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NPM Installation for Advanced Users

For advanced users or administrators, MeshCentral can be installed with NPM.
NPM is a NodeJS package manager that can be used through the command line tool; npm.

Note

As a prerequisite, NodeJS and NPM must be installed on host OS and HTTP/HTTPS proxy settings maybe required if server host resides behind a HTTP proxy server.

  1. To begin, start a command line terminal (Windows cmd/powershell or Linux shell) and type the following to verify if nodeJS and npm has been installed correctly as shown below:

    • a. To check on nodeJS installed version, type node –v and hit the enter key.
    • b. To check on npm installed version, type npm –v and hit the enter key.

  2. If MeshCentral installation is performed on a server host that resides behind a HTTP proxy, NPM’s proxy settings must be updated with respective proxy settings associated with the network environment.
    Skip this step if not applicable, and see examples below:

npm config set proxy http://proxy.com:88       # http proxy
npm config set https-proxy http://proxy.com:88 # https proxy
  1. Create a new directory MeshCentral, recommended on Linux inside the /opt directory and run the NPM install command as shown below:

Warning

Do not use sudo in front of npm install meshcentral.

mkdir -p /opt/meshcentral
cd /opt/meshcentral
npm install meshcentral

Note

To run MeshCentral as a service, run it using --install argument. Once running, start a web browser and access MeshCentral application with respective URL.

  1. Upon download completion, the server can be started with the commands below:

Warning

Do not run MeshCentral by going into the node_modules/meshcentral (with cd for example) folder as this may cause auto-install and self-update features to fail.
Instead, go into the directory above node_modules and run node node_modules/meshcentral.

node node_modules/meshcentral [arguments]

Note

If MeshCentral is started without any arguments;
default settings such as LAN-only mode will be in effect and user/administrator will only be able to manage computers that reside within the local network.

  1. To manage computers over the internet, the server needs to have static IP settings or a DNS record that resolves back to the right server.
    The mesh agents will be using this mechanism to call home to the MeshCentral server. For WAN or Hybrid mode, run one of the commands below.

Note

It is recommeded to use a valid configuration file, not to use command-line parameters.

node node_modules/meshcentral --cert servername.domain.com
node node_modules/meshcentral --cert hostname.domain.com
node node_modules/meshcentral --cert 1.2.3.4

Note

On first attempt running on WAN or Hybrid Mode: - Certificates will be generated for the first time and this may take a few minutes to complete.

It is advised to create an admin account immediately by navigating to https://127.0.0.1 (or the public hostname) with a web browser.