Qlik Alerting installation

Validate that your Qlik Sense license includes the Qlik Alerting attribute

Qlik Alerting uses an integrated license module with Qlik Sense. As the data source is setup, Qlik Alerting will read the licensing attributes from the Qlik Sense license data. There should be a Qlik Alerting attribute in this data that will provide all of the details required. In order to check that your license key includes the Qlik Alerting attribute, do the following:

In the Qlik Sense QMC navigate to License management > Site license.
Check the license details.
1. If you have a token-based license you should:
  1. Expand the LEF access section.
  2. Validate that the QLIK_ALERTING attribute is present in the license details.
  3. If no QLIK_ALERTING license attribute can be found, you may need to re-enter and re-validate your license.
2. For serial license keys you will need to:
  1. Retrieve the license Key, for example, 1234 0000 0000 1234.
  2. Go to lef1.qliktech.com and enter this license key without spaces.
  3. Click on captcha and click the request LEF.
  4. Validate that the QLIK_ALERTING attribute is present in the license details.
  5. If no QLIK_ALERTING license attribute can be found, you may need to wait for the license to refresh.

Install Qlik Alerting

Ensure you have installed NodeJS and MongoDB as per the Installation prerequisites instructions.

Do the following:

Check that the MongoDB service is running in the Windows services window, or verify that the server can access the external MongoDB instance.
Download the Qlik Alerting installer and save it to your hard drive.

The installer is available from Product Downloads. For more information, see Downloading installation files.
Right-click the Qlik Alerting Installer.exe file, and then click Run as Administrator.
If the User Account Control message appears, click Yes.
On the License Agreement screen, accept the license agreement, and then click Next.
If you are upgrading an existing installation, the Database Backup Confirmation screen appears.

Warning noteUpgrading may include irreversible database migrations. Before you continue, make sure that you have a full backup of the Qlik Alerting database so that you can restore it if needed.

Select I have backed up the Qlik Alerting database and I am ready to proceed, and then click Next.
On the Select Destination Location screen, select the installation folder, and then click Next.
On the MongoDB Configuration screen, enter the hostname or IP address and port of the shared MongoDB instance.

The default port is 27017.
On the Multi-Node Configuration (Optional) screen:
- For a single-node installation, leave the field blank, and click Next.
- For a multi-node installation, see Installing Qlik Alerting in a multi-node environment.
On the Ready to Install screen, click Install.
When the installation is finished, open Windows services and verify that all Qlik Alerting services are running. If any service is not running, start it.

For initial setup, you can now access Qlik Alerting in a browser on the server at https://localhost:4552.

You can also access the server from your desktop browser if the required firewall and server DNS settings are configured.

Qlik Sense connection configuration

Do the following:

Enter the following details for your Qlik Sense site.
- Qlik Sense hostname is the IP or DNS of the Qlik Sense Server. (This should be an allow-listed value in the Qlik Sense Virtual Proxy is the URL which you use to access the server from any desktop.)
- Qlik Sense Service listen port HTTPS is the HTTPS connection port for Qlik Sense. This will normally be the default value of 443 but if this has been customized you can change the value here. You can see if this and the following Qlik Ports have been customized in the Qlik Management Console (QMC) in the settings for the proxy you will be connection to.
- Qlik REST API listen port will default to 4243 as per the standard install of Qlik Sense.
- Qlik Repository API listen port will default to 4242 as per the standard install of Qlik Sense.
- Connect as user directory is the Qlik Sense directory that the above user is assigned to.
- Connect as user id is the Qlik Sense UserID that you will use to test the connection and run some of the background connection tasks.
  Information noteEnsure this user is a root admin in Qlik Sense or a user who can access all users, tasks, and apps. This user must also have a valid license in Qlik Sense.
- Filter for user fetch (optional) allows the limiting of the users that will sync across from Qlik Sense. See Filter users from Qlik Sense for details on the options and syntax to use.
- Virtual proxy prefix (optional) will remain blank by default. Qlik Alerting connects using the Windows authentication pattern. In most cases the ‘Central Proxy (Default)’ virtual proxy setup will work in this way so you can leave this field blank. If you have a different authentication setup, or wish to connect to a different virtual proxy, enter the Prefix for the virtual proxy in this field.
- Session cookie header name will default to X-Qlik-Session. This is the standard setup of the default virtual proxy. If you are connecting to different virtual proxy, this value will be changed (as it is distinct for each virtual proxy). Check the virtual proxy in the QMC to identify the value to enter here. It is common to use X-Qlik-Session-<Prefix> but this is not mandatory.
- Alias hostname allows you to enter a different URL for user access to the server and is used in all Qlik Sense links in emails and mobile notifications.
  - Ensure that this is the URL that users use to access the Qlik Sense environment from their browsers.
  - If users access with a different virtual proxy to the data connection above, add this virtual proxy to the URL, for example, qliksense.company.com/okta where okta is the user access virtual proxy prefix.
  - If you are using the Qlik Alerting extension and connecting to it with a proxy or reverse proxy, enter the server address in the Reverse proxy URL redirection field.
- Authentication specifies the authentication pattern. To enable single sign-on authentication using Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows credentials, select SSO. Then add the authentication URL in the Authentication URL field.
  For information on how to set up single sign-on authentication, see Configuring single sign-on from Qlik Sense Enterprise on Windows to Qlik Alerting.
On the right hand side use the buttons to upload your certificates that have been exported from Qlik Sense, you need only the client.pem and client_key.pem files.

See Exporting Qlik Sense certificates for instructions on how to obtain the certificates from Qlik Sense.

Information noteEnsure you have recently updated certificates from Qlik Sense as these exported certificates can be invalid after a Qlik Sense Enterprise upgrade. The Qlik Sense Enterprise February 2020 release was a release which requires all exported certificates to be regenerated.
Click Test Connection. You should see a message saying connection successful.
Click Save to save your configuration settings.

During this connection process the Qlik Alerting license attribute will be retrieved from Qlik Sense and all users will sync across (for the first time).

Qlik Alerting config settings

Enter the following details to ensure the Qlik Alerting host server is configured correctly.

Do the following:

Qlik Alerting Host Server Name:

Enter the public IP address or fully qualified domain name (DNS) of the server where Qlik Alerting is installed. This is used to generate email links, so use the external address you normally access from your desktop browser.
HTTPS port:

The default port for Qlik Alerting is 4552. You can change it if needed. If you use a custom port, be sure to open it in the firewall. For example, if Qlik Alerting is installed on a stand-alone machine, you could change the port to 443 (HTTPS), which allows users to access Qlik Alerting without specifying a port in their browser.

Information noteIf you change the HTTPS port, you must also update the port manually in the server's config file after completing this setup.

Email server configuration

You must configure the email server for Qlik Alerting to support password management and system notifications. This configuration is required even if you do not want to receive alert emails.

Do the following:

Enter the following email server details:
- Address: For example, smtp.domain.com
- Port No.
- Secured: SSL / TLS / None
  Information noteIf you select None, you may still need to adjust the TLS version for compatibility. From version 11.40, Node.js sets the minimum TLS version (tls.DEFAULT_MIN_VERSION) to 1.2 by default. If your email server uses TLS 1.1 or earlier, change this settings. For details, see Allow less secure TLS connections to your mail server.
- Authentication Method: Basic or Anonymous
- User name: This is typically the email for the account but can be an ID if required (see Test email address below if an ID is used).
- Password: This can be left blank if not required by your mail server.
- Default sender: Enter the email address that recipients will see as the sender. You can also include a display name, for example, "Qlik Alerting" <noreply@qlikalerting.com>.
- Test email address: Enter an email address for validating the connection and receiving test emails.
  Information noteA test email address is required if you use an ID in the Username field. The test connection validation will attempt to send an email to either the test email address or the username
Click Test Connection. A message appears at the bottom of the screen and a test email is sent if the configuration is valid.
Click Save to save your configuration.

To edit these settings at any time, go to Admin > Channels.

Make sure that the firewall settings allow communication with the mail server. If the connection fails, review logs in C:\ProgramData\QlikAlerting\email-messenger and open the most recent log file.

Allow less secure TLS connections to your mail server

We have encountered some environments where the connection to the mail server requires an additional setting to enable NodeJS to allow less secure connections. If you have done everything you think necessary to connect to your mail server and there is still an issue please check with your mail server administrator the TLS version that the mail server requires. To update this setting do the following:

Access the Qlik Alerting server via remote desktop.
Navigate to the C:\Program Files\Qlik Alerting\config folder.
Update the default.json file to include a new key "tlsMinVersion":1.1 before the gateway object. The values here can be 1.0 or 1.1 depending on the setup of the mail server and network architecture. The default value is 1.2 at this time.

Update the https key in the gateway object to false.

{
	"tlsMinVersion": 1.1,						
	"gateway": {
        "ip": "localhost",
        "httpsPort": 4552,
        "https": false
    },
    ...

If you have added other custom configuration changes (such as a connection to an external MongoDB instance) you may have multiple other attributes above the gateway object.
Restart the Qlik Alerting email messenger service to pick up the new settings.

Select an administration user

In order to manage the Qlik Alerting site an administration user must be present in the Qlik Alerting repository. Enter the domain\username of the administration user to search for the correct user.

If no email address is present for this selected admin user you will be prompted to add an email to ensure that you can set the password when first logging on.

This can occur when there are no emails stored in Qlik Sense.

Qlik Alerting will send you an email directly with a set password link. Click on this to set your password.

If for some reason you cannot find this email then go to the logon page https:\\Qlik AlertingServer:4552, click the forgotten password link, enter your username and click Recover Password.

Additional step if port was changed in Qlik Alerting settings step

This step is only required if the port was changed from the default 4552 port.

Do the following:

On the server navigate to C:\Program Files\Qlik Alerting\config.
Open the default.json file in a text editor.
Locate the httpsPort entry and change the value to match the port you entered in the Qlik Alerting settings step. For example:
```
{
	"gateway": {
        "ip": "localhost",
        "httpsPort": 443,
        "https": true
    },
    
```
Restart the Qlik Alerting Gateway service.

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