Introduction

This document is a summary of the VIVO installation process. For information about this release, consult the VIVO 1.6 Release Announcement. Links to this and other documentation can be found on the support page at VIVOweb.org.

These instructions assume that you are performing a clean install, including emptying an existing database, emptying the VIVO home directory, and removing a previous installation from the Tomcat webapps directory. VIVO may not work as expected if you install over an an earlier version. If you are upgrading an existing service, please consult the Upgrade Instructions for VIVO release 1.6.

The section entitled A simple installation describes a standard, simple installation for those who want to get VIVO up and running. The second called Installation options section describes several choices; some are intended for a full-scale production installation of VIVO, and some are intended for a person who is developing VIVO on their own machine.

Where is VIVO on your computer?

Before beginning the installation, let's look at the four locations on your computer that will hold VIVO.

The VIVO distribution directory

This is created when you unpack the VIVO distribution file (see Download the VIVO source code, below). This is where you will create your build.properties file (see Specify build properties, below), and where you will make any modifications to the VIVO theme or code. You can create this wherever you choose.

VIVO inside Tomcat

When you run the build script to compile and deploy VIVO (see Compile and deploy, below), the files will be deployed to a directory inside Tomcat. This is the actual executing code for VIVO, but you won’t need to look at it or change it. If you need to change VIVO, make the changes in the distribution directory, and run the build script again. Tell the build script where to find Tomcat by setting tomcat.home in the build.properties file (see Specify build properties, below).

The VIVO home directory

This directory contains the runtime configuration properties for VIVO. VIVO will also use this area to store some of its data. Uploaded image files are stored here, and the Solr search index is stored here also. This is also a place for the files or RDF data that will initialize the VIVO knowledge base. You can create this wherever you choose. Tell VIVO where to find the home directory by setting vitro.home in the build.properties file (see Specify build properties, below). You must create this directory before starting VIVO. You must create the runtime.properties file in this directory (see Specify runtime properties, below), and you must ensure that Tomcat has permission to read and write to this directory when it runs.

The VIVO knowledge base

By default, nearly all of the data that you enter into VIVO will be stored in MySQL. The actual location of this data depends on what system you have, and on how you install MySQL (see Install required software, below). but you won’t need to know the location. You will access the data through VIVO, or occasionally through the MySQL client application.

After the installation, what next?

When you have VIVO up and running, please read the Site Administrator's Guide.