1. Installing the connectit CLI #

The connectit CLI is used to manage the Docker-based Nimbra Edge installation. Its primary purpose is to install the core system and the video and thumb appliances. It has some secondary usages as well that we will touch on towards the end of this section.

The goal with this section is to install the connectit CLI and see what options it provides.

While the connectit CLI by itself has no dependencies and can run on any Linux system in order for it to do anything useful (such as installing the different components) the system needs the following dependencies:

• docker
• docker compose v2

1.1 Installing docker #

The connectit installer requires docker and docker compose v2 to be installed on the system. How they are installed varies by operating system.

While many operating systems include docker and docker compose not all include docker compose v2. That is why you will follow the official docker installation instructions in this tutorial.

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

# Install the docker packages
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ca-certificates curl
sudo install -m 0755 -d /etc/apt/keyrings
sudo curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/debian/gpg -o /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
sudo chmod a+r /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc

# Add the repository to Apt sources:
echo \
  "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/debian \
  $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME") stable" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update

# Install the docker packages
sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io docker-buildx-plugin docker-compose-plugin

1.2 Installing the connectit CLI #

The connectit CLI is what is used to manage the installation as well as install and uninstall the different components.

curl --output connectit https://docs.cnctit.io/releases/connectit-R3.24.2
chmod +x connectit

Test that the CLI works by running ./connectit --help

$ ./connectit --help
Tool for installing and managing Nimbra Edge.

Usage: connectit <COMMAND>

Commands:
  install    Install a Nimbra Edge component
  upgrade    Upgrade a Nimbra Edge component
  license    Manage licenses
  uninstall  Uninstall a Nimbra Edge component
  region     Manage regions
  backup     Create, get and restore backups
  help       Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -h, --help
          Print help (see a summary with '-h')

  -V, --version
          Print version

Examples:

# Install Nimbra Edge core system
./connectit install core

# Install Nimbra Edge video appliance
./connectit install video --url https://example.test --name video-0

# Install Nimbra Edge thumbnail appliance
./connectit install thumb --url https://example.test --name thumb-0

The CLI help provides details on the various command and options it has and can be very helpful when managing your Docker-based Nimbra Edge installation.

1.3 Exploring the CLI #

The CLI has a number of subcommands that you can list with the --help flag. To get more information about a specific subcommand simply add --help after the subcommand, for example if we are interested in what you can install you can run:

$ ./connectit install --help
Install a Nimbra Edge component.

You likely want to start by installing Nimbra Edge core. Once that is installed you can proceed with the video and thumb
appliances.

The video and thumb appliances require a Nimbra Edge system to connect towards.

Usage: connectit install <COMMAND>

Commands:
  core   Install Nimbra Edge Core (control plane and web interface)
  video  Install a video appliance to this machine, used for routing video traffic
  thumb  Install a thumb appliance to this machine, used for generating thumbnails
  help   Print this message or the help of the given subcommand(s)

Options:
  -h, --help
          Print help (see a summary with '-h')

Try a couple of different subcommands and read their help outputs to get a feel for what the CLI is capable of.