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ALVAO Server - manual installation

Create a new database

  1. From the ALVAO downloads page, download the DatabaseDeploy.zip file.
  2. Extract the ZIP package to any folder on the disk.
  3. Check that you have permission to create a new database on the target SQL Server.
  4. Use the DatabaseDeploy utility to create a new database.

ALVAO Asset Management Collector

Installation

  1. On the server where you want to run the Collector service, run the AlvaoAssetCollector.msi installation package.
  2. The installer will automatically install Collector as a service and start it.
Note:
In order to run ALVAO Asset Management Collector as an application, you must first stop its service.

Settings

  1. Stop the ALVAO Asset Management Collector service.
  2. Release AMCollector.exe from the installed folder.
  3. Use the Action - Settings command to set up the database connection.
  4. It is recommended to enable logging to the file and set the level to "status and errors".
  5. Set the ALVAO Asset Management Collector service to run under an account with administrator privileges. The services in Windows run by default with the permission "Local system account". In order to be able to detect stations on the network without using agents, the ALVAO Asset Management Collector service must run with administrator privileges.
  6. Enable the selected account to access the Alvao database and assign it the required database roles.
  7. In WebApp - Administration - Asset Management - Servers, enable the server with the Enable command.
  8. Run the ALVAO Asset Management Collector service again.
Tip:
Other Collector settings are done in Management in ALVAO WebApp in the Asset Management - Servers section.
Caution:
If you set the log detail in the file to the Detailed, the Collector will generate a large amount of data in the LOG file and the detection rate will be very slow. Therefore, setting it to Detailed is only recommended for troubleshooting and is not recommended for normal operation.
Note:
If you only want to run Collector as an application and have installed it with AM Console, you can run Collector from the Start - ALVAO - Asset Management Collector (in this case there is no need to install AlvaoAssetCollector.msi).
Note:
After a new installation, automatic retrieval of detections from the %ProgramData%\ALC\ALVAO Asset Management Collector\Detections folder is enabled by default.

ALVAO WebApp

Installation

  1. Make sure that the following components are installed on the server:
  2. We recommend creating a custom application pool ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 on IIS. This step is not strictly necessary to run the application, but it significantly affects the loading speed of the WebApp.
  3. Log in as administrator and run the installation package AlvaoWebApp.msi. If you have a problem with UAC, run the installation from the command line using msiexec -i AlvaoWebApp.msi.
  4. When installing, select the ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 application pool. If you did not create this AppPool in step 2, select .NET v4.5. For the Alvao WebApp, select pipeline: integrated.
  5. The installer will create a folder on disk (<InetPub>\wwwrootAlvao) and also a virtual directory in IIS (Alvao).
  6. Give the NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE account access to the Alvao database and assign it the required database roles. If you did not create a custom application pool in step 2, assign access and roles to the IIS APPPOOL\.NET v4.5 account.
  7. Go to ALVAO WebApp (http://localhost/Alvao) and in Administration under License, enter the activation key. Activation Key You can obtain a key from the Alvao system vendor. You can also request a temporary activation key to test the system at info@alvao.com. After entering the activation key, press Save.
    Note:
    When the database is activated, the activation key entered is verified over the Internet.
  8. More in Administration - Settings:
    • In the Messaging section, enter the SMTP server address, login credentials, and email address for sending messages from the Alvao system.
    • In the Active Directory section, set the Active Directory server address and default domain.
  9. In the ALVAO WebApp, edit the settings in Administration - Settings - WebApp.
  10. Fill in the WebApp (URL) path to the ALVAO WebApp folder. For example: . http://server/alvao.
  11. By default, after installation, the application displays time data in the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) time zone to users. If necessary, change the default time zone in WebApp - Administration - Settings - Languages and Time Zone.
Caution:
We recommend installing the ALVAO WebApp in a folder on IIS (e.g. intepub\wwwroot\Alvao) and not placing it directly in the root.

Settings

For proper functionality of ALVAO WebApp it is necessary to configure the user authentication method in IIS.

Available authentication methods:

  • Form Authentication
    • Authentication by entering username and password. For a permanent login without the need to enter a username and password, you can use the Permanently log in.
    • This method of authentication should be used if the WebApp is accessible from the Internet.
  • Windows Integrated Authentication
    • Authentication without the need to enter a username and password (in case of successful integrated authentication).
    • This authentication method is appropriate to use when both the solution teams and requesters are from Active Directory and working in a domain.
  • Integrated Windows and Forms Authentication (simultaneously)
    • WebApp first tries to authenticate the user using Windows. When this authentication fails (or is revoked by the user), the user is allowed to log in using a form.
    • This authentication method may not work properly due to technical limitations (see below).

Form Authentication

If you want to set up forms authentication:

  1. In IIS Manager, click on the application Alvao and then click Authentication.
  2. Make sure that Anonymous Authentication is enabled, Forms Authentication is enabled, and Windows Authentication is disabled.
  3. Open the Web.config file located in the ALVAO WebApp folder in a text editor.
  4. Make sure that the authentication attribute mode is set to Forms and the loginUrl parameter is set to ~/Account/Login.
Note:
For this authentication method, the options Logout and Change Password are available to the users.
Note:
If users are logging in with a password from Active Directory, the path to the AD server must be set in the ALVAO WebApp - Management - Settings - Active Directory.

Windows Integrated Authentication

To set up Windows Integrated Authentication:

  1. In IIS Manager, click on the application AlvaoWebApp and then click Authentication.
  2. Make sure Windows Authentication is enabled (and all others are disabled).
    Caution:
    Authentication must also be enabled on the website where the application is installed.
  3. Open the Web.config file located in the ALVAO WebApp folder in a text editor.
  4. Make sure that the authentication attribute mode is set to Windows.
  5. In the IIS root, set Feature delegation (Feature Delegation) - enable read or write in the following authentication modes: Anonymous and Windows.
Caution:
There are no options available for this authentication method Logout and Change Password.
Caution:
This authentication method cannot be used to authenticate users who are not imported from Active Directory.
Caution:
For this authentication method to work properly, you need to have Alvao server address on the intranet.

Windows and Forms Integrated Authentication (simultaneously)

If you want to use Windows integrated authentication for some computers and forms-based logon for other computers:

  1. In IIS Manager, click on the application Alvao and then click Authentication.
  2. Make sure that Anonymous Authentication is enabled, Forms Authentication is enabled, and Windows Authentication is enabled.
    Caution:
    Authentication must also be enabled on the website where the application is installed.
  3. Open the Web.config file located in the ALVAO WebApp folder in a text editor.
  4. Make sure that the authentication attribute mode is set to Forms and the loginUrl parameter is set to ~/Account/MixedModeLogin.
  5. Set Feature Delegation in the IIS root. - enable read or write in the following authentication modes: Anonymous, Forms, Windows.
  6. In WebApp- Administration - Settings - Integrated Authentication enter the IP address ranges of the computers on the internal corporate network for which integrated authentication is to be applied. For all other computers, forms-based authentication will be used.
Caution:
If Windows authentication is successful, the Logout and Change Password options are not available.
Caution:
For computers that will be authenticated in an integrated manner, the same restrictions and assumptions apply as for Windows integrated authentication, see the caveats in the previous section.

Database connection

Open the IIS Manager and select the ALVAO WebApp (Alvao). In the settings, click on the Connection Strings, click the string "Db" and set the correct path to the SQL server and database you created during installation (the default is localhost and the Alvao database). For example, you can use localhost for the SQL server and Alvao for the database. The connection string then looks like this:
Data Source=localhost\SQLEXPRESS;Initial Catalog=Alvao; Max Pool Size=2000; Integrated Security=True;TrustServerCertificate=True

The WebApp configuration is stored in the Web.config file in the ALVAO WebApp folder. It can also be edited manually by editing this file.

ALVAO Asset Management WebService

ALVAO Asset Management WebService is part of the ALVAO Asset Management product. It is used to communicate with autonomous agents and also to remotely connect to the Asset Management Console.

Installation

  1. Make sure that the following components are installed on the server:
    • Internet Information Server (IIS);
    • For IIS version 7 install also IIS Management Compatibility 6 feature.
    • ASP.NET v4.8 or higher;
    • Microsoft OLE DB Driver
  2. We recommend creating a custom application pool ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 on IIS. This step is not strictly necessary for the application to run, but it significantly affects the responsiveness of the application.
  3. Log in as administrator and run the installation package AlvaoAssetWebService.msi.
  4. Select the ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 application pool during installation. If you did not create this AppPool in step 3, select .NET v4.5.
  5. The installer creates a folder on disk (<InetPub>\wwwroot\AssetWebService) and also a virtual directory in IIS (AssetWebService).
  6. After installation, configure the web.config file, which you open in a text editor.
  7. In the line:
    <connectionStrings>
      <add name="Db" connectionString="Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Alvao;Integrated Security=True;Current Language=Czech;TrustServerCertificate=True"  providerName="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" />
    </connectionStrings>
    set the connection to the database. The connection string has the same format as in the Web.config file in the ALVAO WebApp settings.
  8. Give the NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE account access to the Alvao database and assign it the required database roles. If you did not create a custom application pool in step 3, assign access and roles to the IIS APPPOOL\.NET v4.5 account.
Note: To test the correct web-service setup, temporarily enable WSDL by commenting out the following section in the web.config file: <remove name="Documentation"/>.. Then enter the AssetWebService path (URL) in your web browser all the way to the "AssetWebService.asmx" file. For example: https://server/AssetWebService/AssetWebService.asmx. If set correctly, a list of operations is displayed. For security reasons, disable WSDL when the testing is finished.

ALVAO Service

ALVAO Service is an application that, among other things, automatically notifies users of missing licenses.

Installation

  1. Run the installation package AlvaoService.msi.
  2. The installer will install the service in the %Program Files%\ALVAO\AlvaoService folder.
  3. In the appsettings.json file in the line:
    "ConnectionString": {
       "Db": "Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Alvao;Integrated Security=True;Current Language=Czech"
    },
    set the connection to the database. The connection string has the same format as in the Web.config file for the ALVAO WebApp.
  4. In the Alvao database, enable access for the NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE account and set the database roles.
  5. Set the ALVAO Service system service to run under the NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE account.
  6. Start the system service.
Caution:
If you are using a database in a special instance (e.g., SQLServer\Alvao), you need to use double backslashes, instead of single backslash, in the config appsettings.json file.
Tip:
To verify functionality, you can run AlvaoService.exe on your desktop or from the command line. Then exit the application.
Note:
If you need to change the appsettings.json configuration file, you need to stop the ALVAO Service service before making the change and start the service again after saving the configuration changes.

ALVAO REST API

ALVAO REST API is a web service implementing the REST API interface. Apart from the ALVAO Asset Management Enterprise API module, the REST API is used by many other components of the Alvao system.

Installation

  1. Make sure the machine where you want to run the ALVAO REST API has an IIS intranet server installed with a version that meets the technical requirements.
  2. We recommend creating a custom application pool ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 on IIS. This step is not strictly necessary to run the application, but it significantly affects the loading speed of the WebApp.
  3. Before installation, make sure you have ASP .NET v4.8 or higher installed.
  4. Log in as administrator and run the AlvaoRestApi.msi installation package. If you have a problem with UAC, run the installation from the command line using msiexec -i AlvaoRestApi.msi.
  5. When installing, select the ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 application pool. If you did not create this AppPool in step 2, select .NET v4.5.
  6. The installer creates a folder on disk (inetpub\wwwroot\AlvaoRestApi) and also two virtual directories in IIS (AlvaoRestApi and AlvaoRestApiWinAuth).
  7. After installation, you need to configure the web.config file in the ALVAO REST API folder (open the file in Notepad).
  8. In the line:
    <connectionStrings>
      <add name="Db" connectionString="Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Alvao;Integrated Security=True;Current Language=Czech;TrustServerCertificate=True"  providerName="Microsoft.Data.SqlClient" />
    </connectionStrings>
    set the connection to the database. The connection string has the same format as in the web.config file in the WebApp settings.
  9. Give the NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE account access to the Alvao database and assign it the required database roles. If you did not create a custom application pool in step 2, assign access and roles to the IIS APPPOOL\.NET v4.5 account.
Caution:
AlvaoRestApi is set to Anonymous Authentication and AlvaoRestApiWinAuth is set to Windows Authentication. Both these settings must be stored in ApplicationHost.config file. Do not set authentication mode for these applications via IIS Manager.

Assign database roles to application accounts

In SQL Server Management Studio on SQL Server, create the necessary user accounts under which the installed applications run so that they can access the database. Then, in the Security - Logins folder, use the following table to allow access to the individual application accounts and assign them database roles.

Applications Recommended account Assigned database roles
ALVAO Asset Management Collector NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM public, db_datareader, db_datawriter, db_ddladmin, db_executor
ALVAO WebApp NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE (possibly IIS APPPOOL\.NET v4.5) public, db_datareader, db_datawriter, db_ddladmin, db_executor
ALVAO Asset WebService
ALVAO REST API
ALVAO Service NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE db_owner, db_executor

 

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