Prior to installing Roll Call Connect, there are several pre-installation steps that need to be accomplished as outlined below.
Get a fixed IP for your location
You will need to obtain a fixed or static IP for your site from your ISP (Internet Service Provider). This will ensure that the traffic being forwarded to your site will not encounter a problem due to a changing IP address. There is usually a monthly cost for this depending on your internet package.
Register a domain for use with Roll Call Connect (optional)
Although this step is optional, we recommend that you obtain a domain for use with Roll Call Connect rather than using the IP address from step 1. Using a domain will allow your users to recognize where they are going when they get into Connect (i.e. connect-yourorg.com). There are many sites that can be used to purchase and register domains. Pick your favorite.
Set the IP address of your domain
Once you have a domain, edit the A Record for the domain to point it to the fixed IP address obtained in step 1. This will allow the DNS lookup tables to forward traffic to your specific IP address when the domain is used. Refer to the documentation from the site where you registered the domain for more information.
Get an SSL certificate
For security purposes, we highly recommend that Roll Call Connect be accessed using HTTPS rather than HTTP. To access using HTTPS you will need to purchase an SSL Certificate. An SSL certificate is tied to your IP or domain and Company and is valid for a certain period of time.
These certificates have an expiration date and will need to be periodically renewed in order to remain valid. There are many companies that sell SSL Certificates. If you’d like, you can obtain the necessary SSL Certificate from By The Book – just contact us for pricing. If By The Book hosts your Roll Call Server, we can provide you with SSL access for Roll Call Connect for an additional monthly cost. Several files will be generated during this process. It is extremely important that you maintain backups of these files. Later in this document we will discuss what you do with these certificate files.
Configure the machine(s) for Apache Web Server and Roll Call Server
Although you can access Roll Call Connect via Roll Call’s built in web server, we recommend that you also install Apache’s web server. You will need to install Apache Web server on a machine and you will need to install Roll Call Server on a machine – either a Mac or a PC. They can be on the same machine or a different machine.
There are several steps you will want to ensure are in place. • Set the Power Options/Energy Saver so that the machine will never go to sleep. It is Ok for the display to go to sleep. • We recommend that you have 8GB of RAM on the machine or higher. The minimum is 4GB. • If you are running a firewall on the machine, make sure to open an exception for the port that your Roll Call Connect traffic will be using (default is 443). If Roll Call Server is running on a different machine than Apache, also open up the port that Roll Call’s web server will use (default is 80). • Write down the current IP address of the machine.
Make modifications to your Router to support Roll Call Connect
By default, HTTPS (SSL) traffic uses port 443. You will need to log into your Router and open up the firewall for TCP/IP port 443. You will be setting this in the port forwarding section of your Router’s settings. Forward the traffic coming in on this port to the IP address of the machine running your Apache Web Server (or Roll Call Server if not running Apache). If you are already using port 443 for something else, you can change this port to whatever you want to and forward traffic on that port. If you want to use a port other than 443, that port will need to be specified in the URL for Roll Call Connect (i.e. https://connect-yourorg.com:
You will also want to reserve the IP address of the machine running the Apache Web Server and the machine running Roll Call Server - if they are different. The best way to do this is through the Router. Look in the documentation for the Router to see if you can define DHCP Reservations. If you cannot do this via the Router, you will need to manually fix the IP on the machine(s) running your Web Server and Roll Call Server.
Install and start Apache Web Server
We recommend installing Apache Web Server to handle the incoming traffic. Apache’s web server is widely known and trusted. It handles security and volume very well. Please refer to the section below entitled Install and start Apache Web Server for details.
Test default Apache Web Server
Once you have the default installation for Apache installed and started, you can open a browser and type in your URL for Roll Call Connect without the https. If the initial configuration is working properly and traffic is being forwarded correctly, you should get a response back “It Worked!” on your web browser. If not, you will need to resolve any problems. If you have successfully followed these steps, you have finished the pre-installation steps. The next section will outline the steps for installing and configuring Apache Web Server and Roll Call Connect.