For those of you in a hurry there are currently two available installation scripts and a windows based installer which will get a MeshCentral2 instance up and running in a matter of minutes.

For Amazon EC2 users who want to manage 100 or fewer devices:

1. Launch a t3, nano, or t3 micro EC@ instance with Amazon Linux 2
2. Open TCP ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS) and 4433 (CIRA)
3. Log in as “ec2-user”
4. Run the following commands:

wget http://info.meshcentral.com/scripts/mc-aws-linux2.sh
chmod 755 mc-aws-linux2.sh
./mc-aws-linux2.sh

This will first download the fast install script, and then run it. This script will install Nodejs, install MeshCentral, configure systemd and start the server. If you are running a larger instance such as t3.small, t3.medium or even larger then the script below will do the same as the one above, but also installs and configured MongoDB.

wget http://info.meshcentral.com/scripts/mc-aws-linux2-mongo.sh
chmod 755 mc-aws-linux2-mongo.sh
./mc-aws-linux2-mongo.sh

Whichever script you choose, immediately after running, try accessing the server via web browser. MeshCentral will only take a minute or two on this first run to create certificates and then be up and running. The very first account created on the server will become the site administrator so don't waste any time getting this account created. As soon as you have the administrator account created, move on to the Official MeshCentral User's Guide or the configuration guides of this wiki for more information about configuring and using your server.

For Microsoft Azure users who wish to manage 100 or fewer devices:

1. Use a small B1s instance with Ubuntu 18.04
2. set the username to “default” (in all lower case)
3. Open ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS), and 3389 (for CIRA) using the basic network profile
4. Run the following commands:

wget http://info.meshcentral.com/scripts/mc-azure-ubuntu1804.sh
chmod 755 mc-azure-ubuntu1804.sh
./mc-azure-ubuntu1804.sh

In this case, port 3389 will be used to receive Intel AMT/CIRA connections instead of the standard port 4433. Once the above scripts complete, try accessing the server via web browser. MeshCentral will only take a minute or two on this first run to create certificates and then be up and running. The very first account created on the server will become the site administrator so don't waste any time getting this account created. As soon as you have the administrator account created, move on to the Official MeshCentral User's Guide or the configuration guides of this wiki for more information about configuring and using your server.

For Windows users who want to manage 100 or fewer devices, the MeshCentral Windows Installation Tool is available. This installer tool will detect, and if needed install Nodejs from the official Nodejs website. We recommend only running this installer on a modern (8.1 or higher, or Server 2012r2 or higher) version of Windows.

During installation, the installer will promp you for the following settings:

1. Multi-user Server: Enabling this option, the server will be open to any user with a web browser. Users will be able to create accounts and begin managing the computers associated with their respective accounts. If this option is disabled (unchecked) the server will run in single user mode. There will be no log in screen and the MeshCentral web application will be accessible only from the machine it is installed on.
2. Auto-update Server: When this option is enabled the server will check for and automatically install any available updates each night between midnight and 1:00am local time. Note that the server will be unavailable until the update process is completed.
3. Server Mode:
   1. LAN Mode: Recommended for small installations within a local network. The server does not need a static IP Address or public DNS record in order to operate.
   2. WAN Mode: The server WILL require a static IP and public DNS record in order to operate. You will need to enter the server's IP Address or or DNS Name into the “Server Name” field. This is the name/address agents and browsers will use to communicate with the server and if it is not entered correctly, MeshCentral will not work.
   3. Hybrid Mode: Hybrid mode essentially means the server will operate in both AND and WAN modes. You will still be required to have either a static IP or public DNS record to enter into the “Server Name” field, but the server will also be available to internal network systems without any additional internal DNS records or other configuration.
4. If you are unsure, we recommend choosing the default settings and installing in LAN mode. This will allow you to manage systems on your internal network and become familiar with MeshCentral.

Once installed, MeshCentral runs in the background as a Windows service and can be accessed via a web browser using the link provided by the installer. The installer configures MeshCentral to run on ports 80 (HTTP), 443 (HTTPS), and 4433 (Intel AMT/CIRA). The installer will add firewall rules to allow incoming connection on these ports. In LAN mode, the installer also configures and allows incoming connections on UDP port 16990 (used for server discovery inside the network).

The Windows Installer can be run again to re-install, update, or uninstall MeshCentral. When updating, the installer compares the installed version with the latest version available on NPM.