Cireson Portal

Install: Cireson Portal - Installation and Upgrade Instructions

The Cireson Portal no longer uses the Click-to-run installer package. For instructions on how to download and run the installer, please see KB2635.
You must remember to unblock the zip file after downloading.

This article applies to: Cireson Portal, version 9.0.X and above.

Overview

Our full reference guide can be found on KB46. This Cireson Portal Install guide can help with how to prepare your environment for installing the Cireson Portal
Navigate to https://downloads.cireson.com on the SCSM Management Server (or the server you want to install the Portal on), find Cireson Portal for Service Manager and click Install. Make sure you download the appropriate version to match the SCSM version (2016/2019 or 2022). If you are running SCSM 2016/2019 you must use the 2016 version of the Cireson Portal. For SCSM 2022, look for the 2022 version of the installer.

Note: The Service Manager and Service Management databases must be installed on the same SQL instance, otherwise they will not function correctly.

 

For installing on a server without internet access, see KB20

Note: If you are installing in a non-production environment and intend to install the same version to product at a later date, it is recommended to copy the the installer files at installation time. See KB20

Prerequisites

Before you begin, please ensure you meet all the prerequisites found on KB2438. Ensure you check which version is right for you (KB1243) to understand which product lane you are installing.

Upgrade Information

If you are upgrading from a previous version, you will find that many of these fields are already populated with information that you used from the previous installation. You may only need to provide passwords when performing an upgrade

Welcome Screen

  • Click Let’s get started!

Configuration - Component and Language Settings

  • Select Install All Components. Select the default Language and any Date / Time formats. You can choose which components to install if you are performing a secondary install (if you want to not install the Cachebuilder on a secondary server)
    • Here you can also select which Language settings you wish to use or install additional languages
  • Click Next.

Configuration Pt. 2 - Database, Website and Email Settings

  • Enter the Database, Website and Email settings as per the requirements.

Note: Password validation is done on this step so make sure the warning triangle has disappeared before continuing.

  • Click Next.

It is at this point where you can configure SSL in the Cireson Portal. Follow the steps in this article to get that set up: KB2582 - User Guide: Configuring SSL in Cireson Portal


Summary of these settings:

ServiceManagement Database Server Name - If you are using Windows Authentication for SSO, the management server name must be localhost. If you are using Forms Authentication and the management server is also installed on the computer where you are installing the Cireson Portal web site then enter 'localhost'.

ServiceManagement Database Name - This is the database name for the Cireson Portal that you are installing. Typically, this database is named 'ServiceManagement. It MUST NOT be be given the same name as the Service Manager database.

Application Pool Identity - the account should be a local administrator and SCSM administrator. Example: CONTOSO\SCSM Portal AP

Application Pool Identity Password - Password for the Application Pool Identity. In some cases, the installer may not be able to verify the credentials provided and will show a warning. If you are certain that you have entered the correct credentials, you may proceed.

Application Title - this is the text that will be displayed in the header in the upper-left corner of the Portal. An example could be Contoso Self Service

Service Manager Management Server Name - If you are using Windows Authentication for SSO, the management server name must be localhost, and you must have a Service Manager Management Server installed on the machine. If you are using Forms Authentication and the management server is also installed on the computer where you are installing the Cireson Portal web site, then enter 'localhost'. Ensure Anonymous Authentication is enabled in IIS after running the installation.

Notification Template Prefix - this setting is used to filter out the list of notification templates which should be shown on the Send Email dialog in the Cireson Portal. Only those notification templates which have a display name that starts with the specified prefix value will be shown. Templates for the portal will be created in the future by Contoso matching this default naming convention prefix.

Return Email Address - this is the email address that will be set as the return email address of any email sent via the Cireson Portal.

SMTP Server Name - the name of the SMTP server to connect to when sending email.

SMTP Server Port - the port number to be used for SMTP.

Configuration Pt. 3 - Cache Builder Settings

  • Enter the CacheBuilder settings.
  • Click Next.


Summary of these settings:

Service Account - this is the account that the Cireson Cache Builder Windows service will run as. Enter the name in the format domain\username. 

Note: A domain account must be used. The domain account must be a local admin and a dbo on the ServiceManager database.

Service Account Password - the password for the Service Account.

Analyst Group Name - the name of the Group in AD which contains all of the analysts. This group must be in the same domain as the Service Account user. Enter just the group name. It is not necessary to specify the domain name.

Knowledge Base Managers Group Name - the name of the Group in AD which contains all of the knowledge base managers. Same requirements as the Analysts group.

Asset Management Group Name - the name of the Group in AD which contains all of the asset managers. Same requirements as the Analysts group. The members of this group will see the out of the box asset management views and will be able to create new asset management objects on the New menu.

Service Manager Management Server Name - the name of the SCSM management server you want the cache builder to connect to. This should always be 'localhost' because the Cireson Cache Builder must always be installed on a server that also is hosting a System Center Service Manager management server.

SCSM Database Server Name - the name of the database server where the Service Manager database is. The Cache Builder connects directly to the ServiceManager database to get some data out.

SCSM Database Name - the name of the ServiceManager database.

(Advanced) Configuration Item Classes - a comma separated list of CI class names if you want to limit the classes of CI objects that are synced into the cache.

Configuration Pt. 4 - Cireson Analytics and Data Retention Settings

  • Enter the Analytics and Data Retention settings.
  • Click Next

Summary of these settings:

Service Account - this is the account that the Cireson Analytics (Platform Host) Windows service will run as. Enter the name in the format domain\username. 

Note: A domain account must be used. The domain account must be a local admin and a dbo on the ServiceManager database.

Service Account Password - the password for the Service Account.

Analytics Database Server Name - the name of the server where Cireson Analytics should be installed to

Analytics Database Name - the name of the database where Cireson Analytics should be named

Select a date for First Data sync - select a date when you want to start populating your data

Run data sync every X minutes - enter the time between data syncs. You may encounter slowness during data syncs, so you may not want this to be too regular

Data Retention Settings - for each work item, select the amount of time you wish to retain work item data. Default is 10 years (3650 days)

License Agreement

  • Read through the full license agreement like you always do on an installer and click Install and get ready to love your life!

Completion

All going well you should see a Success! screen and a link to be able to visit your newly installed or upgraded Cireson Portal.

If you do see errors appearing, determine if you are able to resolve them yourself by modifying the service account or the logged in user permissions and re-run the installer. If you are still having issues, Ciresons amazing Global Support Team are always available to help: support.cireson.com. Remember to attach a copy of the provided install log which you can access by clicking View Log

Advanced Request Offerings

For more information about Advanced Request Offerings, see KB46 - Enabling Advanced Request Offerings

Advanced Request Offerings now works with Change Requests as of version 9.2.0, see KB2462 - How to: Create a Change Request Request Offering

Important Note: Installing/Upgrading the Advance Request Offering management pack will update ALL of your Incident and Service Request Last Modified dates for each work item in the ServiceManager CMDB. On large data sets this can and will result in performance issues while Service Manager processes the changes across the affected work items. 

After the Cireson Portal has been installed, navigate to the installation directory
In the Management Packs folder you will find Cireson.AdvancedRequestOfferings.mpb
You can import this Management Pack Bundle into SCSM under SCSM -> Administration -> Management Packs -> Import to enable Advanced Request Offerings

Activating CMDB Portal

For more information about the CMDB Portal, see Reference: CMDB Portal (KB2433)

The NEW Config Item pages or Config Item Views are hidden by default. To view them, you must set the pages’ visibility through the Navigation Settings Page (KB23).

When you are on the Navigation Setting page, find the navigation link "NEW Config Items", and check the Visible checkbox.
Once set to visible, you will be able to see a new navigation node named NEW Config Items and the out of the box sub-nodes match what is in Service Manager Console Configuration Item view.

You are able to modify the visibility of which AD groups can view this Navigation Node by unchecking the 'Public' checkbox and adding AD groups to the frame that appears

Licensing After Installation

For more information about licensing, please see How To: Use Your Product Key to License The Cireson Portal (KB1180)

Important note: Licensing may not be applied until the CacheBuilder has run completely after an install. You may need to wait up to 10 minutes for this process to complete before you can apply your Product Key

Logging

For more information about logging, see KB34