v9 deployment service

Grzegorz Lag

Hello

 

I have an problem with connecting to deployment service on remote server from local computer. I have massage, that it was anable to create SSPI context. How to configure publication to remote machine?

 

Regards

Greg

Paul Denton

Hi,

 

There are two potential issues I believe.

 

For the first you must note that we use the default TCP.Net port of 808 to communicate betweent he Designer and the Deployment Service.  If that is being blocked at any point then your attempts to publish will obviously fail.

 

Secondly, the Deployment Service is configured with windows authentication (even if you have not setup Metastorm SSO), therefore any deployment request must come from a authenticatable account, either a local account (for the server) or an appropriate domain account.

 

If neither of these help then I would encourage you to contact our Support Team directly for assistance...

Grzegorz Lag

Hello

 

I have no problem with publication from local engine machine on metastorm user ( not domain user).

There is no firewall on metastorm server, so this port should't be blocked.

 

I have no idea what could be wrong. I will send an request to helpdesk.

Thanks for your replay (Paul I guess;))

 

Regards

Greg

Paul Denton

Just to follow up quickly, when you are deploying from the remote machine, what kind of account are you logged into the remote machine as?

 

 

Grzegorz Lag

A little bit more detailed description:

 

I have Server machine caled S1. There is Metastorm BPM, database, and deployment service (there is no firewall).

When I'm logging to S1, I'm doing it of course on domain user. Then when I try to deploy, i enter the metastorm user credentials with proper role. Everything works fine.

 

I have machine cales M1. There I have only designer installed, and deployment service configured to S1 on designer configuration (i've just pointed config in designer to the same URL that on S1 machine). When I try to connect to repository, i'm using the same metastorm user credentials.

Grzegorz Lag

Guys from helpdesk said "it's known issue".

Don't try to spend hours to resolve it like me

Ben Hartwich

....I excitedly saw your 'solved' issue heading and realised it's not the kind of solved I wanted! Yes, I also have the same issue, and was going to spend some more time on researching the issue as well, but will wait for the patch I suppose!

When I investigated the error in the windows application log, it mentioned that it might be a kerberos authentication issue. I made sure I registered the MBPM machine with the setspn command and a trusted account, but I still got the SSPI error.

I am using windows 7 for the client machine though, so this could be part of the problem, as surely not everyone is having this issue. What OS are you running Greg?

Grzegorz Lag

Win XP

Paul Denton

Hi,

 

Just to update everyone, we are investigating this issue internally.  A number of customer have reported this issue with the use of a Designer remote to the Deployment Service (and engine) with everything in the same domain and using domain accounts.

 

It is a priority for our Development Services Team to track down and identify the issue.  We suspect a problem with Kerberos configuration of some type and have evidence of that from internal testing.

 

One workaround some customers have used is to install the Deployment Service locally on the same machine as the Designer.  You can then disable the Metastorm Authentication for the deployment service in "DeploymentService.exe.config".

 

Change:

 

<deploymentCoreConfiguration> 
        <add key="authenticationProvider" value="Engine"></add>     </deploymentCoreConfiguration>

<deploymentCoreConfiguration> 
        <add key="authenticationProvider" value="None"></add> 
    </deploymentCoreConfiguration>

 

 And re-point it to your Metastorm DB:

 

<connectionStrings> 
    <add name="Metastorm" connectionString="Data Source=<ServerName>;Initial Catalog=Metastorm;User ID=<Username>;Password=<Password>;" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient"></add>
</connectionStrings>

 

 

Now you would point your Designer to the local Deployment Service, you will be present with a Username and Password challenge but it will ignore whatever you enter and deploy to the database.  You are effectively replicating the v7 Designer functionality.

 

We suggest this only as a workaround while we work on the issue.

 

 

 

Grzegorz Lag

This workaround is working form me.

I hope your team will solve the problem quickly.

Thanks for your help

Scott Rixon

My issue was the deployment service was running as domain account and not local system. I have the database hosted on another server and was using SSPI to connect to it. I changed the SQL connection for the deployment service to use an SQL database user and switched the service back to local system and it worked..

 

I now have it working with SSO too.... :smileyhappy:

 

 

Carolyn Anderson

Changing the deployment service to run under Local System with a specified SQL login worked for me too. Thanks for your post.

Rick Kushner

Is this workaround supposed to work on a PC which also has the v7.6 Designer? I have to do maintenance on v7.6 applications until the transition to v9 is complete. Meanwhile I am unable to deploy v9 bacause I don't work on the PC that has the Engine on it...

Carolyn Anderson

I don't think you can have both versions of the designer on the same pc. I had to deinstall my v7.6 designer, only got it on my VM now.

 

But it would work if you had a pc with v9 designer on it.

Rick Kushner

I already have both designers (v7.6 & v9) on my local (physical) PC. I copied the v9 designer from the server which has the whole v9 install, engine, designer, deployment service, etc. I found this workaround in the install documents. But how to deploy...

Michael_Turek

How do we install the Deployment service only?  Metastorm setup/install doesn't allow me the option to choose this.  Do I need to uninstall the designer, then reinstall again?

 

Thanks

Michael_Turek

In response to my question. (Using Windows 7) Control Panel -> Programs -> Programs & Features -> Right click - Metastorm -> Change.

This will allow you to install the engine &deployment service (as opposed to running Metastorm setup.exe).

Eden Mack

I've tried almost everything in this string, and I'm still getting the following error message:

 

Fatal -> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at Metastorm.Deployment.Core.DeploymentService.DoDeploy(IEntity rootEntity, IEnumerable`1 entities) at Metastorm.Deployment.Core.DeploymentService.Deploy(IEntity root, IEnumerable`1 entities)

 

I'm trying to deploy from the server running deployment services.

Vijay Kotecha

Hello Eden,

 

I suspect the problem you are seeing is with a file contained in the Deployment folder.

 

Please navigate to your installation folder, normally, C:\Program Files\Metastorm\BPM\Deployment.

The file in question is Metastorm.Deployment.Core.addin.
(Before making any changes please ensure the deployment service is stopped)

Open this file in notepad.

Ensure that the following section looks like this;

   
   
   
 

We have noticed in some instances, where the last line in the section is missing and can cuase the failure you are seeing.

Once you make the changes, restart the deployment service.

Try to deploy a simple proces.

 

 

Best Regards,

Vijay Kotecha