If you're a Managed Hosting (SaaS) customer, this topic doesn't apply to you.

Blackboard Learn is based on an Apache™ Tomcat-only architecture, which no longer requires the installation of an HTTPD service (Apache or IIS). As a result, this release requires specific operating system configuration changes prior to installation that were not necessary for previous versions of Learn. Please read this section carefully before proceeding.

This section covers the steps for configuring the servers and installing Blackboard Learn on Unix or Windows environments, target architecture, and troubleshooting the installation process. This section also contains valuable information if you are upgrading Blackboard Learn.

These steps require that system architecture choices be met in advance of running the installer itself. The following table presents these with a brief description of the activity:

Activity Description
Determine operating system, database, and system architecture Select your operating system, database, and determine whether you require one, two, or load-balanced server environment. See Installation and Update Environment.
Set up the application server and supporting systems Install and configure the chosen operating system, database software, storage, and load balancer. Test and ensure that the servers, storage, and load balancer work as expected.
Set up the Learn database  
(Optional) Set up database clustering and storage Set up database high availability.
(Optional) Set up file system storage Set up remote file system storage.
(Optional) Set up load balancer Set up and configure the load balancer.
Complete the pre-installation checklist This checklist confirms that appropriate pre-install steps have been taken.
Complete the pre-installation worksheet This worksheet provides a record of installation settings.
Prepare installation properties The new Blackboard Learn installer does not have a User Interface. As such, there are no forms available for collecting the data at install time. In order to specify this information, the installer requires a flat file containing the configuration information previously entered during installation.

After you have completed the activities in the previous table, you may proceed with the installation of Blackboard Learn, configure the Load Balancer, and optionally set up Blackboard Learn to run behind a web server.


Ready to install?

Follow this step-by-step guide to install Blackboard Learn successfully.


After the install

Blackboard Learn 9.1 2014 and later requires TLS. TLS serves to guarantee the authenticity of your server. Self-signed certificates such as the one installed by the Blackboard Learn installer do not provide a TLS-required chain of trust. Chain of trust provides the Certificate Authority which guarantees the authenticity of the certificate identifying the server. For this reason, a non-commercial self-signed certificate is not suitable for connecting to SafeAssign or Blackboard Cloud Services, which require a commercial Certificate Authority.

More on configuring Blackboard Learn to use TLS

More on additional optional configurations after you install or upgrade Blackboard Learn

More on improving the performance of Blackboard Learn

More on the back-end administration of Blackboard Learn, including how to integrate with an existing authentication system