Basic Step-by-Step Deployment from Repository

This section will guide you through the FindFace Multi basic step-by-step deployment process. Follow the instructions below minding the sequence.

Tip

Be sure to learn the FindFace Multi architecture first.

Important

This section doesn’t cover the Video Recorder deployment. You can find the step-by-step instruction on this subject here.

Important

If you are located in Russia or Belarus and intend to use Video Recorder, before you start deploying, you need to contact support@ntechlab.com to get the MongoDB distribution package. Then follow the installation instructions in the section Troubleshoot MongoDB distribution.

In this section:

Install APT Repository

First of all, install the FindFace apt repository as follows:

1. Download the installer file findface-multi-1.2-and-server-5.2.run.

2. Put the .run file into some directory on the designated host (for example, /home/username).

3. From this directory, make the .run file executable.

   chmod +x findface-multi-1.2-and-server-5.2.run
   

4. Execute the .run file.

   sudo ./findface-multi-1.2-and-server-5.2.run
   

   The installer will ask you a few questions and perform several automated checks to ensure that the host meets the system requirements. Fill out the prompts appropriately once requested. The questions and answers are the following:

   1. Product to install: FindFace Multi.

   2. Installation type: repo: Don't install anything, just set up the APT repository.

   3. Neural network models to install if necessary. To select a model(s), deselect all those on the list by entering -* in the command line, then select the required models by entering their sequence numbers (keyword): for example, 1 3 4. Enter done to save your selection and proceed to another step.

      Important

      You must install a detector model for at least one object type (face, body, or car).

   After that, the FindFace apt repository will be automatically installed.

Prerequisites

FindFace Multi requires such third-party software as PostgreSQL, Pgbouncer, NATS, etcd, and memcached. Do the following:

1. Install the prerequisite packages as such:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install -y postgresql-10 nats-server etcd memcached pgbouncer
   

2. Open the /etc/memcached.conf configuration file. Set the maximum memory in megabytes to use for memcached items: -m 1024. Set the maximum item size: -I 16m. If one or both of these parameters are absent, add them to the file.

   sudo vi /etc/memcached.conf
   
   -m 1024
   -I 16m
   

3. Give a strong password to the ntech user (9T3g1nXy9yx3y8MIGm9fbef3dia8UTc3 in the example below). Output the credentials to the pgbouncer user list.

   echo '"ntech" "9T3g1nXy9yx3y8MIGm9fbef3dia8UTc3"' | sudo tee -a /etc/pgbouncer/userlist.txt
   

4. Configure pgbouncer. In /etc/pgbouncer/pgbouncer.ini, add the ffsecurity database to the databases section. Configure named parameters, as shown in the example below. Parameters other than those must be commented out.

   sudo vi /etc/pgbouncer/pgbouncer.ini
   
   [databases]
   ffsecurity = dbname=ffsecurity host=localhost port=5432 user=ntech
   [pgbouncer]
   pidfile = /var/run/postgresql/pgbouncer.pid
   listen_addr = 127.0.0.1
   listen_port = 5439
   unix_socket_dir = /var/run/postgresql
   auth_type = plain
   auth_file = /etc/pgbouncer/userlist.txt
   pool_mode = transaction
   server_reset_query = DISCARD ALL
   max_client_conn = 16384
   default_pool_size = 20
   syslog = 1
   

5. Enable the prerequisite services autostart on boot and re-launch the services:

   sudo systemctl enable postgresql@10-main.service nats-server etcd.service memcached.service pgbouncer.service
   sudo systemctl restart postgresql@10-main.service nats-server etcd.service memcached.service pgbouncer.service
   

Provide Licensing

Important

See Licensing Info to learn about the NtechLab licensing policy.

To provide the FindFace Multi licensing, deploy findface-ntls, license server in the FindFace core.

Important

There must be only one findface-ntls instance in each FindFace Multi installation.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y findface-ntls
sudo systemctl enable findface-ntls.service && sudo systemctl start findface-ntls.service

Deploy Main Database

In FindFace Multi, the main system database is based on PostgreSQL. To deploy the main database, do the following:

1. Open the pgbouncer list of users /etc/pgbouncer/userlist.txt. Copy the ntech user’s password (9T3g1nXy9yx3y8MIGm9fbef3dia8UTc3 in the example below).

   sudo cat /etc/pgbouncer/userlist.txt
   
   "ntech" "9T3g1nXy9yx3y8MIGm9fbef3dia8UTc3"
   

2. Using the PostgreSQL console, create a new user ntech with the copied password, and databases ffsecurity and ffcounter in PostgreSQL.

   sudo -u postgres psql
   
   postgres=# CREATE ROLE ntech WITH LOGIN PASSWORD '9T3g1nXy9yx3y8MIGm9fbef3dia8UTc3';
   
   postgres=# CREATE DATABASE ffsecurity WITH OWNER ntech ENCODING 'UTF-8' LC_COLLATE='en_US.UTF-8' LC_CTYPE='en_US.UTF-8' TEMPLATE template0;
   
   postgres=# CREATE DATABASE ffcounter WITH OWNER ntech ENCODING 'UTF-8' LC_COLLATE='C.UTF-8' LC_CTYPE='C.UTF-8' TEMPLATE template0;
   

   Tip

   To quit from the PostgreSQL console, type \q and press Enter.

3. Allow authentication by UID of a socket client in PostgreSQL. Restart PostgreSQL.

   echo 'local all ntech peer' | sudo tee -a /etc/postgresql/10/main/pg_hba.conf
   
   sudo systemctl restart postgresql@10-main.service
   

Deploy FindFace Core

To deploy the FindFace core, do the following:

Tip

You can find the description of the FindFace core components and their configuration parameters in Architecture and Components in Depth.

1. For FindFace Multi on GPU, install NVIDIA drivers.

   Important

   Be sure the restart the server after the NVIDIA drivers installation is complete. Otherwise, the subsequent installation of the GPU-based components experiences a failure.

2. Install the FindFace core components:

   On CPU:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install -y findface-tarantool-server findface-extraction-api findface-sf-api findface-upload findface-video-manager findface-video-worker-cpu findface-liveness-api
   

   On GPU:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install -y findface-tarantool-server findface-extraction-api-gpu findface-sf-api findface-upload findface-video-manager findface-video-worker-gpu findface-liveness-api
   

   Note

   If you have several video cards on your server, see Multiple Video Cards Usage.

   Important

   Be sure to manually install neural network models on the host(s) with findface-extraction-api.

3. In the /etc/findface-sf-api.ini configuration file, enable the allow-return-facen parameter.

   sudo vi /etc/findface-sf-api.ini
   
   ...
   limits:
     ...
     allow-return-facen: true
   ...
   

4. Open the /etc/findface-video-worker-cpu.ini (/etc/findface-video-worker-gpu.ini) configuration file. Specify the following parameters:

   • In the mgr-static parameter, specify the findface-video-manager host IP address, which provides findface-video-worker with settings and the video stream list.

   • In the capacity parameter, specify the maximum number of video streams to be processed by findface-video-worker.

   • In the streamer section, specify the IP address and port to access the Video Wall. The streamer port must be set to 18999. Set tracks = true to improve how the object bboxes are displayed on the Video Wall.

   sudo vi /etc/findface-video-worker-cpu.ini
   sudo vi /etc/findface-video-worker-gpu.ini
   
   mgr-static=127.0.0.1:18811
   
   capacity=10
   
   [streamer]
   #------------------------------
   ## streamer/shots webserver port, 0=disabled
   ## type:number env:CFG_STREAMER_PORT longopt:--streamer-port
   port = 18999
   
   ## streamer url - how to access this worker on streamer_port
   ## type:string env:CFG_STREAMER_URL longopt:--streamer-url
   url = 127.0.0.1:18999
   
   ## use tracks instead detects for streamer
   ## type:bool env:CFG_STREAMER_TRACKS longopt:--streamer-tracks
   tracks = true
   

5. Enable the FindFace core services autostart and launch the services.

   On CPU:

   sudo systemctl enable findface-extraction-api findface-sf-api findface-video-manager findface-video-worker-cpu findface-liveness-api
   sudo systemctl start findface-extraction-api findface-sf-api findface-video-manager findface-video-worker-cpu findface-liveness-api
   

   On GPU:

   sudo systemctl enable findface-extraction-api findface-sf-api findface-video-manager findface-video-worker-gpu findface-liveness-api
   sudo systemctl start findface-extraction-api findface-sf-api findface-video-manager findface-video-worker-gpu findface-liveness-api
   

Deploy FindFace Multi Application Module and Feature Vector Database

To deploy the FindFace Multi application module, do the following:

1. Install the findface-security, findface-security-ui, and findface-counter components. Enable the findface-counter autostart and launch the service.

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt install -y findface-security findface-security-ui findface-counter
   sudo systemctl enable findface-counter && sudo systemctl start findface-counter
   

2. Migrate the database architecture from FindFace Multi to PostgreSQL, create predefined user roles and the first administrator (a.k.a. Super Administrator).

   Important

   The Super Administrator cannot be deprived of its rights, whatever the role.

   sudo findface-security migrate
   sudo findface-security create_groups
   sudo findface-security create_default_user
   

3. Create a structure of the Tarantool-based feature vector database by executing the command below.

   sudo findface-security make_tnt_schema | sudo tee /etc/findface-security/tnt_schema.lua
   

4. Open the /etc/tarantool/instances.available/FindFace.lua configuration file. Check whether it contains the dofile command, meta_indexes and meta_scheme definitions, as in the example below.

   sudo vi /etc/tarantool/instances.available/FindFace.lua
   
   dofile("/etc/findface-security/tnt_schema.lua")
   -- host:port to bind, HTTP API
   FindFace = require("FindFace")
   FindFace.start("127.0.0.1", 8101, {
       license_ntls_server="127.0.0.1:3133",
       meta_indexes=meta_indexes,
       meta_scheme=meta_scheme
   })
   

   Important

   The IP address and port number specified in the shards section of the /etc/findface-sf-api.ini configuration file must be identical to those in the FindFace.start section.

   sudo vi /etc/tarantool/instances.available/FindFace.lua
   
   ...
   
   FindFace.start("127.0.0.1", 8101...)
   

   sudo vi /etc/findface-sf-api.ini
   
   storage-api:
     ...
     shards:
     - master: http://127.0.0.1:8101/v2/
     ...
   

   Important

   If you change the /etc/findface-sf-api.ini configuration file, be sure to restart the findface-sf-api service:

   sudo systemctl restart findface-sf-api.service
   

5. Enable the findface-tarantool-server service autostart and launch the service.

   sudo systemctl enable tarantool@FindFace.service && sudo systemctl start tarantool@FindFace.service
   

6. Open the /etc/findface-security/config.py configuration file. Specify the following parameters:

   Tip

   You can find the /etc/findface-security/config.py default version here.

   • SERVICE_EXTERNAL_ADDRESS: FindFace Multi IP address or URL prioritized for the Genetec integration and webhooks. If this parameter is not specified, the system will be using EXTERNAL_ADDRESS for these purposes.

     Important

     To use Genetec and webhooks, be sure to specify at least one of these parameters: SERVICE_EXTERNAL_ADDRESS/EXTERNAL_ADDRESS.

   • EXTERNAL_ADDRESS: (Optional) IP address or URL used to access the FindFace Multi web interface. If this parameter is not manually set, the system auto-detects it as the external IP address of the host.

     Note

     To access FindFace Multi, you can use both the auto-detected and manually set IP addresses.

   • VIDEO_DETECTOR_TOKEN: to authorize the video object detection module, come up with a token and specify it here.

     Tip

     It’s a good idea to generate a token by executing:

     pwgen -sncy 50 1|tr "'" "."
     

   • VIDEO_MANAGER_ADDRESS: IP address of the findface-video-manager host.

   • NTLS_HTTP_URL: IP address of the findface-ntls host.

   • ROUTER_URL: IP address of the findface-security host that will receive detected objects from the findface-video-worker instance(s). Specify either external or internal IP address, subject to the network through which findface-video-worker interacts with findface-security. Change the default port, subject to the redirect settings from HTTP to HTTPS, or omit it leaving only the IP address.

   • SF_API_ADDRESS: IP address of the findface-sf-api host.

   • DATABASES (section): fill it in as such: 'PORT': 5439, 'USER': 'ntech', 'PASSWORD': '<password from /etc/pgbouncer/userlist.txt>' (see Prerequisites).

   Tip

   If necessary, ensure data security by enabling SSL.

   Tip

   If necessary, set ’IGNORE_UNMATCHED’: True to disable logging events for the objects that have no match with the cards. Enable this option if the system has to process a large number of objects.

7. Generate a signature key for the session encryption (used by Django) by executing the command below. Specify this key as SECRET_KEY.

   pwgen -sncy 50 1|tr "'" "."
   

8. Start the services.

   sudo systemctl enable findface-security
   sudo systemctl start findface-security
   

9. Disable the default nginx server and add the findface-security server to the list of enabled servers. Restart nginx.

   sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
   
   sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/ffsecurity-nginx.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
   
   sudo nginx -s reload
   

10. Provide licensing:

    • Use the FindFace Multi main web interface to upload the license file you have prior received from your manager (Preferences -> License).

    • For the on-premise licensing via a USB dongle, insert it into a USB port.

    • For the on-premise licensing via hardware fingerprint, refer to Offline Licensing via Hardware Fingerprint.

    Important

    To log in for the first time, use the default Super Administrator account admin:admin.

Note

To create more users or change the Super Administrator password, refer to User Management.

Important

To preserve the FindFace Multi compatibility with the installation environment, we highly recommend you to disable the Ubuntu automatic update. In this case, you will be able to update your OS manually, fully controlling which packages to update.

To disable the Ubuntu automatic update, execute the following commands:

sudo apt-get remove unattended-upgrades
sudo systemctl stop apt-daily.timer
sudo systemctl disable apt-daily.timer
sudo systemctl disable apt-daily.service
sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Important

The FindFace Multi services log a large amount of data, which can eventually lead to disc overload. To prevent this from happening, we advise you to disable rsyslog due to its suboptimal log rotation scheme and use the appropriately configured systemd-journal service instead. See Service Logs for the step-by-step instructions.