Zephyr Trial Installation for Windows

Owned by Kevin Pham (Deactivated)
Feb 12, 2020
7 min read

This page will guide you through the steps to install and set up Zephyr Standalone on Windows.

If you're ready to set up a production instance or have special installation requirements, refer to our production installation page.

This trial installation procedure makes use of the Embedded Database and be aware this is meant for trial instances as this will let you use Zephyr Standalone from a trial perspective. Most production instances use a different database as it provides better performance. If you plan to setup your trial instance for the purpose of migrating to a production instance, we recommend you to use a different database (MySQL/etc.).

Prerequisites

For an installation on Windows, please ensure you meet our minimum requirements:

1. Ensure the minimum system requirements:

OS

Windows Server 2008 / 2012 / 2016
Windows 7 / Windows 8 / Windows 10

CPU

Quad-core CPU Intel Pentium or AMD Opteron (2GHz or higher)

RAM

Minimum 8GB; Preferred 12GB

Disk Space

At least 5GB Free

Networking

Static IP address
REQUIRED Ports: 80, 443 (if HTTPS)
Firewall (if present): Allow ports 80, 443 (if HTTPS). Must support WebSocket protocol
Proxy (if present): Must support WebSocket protocol

Account

Administrator access to the machine 
Installer and services needs to be "Run As Administrator"

2. Ensure you have the Zephyr licenses available. Zephyr has moved to using 1 license file that includes all the features available for the Zephyr product (This includes both Zephyr and Vortex).

Installation Overview

The installation will consist of the following steps:

  1. Java JDK installation

  2. Elasticsearch installation and configuration

  3. Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package installation 

  4. Zephyr installation

The sections below will take you through each step separately.

Java JDK Installation

Zephyr Standalone requires Oracle JDK 1.8 to be installed.

1. Download Java Windows x64 from the Oracle website: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jdk8-downloads-2133151.html

You must download exactly this file: Windows x64 jdk-8u231-windows-x64.exe (210.18MB)

You must accept the Oracle terms of use and to do this, you must either create an Oracle account or login with an existing Oracle account to be able to download the file.

2. Once downloaded, run the installer and follow the default steps.

Next, configure the environment variables and set up the paths by following the steps below:

1. In the Windows Search Bar, type in "Edit the system environment variables" which is nested in the Control Panel.

2. The System Properties window will open and in this window, click on "Environment Variables…".

3. In the top window click on the Path and click on "Edit…".

4. A new window will open for the Edit environment variable. Click on "New…" and then click on "Browse.." to locate your Java bin folder. After this is done, click "OK".

The default location should be "C:\Program Files\Java\JDK_1.8.0_<version>\bin"

 

5. In the upper section, click on "New..." and fill our the Variable name and value.

For the "Variable name" type in: JAVA_HOME

For the "Variable value" click on "Browse Directory…" and locate the Java folder and press "OK".

The typical location for the Java folder is "C:\Program Files\Java\JDK_1.8.0_<version>"

 

6. Click "OK" to close the Environment Variables window and then click "OK" to close the System Properties window.

Checkpoint: Verify Java is Properly Installed

Before proceeding, follow the steps below to ensure that the correct version of Java is installed along with the Paths:

In the Windows Search Bar, type in "cmd" to open the Windows Command Prompt.
Type java -version (This will display the default version of java being used).
Ensure it says "Java version 1.8.0_231".

Elasticsearch Installation

Zephyr Standalone requires Elasticsearch 5.5.0 to be installed and configured properly.

1. Download Elasticsearch 5.5.0 from here: https://www.elastic.co/downloads/past-releases/elasticsearch-5-5-0

You must download the MSI (BETA) file.

2. Follow the instructions here: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/5.5/windows.html

You do not need to download the extra plugins as they are not crucial.

3. Once successfully installed, configure Elasticsearch:

1.Open "This PC" folder, click on the "View" tab and ensure that the "Hidden Items" checkbox is checked.

2. Navigate to your Elasticsearch.yml file.

The file can typically be found here "C:\ProgramData\Elastic\Elasticsearch\config"

3. Right click on Elasticsearch.yml and click on properties.

This will display the elasticsearch properties window.

4. Navigate to the "Security" tab and click on "Edit…"

5. For your user, ensure that you check the box "Allow" for "Full Control" and then click on "Apply" and "OK"

This changes the security permission for the Elasticsearch.yml file to allow the user to make changes to the file.

6. Open the Elasticsearch.yml file. Delete the existing content in the file. Afterwards, copy and paste the below configurations in the file and then save the Elasticsearch.yml file.

bootstrap.memory_lock: true cluster.name: zephyr http.port: 9200 node.data: true node.ingest: true node.master: true node.max_local_storage_nodes: 1 node.name: Node1 path.data: C:\ProgramData\Elastic\Elasticsearch\data path.logs: C:\ProgramData\Elastic\Elasticsearch\logs transport.tcp.port: 9300 indices.query.bool.max_clause_count: 9012

4. Restart the Elasticsearch service.

1.In the Windows Search Bar, type in "Services" which is nested in the Control Panel.

2. The System Properties window will open, in that window, click on "Services".

3. Find the Elasticsearch service and Click on "Restart Service".

Checkpoint: Verify Elasticsearch is Properly Installed

Before proceeding, follow the steps below to ensure that the correct version of Java is installed along with the Paths:

Open your browser and visit "localhost:9200".
Confirm you see the config file with the following values in your browser.

Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package Installation

Zephyr Standalone requires the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64) to be installed for the Embedded MySQL database.

  1. Download the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x64) from here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=14632

  2. Once downloaded, run the "vcredist_x64.exe" file.

  3. Follow the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package instructions on the installer. The installer is a straightforward download/install and afterwards, proceed with installing Zephyr.

Zephyr Installation

You're finally ready to install Zephyr Standalone.

Download the Zephyr Standalone Windows installer from here: https://support.smartbear.com/downloads/zephyr/. After downloading Zephyr, launch the installer and follow the steps below:

1. Double-click on the installer to open the installer, click on "Install" and then click "Next".

2. Review the requirements and ensure that your system meets the requirements. After reviewing, click "Next".

3. Review the mandatory acceptance of our Licensing Agreement before continuing and then click "Next".

4. Select the destination location of where the Zephyr server needs to be installed and then click "Next".

5. Select "Server deployment" for your installation and then click "Next".

6. Add the license file to the installer by using the "Browse..." button to navigate to the location of the license. Afterwards, click "Next".

7. Select "Standard installation" for the setup type for your instance and then click "Next".

8. Select "Embedded MySQL" for your Database Type and then click "Next".

9. Configure your Elasticsearch Host URL. The user should enter the hostname or IP address and port used by Elasticsearch. This should be set to "localhost:9300". After configuring this, click "Next".

10. Select the option(s) to create additional shortcuts on the desktop and add a shortcut to Quick Launch. Afterwards, click "Next".

11. The installer will now copy the files and start the services. Wait for the installer to finish this setup process before proceeding.

12. At the end of setup process, the Zephyr Server installation will be complete.

13. After waiting for your Zephyr instance to start, navigate to your Zephyr instance.

Zephyr URL: localhost/flex/html5

The image below refers to the Zephyr instance when you are booting it up for the first time. It may take some time for the instance to load and boot up.

Common Issues

The following are common issues you may encounter and how to solve them:

Zephyr installer does not run

If the Zephyr installer does not launch, check for an “error.txt” file in the same directory.

If the "error.txt" file has appeared in your directory, then double check the above steps. Ensure that all installs have been done correctly and both Elasticsearch and MySQL are running.