Installation Manual

On this page, you'll learn:

• How to install the MSP Challenge client for Windows 10
• How to install the MSP Challenge client for macOS
• How to install the full MSP Challenge Simulation Platform for Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016/2019

Client-only installation instructions

This is useful if you only want to quickly try out MSP Challenge, or if you are an end user getting ready to join an MSP Challenge session. This is because you will only install the client application, i.e., the application that end users use. After installation you can log on to one of our demo servers. Note that this is suitable for demonstration purposes only (so not full-on sessions) as the demo servers are accessible to anyone anywhere in the world and reset themselves daily.

Instructions for Windows 10

You have two options:

1. Download the ZIP file from the Download page, unpack the MSP Challenge folder contained in it to a location of your choice (e.g. the Documents folder or the Desktop), open that folder, and run MSP Challenge.exe. If you like, you can create a Shortcut to MSP Challenge.exe and put it on your Desktop or your Start Menu.
2. Or download the latest client-only installer from the Download page and run it. You'll be presented with an installation wizard. Just follow the steps. The installer will add a shortcut to your Start menu, and optionally one on your Desktop (depending on whether you selected that option during installation).

Instructions for macOS

Simply download the latest client-only ZIP from the Download page, and allow macOS to unpack it first. If you like, you can then drag the MSP Challenge app over to Applications and/or your Dock.

Full platform installation instructions

Only install the full platform if you intend to turn your computer into a server, i.e., a computer open to participants with the client to connect to, thus a computer open to outside connections.

Fresh installations

The full platform is Windows 10 or Windows Server 2016/2019 only. Just download the full-platform installer from the Download page and run it.

You'll be presented with an installation wizard. Just follow the steps. The installer will add the following shortcuts to your Start menu, and optionally on your Desktop (depending on whether you selected that option during installation):

• MSP Challenge Client: the same client application as you would get with client-only installation
• MSP Challenge Server Manager: the web application with which you set up your MSP Challenge sessions
• MSP Challenge Server Configuration Editor: an application with which you can create or alter session configurations

The server-side of MSP Challenge functions as a web application. The full platform therefore also installs and configures XAMPP, specifically a bundle of Apache2 web server, MariaDB database server and PHP7. It sets up a random root password for your MariaDB root user.

Note: As of version 4.0-beta9, the full platform uninstaller will also completely uninstall XAMPP. Previous versions did not do this during uninstallation.

Upgrading from a previous version

When you already have a previous version of the full platform installed, you can upgrade it to ensure that your existing sessions will not be lost.

All you need to do is select the Upgrade option in the installation wizard:

This is important, because if you don't do this, your sessions will get lost!

The downside of doing this is that XAMPP will not get upgraded. None of the server prerequisites will.

Note: after upgrading, if the Server Manager returns errors, it might require a 'hard refresh'. Press the Shift key and click on the Refresh button in your browser while logged on to the Server Manager to do this.

If you would rather also upgrade XAMPP, then ...

1. Backup your session databases:
   1. Save them using the Save button on the Sessions tab or under the session info button.
   2. Download their ZIP files from the Saves tab.
   3. Upload these ZIP files again through the Upload button under the Saves tab.
   4. Reload those reuploaded saves as new sessions using the appropriate Load button on the Saves tab or under the save info button.
   5. Connect to those new sessions with the client to make sure this all worked.
2. Backup any specific file alterations you might have made:
   1. Perhaps you altered /Server/api_config.php? If so, back it up or just note the alterations you made so you can redo them later.
   2. Perhaps you altered /Server/ServerManager/config.php? If so, back it up or just note the alterations you made so you can redo them later.
3. Uninstall the previous version of the full platform completely.
4. Uninstall XAMPP if that didn't get uninstalled already. (as of 4.0-beta 9 XAMPP gets uninstalled automatically as well).
5. Now run the new full platform installer as normal (full installation).
6. You might need to redo any file changes (see step 2).
7. If you log on to the Server Manager, you will notice all your sessions have been lost.
8. You might need to go to the Server Manager Settings tab to redo your configuration under Server Address or anywhere else.
9. If you saved your old server sessions (and tested them) in step 1, you can now upload their ZIP files through the Saves tab once again, and then reload them as new sessions.