Install Devolutions Server for Linux

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As of version 2024.3.2.0, a beta version of Devolutions Server is available for Linux with Microsoft Kestrel as the built-in web server and Microsoft PowerShell 7 for command-line installation. The present topic shows how to manually install Devolutions Server for Linux using Bash prompts and PowerShell scripts, as well ass how to access and remove it.

Alternatively, Devolutions Server can be installed automatically using the scripts found on the Devolutions GitHub ScriptLibrary repository.

Installing prerequisites

  1. If Microsoft SQL Server is not already installed, run the following Bash prompt with the MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD variable changed to a strong password:

    source /etc/os-release
curl -fsSL https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | sudo gpg --dearmor --batch --yes -o /usr/share/keyrings/microsoft-prod.gpg
curl -fsSL https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$VERSION_ID/mssql-server-2022.list | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-server-2022.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y mssql-server
sudo MSSQL_SA_PASSWORD="mystrongpassword" MSSQL_PID="evaluation" /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf -n setup accept-eula
sudo /opt/mssql/bin/mssql-conf set sqlagent.enabled true
sudo systemctl restart mssql-server

    MSSQL_PID is set to evaluation in this example, but a product key can be entered here instead.

Microsoft currently only supports up to Ubuntu 22.04 for Microsoft SQL Server 2022.

  1. Run this Bash prompt to install PowerShell 7:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y wget apt-transport-https software-properties-common
source /etc/os-release
wget -q https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/$VERSION_ID/packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb
rm packages-microsoft-prod.deb
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y powershell

Ensure that the installation takes place in a directory that is accessible for the current user as the command line wget downloads a .deb package to said directory.

  1. Choose whether to install the Devolutions.PowerShell module for the current user or all users.

    • For current user (location: ~/.local/share/powershell/Modules), run:

      Install-Module -Name 'Devolutions.PowerShell' -Confirm:$False

    • For all users (location: /opt/microsoft/powershell/7/Modules), run:

      & sudo pwsh -Command { Install-Module -Name 'Devolutions.PowerShell' -Confirm:$False -Scope 'AllUsers' -Force }

    A warning is likely to appear stating that the installation comes from an untrusted repository. The module is hosted on PowerShell Gallery, the official location for hosting PowerShell modules managed by Microsoft. To avoid seeing this warning in the future, run:

    Set-PSRepository -Name PSGallery -InstallationPolicy Trusted

    Although not required, provisioning separate users and groups for Devolutions Server is highly recommended. Here is a Bash prompt to create a user and a group both named dvls with the installation directory set to /opt/devolutions/dvls:

    sudo useradd -N dvls
sudo groupadd dvls
sudo usermod -a -G dvls dvls
# optional, add current user to dvls group
sudo usermod -a -G dvls $(id -un)
sudo mkdir -p /opt/devolutions/dvls
sudo chown -R dvls:dvls /opt/devolutions/dvls
sudo chmod 550 /opt/devolutions/dvls

Downloading and installing Devolutions Server for Linux

  1. Run the PowerShell script below to download the latest version of Devolutions Server for Linux and extract the .tar.gz file into the /opt/devolutions/dvls location:

    $DVLSPath = "/opt/devolutions/dvls"
$DVLSProductURL = "https://devolutions.net/productinfo.htm"

$Result = (Invoke-RestMethod -Method 'GET' -Uri $DVLSProductURL) -Split "`r"

$DVLSLinux = [PSCustomObject]@{
    "Version" = (($Result | Select-String DPSLinuxX64bin.Version) -Split "=")[-1].Trim()
    "URL"     = (($Result | Select-String DPSLinuxX64bin.Url) -Split "=")[-1].Trim()
    "Hash"    = (($Result | Select-String DPSLinuxX64bin.hash) -Split "=")[-1].Trim()
}

$DVLSDownloadPath = Join-Path -Path "/tmp" -ChildPath (([URI]$DVLSLinux.URL).Segments)[-1]

Invoke-RestMethod -Method 'GET' -Uri $DVLSLinux.URL -OutFile $DVLSDownloadPath

& tar -xzf $DVLSDownloadPath -C $DVLSPath --strip-components=1

Remove-Item -Path $DVLSDownloadPath

& sudo pwsh -Command {
  Param(
      $DVLSPath
  )

  chown -R dvls:dvls $DVLSPath
  chmod -R o-rwx $DVLSPath
  chmod 660 (Join-Path -Path $DVLSPath -ChildPath 'appsettings.json')
  chmod 770 (Join-Path -Path $DVLSPath -ChildPath 'App_Data')
  chown -R dvls:dvls $DVLSPath
} -Args $DVLSPath

Set-Location -Path $DVLSPath

    It is best for Devolutions Server to be able to respond over TLS. If a certificate does not exist already, one can be quickly generated using this Bash prompt:

    cd /opt/devolutions/dvls

openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -sha256 -days 3650 -nodes -keyout cert.key -out cert.crt -subj "/CN=MYHOST" -addext "subjectAltName=DNS:MYHOST"
openssl pkcs12 -export -out cert.pfx -inkey cert.key -in cert.crt -passout pass:

    In the example above, the subjectAltName uses DNS:. To respond on an IP only, use IP: instead.

Note that the generated .pfx certificate does not have a password.

  1. Using the Devolutions.PowerShell module, run installation for Devolutions Server via PowerShell. Make sure to customize the values listed here:

    • MYHOST
    • MSSQLHOST
    • DBUSERNAME
    • YOURSTRONGPASSWORD
    • MYEMAIL
    Import-Module -Name 'Devolutions.PowerShell'

$DVLSPath = "/opt/devolutions/dvls"
# Modify the $DVLSURI to use 'https' if using SSL
$DVLSURI  = "http://MYHOST:5000/"

$DVLSAdminUsername = 'dvls-admin'
$DVLSAdminPassword = 'dvls-admin'
$DVLSAdminEmail    = 'MYEMAIL'

$Params = @{
    "DatabaseHost"           = "MSSQLHOST"
    "DatabaseName"           = "dvls"
    "DatabaseUserName"       = "DBUSERNAME"
    "DatabasePassword"       = "YOURSTRONGPASSWORD"
    "ServerName"             = "dvls"
    "AccessUri"              = $DVLSURI
    "HttpListenerUri"        = $DVLSURI
    "DPSPath"                = $DVLSPath
    "UseEncryptedconnection" = $False # Modify as needed
    "TrustServerCertificate" = $False # Modify as needed
    "EnableTelemetry"        = $True # Modify as needed
    "DisableEncryptConfig"   = $True
}

$Configuration = New-DPSInstallConfiguration @Params
New-DPSAppsettings -Configuration $Configuration

$Settings = Get-DPSAppSettings -ApplicationPath $DVLSPath

New-DPSDatabase -ConnectionString $Settings.ConnectionStrings.LocalSqlServer
Update-DPSDatabase -ConnectionString $Settings.ConnectionStrings.LocalSqlServer -InstallationPath $DVLSPath
New-DPSDataSourceSettings -ConnectionString $Settings.ConnectionStrings.LocalSqlServer

New-DPSEncryptConfiguration -ApplicationPath $DVLSPath
New-DPSDatabaseAppSettings -Configuration $Configuration

New-DPSAdministrator -ConnectionString $Settings.ConnectionStrings.LocalSqlServer -Name $DVLSAdminUsername -Password $DVLSAdminPassword -Email $DVLSAdminEmail

    If a certificate has already been generated, proceed to modify the appsettings.json file to allow Kestrel to respond over TLS using this PowerShell script:

    Import-Module -Name 'Devolutions.PowerShell'

$DVLSPath = '/opt/devolutions/dvls'

$JSON = Get-Content -Path (Join-Path -Path $DVLSPath -ChildPath 'appsettings.json') | ConvertFrom-JSON -Depth 100

$JSON.Kestrel.Endpoints.Http | Add-Member -MemberType NoteProperty -Name 'Certificate' -Value @{
    'Path'     = (Join-Path -Path $DVLSPath -ChildPath 'cert.pfx')
    'Password' = ''
}

$JSON | ConvertTo-JSON -Depth 100 | Set-Content -Path (Join-Path -Path $DVLSPath -ChildPath 'appsettings.json')

$Settings = Get-DPSAppSettings -ApplicationPath $DVLSPath

$AccessUri = (Get-DPSAccessUri -ConnectionString $Settings.ConnectionStrings.LocalSqlServer).AccessUri
Set-DPSAccessUri -ApplicationPath $DVLSPath -ConnectionString $Settings.ConnectionStrings.LocalSqlServer -AccessURI ($AccessUri -Replace "http","https")

& sudo pwsh -Command {
  Param(
      $DVLSPath
  )

  & chown dvls:dvls (Join-Path -Path $DVLSPath -ChildPath 'cert.pfx')
} -Args $DVLSPath

    To offer background running of Devolutions Server for Linux, it is recommended to create a unit file for systemd via this Bash prompt:

    sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/dvls.service > /dev/null <<EOT
[Unit]
Description=DVLS

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
User=dvls
ExecStart=/opt/devolutions/dvls/Devolutions.Server
WorkingDirectory=/opt/devolutions/dvls
KillSignal=SIGINT
SyslogIdentifier=dvls
Environment="SCHEDULER_EMBEDDED=true"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=dvls.service
EOT

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

  2. To start Devolutions Server,run:

    sudo systemctl start dvls

# View status
sudo systemctl status dvls

Accessing Devolutions Server for Linux

By default, Devolutions Server for Linux listens on port 5000 on the IP or hostname of the installation system, which most commonly looks like: http://MYHOST:5000. Be aware that OAuth errors may occur upon first launch when trying to access Devolutions Server from a unconfigured URL. If this is the case, add additional URIs to listen on, or modify the primary one by running the following script in PowerShell:

Import-Module -Name 'Devolutions.PowerShell'

$DVLSPath = "/opt/devolutions/dvls"

$Settings = Get-DPSAppSettings -ApplicationPath $DVLSPath
$ConnectionString = $Settings.ConnectionStrings.LocalSqlServer

Get-DPSAccessUri -ConnectionString $ConnectionString

Set-DPSAccessUri -ConnectionString $ConnectionString -ApplicationPath $DVLSPath -AccessURI 'http://10.10.0.20:5000/' -AdditionalAccessURIs @('http://ubuntu-2204:5000/')

If Devolutions Server remains inaccessible outside of the installed system, check if the requisite firewall ports are opened, by adding Uncomplicated Firewall to the prompt, for example: sudo ufw allow 5000.

Removing Devolutions Server

To remove Devolutions Server, run the Bash prompt below and customize it for the system. This script relies on the DbaTools PowerShell module to facilitate the removal of the MSSQL database. It assumes localhost is the MSSQL installation and dvls the database name.

# Remove DVLS on Linux, adjust as necessary
& sudo systemctl stop dvls.service
& sudo rm /etc/systemd/system/dvls.service
& sudo rm -rf /opt/devolutions/dvls
& sudo userdel -r dvls
& sudo groupdel dvls

Import-Module dbatools
$Credential = Get-Credential

Set-DbaToolsInsecureConnection

Remove-DbaDatabase -SqlInstance localhost -SqlCredential $Credential -Database 'dvls' -Confirm:$False

 

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