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 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.

See Supported Docker Engine versions under Requirements to know which Docker version is supported in each Nimbra Edge release.

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt update
sudo apt 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:
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-$VERSION_CODENAME}")
Components: stable
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF

sudo apt update

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

# Add Docker's official GPG key:
sudo apt update
sudo apt 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:
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.sources <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://download.docker.com/linux/debian
Suites: $(. /etc/os-release && echo "$VERSION_CODENAME")
Components: stable
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc
EOF

sudo apt 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-R3.26.2
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
  certificate  Manage Nimbra Edge core TLS certificate
  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 appliances.

The video 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 core thumbnailing mode
  edge-connect  Install an Edge Connect appliance on this machine, used for video inputs and outputs.
  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.