Installing PARS Connect

PARS Connect is a web based version of PARS .net. Installation is done on one or more webservers on which webpages are hosted and can be accessed from client machines via a web browser. A page detailing the network topology for PARS Connect is available here.

To install the PARS Connect webserver, the following five items must be installed in the order given here:

The SIMS.net Workstation components

Installed via SIMSInst.exe found in the SIMS\Setups directory.

PARS Connect uses the local SIMS.net Connect.ini and this should NOT contain a redirect to a Connect.ini in a mapped folder

.

Microsoft's Internet Information Services 7 (IIS7) (or IIS8)

Using Internet Information Services to manage the website

If this is not already installed it is found under:

Windows Control Panel -> Add or Remove programs -> Add/Remove Windows Components.

If you are using IIS7 or later, please ensure the following features are present:

Web Server

Common HTTP Features

Static Content

Default Document

HTTP Errors

HTTP Redirection

Application Development

ASP .NET

.Net Extensibility

ASP

ISAPI Extensions

ISAPI Filters

Security

Windows Authentication

Management Tools

IIS Management Console

IIS Management Scripts and Tools

IIS 6 Management Compatibility

IIS 6 Metabase Compatibility

NOTE: It is important that on the IIS server the order of installation is Windows -> Webserver software -> .net Framework

The Microsoft Website goes into detail about installation and using IIS.

The IIS server needs to be able to access the internet in order to check the license details on the TASC Software database. If licensing problems are encountered when running PARS Connect (e.g. a valid license could not be found), this could be due to the PARS proxy settings being incorrect.

Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0

This should be installed after IIS7 or IIS8

If it is already installed it may be reinstalled by running a file called: aspnet_regiis.exe. Search for this file on the webserver then browse to it via a command prompt window and run it with a -i switch i.e:

aspnet_regiis.exe -i.

The PARS Connect Service Controller

Browse to and run: [Shared SIMS folder e.g. s:\SIMS]\PARS\Connect\ServiceController.exe. If you see a security error, run "Trusted.bat" found in the same folder.

Important: If you see any further error messages during the installation process, create a ticket on the PARS Helpdesk with the "Details" text before continuing.

The "Application Tier" option should be highlighted, if not click this now. To the right of the "Web Site" label in the main panel is a + button. Click this to add a website. Enter the Web site name (e.g. "PARS" or "Connect"), the port number you would like it to use. Click on the (none) option in the Certificate section. For the physical path choose a location to host the files for PARS Connect. The path should in most cases be within this folder: c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ e.g. c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\PARSConnect.

Still on the "Application tier" page, highlight the new PARS website under "Web sites" and then click the + button to the right of "Applications" to create the Application pool.

Make sure the PARS website is still highlighted under "Web sites" and then click "Commit" followed by "Begin".

N.B. You will need to re-run ServiceController.exe and click "Commit" => "Begin" every time there is a PARS .net update that contains an update for PARS Connect.

After installing the Service Controller, a login page for PARS Connect should open in the default web browser on the server. Make a note of the URL. To access PARS connect from a different machine use this url, substituting the webserver's name if "Localhost" is included. e.g:

http://localhost:1595/PARS/Login.aspx

Can be accessed on a different machine on the network via:

http://webserver_name:1595/PARS/Login.aspx

Additional

Also in the service controller is the installer for the Automation Windows services you should install.

The Automation service periodically makes requests to the server, keeping the application loaded in IIS. This prevents a delay for the first user accessing the site after a delay long enough for IIS to unload the application. Importantly this provides the trigger for the main application to consider running automated process and scheduled reports.

If the Automation Keep Alive service is not installed, click Install and then start. If an upgrade is pending you will be informed in the "Version:" field; Stop, un-install, install and start to perform the upgrade.

If you wish to access PARS Connect over the internet it is recommended that you install Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. Failure to do this could leave your data open to unauthorised access. A detailed description of how to install SSL is given here.

You may find that if the enable HTTPS and disable HTTP the Automation Keep Alive service will no longer be able to reach the address it was originally configured to use. In this case, or if the port number has changed for example, correct the address in the "Using address:" field, stop and restart the service.

CAPTCHA

By default a CAPTCHA is required to log in to PARS Connect. To disable this, find the web.config file on the IIS server, by default it is found in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\pars. Open the file in Notepad and find these lines of text:

<setting name="CAPTCHA" serializeAs="String">
  <value>Off</value>
</setting>

Change the value of CAPTCHA to "Off". It is not recommended that the CAPTCHA be turned off if PARS Connect is to be made accessible via the internet.

PINS

Each user can be assigned a temporary PIN that is required along with their password in order to log in. The PIN is valid for 5 minutes after it is issued and is send to a person's email address or as an SMS message when a person tries to log in. To enable PINs, find this text in the PARS web.config file on the IIS server, by default it is found in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\pars. Open the file in Notepad and find these lines of text:

<setting name="PINS" serializeAs="String">
  <value>Off</value>
</setting>

And change the value to "On".

Load balancing multiple IIS servers

If more than one IIS server is being used to host PARS Connect then users can be randomly directed to one of the servers by setting an HTML page with the following content as their PARS Connect homepage:

 <HTML><HEAD><TITLE>PARS Connect Redirect Page</TITLE>
 <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JAVASCRIPT" TYPE="TEXT/JAVASCRIPT">
 var rand = Math.random();
 var listOfServers=new Array();
 
 //  Add or remove servers on list below to match the login pages for PARS Connect on each IIS server on the network
 
 listOfServers[0]="http://IIS_Server_one:1595/PARS/Login.aspx";
 listOfServers[1]="http://IIS_Server_two:1595/PARS/Login.aspx";
 listOfServers[2]="http://IIS_Server_three:1595/PARS/Login.aspx";
 listOfServers[3]="http://IIS_Server_four:1595/PARS/Login.aspx";
 listOfServers[4]="http://IIS_Server_five:1595/PARS/Login.aspx";
 
 var a = listOfServers.length; 
 var i = (1/a);
 var count = 0;
 for (var x = 0; x<a; x++){if (count>rand) {break;}count=count+i}
 window.location = listOfServers[x-1] <br>


 
 </script></HEAD><BODY></BODY></HTML>

Troubleshoot / Errors

HTTP Error 500.19 Error Code: 0x80070021

Q: This configuration section cannot be used at this path. This happens when the section is locked at a parent level. Locking is either by default (overrideModeDefault="Deny"), or set explicitly by a location tage with overrideMode="Deny" or the legacy allowOverride="false"

Config source: 

161: </modules>
162: <handles>
163: <remove name="WebServiceHandlerFactory-Integrated" />

A: Look in IIS Manager, under the server name --> feature delegation. If Handler Mappings is set to readonly flip the value to read/write

Config Source: 

155: <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
156: <modules>
157: <remove name=ScriptModule" />

A: Open an elevated Command Prompt and run
%windir%\system32\inetsrv\appcmd unlock config -section:system.webServer/modules

HTTP Error 403.14 - Forbidden

Module DirectoryListing Module Notification ExecuteRequestHandler Handler StaticFile

A: Use IIS Manager to ensure you have a DEFAULT.ASPX in your Default Documents list.
Ensure ASPNET is installed on the server - for ASPNET follow: http://browse.feedreader.com/c/Developer_OneNote/196983817 looking mostly at steps 7 and 8

Web Site Error

REDIRECTINCONNECTINI

A:Copy the connect.ini off your shared SIMS drive into %program files%sims\sims.net so that it does not contain a redirect that NETWORK SERVICE will not be able to follow.

You can either copy the whole file, or enter the SERVERNAME and DATABASENAME from the central version.