Install or Upgrade API Connectivity Manager

Follow the steps in this guide to install or upgrade NGINX Management Suite API Connectivity Manager.

Before You Begin

Security Considerations

To ensure that your NGINX Management Suite deployment remains secure, follow the recommendations in this section:

Install NGINX Management Suite and its modules on a dedicated machine (bare metal, container, cloud, or VM).
Make sure that no other services are running on the same machine.
Make sure that the machine is not accessible from the Internet.
Make sure that the machine is behind a firewall.

Installation Prerequisites

Important:
Before you can install this module, you need to have NGINX and ClickHouse installed on your system. Additionally, you will need to add the NGINX Management Suite repository. The Prerequisites topic has detailed instructions on how to fulfill these requirements.

Dependencies with API Connectivity Manager

API Connectivity Manager depends on the platform capabilities of Instance Manager. The following table lists the minimum versions of Instance Manager required for API Connectivity Manager:

API Connectivity Manager	Instance Manager Dependency
1.6.0	2.10.0–2.10.1
1.5.0	2.9.0 and later
1.4.0–1.4.1	2.7.0 and later
1.3.0–1.3.1	2.6.0 and later
1.1.0–1.2.0	2.4.0 and later
1.0.0	2.3.0 and later

To ensure API Connectivity Manager’s new features work correctly, you may need to install or upgrade Instance Manager to the minimum version specified. If Instance Manager is not installed, API Connectivity Manager will install the latest version. If the installed version is below the minimum required version, API Connectivity Manager will upgrade Instance Manager to the latest version. Otherwise, API Connectivity Manager will leave Instance Manager unchanged.

Important:
If you’re installing API Connectivity Manager in an offline environment and the minimum required version of Instance Manager is not installed, the API Connectivity Manager installer will exit. You’ll need to install Instance Manager manually before installing API Connectivity Manager.

To install the latest version of API Connectivity Manager, run the following command:
```
sudo yum install -y nms-api-connectivity-manager
```

To install the latest version of API Connectivity Manager, run the following commands:
```
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nms-api-connectivity-manager
```

Enable and start the NGINX Management Suite services:
```
sudo systemctl enable nms nms-core nms-dpm nms-ingestion nms-integrations nms-acm --now
```
NGINX Management Suite components started this way run by default as the non-root nms user inside the nms group, both of which are created during installation.
Restart the NGINX web server:
```
sudo systemctl restart nginx
```

Post-Installation Steps

The following steps may be optional, depending on your installation configuration.

(Optional) If you used a custom address, username, or password or enabled TLS when installing ClickHouse, follow the steps in the Configure ClickHouse guide to update the /etc/nms/nms.conf file. If you don’t do so, NGINX Management Suite won’t be able to connect to ClickHouse.
(Optional) If you use Vault, follow the steps in the Configure Vault guide to update the /etc/nms/nms.conf file. If you don’t do so, NGINX Management Suite won’t be able to connect to Vault.
(Optional) If you use SELinux, follow the steps in the Configure SELinux guide to restore SELinux contexts (restorecon) for the files and directories related to NGINX Management suite.

Accessing the Web Interface

To access the NGINX Management Suite web interface, go to https://<NMS_FQDN> for your NGINX Management Suite host and log in.

The default administrator username is admin, and the generated password was displayed in the terminal during installation.

Add License

A valid license is required in order to use API Connectivity Manager.

Download License

To download a license for NGINX Management Suite:

Go to the MyF5 Customer Portal and sign in.
On the top menu, select My Products & Plans > Trials.
In the My Trials list, select your your NGINX Management Suite trial.
Select the Licenses and Certificates link.
On the Getting started panel, select Download License. The license .lic file is saved to your system.

Apply License

To upload and apply a license for NGINX Management Suite:

Go to the FQDN for your NGINX Management Suite host in a web browser and log in.
Select the Settings gear icon.
On the Settings menu, select Licenses.
Select Upload License.
Locate the .lic file that you downloaded to your system, then select Upload.

Upgrade API Connectivity Manager

Note:
When upgrading API Connectivity Manager, you may need a newer version of NGINX Management Suite. The installation process will notify you of any version requirements before upgrading API Connectivity Manager and any dependent packages, including NGINX Management Suite. You may cancel the installation process if you want to back up NGINX Management Suite before upgrading.

CentOS, RHEL, RPM-Based
Debian, Ubuntu, Deb-Based

To upgrade to the latest version of API Connectivity Manager, run the following command:
```
sudo yum update -y nms-api-connectivity-manager
```

To upgrade to the latest version of the API Connectivity Manager, run the following command:
```
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade -y nms-api-connectivity-manager
```

Restart the NGINX Management Suite platform services:
```
sudo systemctl restart nms
```
NGINX Management Suite components started this way run by default as the non-root nms user inside the nms group, both of which are created during installation.
Restart the NGINX web server:
```
sudo systemctl restart nginx
```
(Optional) If you use SELinux, follow the steps in the Configure SELinux guide to restore the default SELinux labels (restorecon) for the files and directories related to NGINX Management suite.

What’s Next

Set Up the Data Plane

API Connectivity Manager requires one or more data plane hosts for the API Gateway.

Complete the following steps for each data plane instance you want to use with API Connectivity Manager:

Install NGINX Plus R24 or later
Install NGINX njs module
Install the NGINX Agent on your data plane instances to register them with NGINX Management Suite.