Working at OptimalBI, I am asked to install and configure a number of products be it for production workloads or internal evaluations. Some of these products require days of configuration (according to the vendor) or at the other end of the spectrum require a single click to install and configure. Luckily for me, Qlik Sense is very close to the latter.
Qlik Sense is really easy to install, simply download the file, run through the setup and perform a couple of configuration steps.
First of all, Qlik is currently a Windows only product; If you are already a Qlik Customer you can download the Windows installer from the Qlik support portal. Otherwise, like us, you may have to request the installer from the Qlik support team.
If you are installing on AWS like I did, make sure that:

• Your instance is Windows and meets the minimum requirements (At least 8GB Ram etc.)
• You have created an AWS security group that opens the correct ports, as I was only playing and testing I allowed all traffic (this is not ideal for real world usage) – Recommended settings
• You know the machine name(s) and IP addresses (used during install and config)

Installation

1. Run installer
2. Quick Install or Custom – I did Quick Install
3. Accept the license agreement
4. Central or Rim Installation – I did Central, A standalone installation.
5. Enter a newly created password for the Qlik Sense Repository Database super-user
6. Service Credentials – I went for the default ie Local System service credentials, however in a production environment would create a service user specifically for this
   Host Name – Left as the default, which is the Public DNS for the EC2 instance
7. Install
8. Installation Summary – if all goes well everything is running without errors

And that is it; well not exactly there are a couple of things you have to do before you can start to use.

Enter License Details

First, click on the Qlik Management Console shortcut. The very first time doing this, you need to enter the Site License details that were provided by Qlik. You can’t get past this point until you enter the correct details – I understand the server needs to have an internet connection at this point to make this process easier.
Once you have entered the License details and they are accepted you are prompted with a helpful message

You have successfully applied a license to the Qlik Sense server. Before users can begin to create and view Qlik Sense apps there are a number of common configuration items you may wish to review to ensure that users get the best experience possible. These includes:

• Connecting to a user Directory
• Allocating licenses for users
• Setting up permissions to create and read apps

The following guide walks through the most commonly used configuration steps when getting started with Qlik Sense.

View the guide for setting up your Qlik Sense Site

Configuration

Connecting to a user Directory

As I was only testing the product, I used the local users of the server so no set-up or sync was required except I needed to define/create some users on the server. Once the user has attempted to log on to the hub Qlik Sense will list the user so a license can be allocated. Note: If you want to use the user that did the install to use Qlik Sence Hub, you still have to allocate a license to it.
To automate the syncing of users see the ‘Connecting Qlik Sense to your user directory’ section here.

Allocating licenses for users

Full details of what and how to allocate Qlik Licenses are in the ‘Assigning licenses to users’  here.
Basically, you need to

• Navigate to ‘License and tokens’
• Select ‘User access allocations’
• Click Allocate
• Select the user you want and click allocate

Note: To get the user listed in Qlik Sense, get them to attempt to access. This will create an entry to enable you to allocate a license.

Whitelist server

One final thing I had to do is whitelist the server in Qlik, not sure if you have to do for all installs or just something that is required when running on AWS EC2’s.
When I tried to log on to the hub, I saw this message.

An Error occurred

Connection lost. Make sure that Qlik Sense is running properly. If your session has timed out due to inactivity, refresh to continue work.

A refresh didn’t work however a quick google did.

• Open Qlik Management Console
• Select ‘Virtual Proxies’ (Left-hand side menu)
• Select the Proxy and click ‘Edit’
• Select ‘Advanced’ (Right Hand Menu)
• Under Websocket origin white list, select ‘Add new Value’
• Enter appropriate name and/or IP (I entered 4 new values; machine name, public DNS name and the public and private IP – this may have been over kill but worked for my purposes)
• Close Management Console and test user in hub

A success you and your users should now be able to use Qlik Sense hub.
If you need help or pointers have a look at the awesome ‘how to’ youtube clips that can be found on community resource library here. To name a few the clips cover:

• Introduction and Getting Started
• Qlik Sense Key Capabilities
• Data Loading & Modeling
• App Development & Visualizations
• Tips, Techniques & Other Topics
• Qlik Sense Comprehensive Tutorials

Or if you need more details there is a range of documentation which can be found on their community resource library here
Could it get any easier, well actually as I write this I am having a play with Qlik’s Deployment Console, which installs (including launching AWS instances etc) and manages Qlik deployments from your desktop… I see another blog coming from me on this one.
Barry, Preventer of Chaos.