Why isn't a new Avacaster installation working right?
From Avacast Support
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Why isn't a new Avacaster installation working right?
Since an Avacaster server consists of so many compoents working together, there are many reasons a feature may not be working. This article specifically addresses some known issues after running the current Avacaster Installer.
1) If Perl CGI's aren't working (e.g., hitting SET, uploading, report generation, etc.), there are a couple of possible causes.
A. The IIS Application mappings may not have been set properly (this is actually a problem with the Perl installer, which is run within the Avacaster Installer). In the Administrator (i.e. Shockwave), it usually just says "unknown network error". To help verify whether this is the problem, enter the command below and see if it returns any output (if your browser prompts you to download it, there is a problem):
http://AVACASTER_SERVER/cgi-bin/config_test.pl
To fix it, go to Properties -> Home Directory -> Configuration in the IIS manager for the web site, and add two application mappings as shown below (on each line, there are 3 values representing the Extension, Executable Path, and Verbs for each mapping). Important: this assumes that Perl is installed in the specified location -- change the path if necessary for your particular server):
- .pl C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe "%s" %s GET,HEAD,POST
- .plx C:\Perl\bin\peris.dll GET,HEAD,POST
B. There is another potential problem with running Perl scripts if the Microsoft IIS Lockdown Tool has been run on the server; this tool installs URLScan and implements various security measures. Please refer to this article for more information:
Why did an Avacaster server stop working?
2) If Perl CGI's appear to be working but you just cannot create or edit events, it may be because the Avacaster files modified by the Installer do not have proper permissions for web user. To check:
- Go to the cgi-bin directory in the web root.
- Open the Security settings on a .pl file (right click and select Properties, then select Security tab).
- Locate the IUSR (Internet Guest User) account in the list.
- If IUSR is not there, add it and give read and execute permission.
- If IUSR is there, make sure that "Allow inheritable permissions from parent to propogate to this object." is checked.
- Repeat for all .pl and .plx files.
Tip: You may be able to select all of the Perl files at once and check/fix the security settings at the same time, but only if the setting is identical on all of them.
3) Several Perl packages required by Avacaster may not have been installed. If you cannot run screen sharing or log in as a CGI user, this may be the problem. To check if they're installed:
- Open the Windows Command prompt.
- Enter "ppm" to open the Perl Packet Manager.
- At the ppm> prompt, enter "query" or "query *" to see the list of installed packages (one or the other of these should work depending on the Perl version).
- Examine the list for: Time-HiRes, Win32-Process-Info, Win32-API, Win32-OLE. If any of them are missing, there's a problem.
- To install them, enter these commands one by one at the ppm> prompt:
- install Time-HiRes
- install Win32-Process-Info
- install Win32-API
- install Win32-OLE
4) There is often a permissions problem with the fonts.ini file (for the PowerPoint converter). If PowerPoint conversions are not working during slide upload, go check the C:\Temp directory for the conversion log file (usually named CGtempXXXX.log, check the file's date and time). If it contains one or more lines with "cannot open font configuration file," this is the problem.
To fix the problem, delete the old fonts.ini if one was created during installation:
- Open the Windows Command prompt.
- At the prompt, enter:
- delete C:\WiNNT\Fonts\fonts.ini
Then refer to this article for info about creating a new fonts.ini file: How do I create a fonts.ini file?
Other things the installer doesn't do (meaning that you'll need to do them manually if you they are required for a customer):
- Create a media_archive on-demand publishing point in Windows Media server.
- Create super administartor accounts for Avacast staff (you can create one super administrator via the installer, but that's usually for the customer).
- Change FTP root to web root directory (for "transfer media" option when making a web archive).
- Create an archiveuser account, member of Archiving group, which in turn has write permission to the media_archive directory (for "transfer media" option when making a web archive).
- Add custom SMTP server to global server configuration (custom.xml), if customer does not wish to install SMTP on Avacaster server.
5) There are some things the installer doesn't do (when/if they will be added remains to be seen):
- Does not set up a "media_archive" publishing point in Windows Media service, which is required to use mms protocol with media stored in /media_archive web directory on the Avacaster server.
- Does not ensure that FTP is installed and configured correctly (should point to wwwroot instead of ftproot, write permission enabled, anonymous login disabled).
- Does not set up an FTP user to use for "Transfer Media automatically" option when creating archives (usually called archiveuser with some unique password for the customer).
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