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ALVAO Server – Manual Installation

ALVAO Admin

Installation Instructions

  1. Make sure that .NET v4.0 is installed on the server.
  2. Launch the AlvaoAdmin.msi installation package to install ALVAO Admin on your server.
  3. Run ALVAO Admin (Start – ALVAO – Admin) and connect the database (or follow the instructions in New database creation).
  4. Select the Manage – Settings command in the main menu.
    • On the Sending messages tab, enter the SMTP server address, login information, and e-mail address for sending e-mails from the ALVAO system.
    • On the Active Directory tab, enter the SMTP server address, login information, and e-mail address for sending e-mails from the ALVAO system.
Warning:
When logging in for the first time you have to use an account with the Admin login name and a blank password.
You can also set the LDAP server and the default domain in ServerSetup and perform an import from Active Directory before the first login, which allows all the people imported from the AD to sign in. As soon as you add at least one user into the Administrators group, only the users who are members of the Administrators, Managers or Software Profile Managers groups will be able to log in ALVAO Admin.

Create New Database

  1. Launch ALVAO Admin from the Start – Programs – ALVAO – Admin Windows menu.
  2. The Database administrator window will open. In this window, please click the Add different... button.
  3. Select the option Create new database – Other (SQL Server, MSDE) and click the Next button.
  4. Enter the database server name and the name of the new common database for Service Desk, Asset Management, and Monitoring (e.g. alvao).
    The database server name usually uses the format <server>\<instance_name> or just <server>, if only a single SQL Server instance is running on the computer. For example, for a typical MS SQL Server 2008 Express installation the name will be <cmputer_name>\SQLEXPRESS. Click the Next button to finish the process. Wait for the new database to create.
  5. Once the new database has been created, you can open it in the Database administrator window with the Open button.
  6. The System Activation window will open. You will receive your activation key from your ALVAO vendor. You can also write to info@alvao.cz to request a trial activation key. Enter the activation key and click on OK.
Note:
You can install ALVAO Admin also on the client machines of the application administrators. When you run ALVAO Admin for the first time, the Database Manager window opens where you need to set up the connection to a database by clicking on the Add more or the Open existing database button.
Note:
The entered activation key is authenticated over the Internet when activating the database.

ALVAO Asset Management Collector

Service Installation Instructions

  1. Launch the AlvaoAssetCollector.msi installation service on the server where you want to run the Collector service.
  2. The installation service will install Collector automatically as a service. Once the installation has been completed, the installation service will automatically run the Collector.
Note:
In order to run the ALVAO Asset Management Collector as an application, you first need to stop its service.

Settings

  1. Stop the ALVAO Asset Management Collector service.
  2. Run the AMCollector.exe file from the installed folder.
  3. Select Actions – Settings to set up the database connection.
  4. We recommend enabling the log file and setting the logging level to "status and errors".
  5. We recommend setting up the ALVAO Asset Management Collector service so that it is launched under an account with administrator rights. Windows services run with the "Local system account" permissions by default. If workstations are to be detected in the network without the use of agents, the ALVAO Asset Management Collector service needs to run with administrator rights.
  6. In ALVAO, go to Admin – Manage – Servers and select Enable to enable the server.
  7. Run the ALVAO Asset Management Collector service again.
Tip:
You can find more Collector settings in ALVAO Admin under Manage – Servers.
Warning:
If you set the log detail level to Detailed, the Collector will send large amounts of data to the log file. This will slow down the detection process considerably. We therefore recommend using the Detailed level for troubleshooting purposes only. This option should be disabled during normal operation.
Note:
If you want to run the Collector as an application only and you have installed it along with the Console, you can run it from within the Start – ALVAO – Asset Management Collector menu (in this case you don't need to install AlvaoAssetCollector.msi).
Note:
After a fresh installation, automatic loading of detections from the %ProgramData%\ALC\ALVAO Asset Management Collector\Detections folder is enabled by default.

ALVAO WebApp

Installation Instructions

  1. Make sure that the IIS Intranet Server is installed on the machine where you want to install the ALVAO WebApp.
  2. If you want to install the WebApp on a machine running IIS version 7, it is necessary to make sure that the IIS 6 Compatibility Pack is installed before you continue with the Portal installation.
  3. We recommend installing a custom ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 application pool on IIS. Please click here for more information. This step is not required to run the application, but when installed, the application pool will speed up the process of loading the WebApp. If you don't want to create ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0, please skip to Step 4.
  4. Make sure that you have ASP .NET v4.5 or later installed before you install the WebApp.
  5. Sign in as administrator and run the AlvaoWebApp.msi installation package. If you are experiencing problems with UAC, run the installation from the command line using the msiexec -i AlvaoWebApp.msi command.
  6. During the installation process, select the ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 application pool. If you didn't create the AppPool in Step 3, select .NET v4.5. For Alvao WebApp select pipeline: integrated.
  7. The installation program creates a local folder (<InetPub>\wwwroot\Alvao), as well as a virtual directory in IIS (AlvaoWebApp).
  8. In the ALVAO Admin application, select Manage – Settings.
  9. Go to the WebApp tab.
  10. Fill in the WebApp (URL) path to the ALVAO WebApp folder. Example: http://server/alvao.
Warning:
We recommend installing ALVAO WebApp to a folder in IIS (e.g. IIS\WebApp, IIS\ALVAO or similar). It is not recommended to install it directly to the root directory (IIS). This could cause problems with the WebService configuration if you install the Service Desk WebService e.g. to the <InetPub>\wwwroot\ServiceDeskWebService folder.

Settings

For ALVAO WebApp to work correctly, the required user authentication method in IIS must be set.

Available authentication methods:

  • Form-based authentication
    • Authentication by entering user name and password. When logging in for the first time, the user can use the Login permanently option in order to not have to enter his/her user name and password each time.
    • This authentication method is suitable if the WebApp is accessible from the Internet.
  • Integrated Windows Authentication
    • Authentication without having to enter any user name or password (if the integrated authentication is successful).
    • This authentication method is suitable if both the solver teams and the requesters are from Active Directory and work in the domain.
  • Integrated Windows Authentication and form-based authentication (combined)
    • The WebApp will first try to authenticate users over Windows. If this authentication fails (or is canceled by the user), the user can use form authentication.
    • This authentication method may not work correctly due to technical limitations (see below).

Form-based authentication

Follow the steps below to set up form-based authentication:

  1. In IIS Manager, click on the AlvaoWebApp application and then on Authentication.
  2. Make sure that Anonymous authentication and Form-based authentication are enabled and that Windows-based authentication is disabled.
  3. Open the web.config file in a text editor. The file is located in the AlvaoWebApp installation folder.
  4. Make sure that in the configuration/system.web section, the authentication mode attribute is set to Forms and that the value of the loginUrl parameter is ~~/Account/Login.
Note:
The options Sign out and Change password are available for this authentication method.
Note:
If the users log in using the password from the Active Directory, you have to set the path to AD server in ALVAO Admin – Manage – Settings – Active Directory tab.

Integrated Windows Authentication

Follow the steps below to set up Integrated Windows Authentication:

  1. In IIS Manager, click on the AlvaoWebApp application and then on Authentication.
  2. Make sure the Windows-based authentication is enabled (and all the others are disabled).
    Warning:
    The authentication also has to be enabled on the website where the application is installed.
  3. Open the web.config file in a text editor. The file is located in the Alvao installation folder.
  4. Make sure that in the configuration/system.web section, the authentication mode attribute is set to Windows.
  5. In the IIS root, set Positions Delegation – enable reading or writing in these authentication modes: Anonymous and Windows.
Warning:
The options Sign out and Change password are not available for this authentication method.
Warning:
This authentication method cannot be used for the authentication of users not imported from Active Directory.
Warning:
For this authentication method to work correctly, you need to have the intranet address of the ALVAO server.

Integrated Windows Authentication and form-based authentication (combined)

If you want to use Integrated Windows Authentication for some computers and form-based authentication for the others:

  1. In IIS Manager, click on the AlvaoWebApp application and then on Authentication.
  2. Make sure that Anonymous authentication and Form-based authentication are enabled and that Windows-based authentication is enabled.
    Warning:
    The authentication also has to be enabled on the website where the application is installed.
  3. Open the web.config file in a text editor. The file is located in the Alvao installation folder.
  4. Make sure that in the configuration/system.web section, the authentication mode attribute is set to Forms and that the value of the loginUrl parameter is ~/Account/MixedModeLogin.
  5. In the IIS root, set Positions Delegation – enable reading or writing in these authentication modes: Anonymous, Forms, Windows.
  6. Go to ALVAO Admin – Settings – WebApp – IP address range for Integrated Windows Authentication and enter the ranges of IP addresses of the computers in the corporate network for which Integrated Windows Authentication is to be used. Form-based authentication will be used for all other computers.
Warning:
If the Windows authentication has been successful, the options Sing out and Change password are not available.
Warning:
For computers that use integrated authentication, the same limitations and conditions apply as for Integrated Windows Authentication, see the warning in the previous chapter.

Database connection

Open IIS Administrator and select ALVAO WebApp (Alvao). Go to the settings, click on the Connection Strings icon, click on the "Db" string and set up the path to the correct SQL Server where you created a database with ALVAO Admin (the default path is localhost and the default database name is Alvao). You can use e.g. localhost\SQLEXPRESS 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

The WebApp configuration is saved in the Web.config file located in the Alvao installation folder. You can edit this file manually in any text editor.

Enabling IIS Access to Database

If not already there, create the IIS APPPOOL\ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 account on the SQL server. As the next step, it will be necessary to allow the IIS server the database access.
Using the SQL Server Management Studio (Express) application enable in the Security – Logins the access to the ALVAO database for the IIS APPPOOL\ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 account with permissions public, db_datareader and db_datawriter.
(If you didn't create the AppPool in Step 3 of the Installation instructions, enable access for IIS APPPOOL\.NET v4.5)
If a database opening error message appears when you attempt to log in WebApp, enable access in the Security – Logins folder on the SQL Server for the account displayed in the error message.

Note:
The SQL Server Management Studio (Express) application is a part of the SQL Server installation.

The WebApp configuration is stored in the Web.config file located in the WebApp installation folder. You can edit this file manually in any text editor.

ALVAO Asset WebService

ALVAO Asset WebService is a part of the ALVAO Asset Management product and serves for communication with autonomous Agents.

Installation Instructions

  1. Make sure that the IIS Intranet Server is installed on the machine where you want to install the WebApp.
  2. If you want to install the WebApp on a machine running IIS version 7, it is necessary to make sure that the IIS 6 Compatibility Pack is installed before you continue with the Portal installation.
  3. We recommend installing a custom ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 application pool on IIS. Please click here for more information. This step is not necessary to run the application, but when installed, the application pool will speed up the process of loading the WebApp. If you don't want to create ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0, please skip to Step 4.
  4. Sign in as administrator and run the AlvaoAssetWebService.msi installation package.
  5. During the installation process, select the ALVAO AppPool .NET 4.0 application pool. If you didn't create the AppPool in Step 3, select .NET v4.5.
  6. The installation program creates a local folder (<InetPub>\wwwroot\ServiceDeskWebService), as well as a virtual directory in IIS (AssetWebService).
  7. After installation, you have to configure the web.config file. Open the file in a text editor.
  8. Go to the line:
    <connectionStrings>
       <add name="Db" connectionString="Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Alvao;Integrated Security=True;Current Language=Czech"  providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
    </connectionStrings>
    and set up the database connection. The connection string has the same format as in the "Web.config" file in the ALVAO WebApp settings.
Note: To test the WebService settings, enter the path to AssetWebService (URL) up to the "AssetWebService.asmx" file in your web browser. Example: http://server/AssetWebService/AssetWebService.asmx. If the settings are correct, a list of operations will appear.

Enabling IIS Access to Database

As the next step, it will be necessary to allow the IIS server the database access. Open SQL Server Management Studio (Express), which is part of the SQL Server installation, go to the Security – Logins folder and enable access to the ALVAO database for the NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE account (if you didn't create the AppPool in Step 3, enable access for IIS APPPOOL\ .NET v4.5) with the public, db_datareader, and db_datawriter authorizations. If, while connecting to the WebApp, a database opening error message is displayed, enable access in the Security – Logins folder on the SQL Server for the account displayed in the error message.

ALVAO Service Desk MailboxReader

ALVAO Service Desk MailboxReader is a component which serves, among other things, for automatic notification of missing licenses.

Installation Instructions

  1. Launch the AlvaoServiceDeskMailboxReader.msi installation package.
  2. The installation service will install the MailboxReader to the %Program Files%\ALVAO\ServiceDesk MailboxReader folder.
  3. Go to this folder (e.g. in Windows Explorer) and open the "MailboxReader.exe.config" file in a text editor.
  4. Go to the line:
    <connectionStrings>
       <add name="Alvao.Hd.MailboxReader.Properties.Settings.Db" connectionString="Data Source=localhost;Initial Catalog=Alvao;Integrated Security=True;Current Language=Czech"  providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
    </connectionStrings>
    and set up the database connection. The connection string has the same format as in the "Web.config" file in the ALVAO WebApp settings.
  5. Go to the SQL Server and set up the permissions for the user account which will be used to run the MailboxReader.
  6. Run the "MailboxReader.exe" program. The program has to be run from a local drive. (Only the MailboxReader.exe and MailboxReader.exe.config files are required to run the program.)
  7. Once you have verified that the MailboxReader is running correctly, you can run it as a service. Go to My Computer – Services, right-click on the ALVAO MailboxReader service and select Start from the context menu. This will launch the MailboxReader service.
Note:
If you need to edit the "MailboxReader.exe.config" configuration file, stop the ALVAO MailboxReader first, make any changes to the configuration file and restart the MailboxReader service.

 

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