Cireson Portal

Install: Self-Service Portal Analyst Portal v2 Installation Instructions

Self-Service Portal/Analyst Portal v2 Installation Instructions

The Cireson Portal is one portal web site containing both the Self-Service Portal and the Analyst Portal as well as other optional, add-on products such as the HTML Knowledge Base. The user experience is controlled by which license(s) you have installed and whether or not the user is in the "Analysts" group in AD. This is an HTML 5 site that is not dependent on SharePoint and offers the flexibility for complete style customization. The portal provides excellent performance using memory cache on the Web Server. Allow your users to access the portal cross platforms and on mobile devices using Windows integrated or forms authentication. Internet-facing support is included as well!

Self-Service Portal feature highlights include:

  • Service Catalog
  • Make service requests & report Incidents
  • View/update requests
  • Search knowledge base
  • Approve/reject requests
  • Update activities

Analyst Portal feature highlights include:

  • My Work Items view
  • My Teams Work Items view
  • All Active Work Items view
  • Search knowledge base
  • View Configuration Item details

Prerequisites

  • Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 x64
  • Windows Server Roles/Features (see below about how to easily install using PowerShell):
    • Application Server (with Web Server (IIS) Support role) and Web Server (IIS) Roles installed
    • ASP.Net 4.5 feature installed
    • .Net Framework 3.5 Features feature installed
    • Application Server/Web Server (IIS) role service installed
  • Install 64-bit SQL CE 4.0 SP1 from:Ā http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30709
  • The SCSM AD connector must be run to populate the distinguished name property for all users that will be accessing the SCSM web site and for all AD groups that will be used in configuring the security options in the Cireson Portal.
  • Browsers supported: IE9+, FF25+, Chrome 30+

Installing Required Windows Server Features using PowerShell

To quickly install the required Windows Server features using PowerShell you can run the Install-WindowsFeature cmdlet and pass the provided DeploymentConfigTemplate.xml (found in the root directory of the provided files) file to the ā€“ConfigurationFilePath parameter. Example:Ā 

Supported Languages

The following languages are fully supported:

  • CSY - Czech
  • ENU - English
  • DAN - Danish
  • DEU - German
  • ESN - Spanish
  • FRA - French
  • HUN - Hungarian
  • NLD - Dutch
  • PLK - Polish
  • PTB - Portuguese (Brazilian)
  • SKY - Slovakian
  • SLV - Slovenian
  • SVE - Swedish
  • TRK - Turkish

The following languages are translated only to the v1 level and will be moved to the fully supported list as soon as the final translations are complete for v2:

  • FIN - Finnish
  • RUS - Russian
  • NOR - Norwegian

Step 1: Preparing Active Directory

  • Create or choose a group in Active Directory which contains all of the IT analyst users you want to have access to the self-service/analyst portal.
  • Identify the name of the domain you want to connect to.

Step 2: Preparing System Center Service Manager

  • If you have not already done so, create an AD connector to sync users from AD into SCSM which you want to be able to access the portals.Ā  Every user that accesses the portals must be in the SCSM DB and have the DistinguishedName property populated.Ā  The group created in Preparing Active Directory must also be an AD group in the SCSM DB that was populated by the AD connector.
  • Make sure that all users which will be accessing the portals are members of some user role in SCSM.
  • Create or identify a service account which will be used by the web server application pool to connect to SCSM and ensure that user account is a member of the SCSM Administrators user role and is a local administrator on the web server.

Step 3: Deploy Files

  • Unzip the CiresonPortal.zip and copy the CiresonPortal folder to C:\inetpub (or wherever you like, but if you use a path other than C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal you will need to change several paths in the settings files as outlined below).
  • If you are installing on a remote web server (i.e. not on the same server as a SCSM management server), copy the three .dll files from %Program Files%\Microsoft System Center 2012\Service Manager\SDK Binaries on a SCSM management server into the following locations:
    • C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\CacheBuilder\ConsoleApplication
    • C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\CacheBuilder\WindowsService
    • C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\bin

Step 4: Import Management Packs

  • Import the C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\ManagementPacks\Cireson.Portal.mpb into SCSM.
  • Restart the System Center Data Access service on the SCSM management server which the cache builder will be connecting to.
  • Restart the SCSM console.

Step 5: Configure Settings

5.1 Web Site Settings

Open the C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\web.config file in a text editor (ideally an XML editor so that the XML is easier to read) and make the following changes:

  • In the connectionStrings section change the ā€œManagementServerā€ setting connectionString attribute from ā€œ[management server name]ā€ to the FQDN of the SCSM management server you want to connect to.Ā  For example:

  • Optionally, change the ApplicationTitle value attribute to something other than ā€œIT SERVICE PORTALā€.
  • Optionally, change the CacheFilesPath value attribute if the cache will be someplace other than C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal \Cache.
  • Optionally, change the LanguageCode value attribute to a different three letter code (see list of language codes above).Ā  The contents of the entire web site will be displayed using this code.Ā  You can create multiple websites to have web sites with different languages.Ā  Only change this setting if you are also adding the same language code to the Cireson.CacheBuilder.Service.exe configuration in the steps described below.
  • Optionally, change the LanguageCodeDateTime value attribute to a different three letter code (see list of language codes above).Ā  The date/time values in the portal will be formatted according to the regional settings of the language code.Ā  You can use any of the three letter codes defined here.
  • Optionally, change the ServiceCatalogLanguageCode to limit the display of service catalog content to only those request offerings which are contained by a service offering that matches the specified locale.Ā  A value of ā€œ*ā€ will match all locale codes.Ā  Note: The locale code for the Service Catalog should be either a 2 letter or a 4 letter code (Microsoftā€™s Locale ID specification) not the 3 letter code that is used in all other places where a language code is specified.Ā  For example, if you choose ā€˜Englishā€™ as the service offering language in the SCSM console, then the locale code will be the 2 letter locale code ā€˜ENā€™.Ā  If you choose ā€˜English (United States)ā€™ the 4 letter code ā€˜EN-USā€™ will be used.Ā  You can look up the two and four letter locale codes here:Ā http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/5/E/95EF66AF-9026-4BB0-A41D-A4F81802D92C/[MS-LCID].pdf (Appendix A).Ā If you are unsure of the locale code for a service offering, you can inspect the cache by following these instructions:
    • Download and install the SQL Compact Query Analyzer utility from CodePlex on the computer where the cache files are located.Ā http://sqlcequery.codeplex.com/
    • Launch SQL Compact Query Analyzer
    • When prompted to open a file navigate to the Cache directory (C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\Cache) and in the file Name box enter cwce.bin
    • In the query editor enter the query SELECT * FROM ServiceOffering
    • Run the query
    • Look at the LanguageCode column to see which language code is being used for each service offering in the cache
  • Optionally, disable the visibility of any of the navigation pane buttons by changing the settings in the NAVIGATION OPTIONS section from true to false.Ā  You can also hide the New button for all users by changing ShowNewButtonInDrawer from true to false.

5.2 Ā Optionally Configure Support Group Mappings

The My Teams Work Items view shows the following work items: 1)Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  Work items assigned directly to the logged in user via the Assigned To field 2)Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  Review activities in which the logged in user is a reviewer 3)Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  Work items which have a support group which is associated to an AD group which the user is a member of To configure the mapping of work item support groups to AD groups:

  • Open to the Service Manager console as a SCSM administrator
  • Navigate to the Administration/Settings view
  • Double click the Cireson - Portal Group Mapping Settings item
  • In the dialog choose an AD group for each support group value. Only groups which exist in SCSM can be selected.Ā  If necessary, sync additional groups from AD into SCSM via the AD connector.
  • You can also optionally extend the change request and/or manual activity class with a custom ā€˜support groupā€™ enumeration data type property and then select that in the group mapping dialog. After saving the selection, you can reopen the support group mapping dialog and assign AD groups to these custom support groups.
  • This assignment should be done prior to running a full build of cache builder.

Note: Support group mapping is also required for the Assign Analyst by Group task to function. Note: The groups specified must be in the same domain as the user account that the cache builder service is running as.

5.3 Ā Cache Builder Settings

Depending on which Cache Builder service you plan to use, open the corresponding .config file in a text editor and make the following changes. Console Application Cache Builder:

C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\CacheBuilder\ConsoleApplication\Cireson.CacheBuilder.Service.exe.config

Windows Service Cache Builder:Ā 

C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\CacheBuilder\WindowsService\Cireson.CacheBuilder.WindowsService.exe.config

  • In the connectionStrings section change the ā€œManagementServerā€ setting connectionString attribute from ā€œ[management server name]ā€ to the FQDN of the SCSM management server you want to connect to. Ā For example:

  • In the connectionStrings section change the ā€œServiceManagerDatabaseā€ (not ServiceManagementDatabase) Ā setting connectionString attribute from ā€œ[sql server\instance]ā€ to the FQDN of the SQL Server (and if needed \instance) where the ServiceManager database is being hosted.
  • Change the AnalystsADGroup value attribute from ā€œ[group name]ā€ to a group username in AD (create the group in AD if necessary) which represents all the IT analyst users in your organization which should have access to use the web site.Ā  Note:Ā  This should be the ā€œusernameā€ property of the group as found in SCSM.

Note: The group specified must be in the same domain as the user account that the cache builder service is running as.Ā  You can include other groups from other domains in the analysts group, but they must be in a domain that trusts the domain that the cache builder service user is in.

  • Optionally, change the CacheFilesPath value attribute to map to the path where the cache files will be stored if the location is somewhere other than C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal \Cache.
  • Optionally, change the LanguageCodes value attribute to a comma-delimited list of three letter language codes listed aboveĀ if you want to build the cache for more than one language or a different language other than English (ENU).Ā  Example: ENU, NLD. Ā For now, Cache Builder can only generate two languages at a time.

Step 6: Build the Cache

There are two options for building the cache using Cache Builder ā€“ run as a Windows service or as console application.Ā  Choose one, but not both at the same time.Ā  Running the Cache Builder as a Windows Service allows the Cache Builder to run in the background without an interactive logon session, allows the service to be managed/monitored by a monitoring system such as System Center - Operations Manager, and can provide for better resiliency.Ā  Running the cache builder as a console application allows you to ā€œseeā€ what is going on as the Cache Builder logs information to the console window and to a log file. The Cache Builder Windows service or the Cache Builder console application must be run as a user which has the following permissions:

  • Local administrator
  • System Center Service Manager administrator
  • dbo on the Service Manager database

6.1 Ā Windows Service Cache Builder

Prior to do the following steps it may be necessary to ā€œunblockā€ the following files by selecting each one, right clicking, choosing Properties, and clicking the Unblock button if it is present.

  • C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\CacheBuilder\WindowsService\Cireson.CacheBuilder.WindowsService.exe

Instructions to install the Windows service: Open a command prompt and:

  • Navigate toĀ C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\CacheBuilder\WindowsService
  • Type:Ā Cireson.CacheBuilder.WindowsService.exe -install
  • Hit enter
  • Enter username (include the domain if needed) and password when prompted.

The cachebuilder service is now installed and running. Note:Ā If desired, you may instead pass the username and password in the command line as the 2nd and 3rd arguments (respectively): Cireson.CacheBuilder.WindowsService.exe -install domain\username password

6.1.2 Create a ā€œKeep Aliveā€ Scheduled Task

You can create a simple Windows Scheduled task that will check to see if the Cireson Cache Builder service is running or not and if it is not then start it.Ā  This is good for scenarios where the cache service is unknowingly manually stopped, stopped by an unknowing automated process, etc. and can also handle scenarios where the Cache Builder service unexpectedly stops/crashes. Execute this script file: C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\CacheBuilder\WindowsService\Scripts\Create-ScheduledRepairTask.ps1

6.2 Console Application Cache Builder

Right click on the file at C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal\CacheBuilder\ConsoleApplication\Cireson.CacheBuilder.Service.exe and choose Run as Administrator.Ā  A command window will pop up and you will see the output of the cache as it is being built.Ā  Leave this command window open so that the cache builder service runs continuously to refresh the cache from the SCSM DB. Verify that the *.bin files have been created in the C:\inetpub\CiresonPortal \Cache directory (or where you configured the cache to be placed).

Step 7: Create the Web Site

  • Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager from Start
  • Expand the server in the tree navigation on the left.
  • Right click on Sites and choose Add Websiteā€¦
  • Fill out the Add Website form as follows
    • Site name: CiresonPortal
    • Physical path: Browse to the C:\inetput\CiresonPortal folder (or wherever you placed the web site files)
    • Binding Type: choose http or https.Ā Ā  Note: if you choose https you must also provide an SSL certificate.
    • Optionally change the port number.Ā  Make sure that there are no conflicts of port numbers with other sites.Ā  For example, if you choose to use port 80 make sure that the Default Web Site (if it is using port 80) is stopped.

ā€¦ and then click OK.

  • Select Application Pools in the navigation tree on the left.
  • Right click on CiresonPortal in the list of application pools and choose Advanced Settingsā€¦
  • Click in the Identity cell and then click the ā€¦ button.
  • Select Custom account
  • Click Setā€¦
  • Specify a domain user which is an admin on the local computer and is a SCSM administrator.
  • If you want to use Windows Authentication (ā€œsingle sign onā€) instead of prompting users to login using a form, follow these instructions.

Step 8: Accessing the Web Site and First Time Configuration

To access the web site, open a browser and connect to http(s)://(:).Ā  For example, if you are using SSL and port 80 you could connect to: https://servicedesk or https://servicedesk .Ā  Another example:Ā  http://servicedesk.contoso.com:90. The first time you login to the web site, you should log in as a user that is a Service Manager administrator (in other words a user that is in the Administrators user role in Service Manager).Ā  After login, you will be redirected to the Admin Settings page until you have entered either (or both) the Analyst Portal product key or Self-Service Portal product key. You can also choose to configure other settings here on the Admin settings page.Ā  When done, click the Save button at the bottom of the page. You can always get back to these settings by selected the logged on user's name in the upper right hand corner and selecting "Admin Settings".

Example:

Cireson Portal: Admin Settings

Ā