This guide walks you through a complete S4E On-Prem installation on a Linux server using the provided setup package.

Before You Start

Ensure you have:

• A server meeting the system requirements.
• The setup package received from your S4E account representative.
• The harbor.enc file (encrypted registry credentials) from your S4E representative.
• Your S4E API key from app.s4e.io (Settings > API Tokens).
• sudo access on the target server.

Step 1: Transfer the Setup Package

Copy the setup package and harbor.enc to the server:

scp setup-package.tar.gz USER@SERVER_IP:/tmp/
scp harbor.enc USER@SERVER_IP:/tmp/

On the server, extract and place in the standard location:

sudo mkdir -p /opt/s4e/setup
sudo tar -xzf /tmp/setup-package.tar.gz -C /opt/s4e/setup --strip-components=1
sudo cp /tmp/harbor.enc /opt/s4e/setup/harbor.enc
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /opt/s4e

Step 2: Create Your Configuration File

sudo cp /opt/s4e/setup/setup.conf.example /opt/s4e/setup/setup.conf
sudo nano /opt/s4e/setup/setup.conf

Required Fields

Hardware Thresholds

The installer checks hardware before proceeding. Adjust these if your environment differs:

MIN_CPU_CORES=32
MIN_RAM_GB=96
MIN_DISK_GB=512

Optional: SMTP Configuration

If you need outbound email notifications (alerts, reports), configure SMTP:

SMTP_HOST=smtp.company.com
SMTP_PORT=587
SMTP_USER=[email protected]
SMTP_PASSWORD=your_smtp_password
SMTP_USE_TLS=true
SMTP_USE_SSL=false
SMTP_VERIFY_SSL=true
SMTP_DEFAULT_FROM=[email protected]
SMTP_DEFAULT_FROM_NAME=S4E

Leave these empty if email is not required.

Optional: DNS and AI

# DNS server for worker containers (default: 8.8.8.8)
WORKER_DNS=8.8.8.8

# OpenAI key for AI Smart Assistant (optional)
OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...

Step 3: Run the Installer

If you have harbor.enc (recommended):

cd /opt/s4e/setup
sudo nohup bash setup.sh --key YOUR_DECRYPTION_KEY > /tmp/s4e-setup.log 2>&1 &

If you set Harbor credentials directly in setup.conf:

cd /opt/s4e/setup
sudo nohup bash setup.sh > /tmp/s4e-setup.log 2>&1 &

Monitor progress in real time:

tail -f /tmp/s4e-setup.log

The installer will:

1. Preflight checks -- verify CPU, RAM, disk, and network connectivity.
2. Install dependencies -- Docker, Docker Compose, Nginx (if not present).
3. Generate secrets -- random passwords for all databases and services.
4. Configure Nginx -- generate TLS certificates and subdomain configs.
5. Pull Docker images -- download all service images from Harbor.
6. Start containers -- bring up all services in dependency order.
7. Run database migrations -- apply schema changes.
8. Sync cloud data -- pull scan definitions and templates from S4E Cloud.
9. Post-flight setup -- initialize Gitea, Portainer, create admin account, and verify services.

Installation typically takes 10-20 minutes depending on network speed.

A detailed log is also written to /opt/s4e/setup/setup.log with timestamps.

Step 4: Configure DNS or Hosts

At the end of installation, the script prints a block of host entries:

<SERVER_IP>  cert.<domain>
<SERVER_IP>  app.<domain>
<SERVER_IP>  admin.<domain>
<SERVER_IP>  api.<domain>
<SERVER_IP>  core.<domain>
<SERVER_IP>  sse.<domain>
<SERVER_IP>  rmq.<domain>
<SERVER_IP>  adminer.<domain>
<SERVER_IP>  portainer.<domain>
<SERVER_IP>  git.<domain>

Replace <SERVER_IP> with your server's actual IP address and <domain> with your S4E_BASE_DOMAIN.

For testing: Add these lines to /etc/hosts on each machine that needs access.

For production: Create DNS A records pointing each subdomain to the server's IP.

Step 5: Trust the TLS Certificate

The installer generates a self-signed CA certificate. Visit https://cert.<domain> and follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the certificate for your operating system.

Step 6: Access the Platform

Step 7: Verify the Installation

Check that all containers are running:

cd /opt/s4e/setup
docker compose --env-file .env ps

All services should show Up or Up (healthy). If any are unhealthy, check their logs:

docker compose --env-file .env logs core --tail 50
docker compose --env-file .env logs base --tail 50

Test the core API:

curl -sk https://core.<domain>/api/health/ready

Useful Commands

All commands run from /opt/s4e/setup:

Uninstalling

To stop all services and remove containers:

cd /opt/s4e/setup
docker compose --env-file .env down

Next Steps

• Environment variables -- customize service behavior.
• Monitoring & Logs -- monitor your installation.
• Troubleshooting -- resolve common installation issues.