Web Console Installation Guide

Prerequisites

Note: If the ActiveBatch Web Console has been previously installed, ASCI highly recommends that you manually uninstall the existing version prior to installing any later version of the software product.

ActiveBatch Web Console prerequisites include: Microsoft’s Internet Information Service (IIS), the ActiveBatch Job Scheduler, and the web browsers that Web Console supports. The following sections will expand on those prerequisites and installation requirements.

Internet Information Services (Web Console Prerequisites)

ActiveBatch Web Console has been designed to run under Microsoft's Internet Information Service (IIS) Version 7 (or later) on a Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (or later) platform. We do not recommend that you use a Workstation based operating system.

ActiveBatch Web Console requires that the following software and actions be installed and/or performed prior to installation:

Microsoft .NET Framework Version 4.5 (or 4.6)
Windows WCF Framework (both HTTP and HTTPS activation)
We highly recommend that you install the product as a member of the Administrator’s group.

We recommend that IE Enhanced Security Configuration be set off on the IIS Web Server if your user wants to access Web Console from the local Internet Explorer browser.

The product is distributed using a 64-bit Microsoft Windows Installer package named ActiveBatchWebConsole.msi.

Note: ActiveBatch Web Console can only be used in conjunction with ActiveBatch V12 or higher.

Job Scheduler and IIS

Web Console supports secure connection via HTTPS. The Web Console IIS should not be installed on the same machine as the Job Scheduler since Web Console https connections and Job Scheduler Service Web Services (JSSWS) connections will both use port 443 by default. The certificate must be created and added as a binding on IIS manually.

The JSSWS, by default, communicates via SSL on port 443. This may conflict with other port bindings. To change the JSSWS port, set the desired port value under the JobSched registry key with a DWORD key named "WebServicesHttpsPort". To access the JSS via Web Console, enter the FQDN with the new port number appended, e.g. "jss.domain.com:442".

Web Console allows to connect to a Job Scheduler CNAME alias. The certificate must be created manually using a Subject Alternative Name containing the aliases with which the JSS will be connected.

By Default, the Job Scheduler Server Web Services supports the following authentication types: Basic, NTLM, Digest, and Negotiate. In order to be FIPS Compliant, Digest Authentication must be disabled. With V12 it is disabled by default. If you need to enable Digest Authentication Binding Flags (and not be FIPS Compliant) the following registry value below should be set on the Job Scheduler Server.

A Registry Key 'JSSWS' must first be created at the location:

'Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASCI\ActiveBatch\VXX\JobSched\JSSWS' on the Job Scheduler Server.

The registry value is a DWORD (32-bit) Value that should be created in the 'JSSWS' key location. A decimal value of 0 turns Digest Authentication off, and a decimal value of 1 turns Digest Authentication on.

Registry DWORD (32-bit) Value:

Name - UseDigestAuthentication

Value Data: 1 (Decimal)

Browsers Supported

ActiveBatch Web Console supports the following browsers. Note that regardless of the version specified below, once a browser version is not supported by the manufacturer, it will not be supported by this product as well.

Windows platforms

Microsoft Internet Explorer (Version 11 or later update), Firefox (24.4.0 or later), Google Chrome (32.0.1700 or later) and Opera (12.16 or later).

Note: Microsoft, as of January 12, 2016, announced end of life/support for older versions of IE. IE11 is the latest but support also depends on the OS platform involved (for example, IE11 on Windows Vista isn’t supported).

Please read: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/WindowsForBusiness/End-of-IE-support for more authoritative information.

Apple platforms

Safari (5 or later), Firefox (29.0 or later), Chrome (35.0 or later)

Linux platforms

Firefox (29.0 or later) and Chrome (35.0 or later)

Minimum Resolution: 1280x1024. Recommended: 1680x1050.

Installing Internet Information Services (IIS) for Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 (and up).

Internet Information Services, or IIS, is not installed for a default installation of Microsoft Windows. To install IIS, start by accessing the Server feature and select the IIS Web Server role.

Installation

ASCI highly recommends that you start the installation by right-clicking on the Microsoft CMD program and select “Run as Administrator”. This will cause a UAC prompt confirming you want the CMD command-line program to use Admin level access. Click Yes, then set your directory with the CD command to where the appropriate MSI file is located.

Run the msiexec program to begin the installation using the following syntax: msiexec /i ActiveBatchWebConsole.msi.

This will begin the installation process. A welcome window appears. Click Next.

Choose Destination Location

After accepting the license agreement and clicking Next, the installation process will then examine all your fixed disk drives for a directory named "Inetpub". If it is found, then the default installation path will be "\Inetpub\ASCI\ActiveBatchWebConsoleV12\".

You can use the default as shown or click the "Browse" button to specify a different location.

Once the installation is complete, the ActiveBatch Management Console will automatically launch.

Management Console

Click on the “Configure Installed features” link to start Web Console Configuration.

Configure Web Console – License

The next step during the installation process is to enter your ActiveBatch Web Console number by clicking on the “Add License” button.

Configure Web Console – Add License

Enter the serial number(s) provided to you by Advanced Systems Concepts and click on the “Validate and Add” button to use your serial numbers with ActiveBatch Web Console. Once the serial numbers have been validated successfully, click the “OK” button to continue the installation process.

Creating the IIS Virtual Directory

ActiveBatch Web Console requires that a virtual directory be created in your IIS environment. If you have a preferred web site that you would like to add ActiveBatch Web Console to, then select it from the drop-down list of Web Sites.

The way you access ActiveBatch Web Console will be dependent on the Web Site selected. The “Default,” or “Default Web Site,” will typically be configured as the local IP address, or machine name, running on port 80.

The “Virtual Directory Alias” will be the folder used to access ActiveBatch Web Console. In the above example we would access ActiveBatch Web Console by one of the following:

http://localhost/AbatWebConsoleV12/

http://machine-name/AbatWebConsoleV12/

http://127.0.0.1/AbatWebConsoleV12/

Should you need to make custom configurations for the web site or virtual directory, you must do so via Internet Information Services Manager after the installation process completes. Click the “Next” button to continue the configuration process. The installation should complete successfully and access to ActiveBatch Web Console should immediately be available.

Select/Generate a Certificate

This dialog appears if the “Use HTTPS” checkbox on the Configure Website dialog is checked. This dialog allows you to select a certificate or generate a new certificate to be used for the website. In addition, logic is present to determine if an existing website is in use and to determine the HTTPS port to be used (default is 443).

Configuration Review

The next step in the configuration process is to validate the prerequisites. Click the Verify button to move on to the next step.

Validating the Prerequisites

The configurator will validate prerequisites before enabling the “Configure” button.

Click on “Configure” to start the final stage of the web console setup.

Configuration in Progress

Once the configuration is complete proceed to click on the “Finish” button. This will bring up the configuration results pane, as seen in the above figure.

Configuration Complete

Once the configuration is complete, the Management Console will display configuration settings.

Post Installation Configuration

The first time you connect to a Job Scheduler, Web Console may take a minute or two to load the necessary metadata into its local cache. Subsequent connections will then be much faster.

If you experience any problems during the installation process, we recommend that you consult ASCI's knowledgebase. The knowledgebase is constantly being updated and may have the information you need to remedy the problem.

Configuration

All configuration preferences can now be set using the Preferences dialog in the Web Console.