KB483867: System User Settings for Registering Services Before Installing MicroStrategy 2020 on Linux

Starting with the release of Strategy ONE (March 2024), dossiers are also known as dashboards.
When installing or upgrading Platform Analytics and/or the collaboration Server to Strategy 2020, the Repository will be installed together. During this process, mstr (the non-root) system user will be created by the installer unless you provide a non-root system user to register services. In order for the installer to execute these operations, you must ensure that the mstr user created by the installer, or the system user provided to register services, will be accessible by the installer.

How does the installer work?

The installer creates a system user by executing the command,

useradd

. The new user, mstr, will inherit default settings from

/etc/default/useradd

. One of the variables in this file is

SHELL

, which will specify what login shell the created user will use. The shell

/bin/bash

is a common example. However, if

SHELL 

is set to

nologin

, meaning the new user is not able to log in, the installer will fail to switch (

su

) to mstr, even after the user is created. As a result, it fails to provide Repository functionalities and availability to support Platform Analytis and the Collaboration Server.

How do I prepare my user settings before installing 2020?

Prior to installing Strategy 2020, it is important to ensure the Strategy installer will have access to the system user that will register services. This means that the installer must be able to login by using the command

su

.
If you are installing as the root, and no system user is specified during the installation steps, then the mstr user will be automatically created and the user has to be available for login. If you are using this approach, ensure that

SHELL 

is not set to

nologin

. If it is set to

nologin

, modify the shell to bash at the time of installation.

#useradd default fileGROUP=xxxHOME=xxxINACTIVE=xxxEXPIRE=SHELL=/bin/bashSKEL=xxxCREATE_MAIL_SPOOL=xxx

If the modification is not an option, an existing system user with the login shell set to something other than

nologin 

has to be provided to register services. The following is located in the

/etc/passwd

file.

user1:x:100:101::/home/user1:/bin/bash

NOTE: Apply this step only when upgrading the Intelligence Server from a prior version (9.x, 10.x, or 2019) to Strategy 2020 Update 2 or a later version.
 
In Linux OS, the Intelligence Server requires your user to have a nice value limit of 20 (you can check your machine’s limit by executing a

ulimit -e 

command). The limit allows time-critical requests, such as interactive Dossier manipulations, to be executed with high OS-level thread priority for a potential response time improvement, especially under a high system load. To learn more about this prioritization mechanism and how to set up the correct

nice

limit, please visit this page.