• About the installation
• Database installation
• First Client installation
• Setting up users
• Subsequent Client installations
• Client installation tips
• Client installation options
• Microsoft Terminal Services installations

About the installation:

There are two pieces that make up an OpsCenter installation for an entire office. The first piece is a single centralized database. The second piece is the OpsCenter client software that is installed on each computer and is set to connect to the centralized database.

Database installation:

The database is a single file that needs to be stored on a computer in which all client computers have read/write access to. On this host computer, create a folder and create a share for that folder so any client computers on the network can access the data in the folder. The exact details of sharing a folder varies depending on the version of Windows but the basic way is to right-click the folder, select "Properties," select "Sharing," and then turn on sharing. Make sure the sharing permissions give users read/write permission to the folder. You can also assign a share name which will be the name that all the other computers on the network will refer to the folder by.

To create the database inside this folder requires a client be installed. Preferably, on the computer that is used by the person who is going to administer the OpsCenter system, go on and install the client setup program.

First client installation:

Run the "setup.exe" program and follow the onscreen installation instructions for installing the client software. Once the client has been installed, run the OpsCenter client program even though no database or users have been setup. The installation program provides the option at the end to automatically run the program or you can select the OpsCenter icon in the program files group under Audama Software/OpsCenter.

Each client installation maintains it's own profile file which can normally be found in the same folder that the OpsCenter client software was installed on the local machine. The file is called "opscenter.ini" by default. (The location and name can be changed later if desired). This profile file stores information such as location of the central OpsCenter database, the default user for the local computer, and a wide range of additional program options. If the profile has not been set up on the local computer, a message will be displayed requesting a profile be set up. Click "Yes" to set up the profile. You will then be prompted to either locate an existing database or create a new one. Since the centralized database doesn't exists at this point, select "Yes" to run the Database Setup Wizard.

The Database Setup Wizard will guide you through the setup process. Just follow the steps that are explained below:

• Step 1) Select the shared folder that has been set up on the host computer. You can browse to the folder either through a local or mapped drive or through the "Network Neighborhood" or "My Network Places."
• Step 2) Select a name for the database. This name appears appears various places in the program including the program's title bar. Next, you will have the option to enable
• Step 3) Select the desired core program features. These core features can also be enabled or disabled at any point in the future.
• Step 4) Enter in the registration information. All fields are optional and can be modified at any point in the future.
• Step 5) Agree to the 30-day evaluation period. Even if you have a registration code in-hand, the database will initally be set for the 30-day evaluation. You can then enter the registration code once the setup has been completed.
• Step 6) Click "Finish" and the database file will be created in the specified location. It will sometimes take a few seconds to create the database.

With the new database created, you now have to create users who can log into it. The Add User Wizard will automatically start.

Setting up users:

The Add User Wizard will guide you through creating users. Just follow the steps that are explained below:

• Step 1) Select the privilege level for the user. The first user that is created in the database must have full administrative privileges in the OpsCenter system (only a user will full privileges can add/edit/delete users). Subsequent users can be assigned any privilege level.
• Step 2) Enter the name and other information about the user. The user name must be unique. If the user name already exists, you will be forced to change it.
• Step 3) Set the global group memberships for the user. The group "All" is the only predefined global group. All users are automatically added to this group. If other global groups have been set up in the database, they will be listed and you will be able to add the user to groups as desired. User groupings can be modified at any point in the future.
• Step 4) Click "Finish" and the user will be created in the database.

Once at least one user exists in the database, you will receive the "Set Default User" dialog where you can set the default user for the local computer. Additional users can be added by clicking the "Add New User" button wich will repeat the Add User Wizard. You can optionally select the default user from the list and when you click "OK," the OpsCenter client will start up and log in as that default user.

Depending on the default startup settings, the OpsCenter may load directly to the system tray. Just click on the OpsCenter status icon in the system tray to maximize the program window. As a user with full administrative privileges, you will have access to the "Admin Controls" menu option. Under this menu option is the "Manage Users" (A.K.A - "Edit Users") control. Go ahead and add the remaining user names for the rest of the users who will be using the OpsCenter system.

Subsequent client installations:

The OpsCenter client then needs to be installed on any computer that is going to access the OpsCenter system. Just follow the same installation procedure as was done on the first client install. When the program is launched after installation, you will receive the same prompt to set up a profile. Click "Yes" but when you are prompted for creating a new database, click "No" to indicate you would like to select an existing OpsCenter database. Locate the database file that was created earlier in the file open dialog. When you click "OK," the "Select Default User" dialog will display since at least one user already exists in the database. Select the default user for this local computer from the list or add a new user to the list with the "Add New User" button. The OpsCenter client will start up for the user specified.

Client installation tips:

The "setup.exe" installation program supports various silent install options. See the client installation options section for the flags to run the installation in silent mode.

The "Default User Profile" option under the "Admin Controls" menu provides access to the default user preferences. Any new profile that is created will use these settings as it's default.

To avoid having to run through the create profile process on a new client installation, a partial profile can be manually created. By default, the profile for a computer is stored in a file called "opscenter.ini" that is located in the programs folder. The default program folder is "C:\Program Files\Audama Software\OpsCenter\". Create an opscenter.ini file that contains the following text:

[Main]
DEFAULTUSER=John Doe
DBLOCATION=N:\Applications\OpsCenter\OpsCenter.dat

Fill in the default user and database path as applicable. Leaving out the DEFAULTUSER line and only including the DBLOCATION line will cause the client to skip the select database portion of the profile setup but the user will still get the "Select Default User" dialog. The user name is in the form "FirstName LastName" or "LastName, FirstName." For example, either "John Doe" or "Doe, John" will work (without the quotes). The user name does not include the middle initial.

Client installation options:

The "setup.exe" installation program has a few installation options. There are options to create additional program icons and also to start the program automatically when Windows starts. Starting the program with Windows is an option that can be turned enabled and disabled in the "Preferences" option under the "Edit" menu. Even if this option is disable during the program setup, starting with Windows is enabled by default according to the default user profile.

Windows 95/98/Me/NT computers will have the additional option to install the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.5 Service Pack 3. This includes the necessary database drivers for the OpsCenter. An earlier version of MDAC 2.5 can be substituted if there is a known issue with the version included in the setup. Windows 2000/XP computers come pre-installed with sufficient database drivers and so MDAC 2.5 will not be installed on these platforms.

"Setup.exe" also supports some command line arguments for installing in silent mode. The following lists all the available options:

• /SP-
  Disables the This will install... Do you wish to continue? prompt at the beginning of Setup.
• /SILENT, /VERYSILENT
  Instructs Setup to be silent or very silent. When Setup is silent the wizard and the background window are not displayed but the installation progress window is. When a setup is very silent this installation progress window is not displayed. Everything else is normal so for example error messages during installation are displayed and the startup prompt is (if you haven't disabled it with the '/SP-' command line option explained above). If a restart is necessary and the '/NORESTART' command isn't used (see below) and Setup is silent, it will display a Reboot now? messagebox. If it's very silent it will reboot without asking.
• /NOCANCEL
  Prevents the user from cancelling during the installation process, by disabling the Cancel button and ignoring clicks on the close button. Useful along with /SILENT.
  
• /NORESTART
  Instructs Setup not to reboot even if it's necessary.
  
• /LOADINF="filename"
  Instructs Setup to load the settings from the specified file after having checked the command line. This file can be prepared using the '/SAVEINF=' command as explained below. Don't forget to use quotes if the filename contains spaces.
  
• /SAVEINF="filename"
  Instructs Setup to save installation settings to the specified file. Don't forget to use quotes if the filename contains spaces.
  
• /DIR="x:\dirname"
  Overrides the default directory name displayed on the Select Destination Directory wizard page. A fully qualified pathname must be specified.
• /GROUP="folder name"
  Overrides the default folder name displayed on the Select Start Menu Folder wizard page.
  
• /NOICONS
  Instructs Setup to initially disable the Don't create any icons check box on the Select Start Menu Folder wizard page.
  

Microsoft Terminal Services Installations:

Running OpsCenter in a Windows 2003 Terminal Services environment is not officially supported. However, this is only because extensive testing has not been done yet. Some preliminary tests have shown it to run well in a default installation of Windows 2003 Terminal Services. Older versions of Terminal Services have not been tested. The procedure for setting up OpsCenter is listed below. This procedure may have to be modified depending on the version of Terminal Services or any customized user login settings.

The main problem with running OpsCenter in a Terminal Services environment is that the default user would always be set to whoever was the last person was to login. This is because all the users are sharing the same user profile. The following steps will allow you to have a unique user profile for each user. There are a lot of steps but it really shouldn't be too complicated in the long run.

1. You will need to download and install the latest version of OpsCenter from here. OpsCenter version 2.1.1 or newer is needed in order to recognize some special folder keywords that you will need to use. All users will have to close OpsCenter in Terminal Services in order for the program to be updated.
2. On the server, go to the OpsCenter program folder. The default location is "C:\Program Files\Audama Software\OpsCenter\".
3. Create a new text file in this program folder called "redir.dat". (NOT "redir.txt" or "redir.dat.txt")
4. Open this file up in notepad and type in the following two lines:

[iniPath]
iniFilePath={MYDOCUMENTS}\opscenter\opscenter.ini

5. Save and close this file

What this file does is it tells opscenter to look for the user profile ("opscenter.ini") in a folder called "opscenter" in the user's My Documents folder. Each user should have there own My Documents folder on the server which is stored in their user profile in the "C:\Documents and Settings\" folder. This allows each user to have their own "opscenter.ini" file because the {MYDOCUMENTS} keyword refers to a unique file location for each user.

6. Open up the "opscenter.ini" file that is currently in the OpsCenter program folder ("C:\Program Files\Audama Software\OpsCenter\opscenter.ini")
7. Change the "LOGFILEPATH" value to:

LOGFILEPATH={MYDOCUMENTS}\opscenter\LogFile.txt

8. Save and close the file.

Like with the "redir.dat" file, this will redirect the user's local log file to the same folder as the user's profile.

9. In each user's My Documents folder, create the "opscenter" folder and place a copy of the above modified "opscenter.ini". You can use a folder name other than "opscenter" but you will have to change the iniFilePath and LOGFILEPATH values accordingly.
10. At this point, each user that logs in and starts running OpsCenter will be using their own user profile. You can either manually change the "DEFAULTUSER" value in their new "opscenter.ini" file to match their user name or just let them log in as whomever's name is there now and then use the "Change Default User" option from the "Edit" menu. Either way, the user name should stick and not be affected by other users logging in.