Basic reminders when trouble shooting
I am writing this blog to help the customers and prospects spend more time learning how Interprise can help their business rather than learn the tenants of IIS application pool settings. I should remind everyone that there are videos (login and go to "Our Products > Videos) and a PDF tutorial (login and go to "Customers > Documentation). There you will find something to watch and something to read.
Next we need to discuss the pieces of Interprise that can bet set up. They are:
- Interprise Suite in LAN mode
- Interprise Suite in Internet mode
- The IS web service in LAN mode
- An ISE website in LAN mode
There are no other setup points to worry about. The IS web service and an ISE website should never be set up over the internet that's why they are not listed here. Web services and websites should only be connected the their providing database through a LAN connection. I have had a few people report that they have configured Interprise sites and services over WAN, but Interprise does not support that configuration. I am going to focus on a picture shown below for the duration of this posting. The white boxes represent logical separation of client and server. The reality is, they can be and often are both on the same machine.
If you are more of a visual person, I suggest watching a couple videos posted on our website which may help you best understand the concepts of this article. Please visit:http://www.interprisesolutions.com/index.php/Videos/Videos/
Interprise 103: Basic Configuration
Interprise 104: Configuring the Interprise Web Service (64 bit edition)
Interprise 105: Configuring ISE (ecom) in Windows 7 64bit
The basics of the Interprise Setup
1) Interprise.exe.Config file found in the root of the Interprise installation folder. This XML file can be accessed by pressing the F2 configuration key in the application.
2) Web.config file found in the .webserviceBusiness folder. This folder can be found under your installation folder and can be moved if necessary. This will be modified with the Interprise Configuration Tool which is installed by default with Interprise.
Note: If you are installing ISE, you use the same configuration tool to config the web.config file found in the root of the ISE installation folder.
A) LANconnection used to connect the application to SQL Server over port 1433
B) Web service connection used to connect the Interprise application to the Interprise database over an internet connection on port 80
The Configuration Tool
This is another confusing part about the setup I want to clear up. When setting up the app, you do NOT need to configure all fields on the configuration screen. Let's look at a picture and discuss LAN mode configuration.
If you are configuring for a LAN connection you check the configuration in the following order.
RED BOXES FIRST: Set the connection type to LAN and click the test button. It will either say "Connection Succeeded" or something else. If it's something else...
YELLOW BOX NEXT: You will need to set the configuration to point to either the local or LAN based SQL Server. If you set the system up locally and things go wrong, it's either the SQL instance name is wrong and/or the database name is incorrect. If you are unsure of the LAN SQL login, see your system administrator.
GREEN BOX LAST: Only after you have the database connected, you can then test your IS login by click the green test button.
When troubleshooting the any client server install, you want to get as close to the data as you can. Another way to say that is if you are having connection or login issues, go to the server where the database is located. Login into Interprise using the LAN connection and Windows Authentication for db security. If that works, the problem lies between the server and your client machine(s). Here is the order I troubleshoot the installation.
Still can't connect?
- Can you set up a UDL and connect to the server from the client machine? What is a UDL? You can Google it of course, but in short, it is a tool built into all versions of Windows that allow you to connect to different data sources, such as a SQL Server and validate your credentials and settings. It then can be converted into a SQL connection string. The reason support uses this is that if this tool cannot connect to the SQL database with consistency, then any application should not be expected to connect either. If the UDL does not work, this is an infrastructure issue you will need to get resolved before Interprise tech support can assist. This link provides step by step processes to do this procedure.http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/e38h511e(VS.71).aspx
- UDL works fine. Great! Now open Interprise and click on the F2 configuration and start the LAN configuration process over again.
When setting up Interprise for connecting over the internet, we add one piece of complexity to the puzzle. SQL Express needs to be loaded on each client workstation to cache information locally. If you keep ALL defaults during the installation, Interprise will work when configuring the cache database. If you change settings such as instance name, you will need to change it Interprise Configuration tool to match what ever you configured while setting up SQL Express. My opinion is leave the defaults and not worry about it. There is NO transactional data in an Interprise cache db, no security other than Windows Authentication is necessary.
If you are configuring for an Internet connection you check the configuration in the following order.
RED BOXES FIRST: Set the connection type to Internet Connection Only and click the test button. It will either say "Connection Succeeded" or something else. If it's something else...
YELLOW BOX NEXT: Make sure you have the correct web service set in place. We have videos and tutorials on setting up web services for Interprise, please read and watch the videos.
GREEN BOX LAST: Only after you have the web service is connected can test your IS login by click the green test button.
In 80+% of the cases the web service within IIS is correctly configured, but the web.config file for the web service was not set to see the database. This causes the web service URL to correctly render in a web browser when you test it, but when you use the Business Service URL within Interprise, it fails. Check the db connection in the web.config using our provided Configuration Tool. By default, it will be on your desktop when you install our application.
That's about it. I REALLY want to hear the types of issues you are running into while configuring Interprise so we can either make the process easier on our side or do a better job of explaining the hows and whys behind the process.
Curt RiceVP of Technical Services
Interprise Software Solutions, Inc.