Deployed SELECTserver Database and Internet Connectivity Insight [TN]

SELECTserver functional components.

Abbreviations used:

SELECTserver – SS;

BSS application in Microsoft Internet Information Services – BSS Application in MS IIS;

Bentley SELECTserver Windows service – SS service;

Bentley SELECTserver Gateway (Windows)service – SSGW service;

SELECTserver Database – SS DB.

Database and Internet connectivity as needed by different SELECTserver components.

• SSGW service does not need access to SS DB or Internet access (only if the user is on hosted SS and uses the SELECTserver Gateway – it will need Internet connection)
• SS DB connection configuration is setup using SS Database Setup utility, this configuration is shared by both BSS application in MS IIS and SS service. It may define either MS SQL native authentication or Windows authentication to connect to the SS DB. 
• If Internet connection is not direct but a Proxy server is used instead, the proxy configuration should be defined in the Administration->Server Settings of SS Admin Site. This configuration is as well shared by both BSS application in MS IIS and SS service. 
• BSS application in MS IIS and SS service access the SS DB and Bentley backend via Internet on their own, independently (although they share the DB and proxy configuration) so there may be situations when one has internet or DB access and the other does not. Next page describes an example and conditions for such a situation. 

Here is a Youtube video that illustrates this topic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMVQlEWU0ag

Example 1.

Conditions:

Let us assume that we have configured Windows authentication in SS Database Setup utility and there is no proxy configuration in SS Admin Site. MS SQL used by SS is installed on the same machine and initial SS Configuration was successfully completed using XML license file.

Another assumption is that SS service was reconfigured to run as a dedicated user account called ss_svc (by default it runs as Local System account) but the BSS application in MS IIS was left running as Local system account (as by default). NOTE: the user account running the BSS application in MS IIS can be changed by changing the identity of the SELECTserver application pool (for more details consult MS IIS documentation).

We also assume that Local System account is a member of MS SQL administrators but is not allowed to access internet and the ss_svc is on contrary allowed to access internet but does not have access to the MS SQL.

Result:

- SS Admin Site can be opened fine (BSS application in MS IIS having access to the SS DB) but if any activities requiring internet access like Request/Update Server License are done they fail with the error that is usually “Unknown HTTP error occurred while…”. This should not be confused with running the services (Data Update, Usage Log Posting) in the Manage Services because in this case Bentley will be accessed by the SS service, not BSS application in MS IIS.

- SS service will not start as it does not have access to the SS DB and it needs it. If it had access to the DB – it would start successfully and would successfully run all the automatic SS services as it has internet access.

- SSGW service will start fine as in order to start it only needs to get a license for itself from BSS application in MS IIS which is working fine although without internet access.

Example 2 (real-world)

Error when opening SS V9 Admin Site.

This happens when BSS application in MS IIS does not have access to the SS DB. To reproduce this, configure Windows NT Authentication in the SS DB setup (we assume that MS SQL is local to SS and was installed by the SS setup with all default options) and set the SELECTserver application pool identity to be Network Service. To fix - make sure that the SELECTserver pool identity user account has access to the SS DB (for example is part of MS SQL administrators).

In this example we did not pay attention to the SS service.

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