepared with the prerequisites, 1ETRNAP. This includes the roles and features required for the Tachyon installation. In addition, we will deploy the Tachyon clients once the server components have been installed.

Installing Tachyon components

Install Tachyon components

In this task, you will install Tachyon components on the Application server (1ETRNAP).

1. On 1ETRNAP Launch the SkyTap Shared Drive shortcut from the desktop and download 1E Tachyon - Course Content\Tachyon 5.0 Course Content\Tachyonplatform.v5.0.0.592.zip to C:\Temp (if a password window is shown the password is Passw0rd)
2. Also download tachyon.lic and Q21355-tachyonserver.v5.0.0.592.msp from 1E Tachyon - Course Content\Tachyon 5.0 Course Content\ to c:\temp
You will need all three downloaded files in the next steps
3. Navigate to c:\temp and right click on TachyonPlatform.v5.0.0.592.zip and choose Extract All
4. From C:\Temp\TachyonPlatform.v5.0.0.592 double click Tachyon.Setup.exe
The user we're logged in with, 1ETRN\AppInstaller is a local admin on this server and has sysadmin rights in SQL. Both rights are required to install Tachyon.
5. On the Welcome page click Next
6. On the Documentation page, click Next
7. On the License Agreement page select I accept the terms of the license agreement and click Next
8. On the License file page, click browse and select tachyon.lic in c:\temp. Click Open. Click Next
9. Review the properties of the license file to get a feel for what it entails. Specifically, the MaxCount value as well as the thumbprints for the different Features
10. On the Select Configuration page, change the install location to be C:\Program Files\1E and Click Next
11. On the Check prerequisites page click Start checking
Note all the different prereqs that are required for Tachyon. In a production environment, different components might already be installed on the server. The Tachyon installer will check for all the prereqs and allow you to install the outstanding ones directly through the installer using PowerShell scripts.
12. Click Install missing prereqs
A PowerShell window will open for each prerequisite.
13. Once all the prerequisites are installed, click on Check Again to revalidate. Click Next
14. On the Server certificate page Select Tachyon tachyon.1etrn.local Certificate, note that all the available Computer Certificates enrolled on this server are displayed. Click Next
If all the properties except Subject and the final 2, do not show green, the certificate was not configured properly. You will need to delete the certificate and re enroll it using the correct properties, or possibly create a new template.
15. On the Client certificates page, Click Next
16. On the Database server page, ensure that (local) is in each field. Click Validate. On the validation passed box, click Ok. Click Next
17. On the BI SSAS database settings page, in the BI SSAS User (domain account) section enter 1ETRN\svc_BI in Username and Passw0rd in the password fields. ensure that (local) is in the SSAS server field. Click Validate. Click Ok on the Validation passed box. Click Next
18. On the Number of Devices page, ensure the Number of devices is set to 1500. Click Next
The license is client count sensitive, so Tachyon will not work if you set it to higher than the license count from your license file.
19. On the Switch configuration page, click validate. There are two warnings these can be looked at, but do not need remediation. Click Next
20. On the Website Configuration page, leave the default settings. Click Next
The HTTP Host Header is used internally by Tachyon components; thus, we use the FQDN of the server. The HTTPS Host Header will be used by Tachyon agents and Tachyon users; thus, we use the DNS alias. If you clicked validate, then you can ignore the error message at this time, we will rectify it later.
21. On the Active Directory and email Configuration page, enter the following and Click Validate, close the validation check. Click Next
Active Directory: LDAP://1etrn.local
SMTP Server: 1ETRNDC.1ETRN.LOCAL
Mail From: Tachyon@1etrn.local
Enable two-factor authentication: Checked


Two-factor authentication prompts users to enter a onetime authorization code in addition to their password to confirm the submission of an action instruction. The code is delivered via email or to a registered mobile device. If this setting is disabled, administrators can execute instructions without the second factor authentication.
22. On the SLA and 1E Catalog page, DO NOT Check the Enable AI-based auto-curation. Click Next
We cover AI-based auto-curation in the AppClarity course. And how to enable this post install in the Tachyon Upgrade on demand course
23. On the Nomad synchronisation page, click Next
24. On the Ready to Install page, click Install. It will take a few minutes to finish the install. You can see the install log scrolling
25. On the Installation results, click Next
26. On the Post-installation Checks, Click Start Checking.
This will display a check of all the components installed and ensure they are configured correctly. If there are any issues the Tachyon Installer will help you resolve them.
27. On the first warning – Configuration of loopback-check security feature. Click on Warning in the Info column. In the Warning box click on Fix this issue for me. In the Done box click Ok
28. If there are any other errors or warnings click on them to investigate

We could at this stage decide to invoke the Tachyon Product Pack Deployment Tool to automatically import any product packs and move them into instruction sets (named the same as the .zip file). There is already a folder called ProductPacks in the same location as the Tachyon.Setup.exe (which we have just downloaded and extracted). The ProductPacks folder contains by default the files for the Tachyon Product Pack Deployment Tool and the Classic and Integrated folders with some 1E Product Packs you may want to bulk import into Tachyon. You can also add any additional product pack.zip files you have created or downloaded and wish to import.

We will use the bulk import feature later as a stand-alone to learn how it works.

The option to Deploy is shown at the bottom of the page, we will not do that here.

29. Click close
30. Following the step to fix the loopback-check a reboot was prompted to be carried out prior to continuing with the install, restart the server at this point
31. Log back into 1ETRNAP after the reboot and open c:\temp Right click on Q21355-tachyonserver.v5.0.0.592.msp and choose apply
32. Click Open and Update. When the process completes click finish.  Click yes to restart the server

Review the installation

In this task, you will observe the changes made by the Tachyon server installation

33. After the reboot log back into the server as 1ETRN\AppInstaller
34. Launch Google Chrome and navigate to https://tachyon.1etrn.local/tachyon
35. The Tachyon Portal should open and display the 6 Applications that are available – Experience, Explorer, Guaranteed State, Inventory, Patch Success, and Settings. They should all have a green check mark as our license allows us to have all of the Applications
36. Browse to C:\Program Files\1E\Tachyon and note the following folders:

Folder	Description
Background	Binaries associated with the Background Channel, which is used to download content to clients
ConfigurationViewer	Binaries used for validation and troubleshooting. The Configuration tool also allows for exporting of configuration to disk.
Consumer	Binaries associated with the Consumer API. It provides access to the Tachyon platform via IIS
Coordinator	Binaries associated with the Workflow and Instrumentation services
Core	Binaries associated with the Core component and its APIs
Database	Binaries associated with the configuration of the Master and Response databases
Experience	Binaries associated with the configuration of the Experience component
Portal	Binaries for the Portal to display the Applications that are available to launch.
Switch	Binaries associated with the Switch service used to provide real time communication between Tachyon agents and the Platform
TachyonExternal	Folder defining the Tachyon website. Also, used to manage redirection

37. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager from the start menu. Navigate down to the websites and expand Tachyon
38. Note the different web applications running under Tachyon
39. With the Tachyon website selected, click on Bindings in the Actions pane on the right, select the https type, and click Edit
40. Note that the web certificate we enrolled is bound to the website on https port 443. Exit out of bindings
41. With the Tachyon website selected, double click on IP Address and Domain Restrictions in the middle pane. Note nothing is configured here
42. Click on each individual application beneath the Tachyon website and double click each of the Authentication, SSL Settings and IP Address and Domain Restrictions and confirm they are set as shown. Note that some have Requestors configured, while others do not

Application	Authentication	SSL Settings	IP Address and Domain Restrictions
Tachyon*	Windows	Require SSL	Not Configured
ActiveEfficiency	Anonymous and Windows	Not Configured	Not Configured
Admin	Windows	Not Configured	Not Configured
Background	Anonymous and Windows	Require SSL	Not Configured
CatalogWeb	Anonymous and Windows	Not Configured	Not Configured
Consumer	Windows	Require SSL	Not Configured
Core	Anonymous	Require SSL	Local IP addresses
CoreExternal	Anonymous	Not configured	Not Configured
CoreInternal	Anonymous	Not Configured	Local Addresses
Experience	Windows	Require SSL	Not Configured
Platform	Windows	Not Configured	Not Configured

Tachyon is set up on both HTTP port 80 and HTTPS port 443. HTTP on port 80 is used only internally by different Tachyon components, thus explicit permissions are given only to those applications. This ensures a higher level of security.
43. Open the Services applet from the start menu. Validate the 2 Tachyon services running, 1E Tachyon Coordinator and 1E Tachyon Switch Host, as well as the 1E Catalog Update Service, and the 3 SLA Platform services

Service	Description
1E Tachyon Coordinator	This service is a central component that manages all the components other than the switch.
1E Tachyon Switch Host	This service is used to control all the switch processes configured to run. It automatically starts each Switch process, restarting them if they terminate, and allowing them to be stopped gracefully via the Service Control Manager.

44. Browse to C:\ProgramData\1E\Licensing. Note the files in here
These files are used to validate the licensing against a back-end licensing server in the cloud. Note the Tachyon license file(.lic) used to install Tachyon is also present here.
45. Browse to C:\ProgramData\1E\Tachyon. There are multiple folders and logs here associated with different Tachyon components
46. Open the Tachyon.Switch.Host.log. Search for NumberofSwitches. Note that the log shows the 1 switch we installed
Up to 5 switches can be installed on a single server, and the 1E Tachyon Switch Host service would manage them all. Each switch can manage 50,000 devices for a total of 250,000 devices per server.
47. Open Tachyon.Switch_A.log. Note the configuration information and the application of the certificate
48. Open the Tachyon.Coordinator.log. Search for AnalyzeCertificate: Note our thumbprint and the details on our certificate. Note the next lines in the log shows our license being checked and becoming active and the date that it will expire
49. Note the 4 folders under C:\ProgramData\1E\Tachyon: Content, Installers, PolicyDocuments and Updates, each with a web.config file
The Content folder contains any content, generally in the form of scripts, which are required for instructions. These scripts are embedded into the Instruction XML file but are extracted and placed in this folder to allow agents to download them via the Background Channel using IIS. We will get into Instruction and scripts soon enough.
The Installers folder would contain installers if we are updating the Tachyon agent via Tachyon itself.
The Updates folder is used to update the Tachyon agent through Tachyon itself without having to redeploy an msi.
50. From the Start screen, start SQL Server 2014 Management Studio, connect to the local Database Engine, and navigate to the Databases node. Expand the TachyonMaster database. Note that the installer has created objects (tables, stored procedures etc.)
51. Expand the TachyonResponses database. Expand tables, and note that there are a very small number of objects created
The Response database holds transient data on a per action basis temporarily, hence it is a very basic database.
52. Expand the SLA-BI database. Look at the tables that are created
53. Expand the BI.Event Log table. This table holds the Business Intelligence event log date
54. Right click the BI.Event Log table and choose Select Top 1000 rows. Notice the columns
You may not see any data here. If you needed to troubleshoot any BI or Cube Data issues you would look in this table for information.
55. From the Task Bar, open Google Chrome and browse to https://tachyon.1etrn.local
Note the error. This is due to the restrictions that have been set in IIS on the different spaces within the website.
56. Go back to Google Chrome and Browse to https://tachyon.1etrn.local/tachyon
If you are familiar with the prior versions of Tachyon notice the change. We no longer navigate to the Tachyon Explorer via https://tachyon.1etrn.local/Explorer - now we have the Tachyon Portal. The Tachyon Explorer is still here, don't worry!
57. From the Tachyon Portal click on the Settings Application
58. Explore the other nodes that are available. Instructions will be empty. We will add some instructions sets later
59. Click on Switch app and select Explorer
You will not be able to open any of the other applications as this account has limited access to the platform. Notice that our account cannot even see Experience, Inventory, Guaranteed State or Patch Success in the Switch App menu.
60. In the Settings Application and navigate to Permissions - Users
61. Note the only user displayed is the user we installed Tachyon with (aside from Network Service and the app server machine account)
62. Click on 1ETRN\Appinstaller and review the permissions
By default, the account that Tachyon is installed with has limited rights, one of them being Permissions Administrators, which can create new users and roles. This account cannot change its own permissions, so it is important to use an installer account which you do not want to have any admin rights beyond the basic rights afforded the installer account.
63. Navigate to Monitoring - Infrastructure Log and Audit Information log to review the different actions taken within Tachyon since install
64. Spend a few minutes looking around. We will get into the finer details of the platform in the next lab

Installing the 1E Client

Now that the back end has been installed, it is time to get some clients reporting into our environment. In this exercise, we will install the 1E Client manually on a single machine, and then deploy the client to the rest of our environment via ConfigMgr. As of this version of Tachyon the 1E Client has replaced the Tachyon Agent.

Copy the 1E Client Install to the Config Mgr Server

64. Log into 1ETRNDC as 1ETRN\Administrator
65. Launch the skytap shortcut from the desktop. Download and copy 1E Tachyon - Course Content\Tachyon 5.0 Course Content\1EClient.v5.0.0.745.zip to c:\temp then right click and extract all
66. copy the 1EClient.v5.0.0.745 folder to E:\ConfigMgrSource\software

Install the 1E Client Manually

67. Ensure all workstations are powered on
68. Log onto 1ETRNW101 as 1ETRN\User
69. From the start menu, type Certificate and click on Manage computer certificates to launch the certificates mmc console
70. In the console, right click Personal, and select All Tasks>Request New Certificate
71. Click Next
72. On the Select Certificate Enrollment Policy click Next
73. Note there is only one certificate available for enrollment. Select the Computer certificate and click Enroll
74. Once enrolled, click Finish
A client certificate is required to authenticate against the Tachyon switch. The certificate has been enrolled on all the other clients, including the servers, ahead of time. If a Windows client certificate already exists on your client devices, no additional certificates will be required.
75. From the ConfigMgr Content Source folder on the desktop, navigate down to \software\1EClient.v5.0.0.745
76. Copy 1E.Client-x86.msi to c:\sources
77. From the taskbar, run the command prompt
78. Switch to the c:\sources directory and run the following command line to start the 1E Client installation wizard

msiexec /i 1E.Client-x86.msi /l*v 1EClient.log

79. On the Welcome to the 1E Client Installer screen click Next
80. On the License Agreement screen select I accept the terms of the license agreement and click Next
81. On the Installation Folder screen accept the default location and click Next
82. On the Tachyon screen, enter TACHYON.1ETRN.local:4000 for the Switch
83. On the Background Channel URL, enter https://tachyon.1etrn.local/Background for the Background Channel. Click Next
84. On the Nomad screen, click Next
85. On the Shopping screen, Click Next
86. On the WakeUp screen, click Next
87. On the Ready to Install the 1E Client screen, Click Install. On the User Account Control pop-up click OK. When install is completed, click Finish

Validate the 1E Client Install

88. On the client machine, launch the Services applet from the desktop
89. Confirm the 1E Client service has been installed and is running
90. Navigate to c:\programdata\1E\Client
91. Note there are DBs and Persist folders and a log file present
92. Double- click the 1E.Client.log file and review the log
93. Note upon service startup, the client is setting the Switch to tachyon.1etrn.local:4000 as defined in the installer
94. Review the other settings in the log
95. The 2 subfolders: DBs and Persist
The Persist folder holds the persistent data for the client. Items such as last instruction processed, or tags reside here. We will review this folder later when we use Tachyon. The DBs folder contains an encrypted database where the Tachyon Activity Record feature stores data from various data sources.
96. Navigate to c:\program files\1E\Client and review the content
97. Right-click 1E.Client.conf and select Open With and open with Notepad
98. Review the different sections of the config file, ensuring you do not make any changes. Note that the settings displayed in the log file are all defined here
The 1E Client settings are defined in the config file. In a later exercise, we will use Tachyon itself to make changes to these settings.
99. Close the config file, ensuring no changes were made. If asked to save it, click NO

Installing the 1E Client using the 1E Client Deployment Assistant via ConfigMgr

In most enterprises, there will be a Systems Management platform to manage devices in the environment. In our lab we will use ConfigMgr, but the concept of deploying the 1E Client as a piece of software will apply to any Systems Management platform.

100. Log into 1ETRNCM as 1ETRN\SCCMADMIN
You might already be logged into the server as Administrator, so be sure to change user and log in as SCCMADMIN, as Administrator does not have rights in SCCM.
101. Launch the SkyTap Shared Drive shortcut on the desktop. Download 1E Tools\1EClientDeploymentAssistant.v1.4.100.9.zip to c:\temp
102. Extract the zip file to c:\temp
103. Launch the 1EClientDeploymentAssistant.exe
104. On the Welcome page click Next
105. On the License Terms page check I accept the license terms. Click Next
106. On the Configuration Manager Connection page click connect. Once it connects click Next
107. On the General settings page 1E License File field click browse and select the licenses.txt file in the 1EClientDeploymentAssistant folder
108. In the 1E ActiveEfficiency Server URL change default to http://1etrnap/ActiveEfficiency
109. On the Application and Package Content Sources fields type in \\1etrndc\ConfigMgrSource\Software
110. Check the Distribute Content box and select All Distribution Points from the drop-down. Click Next
111. On the Agent selection page Uncheck all the boxes except for the 1EClient 5.0.0.745. Click Next
If we were installing PXE Everywhere, NightWatchman, or Web Wakeup the license keys would be populated from our licenses.txt file located in the same folder as the Client Deployment Assistant executable. We are only installing the Tachyon module of the 1E Client for this lab so we do not need a license key as Tachyon is licensed on the server components.
112. On the 1E Client 5.0.0.745 page Change the Limiting Collection to All Desktop and Server Clients Click Next
113. On the Tachyon and other client settings page Switch field type in Tachyon.1etrn.local:4000
114. In the Background Channel field type in https://tachyon.1etrn.local:443/Background click Next
115. On the Nomad Client Settings page click Next
116. Once the Summary page activates the Create button click Create
117. Once that completes click Next
118. Click Finish
119. Launch the ConfigMgr console from the taskbar
Our lab is configured to create our applications and packages for only workstation class devices. You can modify this by editing your AppImport.xml in your 1E Client Deployment Assistant folder. We will edit our application to include the servers.
120. Navigate to Software Library – Application Management – Applications
121. Select the 1EClient 5.0.0.745 and click Deployment Types tab at the bottom
122. Right Click the 1E Client x64 deployment type and choose Properties
123. Click the Requirements tab. Click the Operating System requirement type and click the edit button
124. Scroll down and select all the x64 Server Operating Systems also. Click Ok. Click Apply. Click Ok
125. Navigate to Assets and Compliance and click on Devices
126. Multi-select all the devices in the Lab except for 1ETRNDC and add them to an existing collection – 1EClient 5.0.0.745 – Required
127. Once the collection membership shows 7
128. Right Click on the 1EClient 5.0.0.745 – Required collection and choose Client Notification – Download Computer Policy
At this stage, the 1E Client has been deployed to all the clients in the lab environment. We will move onto the next exercise and validate that the clients have installed a bit later, as the deployment will take a few minutes.
129. Repeat the client validation steps from above on any of the workstations to ensure the client has installed correctly

Lab Summary

In this lab, we installed Tachyon on a single server. We used components from the prereqs we installed/configured in the previous lab required by Tachyon. Once installed, we validated the install by evaluating the binaries, the web components, the services, and the databases. Once validated, we launched the Tachyon Portal, and reviewed the console.
We then installed a 1E Client manually on one workstation. We validated the install on the client, then configured a package for deployment of the 1E Client agent via ConfigMgr. Once the package was created, we deployed it to our 1E Client collection for install.

Next Page
Ex 3 - TCN Opr v5.0 - Exploring the Settings Application