Exact Synergy Enterprise

Exact Synergy Enterprise: Installation manual

Introduction

The purpose of this installation manual is to give you the system requirements and a step-by-step guide on installing Exact Synergy Enterprise. For the installation of Exact Synergy, see Installation and update procedures Exact Synergy on web servers at the customer portal of Exact Software.

Before you install Exact Synergy Enterprise, please review the system requirements for it to run optimally. For more information, see Hardware and software requirements for Exact Synergy Enterprise.

Description

This section contains a step-by-step installation guide. The following applications are required for installing Exact Synergy Enterprise:

Internet Information Services (IIS)
Microsoft .NET Framework
Microsoft SQL Server

After installing the required applications, you can proceed with the installation of Exact Synergy Enterprise:

Downloading and installing Exact Synergy Enterprise
Creating database or Opening existing database

Installing Internet Information Services

Exact Synergy Enterprise relies heavily on Microsoft Internet Information Services. Since a web server is usually accessible to the outside world, it is one of the most vulnerable servers in the network. For example, during the installation of the operating system, it is advised to install only the minimal requirements to run Exact Synergy Enterprise. This will save resources and minimize the risk of unwanted activities on the server.

On a regular basis, go to www.microsoft.com to check for the latest service packs, updates, patches and hot fixes to protect your web server from unwanted activities.

To install IIS 8, see How to install Microsoft IIS 8 on Microsoft Server 2012 for Exact Synergy Enterprise.

To install IIS 8.5, see How to install Microsoft IIS 8.5 on Microsoft Server 2012 R2 for Exact Synergy Enterprise.

To install IIS 10, see How to install Microsoft IIS 10 on Microsoft Server 2016 or Microsoft Server 2019 for Exact Synergy Enterprise.

Installing Microsoft .NET Framework

The Microsoft .NET Framework includes everything you need to run applications using the Microsoft .NET Framework and is therefore required before installing Exact Synergy Enterprise.

The Microsoft .NET Framework can be downloaded directly from the Microsoft website.

After installing the Microsoft .NET Framework, you will have to register .NET with IIS.

To register Microsoft .NET Framework with IIS:

Click the Microsoft Windows Start button, select Programs, Accessories, followed by Command Prompt.
Type one of the following commands based on the processor type:

C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -i (on a 32-bit processor).
C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\aspnet_regiis.exe -i (on a 64-bit processor).

Next, press ENTER to register the framework. When it is completed successfully, the message Finished installing ASP.NET (4.0.30319) will be displayed.
Type exit and press ENTER to close the command prompt window.

After installing Microsoft .NET Framework, you should ensure that the configurations are compatible with Exact Synergy Enterprise by configuring the Microsoft .NET Framework.

To configure the Microsoft .NET Framework for Exact Synergy Enterprise:

Click the Microsoft Windows Start button, and then click Settings followed by Control Panel.
Click Administrative Tools on the Control Panel, and then double-click on Internet Information Services (IIS).
Next, right-click on Default Web Sites, and select Properties.
Click the ASP.NET tab, ensure that the ASP.NET Version is 4.0.30319, and then click Apply.
Next, click the Documents tab, and select the Enable default content page check box. In the box, ensure that Default.aspx is available. Other documents can be removed. Now, click Apply.
Click the Directory Security tab, and then click the Edit button at the Anonymous access and authentication control section.
Clear the Enable anonymous access check box. Under the Authenticated access section, select the Integrated Windows authentication check box. You can also select the Basic authentication check box.
Click OK, and then click Apply.

Exact Synergy Enterprise uses validation and decryption keys for encryption, decryption, validation of forms-authentication data and out of process session state identification. Using the default (out of the box) validation and decryption key settings in IIS is not recommended. For better security and to prevent third party tampering of encrypted data, these keys should be changed.

To configure new validation and decryption keys if Exact Synergy Enterprise is running on a single instance in a web server

Launch Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
On the left pane under Connections, locate and select Synergy Application under Sites.
In the center pane under the ASP.NET section, click Machine Key.
Check Automatically generate at runtime option for both Validation key and Decryption key sections.
In the right pane, click Apply to save the changes.

To configure new validation and decryption keys if Exact Synergy Enterprise is running on a Web farm

Launch Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
On the left pane under Connections, locate and select Synergy Application under Sites.
In the center pane under the ASP.NET section, click Machine Key.
In the right pane, click Generate Keys to generate a new set of validation and decryption keys.
Click Apply to save the changes.
Copy the Validation Key and Decryption Key across all Exact Synergy Enterprise instances in the farm.

Installing Microsoft SQL Server

Exact Synergy Enterprise works with Microsoft SQL Server. For more information about the compatibility of the SQL Server version with the respective Exact Synergy Enterprise product release, see Hardware and Software Requirements for Exact Synergy Enterprise Start page. When you install Microsoft SQL Server, keep in mind to select mixed mode for the authentication.

Remember to restart the SQL Server for this to take effect, or else you will encounter the Baco no rights error message when you launch Exact Synergy Enterprise.

Downloading and installing Exact Synergy Enterprise

For installing Exact Synergy Enterprise based on the Microsoft .NET Framework, the necessary files can be downloaded with the ProductUpdater. Alternatively, Exact Synergy Enterprise can also be installed using Windows Installer (MSI) packages. For more information, see Installing and updating Exact Synergy Enterprise with Microsoft Windows Installer.

Note: An Exact Synergy Enterprise installation carried out using ProductUpdater cannot be updated using the MSI installer and vice versa. For more informaton, see How-to: Replacing Exact Synergy Enterprise installed using Productupdater with Windows Installer.

Just like the software itself, the ProductUpdater is also available in multiple languages. To access the product updater, go to the Exact Synergy Enterprise folder, double-click the bin folder, and then double-click ProductUpdater_T15_NL.exe, ProductUpdater_T15_AE.exe, or ProductUpdater_T15_DE.exe:

Language	ProductUpdater file name
Dutch Exact Synergy Enterprise installer	ProductUpdater_T15_NL.exe
English Exact Synergy Enterprise installer	ProductUpdater_T15_AE.exe
German Exact Synergy Enterprise installer	ProductUpdater_T15_DE.exe

Caution: The ProductUpdater_T8 that is used for Exact Synergy cannot be used for installing Exact Synergy Enterprise. The ProductUpdater links above are accessible to authorized users only. You have to login to the customer portal to download the product updater.

To install Exact Synergy Enterprise:

Select the required ProductUpdater. After you have downloaded the ProductUpdater, start the application and you will see the following screen:
At Install mode, select the relevant installation method. There are two available methods:
- Internet installation — Select this option to download Exact Synergy Enterprise directly from the customer portal of Exact Software.
- CD installation — Select this option to install Exact Synergy Enterprise from the CD.
In the Please enter your credentials section, define the Web site, User Name, Password, and Domain. The web site is https://update.exactsoftware.com and the domain is EWEB for resellers and customers and EXACT-SOFTWARE for Exact-Software employees.
Click Authenticate to validate your credentials. When the validation fails, for example when entering an incorrect web site, user name or password, an error message will be displayed. When the validation is successful, the Please enter your credentials section will be disabled and the Release field in the Installation section will automatically refresh and display the highest allowed product update or service pack that you can download.
Check the fields in the Installation section and update them if necessary.
Click OK or Cancel to cancel the download and exit. For more details about the ProductUpdater, click Help. After you have clicked OK, you will see the following screen:
Now, the application is determining the files that should be installed. When done, you will see the following screen:
Click Yes to continue, or No to cancel.
Note: After the download has been completed, the ProductUpdater will automatically create a default virtual direction called “Synergy” in IIS. It will also configure the IIS as described in Installing Internet Information Services.
When the installation is completed, you will see the following screen:
Click Yes to start Exact Synergy Enterprise, or No to cancel.

Browser settings

Since Exact Synergy Enterprise is supported by different browsers, before you create a new database (for Microsoft Windows authentication), you need to configure the browser settings to ensure the database creation process run successfully.

To create a database via Microsoft Internet Explorer:

Right-click on the Microsoft Internet Explorer icon.
Click Run as administrator.
Run Exact Synergy Enterprise and create the database.

To create a database via Mozilla Firefox:

Right-click on the Microsoft Internet Explorer icon.
Click Run as administrator.
Type “about:config” in the location bar. The message “This might void your warranty!” will be displayed.
Click I’ll be careful, I promise!.
On the search bar, type “network.automatic-ntlm-auth.trusted-uris”.
Double-click the preference name that is displayed on the list and add the domain of your intranet website.
On the search bar, type “network.negotiate-auth.trusted-uris” and repeat step 6.
Run Exact Synergy Enterprise and create the database.

To create a database via Google Chrome

On Microsoft Windows, go to Start à Control Panel à Internet Options, and then click the Security tab.
Click Trusted sites, and then click Custom level.
Under the Authentication section, select the Automatic logon with current user name and password option, and then click OK.
Click Trusted sites, and then click Sites.
At Add this website to the zone, add the domain of your intranet website, and then click Add.
Run Exact Synergy Enterprise and create the database.

Creating database

When you start up Exact Synergy Enterprise, you are required to provide a valid license type for Exact Synergy Enterprise. The license file for Exact Synergy is no longer valid. If you have selected the appropriate license file, you are allowed to create a database.

To create a database:

Run Exact Synergy Enterprise.
Select File (.elcx) at License type and click Browse to select the license file. License files have an .elcx extension and can be downloaded from the customer portal. Alternatively, select Portal at License type and define your customer portal login credentials at Domain, User name, and Password, under the Portal section to download the license file directly from the customer portal.
Click Continue. The following page will be displayed:
Click Create a new Exact Synergy Enterprise database hyperlink. You will see the following page:
Under the Database section, type the name of the server at Server where the database is created.
Next, type the name of the database at Database. This is mandatory and cannot be edited once it is created.
Note: When creating a new database, it is important to decide on the database name. It is advisable to use “Synergy” as the database name for first time users. By having a name other than “Synergy”, a separate virtual directory will be created in the Internet Information Server.
At Collation, you can select Server default or International (Latin1_General_CI_AS) to specify that you want to use the default database server or international (Latin) collation for your database respectively.
Select the Default check box to make this database the default database. When you log in to Exact Synergy Enterprise, this is the database that will be shown as default.
Under the License section, the selected license that will be used to create the new database is displayed.
Under the Administrator section, type the user name of the administrator at User name. This should be the login of the user for the Windows NT server.
Next, type the full name of the administrator at Full name.
At ID, type the identification number for the administrator. This ID is the starting number, in which subsequent user(s) will have the following number(s). For example, if the ID of the administrator is “1”, the next user will have an ID of “2”.
Note: By default, the information in the Administrator section will show the details of the person who is creating the database.
Under the Login section, select the Integrated security check box to use the user account of the person who is creating the database. This user account will be used to make a connection to the SQL server when logging in to the new database.
Type the login name and password at Login name and Password respectively.
Note: You can only type the login name and password if the Integrated security check box is not selected in step 11.
Under the Division section, type the division code for the new database at Code. You can type up to a maximum of three digits. A division code of a database functions as a company code. This is mandatory.
Type a division name for the new database at Name.
Note: The Division section is disabled if you have selected the Demo company check box under the Database section.
Under the Settings section, select the country of the new database at Country.
Note: This field is disabled if you have selected the Demo company check box under the Database section.
At Language, select the language to be used in your new database.
Select the required setting for the account code. Select Numerical to use only numbers to set the account codes or Alphanumerical to allow both numbers and letters to be used for account codes. Numerical is the default setting. Be aware to NOT change this to Alphanumerical when there is a replication with the back office.
Select the required setting for the debtor code. Select Numerical to use only numbers to set the debtor codes or Alphanumerical to allow both numbers and letters to be used for debtor codes. Numerical is the default setting. Be aware to change this to Alphanumerical when there is a replication with the back office.
Select the required setting for the creditor code. Select Numerical to use only numbers to set the creditor codes or Alphanumerical to allow both numbers and letters to be used for creditor codes. Numerical is the default setting. Be aware to change this to Alphanumerical when there is a replication with the back office.
Click Create to start creating the new database.

Configuring existing database

After the new database is created, you have to make sure the following configurations in IIS are set.

The database configuration is stored in the db.config file in the root of your Exact Synergy Enterprise installation directory. This is created when a new database is created or an existing database is opened. In Exact Synergy, this file was called baco.cfg.

After the file db.config is automatically created, you can put information of other database in the db.config in order to run other databases on Exact Synergy Enterprise. You can open the db.config in Notepad and it will look like this:

You can easily add new databases by using the example shown. Of course the virtual directory that you specify must exist in the Internet Information Services application.

Opening existing database

When you want to open an existing Exact Synergy Enterprise database, you need to select the corresponding hyperlink. If the database of an Exact Synergy version is selected, the database will automatically be updated to the current version installed.

If this is a database that was created in the Exact Synergy environment, then you need to read the Conversion manual for converting this database correctly to Exact Synergy Enterprise.

Note: You need to have at least Exact Synergy product update 372 in order to convert the Exact Synergy database to Exact Synergy Enterprise.

To open an existing database:

Run Exact Synergy Enterprise. You will see the following page:
Click the Open an existing Exact Synergy Enterprise database hyperlink. You will see the following page:
Under the Database section, type the name of the server for the existing database at Server, and the name of the existing database at Database.
Under the License section, the selected license that was used to create the new database is displayed.
Select the Integrated security check box under the Login section to use the user account of the person restoring the database to connect to the SQL server when logging in to the database. Alternatively, type the login name and password at Login name and Password respectively. You are only able to do this if you have the sufficient rights.
Click Open to open the existing database.