ThingWorx Flow 8.5 Installation Overview
The ThingWorx Flow installer is available on the PTC Support Site for on-premise environments.
The ThingWorx Flow installer performs the following tasks:
• Installs ThingWorx Flow.
• Sets up the ThingWorx Flow schema and tables in the database.
• Connects the ThingWorx Flow instance to the ThingWorx Foundation instance.
• Installs third-party software–RabbitMQ, Nginx, Node.js, PM2, Erlang, 7–Zip, and Nssm
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ThingWorx Flow makes use of PM2 to manage Flow services. PM2 is a process manager library for the JavaScript runtime Node.js. PTC does not support the use of the PM2 “Web API” feature, hence it is disabled by default. PTC advises against enabling this feature.
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ThingWorx Flow installers are available for the following operating system and database combinations:
• Windows Server with PostgreSQL
• Windows Server with Microsoft SQL Server
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux with PostgreSQL
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Microsoft SQL Server
For detailed information about the supported versions of the operating system and database, see ThingWorx Flow Server Requirements.
You can either install ThingWorx Flow on an existing instance of ThingWorx Foundation, or perform an end-to-end installation of ThingWorx Foundation and ThingWorx Flow using one installer.
Scenario 1: Install ThingWorx Flow on an existing instance of ThingWorx Foundation
The following options are available if you are installing ThingWorx Flow on an existing instance of ThingWorx Foundation:
◦ Install ThingWorx Flow on the same machine as ThingWorx Foundation
For detailed steps on installing ThingWorx Flow, depending on your database, see Installing ThingWorx Flow on PostgreSQL or Installing ThingWorx Flow on Microsoft SQL Server.
◦ Install ThingWorx Flow on a different machine than ThingWorx Foundation
For a high-level overview of the steps, refer to Installing ThingWorx Flow on a Different Machine than ThingWorx Foundation.
Scenario 2: Install both ThingWorx Foundation and ThingWorx Flow using one installer
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From 8.5.1 and later, this scenario is not supported.
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2. For detailed steps on installing ThingWorx Flow, depending on your database, see Installing ThingWorx Flow on PostgreSQL or Installing ThingWorx Flow on Microsoft SQL Server.
You have the following options to install ThingWorx Flow:
• Install ThingWorx Flow on the same machine as ThingWorx Foundation.
For detailed steps on installing ThingWorx Flow, depending on your database, see Installing ThingWorx Flow on PostgreSQL or Installing ThingWorx Flow on Microsoft SQL Server.
• Install ThingWorx Flow on a different machine than ThingWorx Foundation.
For a high-level overview of the steps, refer to Installing ThingWorx Flow on a Different Machine than ThingWorx Foundation.
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• The ThingWorx Flow installer does not support a repeated execution unless all the artifacts from a previous installation are removed. Install ThingWorx Flow on a virtual machine snapshot that can be rolled back to a preinstallation state.
• The ThingWorx Flow installer does not support uninstallation.
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Before You Begin
Before you install ThingWorx Flow, ensure that you do the following:
1. Identify the environment where you want to deploy the components, such as a physical server, virtual server environment, public or private cloud. For information about server requirements, see ThingWorx Flow Server Requirements.
2. Depending on how you are installing ThingWorx Flow, do one of the following:
◦ If you are installing ThingWorx Flow on an existing instance of ThingWorx Foundation, you must install and configure ThingWorx Foundation.
◦ If you are installing both ThingWorx Foundation and ThingWorx Flow using one installer, set the prerequisites for ThingWorx Foundation. For more information, see ThingWorx Foundation installer.
3. Ensure that ThingWorx Flow prerequisites are met.
For information about ThingWorx Flow prerequisites, depending on your database, see ThingWorx Flow Prerequisites for PostgreSQL or ThingWorx Flow Prerequisites for Microsoft SQL Server.
4. Download the appropriate software packages according to your operating system and database combination from the PTC Support Site.
◦ ThingWorx Flow installers for PostgreSQL— > > > > > .
◦ ThingWorx Flow installers for Microsoft SQL Server— > > > > > .