Skip to content

Adapter Hub

Adapter Hub is a software component that allows adapters to run externally from the UNIVERGE Integration Platform. Adapter Hub can be installed on NEC provided hardware appliances, on a virtual machine on a Hypervisor, or customer provided hardware.

Adapter Hubs requires a license for each hub.

Hardware Requirements

Hardware Minimum
Memory 4GB
Processor >=1.4GHz with >=2 Cores/Virtual Processors
Storage 30GB of available space

If your system is installed on a Hypervisor, it should meet the requirements of that system in addition to the requirements listed here.

NEC recommends using Ubuntu Server Certified Hardware for 18.04 LTS. Refer to https://certification.ubuntu.com/server/ for more information.

Software Requirements

  • Operating System: Ubuntu Server 18.04 LTS (Download Ubuntu | Release Notes) - the operating system must be clean, no other software installed (including docker).
  • Use the Linux command timedatectl to verify that the system date, time, and time zone information is set correctly.
  • See Ubuntu Time Management for issues relating to your systems time settings.

Network Requirements

For details on setting up the network on Ubuntu, refer to Ubuntu network configuration

  • A network adapter which has Internet access and an IPv4 address is required to install and update this software
  • If needed private DNS servers must be configured in Ubuntu
  • If used, HTTP or HTTPS web proxies must be configured in Ubuntu
  • Additional steps may be needed during the install of the Integration Platform, if the following networks are used within your network environment: 172.17.0.0/16, 172.18.0.0/16, 10.255.0.0/16, 10.116.187.0/24, 10.117.0.0/16
  • Adapter Hub uses TCP port 443 to connect out to the UIP system.
  • Adapters may use other network ports to connect to other systems. These will be documented in the Adapter documentation.

Download Install Script

After connecting a terminal to the Adaper Hub machine, execute the following command to download the installation script. Note that the first command has capital letter "O" (not a zero digit) after the hyphen.

curl -Ofv https://nec-downloads.com/adapterhub/hub-install.sh

If you are unable to download the install script you may need to configure a http/https proxy in Ubuntu.

Run Install Script

The installation script will download and install a small number of required software packages on the target machine. Execute the following command with root privileges and monitor its progress.

sudo bash hub-install.sh

During the install you will be prompted to select a download region. Please select the number that best describes your NEC sales region. You will also be prompted to enter your repository credentials to allow access to the download. See the New Installation section for details on the account to be used.

The script will prompt you for details about your UIP configuration.

  • UIP Server URL is the websocket connection to your UIP server
    • Enter wss://FQDNofUIPSERVER
    • This is a secure connection and requires that your UIP server have a valid certificate installed
  • UIP Workflow Secret should match the External Adapter Secret configured in UIP.
    • See the Administration -> Workflow page in UIP
  • Adapter Hub Token must match the external token configured for this specific Adapter Hub on the Adapter Hub configuration page in UIP that identifies this specific hub.

Adapter Hub - Importing a Trusted CA

Follow this section when using Adapter Hub to securely connect to UIP Systems which use a certificate that is not signed by a widely-trusted Certificate Authority (CA). Often this is called an Enterprise CA.

This procedure requires the Administrator to copy a file to the Adapter Hub server. Copying this file securely is beyond the scope of this document but the administrator could use tools such as scp or sftp.

CA certificate files must comply with the following rules in order to be work with Adapter Hub:

  • Must use Base64 PEM certificate format. Certificate files with binary format (DER) are not supported.
  • Must have a .crt file extension.
  • Must not be expired or premature
  • Version field value must be V3 or higher
  • Basic Constraints field value property for Subject Type must be CA

After following running the Adapter Hub install script as instructed above copy the .crt file to the /etc/wfadapterhub/cacerts directory on the Adapter Hub server. Doing so will require escalated privileges using the sudo command. Then reboot the Adapter Hub Server

The same procedure can be used when the CA certificate expires or is re-issued to replace with a new one.

Adapter Hub UIP configuration

From the Adapters page in UIP click on the Adapter Hubs button to add/configure an Adapter Hub Adapter Hubs have 4 parameters

  • Name
    • The name used for this hub
  • Enabled
    • Check to enable a hub
    • Un-check to disable the hub (This stops all adapters on that hub)
  • Token
    • This token will be auto-populated and that values is normally able to be used
    • This token is a unique identifier for each hub
  • Description
    • Used to add a description for this hub

Adapter Hub Upgrade

The adapter Hub software only needs to be upgraded when a security issue is corrected or new feature is released. See Release Notes for more information. If a new installation script is needed it will be noted in the Release Notes.

To upgrade log in to the Adapter Hub and re-run the install script

sudo bash hub-install.sh