Getting Otter up-and-running takes just a few minutes: just download and run the installer. This guide will provide step-by-step instructions, as well provide some detail as to what's happening behind the scenes.
Otter doesn't have any intense server requirements, and supports all modern version of Windows that Microsoft supports (see Windows lifecycle fact sheet). The recommended requirements are:
Before installing, consider the following:
You can download the installer from inedo.com.
We always sign our installer packages. This signature can be seen when you run the installer and get a security warning, or right-click on the file for Properties and then look at Digital Signatures.
We've never had any issues with compromised installers (it's hosted on Amazon S3, which is quite reliable), but it doesn't hurt to make sure the signature is there. See KB#1113: Anti-malware False Positives, Code Signing, and Safety of Inedo Products for more information.
The installer requires administrative privileges to run and will attempt to escalate. It will then unpack the temporary files and begin installation verification.
Take a quick read of our Otter license agreement. Really, it's quick!
After accepting the license agreement, select the edition of Otter you'd like to use (Free, Enterprise Trial, or Enter Key).
After selecting the edition, just enter your name and email. The installer will try to get this from the currently logged in user. We promise to not fill your inbox with pictures of Otters Who Look Like Benedict Cumberbatch
Deploy to your favorite location, or just stick with the default of Program Files.
If you ran the installer with the embedded SQL Express, then you'll be able to select the option to install SQL Express.
Otherwise, you'll need to point to an existing server using a standard SQL Connection string. Note that if no database is specified in the connection string (which is the default), a database named ProGet will be created.
By default, the installer will configure Otter to use its own web server. This is the easiest to start with, and you can always switch to IIS hosting later.
If IIS is installed on the server, you will have the option of installing Otter in IIS. This will create an application pool and website in the local IIS configuration.
By default, the installer will use the NetworkService account to run the Otter Service and Web Application. We recommend sticking with this, and changing the account later if you need to.
Make sure everything here looks OK, and then click Install.
If any of the items indicate an error, you can click on it to go back to that page and fix it.
If you chose to have SQL Server Express installed, then the actual installation process will take a little while. On embarrassingly low-end servers (e.g. Intel Celeron processor and 256MB of RAM), we've seen this take as long as fifteen minutes.
While you wait, you can always peruse Otters Who Look Like Benedict Cumberbatch.
Clicking cancel (especially during the SQL Express installation) is not advised, as you may have to manually remove some bits of SQL Server using Add/Remove programs. Once everything's done, you'll be ready to start using Otter.
Click the absurdly large Launch Otter button, and your web browser will start up with http://localhost:«port-you-chose»/.
Note that on slower systems, the services take a little bit to spin up, so if you see a blank page, just refresh the page until it loads.
Once Otter loads, we suggest going through the Getting Started with Otter tutorial.
Is this documentation incorrect or incomplete? Help us by contributing!
This documentation is licensed under CC-BY-SA-4.0 and stored in GitHub.
