Microsoft IIS and the Express Access Point (version 7.x)

Technical Note 2001
Last Reviewed 17-Sept-2007

Applies To
Express Software Manager version 7.x

Summary
The Express Access Point is a web service that runs under Microsoft's Internet Information Services (IIS) web server. The Access Point provides the communication conduit between Express Clients and the Express Database; the Access Point component also includes Express Web Reports. For the Access Point and Web Reports to work properly, IIS must be configured with knowledge of ASP.NET, Active Server Pages (ASP) enabled, and appropriate access rights to the Access Point installation. This technical note describes how to check IIS configuration and make any changes the Access Point and Web Reports may require. It then describes how to force the Express Access Point to register itself if the IIS configuration was not correct when the Access Point was installed.

Note: This information applies to Express Software Manager versions 7.0, 7.5, and 7.6. For updated information which applies to Expres Software Manager 8.0 and above, please see technical note 2018.

Installing/Configuring IIS and Registering the Express Access Point

Overview

The Express Access Point component of Express Software Manager 7.0, 7.5 and 7.6 requires that Microsoft's .NET Framework version 1.1 and IIS version 5.0 or higher be installed. Operating system, installation defaults, security and installation ordering may result in the machine not being configured to properly host the Express Access Point. The Express Software Manager Requirements Analyzer checks to make sure IIS and .NET are installed, however there may still be issues with the IIS configuration that must be resolved. This technical note covers many of these configuration issues based on which operating system version is being used.

Note: There are security issues involved with running ASP.NET on a domain controller. Please click here for additional information about this configuration.

IIS on Windows 2000 Server

Step 1: Installing IIS

Note: These instructions also apply to Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Windows 2000 Server does not, by default, have IIS installed. To install IIS, you must have access to your Windows installation media. (If IIS is already installed, skip to step 2.)

Select Add or Remove Programs from Start/Control Panel.
Select Add/Remove Windows Components.
Select the Internet Information Services (IIS) component. You can install all of the component or selective pieces, however, you must make sure the World Wide Web Service subcomponent is selected.
Click Next to being the installation. You may be prompted to insert your Windows 2000 Server CD-ROM.

IIS installation includes creation of the default web directory structure into which the Express Access Point will be installed. You should now be able to access your new website by bringing up a browser and going to:

http://localhost

http://name-of-iis-machine

The default page will be displayed in your browser along with the top-level IIS help page. If everything is working properly, you are ready to move on.

Step 2: Installing/Registering .NET
If Microsoft's .NET Framework was installed prior to installing IIS, you must register it with IIS so that .NET content is recognized properly. If you are not sure what the ordering was, you can safely register .NET at any time. (If you don't know if .NET is installed, rerun the Express Software Manager Requirements Analyzer and click Install next to the .NET paragraph, if necessary. This will install and register .NET version 1.1.) To register .NET, bring up Start/Run and enter the following:

%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_regiis.exe -i

This invokes the aspnet_regiis utility telling it to initialize. (Note that %windir% automatically references your Windows folder; you can safely use C:\WINNT or whatever your Windows folder specification is if you prefer.)

At this point, IIS is ready to host the Express Access Point. If you have already installed the Access Point, see the topic below on how to register it.

IIS on Windows 2003 Server

IIS may or may not be installed by default on your Windows 2003 Server installation. And if it is installed, security settings may be such that the Express Access Point or Web Reports cannot operate correctly. ASP.NET must also be installed and you can verify both by doing the following:

Select Add or Remove Programs from Start/Control Panel.
Select Add/Remove Windows Components.
Select the Application Server component and click Details. This will show you a list of the subcomponents that are a part of the Application Server. You need to make sure that both Internet Information Services (IIS) and ASP.NET are selected. Click OK then Next to continue the Windows component installation.
Select Administrative Tools/Internet Information Services from the Start menu to open the Internet Information Services manager, and open the node corresponding to the name of your Windows 2003 Server.
Click on the Web Service Extensions folder and a list of web service extensions will be shown in the right panel. In this list you will see Active Server Pages and ASP.NET extensions. You need to make sure both of these are allowed; by default one or both may be disallowed. You can change their status by selecting the extension and clicking the Allow button.

Close the Internet Information Services manager. Your IIS installation is now ready to host the Express Access Point and Web Reports. If you have already installed the Access Point, see the topic below on how to register it.

Registering the Express Access Point

Normally the Express Access Point is registered during setup, however, if IIS was not installed or not configured properly, you may need to reregister it. If you run the Express Administrative Console, run the Evaluation Wizard and it fails because there is no Access Point, you need to follow these instructions to register it.

Step 1: Verify Access Point Installation
You should first validate that the Access Point files were installed properly. Normally they are installed to c:\inetpub\wwwroot\expresssoftwaremanagerap, a subfolder of the default IIS folder. Check to make sure those files are present on your system. If not, you may need to rerun setup.

Step 2: Check the Access Point Virtual Directory
Setup creates a virtual directory, that is, a mapping between a name and a physical disk location, to reference the Express Access Point. To verify that this was created properly, do the following:

Bring up the Internet Information Services manager from Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools.
In the tree view on the left, open the machine node, then the Default Web Site node. This will list all virtual directories defined for your website.
Locate expresssoftwaremanagerap in the list. If it is not there, you will need to uninstall the Access Point and reinstall it. If it is shown with a stop sign icon, you need to verify that it is pointing to the correct folder. If it is shown with the web application icon (looks like a globe inside a small box), you have verified that the Access Point has been created properly and can proceed to step 3.
Right click on the stop sign icon and select Properties. Click on the Virtual Directory tab and verify that the Local Path setting points to where the Access Point files were installed. If it is not correct, browse to the installed location and click OK. Note - even if the path is correct, you may want to click the Browse button and immediately OK it. If the folder is correct, this should result in the icon changing.
OK the Properties dialog and close the IIS management console.

Step 3: Register the Access Point
You are now ready to register the Express Access Point by doing the following:

Open a browser window on the Access Point machine and enter the following URL:
http://<ap-machine-name>/expresssoftwaremanagerap/clientservices.asmx
where <ap-machine-name> is the name of the machine on which the Express Access Point is installed. Note - do not use "localhost" for the machine name as the Access Point will not get registered properly. For example, if your Access Point machine is MYIISBOX, enter:
http://MYIISBOX/expresssoftwaremanagerap/clientservices.asmx
You should see a list of the functions provided by the Access Point. (If you do not see such a list, please contact Express Metrix technical support.) Look down the list, locate the link to RegisterAccessPoint and click it.
You will see information about this function including a button labeled "Invoke". Click this button. (Note - if you do not see the invoke button, you are likely not running the browser on the Access Point machine. You must do this to register the Access Point.)
Clicking Invoke will bring up a new browser window in which the status of the registering process is displayed. There should be two lines, the second of which is an <int> </int> tag enclosing a status value. If the value is 0, the registration succeeded. If it is 1, registration failed and you will need to verify that the credentials you specified when installing the Access Point are valid.

If registration succeeded, you are finished and can now go back and run the Administrative Console. Select Evaluation Wizard from the Help menu to rerun the evaluation process.

Step 4: Verifying the Access Point's Database Credentials
If you were able to successfully display the Access Point function list but the registration process failed (a 1 was returned by Invoke), the Access Point was not able to contact the Express Database. If you installed the Access Point separately, this is most likely caused by specifying the wrong Express username or password during setup. (The Express database account information must match what was specified during database creation.) There are two files on the Access Point that store unencrypted database access credentials. They are:

c:\inetpub\wwwroot\expresssoftwaremanagerap\web.config

and

c:\inetpub\wwwroot\expresssoftwaremanagerap\webreports\webreports.xml

If you check web.config and the credentials are incorrect, you'll need to change them in both files.

Open web.config in a text editor such as Notepad.
Locate the <DBInfo> tag in the file. In this section of the file, you'll see the database server name, database name, user name and password.
Verify that all entries are correct for your installation. If your database server is case sensitive, these values are also case sensitive.
Save any changes and close the file. If any changes were made, open webreports.xml and make the same changes there.

Once these changes are made, go back and perform step 3 above to register the Access Point.

Related Technical Notes
2000 Express Software Manager Technical Notes