Operating appliance without commercial license

I downloaded the OVF image for “Cells Enterprise”. I am targeting a non-commercial deployment, but no analogous image was available from the list of non-Enterprise installation images.

The configuration wizard prompts for a commercial license key early in the process.

Is any method available for reverting the deployment to a non-commercial one, and configuring without a key?

Hello @brainchild as your noticed our images are set with cells-enterprise,

if you wish to use the image without cells-enterprise, you will have to replace the binary with cells home in the ovf, make sure to stop the service and then replace the binary also you need to use the same version of cells verify with cells version.

Is it possible to enter the system, such as through a shell prompt, after it boots from the initial image, without first completing the setup wizard from a web browser?

I don’t understand this comment. Versions of which two components must match?

You would have to SSH inside the appliance when it is running and do the steps manually.

It would have you use the command line to replace the binary with a Home version instead of Enterprise.

  • remote cli (ssh)
  • stop cells service (systemctl stop cells)
  • figure where the cells binary is located (I think you can use a command such as which cells) otherwise look inside the service file to see where the binary is located (/etc/systemd/system/cells.service)
  • remove the old cells binary
  • wget/curl a cells home binary, you can find the latest version here(Index of /pub/cells/release/3.0.3/linux-amd64)
  • make sure that your cells home binary has the same name as the old binary and it also is in the same location (for the scripts to run correctly)
  • restart the service (systemctl restart cells)
  • it should be working.

What are the credentials?

Will the setup wizard run without prompting for a key?

I think you can find them inside a readme or txt file inside the OVF archive when extracted.

If you replace the binary with the home version, it will not prompt you for a key.

I pulled the executable from the link you provided. I placed it in /opt/pydio/bin/cells, overwriting the previous entry, and assigning the same user/group/permissions: pydio, pydio, 755.

I had stopped the service cells before, and started again after, but the installer in the web page still prompted for the license key. I rebooted the system, and now the web portal hangs with a message “Server is starting”.

The logs for service cells are as follows:

Started Pydio Cells.
2022-01-12T13:53:31.120Z        ERROR   pydio.grpc.policy       Could not prepare start         {"error": "unsupported driver type: "}
2022-01-12T13:53:31.181Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.update       Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.181Z        INFO    pydio.gateway.data      Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.182Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.data.sync    Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.182Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.data.sync    Starting umbrella service pydio.grpc.data.sync. with sources    {"sources": []}
2022-01-12T13:53:31.182Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.statics      Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.182Z        ERROR   pydio.grpc.token        Could not prepare start         {"error": "unsupported driver type: "}
2022-01-12T13:53:31.183Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.registry     Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.183Z        ERROR   pydio.grpc.acl  Could not prepare start         {"error": "unsupported driver type: "}
2022-01-12T13:53:31.183Z        ERROR   pydio.grpc.config       Could not prepare start         {"error": "unsupported driver type: "}
2022-01-12T13:53:31.183Z        ERROR   pydio.grpc.oauth        Could not prepare start         {"error": "unsupported driver type: "}
2022-01-12T13:53:31.184Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.broker       Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.235Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.data.objects Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.236Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.data.objects Starting umbrella service pydio.grpc.data.objects. with sources {"sources": []}
2022-01-12T13:53:31.236Z        ERROR   pydio.grpc.user-key     Could not prepare start         {"error": "unsupported driver type: "}
2022-01-12T13:53:31.243Z        INFO    pydio.gateway.proxy     Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.244Z        INFO    pydio.gateway.rest      Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.426Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.log  Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.427Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.docstore     Started
2022-01-12T13:53:31.428Z        INFO            Activating privacy features... done.
2022-01-12T13:53:31.428Z        INFO            https://0.0.0.0
2022-01-12T13:53:31.428Z        INFO            http://0.0.0.0
2022-01-12T13:53:31.428Z        ERROR   pydio.grpc.chat Could not prepare start         {"error": "unsupported driver type: "}
2022-01-12T13:53:31.428Z        ERROR   pydio.grpc.meta Could not prepare start         {"error": "unsupported driver type: "}
2022-01-12T13:53:31.428Z        ERROR   pydio.grpc.user-meta    Could not prepare start         {"error": "unsupported driver type: "}
2022-01-12T13:53:32.326Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.jobs Started
2022-01-12T13:53:32.372Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.tasks        Started
2022-01-12T13:53:32.388Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.timer        Registering Job {"job": "flush-mailer-queue"}
2022-01-12T13:53:32.388Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.timer        Registering Job {"job": "internal-prune-jobs"}
2022-01-12T13:53:32.389Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.timer        Started
2022-01-12T13:53:32.668Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.mailer       Starting mailer with queue 'boltdb'
2022-01-12T13:53:32.669Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.mailer       Starting mailer with sender 'disabled'
2022-01-12T13:53:32.669Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.mailer       Started
2022-01-12T13:55:16.830Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.tasks        Run Job flush-mailer-queue on timer event Iso8601Schedule:"R/2012-06-04T19:25:16.828696-07:00/PT5M"
2022-01-12T13:58:16.830Z        INFO    pydio.grpc.tasks        Run Job internal-prune-jobs on timer event Iso8601Schedule:"R/2012-06-04T19:25:16.828696-07:03/PT10M"

Hello @brainchild,

It seems that there are more scripts involved, therefore it might be a bit more complicated to work with.
If you still wish to use the image appliance, you will have to look for more clues on what is happening internally, otherwise can you use another solution like docker ?

If you still want to make the appliance work:

Few hints, there are 2 scripts that are running when starting the ovf, there is install-cells.service which is running the first time and once the installation is done it shuts off and cells.service takes the lead.

I haven’t succeeded in cleanly launching the install-cells service. On various attempts, I have seen different errors.

The appliance has some confusing features.

For example, /usr/local/bin/install-cells makes calls to jq, but the executable is not in the path.

Just a quick following on this one:

  • jq is installed via yum early in the process of generating the CentOS 7 image we use to build the appliance
  • the appliance rely on a custom install-cells systemd service that is launched by default until it completes successfully and configures the cells service that is then used to manage the server.

So as explained by @zayn the best option you have should be to

  • spin a new VM
  • ssh into it
  • change the binary in /opt/pydio/bin
  • reboot the VM

From there you have good chances that the install script works with no further tweak.

You will find useful info if something goes wrong the journalctl log file:
journalctl -fu install-cells --since "10 minutes ago"

I have not tried it as it is thought for enterprise only. But I am quite confident it should work…

I’m not sure what you’re suggesting that is different from what I had done.

yes, in such case it would help to have more info on:

Or it will be hard to help. And one more time, this image is meant for enterprise customers, so I can try helping you tweak it, but not much more…

I understand. If you would be willing to review it, I would try to create a more objective and deterministic explanation of events.

This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.