Installation

Desktop version

The desktop version assumes you are using OSX or Linux as your operating system, and that you have Python 2.7 installed.

1. Fetch the installer (for both Mac and Linux) .
2. Unpack the zip file.
3. cd into the directory it creates
4. type ./install to start the installation. Essentia will be installed by default to ~/.local/essentia
5. Add the executable directories to your $PATH environment variable.

Full example:

unzip essentia-standalone-latest.zip
cd essentia-standalone-latest
./install
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/essentia/bin
export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/.local/essentia/bin/aq_tool.osx/bin

The final line assumes you are using a mac. If on a linux system, use ‘aq_tool.x86’ instead. Also, the final two export commands assume you are using a Bourne shell (i.e. bash, zsh). C-Shell users would use:

setenv PATH $PATH:$HOME/.local/essentia/bin
setenv PATH $PATH:$HOME/.local/essentia/bin/aq_tools/bin

Once installed and the paths set, Essentia can be invoked from the command line using ess.

Essentia is self contained, and to uninstall, one only needs to execute rm -rf ~/.local/essentia.

Cloud version (Free AMI)

The cloud version requires that the user has an Amazon Web Services account. New users can get more information from our Getting Started on AWS guide.

We have created AMIs which any AWS user can launch to form a private, AWS account specific master node. Once active, you can log into the instance and start Essentia. There is a version that requires a license key to run, and a paid version which doesn’t need a key but instead charges by the hour.

A trial license key is free, and can be obtained via an easy signup. It grants the user 30 days of unlimited use. Note however that standard EC2 rates still apply, but during the trial the cost of using Essentia is free.

1. Go to your AWS console, where all services are listed.
2. Click on EC2.
3. Create on the ‘Launch Instance’ button. This will take you to a site where you can select what OS and software you would like to access.
4. Select the ‘community AMI’ tab, and search for ‘AuriQ’
5. The list of results will include the free version, as well as a link to the paid ‘marketplace’ version. Select one to continue.
6. You will be asked to select a node type. For almost all applications, an m3.medium is the safest choice, but the t2 line is OK for testing or other work that does not require high performance.

At this point the decisions available will depend on your account and zone. You may have the ability to launch Essentia into ‘EC2-Classic’ mode, or from within a VPC. The latter is preferred for security. Whatever you choose, you will eventually be asked to configure a security group. This is important enough that we created a separate walk-though for it: AWS Security Groups

Once your instance is configured and launched, you should copy your license key (if using the free version) to it using the following command from a terminal:

scp -i myinstance.pem essentia_license ec2-user@public.ip.add:.

The public IP will be listed on your AWS console.

Cloud version (Paid AMI)

We also offer an unlocked version of the software on the Amazon Marketplace. This version has no restrictions or time limits, but does cost a nominal free for each hour it is in use. Prices range from $0.07-$2.00 per hour depending on instance type used.

To get up and running with this AMI, the instructions are similar to the free version:

1. Go to your AWS console, where all services are listed.
2. Click on EC2.
3. Create on the ‘Launch Instance’ button. This will take you to a site where you can select what OS and software you would like to access.
4. Select the ‘Marketplace’ tab, and search for ‘AuriQ’
5. The list of results should include the latest release of Essentia, Essentia (HVM). Click on Previous versions.
6. Click the Version drop down and select 2.1.7.
7. Follow the setup instructions.

AWS additional notes