[deprecated] Installing Smarty Lite on Debian 8, 9

We do not recommend doing a fresh installation of the product on these OS versions, as soon Smarty will stop supporting them.

Below are the instructions for installing Smarty Lite on a server with Debian Jessie and Stretch OS. For information about setting up certain functions or services of the Smarty Middleware platform, which you will not find here, you should look for on the help page of the full Smarty version: link

You will need SSH access to the server with root privileges. Installation will be done in console mode via terminal commands. If you need to run the sudo command to gain root privileges, you must run the following command before starting the installation:

sudo su

Installing required packages and libraries

Set dependencies using apt:

apt update
apt install git python-dev libtiff-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev libfreetype6-dev liblcms2-dev libwebp-dev python-tk uwsgi uwsgi-plugin-python redis-server build-essential wget pwgen libmysqlclient-dev nginx 

Next, install the pip utility, it will be required to install the python libraries:

wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/2.7/get-pip.py && python get-pip.py && rm get-pip.py 

Next, you need to download the smarty-lite and python2.7-jsonrpctcp installation deb packages and install them:

dpkg -i smarty-lite*.deb
dpkg -i python2.7-jsonrpctcp_*.deb

After installing the main packages, you need to install the python libraries used in Smarty. To do this, run:

pip install -r /usr/share/microimpuls/smarty-lite/requirements.txt

Installing a DBMS for Smarty Lite 

Smarty Lite supports various DBMS, in the basic version it is recommended to use MySQL:

apt install mysql-server

Create a user to connect Smarty Lite to the database and specify the password in Smarty Lite settings:

export DBPASSWORD=`pwgen -s 16`
echo "CREATE DATABASE smarty CHARACTER SET = utf8;" | mysql -u root
echo "SET default_storage_engine=InnoDB;" | mysql -u root
echo "CREATE USER 'smarty'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY '$DBPASSWORD';" | mysql -u root
echo "GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON smarty.* TO 'smarty'@'%';" | mysql -u root
echo "FLUSH PRIVILEGES;" | mysql -u root
sed -i -e 's/PUT DB PASSWORD HERE/'"$DBPASSWORD"'/g' /etc/microimpuls/smarty-lite/smarty-lite.py

The last command replaces the line «PUT DB PASSWORD HERE» with the automatically generated password in the file /etc/microimpuls/smarty-lite/smarty-lite.py — Smarty Lite configuration file.

The Smarty Lite configuration file defaults to connecting to a locally installed MySQL database (or compatible MariaDB), but you can install the database on another machine if necessary.

Preparing the nginx Web Server and uWSGI Application Server Configuration

Register the secret key for the operation of the internal security mechanisms of Smarty Lite:

export SECRETKEY=`pwgen -s 32`
sed -i -e 's/PUT RANDOM SECRET KEY HERE/'"$SECRETKEY"'/g' /etc/microimpuls/smarty-lite/smarty-lite.py

Activate the Smarty Lite configuration for nginx and uwsgi:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/smarty-lite /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/smarty-lite
ln -s /etc/uwsgi/apps-available/smarty-lite.ini /etc/uwsgi/apps-enabled/smarty-lite.ini

Create a directory for nginx cache and logs:

mkdir /var/cache/nginx
mkdir -p /var/log/nginx/microimpuls/smarty-lite

Change the limit of open sockets for optimal uwsgi work:

echo "net.core.somaxconn=4096" >> /etc/sysctl.conf
sysctl -p

Set the correct permissions for the directories for logs and file uploads in Smarty:

chown -R www-data:www-data /var/log/microimpuls
chown -R www-data:www-data /usr/share/nginx/html/microimpuls

License Key Installation

Next, you need to register a license key.

To obtain a license key, you need to use the HW key — the fingerprint of the machine on which Smarty Lite is installed. To get it, you need to run uwsgi:

/etc/init.d/uwsgi restart

And then in the file /var/log/uwsgi/app/smarty-lite.log find the HW key value, or use the command:

cat /var/log/uwsgi/app/smarty-lite.log | grep "Exception: Key incorrect, HW key"

For example, the resulting HW key will be as follows:

9eb4a0c2b360c93e32cf2471780cda494705f0a9d026c69fe033d8c8

This value must be inserted into the corresponding field in the license generation window in the operator’s personal account, and then copy the resulting key with all the license parameters that need to be registered in the configuration file /etc/microimpuls/smarty-lite/smarty-lite.py.

License generation is done by clicking the «Generate a new license key» button in the corresponding product in the PA.

The license and all parameters are copied using the «Copy» icon in the line with the license key.

Setting the database schema

Install the Smarty Lite database schema using the built-in data migration mechanism:

python /usr/share/microimpuls/smarty-lite/manage.py migrate --settings=settings.smarty-lite

Services start

Let’s restart nginx and uwsgi with the current settings:

/etc/init.d/nginx restart
/etc/init.d/uwsgi restart

Setting system settings and example configuration

To quickly start using Smarty Lite, we have prepared a command that will set the system settings and create sample data — TV channel sets, EPG, tariffs, streaming services and other objects necessary for the operation of the IPTV & OTT service. To do this, run:

python /usr/share/microimpuls/smarty-lite/manage.py setup_initial_data --settings=settings.smarty-lite

Then you will be able to edit them and add your details.

Configuring Regular Commands in Crontab

For Smarty Lite to work correctly and update subscriber data, you need to configure crontab to execute commands on a schedule, for this, add the following lines at the end of the /etc/crontab file:

*/1 * * * * root python /usr/share/microimpuls/smarty-lite/manage.py cache_channel_list --settings=settings.smarty-lite
0 5,9,13 * * * root python /usr/share/microimpuls/smarty-lite/manage.py epg_import --settings=settings.smarty-lite
0 3 * * * root python /usr/share/microimpuls/smarty-lite/manage.py clean_old_messages --days_count 3 --settings=settings.smarty-lite

The first command updates the TV channel cache. The second command imports the EPG (TV guide) every day 3 times — at 5:00, 9:00 and 13:00 server time. The third command clears old undelivered text messages and commands (with a creation date older than three days).

Creating a User and Getting Started

Management of the IPTV & OTT service in Smarty Lite is carried out through the Web control panel.

Create a user with super-administrator rights to access the control panel:

export ADMINPASSWORD=`pwgen -s 16`
python /usr/share/microimpuls/smarty-lite/manage.py create_user --settings=settings.smarty-lite --reset_password=False --username=admin --password=`echo $ADMINPASSWORD` --is_admin=True --client_id=1 --is_superuser=True
echo $ADMINPASSWORD

The last command will display the generated password — save it.

Then open the Smarty Lite control panel http://X.X.X.X:8180 in the browser and log in with the created user (in our example, this is admin and the password generated above):

Next, you need to install and configure the subscriber portal by connecting it to the Smarty Lite API. Through the portal, the subscriber gains access to IPTV & OTT services.