Installing MessageMaster Server

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Before You Begin

Important: MessageMaster Server, although easy to install, has several prerequisites. Before installing MessageMaster Server, be sure to read and follow this entire "Before You Begin" section carefully.

Choosing the Right Server

Here is some information to help you choose which server(s) to install MessageMaster Server on:

We will refer to the server you have chosen as the MessageMaster server from now on. It will be the one with IIS.

Microsoft Components and Configurations Required Before You Install

Before you begin installation, be sure that you have the software prerequisites:

Microsoft Component Required Configuration

SQL Server 2005

     or

SQL Server 2005 Express

     or

SQL Server 2000 SP3

     or

MSDE (Microsoft Database Engine)

A database engine is required either on the server where you will perform the installation, or on another server accessible over the LAN. You have a choice of database engines.

SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2000 notes:

  • The account that SQL Server runs as must be an Administrator, or the Local System account.
  • Must have 'Mixed Mode' authentication mode enabled

SQL Server 2005 Express notes: (Download from Microsoft)

  • You must install Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 first. (Download from Microsoft)
  • The following command line arguments must be passed to the SQL Express setup program: SQLEXPR.EXE /settings <full path to settings.ini file>
  • You can get the required settings.ini file here.

MSDE: (Download from Microsoft)

  • The following command line arguments must be passed to MSDE's Setup.exe: SECURITYMODE=SQL SAPWD=YourSAPassword DISABLENETWORKPROTOCOLS=0
  • Optionally, to create a named instance of MSDE append INSTANCENAME=name to the Setup.exe command line
  • The MSDE SQL Server service does not start by default, so be sure that it is set to Automatic, and start it.

IIS Server 6

     or

IIS Server 5

IIS Server is required on the server where you will perform the installation.

IIS 6:

  • When you install IIS on a Windows 2003 Server, you have to explicitly tell it to install ASP and ASP.NET Processing. These IIS components are required by MessageMaster, but are not installed by default.
    • Run up Control Panel / Add or Remove Programs
    • Click Add/Remove Windows Components
    • Select Application Server then click Details...
    • Ensure that ASP.NET is checked.
    • Select Internet Information Services (IIS) then click Details...
    • Select World Wide Web Service then click Details...
    • Ensure that Active Server Pages is Checked

IIS 5 (Windows 2000 only):

  • If you end up installing IIS 5 after .NET Framework, you'll need to run one command to register ASP.NET with IIS:

    aspnet_regiis.exe -i

    This command is located under %WINDIR%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322 by default.
.NET Framework

In some situations both .NET Framework 1.1 and 2.0 will be required.

.NET Framework 2.0 (Download from Microsoft)

  • .NET Framework 2.0 will only be required if you are using SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2005 Express as your database engine.

.NET Framework 1.1 SP1

  • If you are installing on Windows 2003 server, .NET Framework 1.1 will already be installed as part of the operating system. Be sure to install SP1.
  • If you are installing on Windows 2000 server, you will have to install .NET Framework 1.1 and SP1 if it has not already been installed.
MDAC 2.7 or higher

On Windows 2003, version 2.8 is already installed as part of the operating system.

On Windows 2000, download the latest from Microsoft, and install before you begin

Member of Active Directory domain It can even be a domain controller, although a member server should be preferred from a security perspective.

Permissions Required to Install

Be sure to run the setup program logged in as a user with sufficient privileges to perform all of the installation tasks. You will need to:

Performing the Installation

The following images and descriptions provide an explanation of each step of the MessageMaster server installation process.

The Welcome dialog is presented when the installation starts. Press the [Next] button to continue.

Provide database administrator information. Setup connects to the SQL Server database on the specified machine to create the ObjSoft database and the required tables, indexes and database user. This dialog collects the SQL Server administrator information required to complete these tasks. This information will not be stored, or used again during the normal operation of the MessageMaster server.

Server Name: The SQL Server that you use for MessageMaster can be on another machine.  If you are using a named instance of SQL Server, you must specify the server name as ServerName\InstanceName.

Database Administrative User: You must specify a SQL login name that uses SQL authentication, and not a Windows username. Usually 'sa' is the one to use, unless you've set up a different SQL Administrator login.

The MessageMaster server software connects to the SQL Server database during its operation. It will require a SQL Server login and password in order to do this.

The login name you provide does not need to have administrative rights on the SQL Server. If the login you provide does not already exist as a SQL login, it will be created. In addition, it will automatically be granted rights to the ObjSoft database.

Domain: For domain, please enter the DOWNLEVEL domain name of your domain. This is required by Microsoft COM+ technology.

Username: Provide an Active Directory domain user identity for the MessageMaster server. The MessageMaster server's COM+ components will run as this Active Directory user.  It's best to use a service account, i.e. one whose password is complex and does not expire.

Unless you plan to use the "Install Client Agents" feature to push clients to your machines, the user account you specify here does not require special privileges or group memberships. It can be an existing domain user name, or one that you want the installation program to create. The user account will be created in Active Directory if it doesn't already exist, and the MessageMaster COM+ components will be set up to run as that user.

If you plan to use the "Install Client Agents" feature to push clients to your machines, then you must choose a user account that is a member of the 'Domain Admins' group. Or, you can add the user to the 'Domain Admins' group later, but then you will need to restart the MessageMaster server in order for all the services to pick up the updated credentials.

Provide final configuration information and the location of the license file.

Queue Directory. Incoming messages (sent by the MessageMaster client software on various machines) are queued in a directory on the MessageMaster server. In a large environment, it may be necessary to locate this directory on a non-system drive. The directory you specify will be shared as MessageMasterQueue$ (a hidden share).

SMTP Server Information. The MessageMaster server uses the SMTP server and e-mail sender to deliver messages to subscribers via email. Port 25 is used to connect to the SMTP server. The e-mail sender needs to be a valid e-mail address (e.g. MessageMaster@yourdomain.com) so that your SMTP server won't refuse to deliver your MessageMaster messages. All e-mail messages sent from the MessageMaster system will appear to be from this address.

License File. The location of the License File must be supplied. If you are evaluating, and you provided a valid e-mail address when you downloaded the product, you will have received a temporary license file. The installation program will copy the license file to the required location, so the location of the License File can be wherever you wish, as long as you can access it from the server.

If your SMTP server does not require authentication, you should leave all these fields blank, and proceed to the next screen.

If your SMTP server requires authentication, you'll need to specify the username and password information here. For an Exchange server, you'll need to specify the domain name as well.

Select the folder under which to install the MessageMaster server. All Objective Software, Inc. products should be installed to the same location on any given computer. A MessageMaster subdirectory will be created under the directory that you specify.

Confirm the installation in order to start copying files and complete the installation of the MessageMaster server.

The progress dialog will be displayed while the installation process is proceeding. This will take a number of minutes.

If you encounter an error during setup, we have two knowledge base articles documenting the various errors that we have seen in the past, and their resolutions, as well as general setup troubleshooting information.

At the end of the installation, the MessageMaster Site Configuration page will open in Internet Explorer. This will allow you to configure MessageMaster sites. This is an important step for a functioning system.

The sites are based upon the Active Directory sites currently defined in your domain, plus an additional Unknown Location site. Click on each site and set its:

When you first install, you will only have one MessageMaster server, so you should:

The Windows user that you are logged in as is automatically made a MessageMaster admin user. To add other users, have them visit http://MMServer/MessageMaster. A handy 'Online Help' button is provided on every page of the Console. The help opens in a separate window, and comes directly from our web site to ensure the most up-to-date detailed information.