Command Line Management Tools

Forsta Administrator Tool

During the initial installation of the first Forsta Plus server within a site, a set of four SQL Server logins are created on the database server. Each of these four logins has permissions to the various databases that match their access requirements.

The SQL connection strings used by the ADO.NET component to connect different application features to the SQL Server databases are encrypted and stored in the configuration database. If the password for any of the Forsta Plus SQL logins is changed, the encrypted connection string must also be updated to reflect the setting. Since the encrypted connection string is unique to each server within the site, it would have to be changed on all servers where Forsta Plusis installed. This is the purpose of the ConfirmitAdministrator.exe tool. The tool also serves a second purpose – for updating the connection string used by the Forsta Plus Task System Helper service,

Run the tool from the command line to see a help screen explaining the various input parameters that can be passed into the tool.

ConfirmitAdministrator.exe /t:<type> [/r:<role>] /u:<user> [/p:<password>] [/au:
<user> /ap:<password>]

Forsta Admin Tool

ConfirmitAdmin.exe is a powerful tool that can be used for a variety of features on a server without having to log on to the Forsta Plus GUI, such as restoring soft-deleted projects, importing and exporting batches of survey definitions and many other practical operations. The various actions are documented in the tool itself; simply run the tool from the command line without any arguments to display a list of available commands. Forsta Support can assist in the usage of the tool.

<confirmprog>\Confirmit.Admin.Tool\ConfirmitAdmin.exe /U:(username) /P:(password) –command

aspnet_setreg.exe Tool

.NET web applications spanning over several servers require that a logged on session is valid between the servers that run the application. To achieve this, the .NET Framework allows for two means of maintaining sessions. The first runs the ASP.NET State Service, installed with the .NET Framework, on one of the servers, and configures the .NET applications to connect to this service.

The second maintains sessions via a dedicated ASPState session database. If this is the preferred method, (it is how Forsta applications are configured by default) each server serving the specific application must be able to read and write to this database. This is done using the last user account specified during Forsta Plus installation; the 'aspstate' account (if you used the suggested login name).

If the password for this SQL Server login is changed, the connection string used by the .NET applications will also have to be updated. This connection string is stored in an encrypted format in the system registry and must be changed using a tool normally installed with the .NET Framework SDK, aspnet_setreg.exe. The tool can be found in the <confirmprog>\3rd party\Microsoft folder.

The tool requires two parameters in order to insert the new encrypted password into registry:

• '-k:' = registry key location, relative to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE ('HKLM')
• '-c:' = the Sql Connection String.

The complete command string is as follows:

aspnet_setreg.exe -k:SOFTWARE\FIRM\ConFIRM\SessionState -c:"data source=<sqlservername>;user id=<ASPStateUserSQLlogin>;password=<ASPStateUserSQLpassword>"

The data source in the SQLConnectionString should match the name of the database (preferably the SQL Server Client Network Utility alias used during installation.)

If the suggested user name was used during installation, a typical syntax might look like this:

aspnet_setreg.exe -k:SOFTWARE\FIRM\ConFIRM\SessionState -c:"data source=ConfirmitDB;user id=aspstate;password=MyPassword"

Note: If using the aspnet_setreg tool to update a changed password after the initial installation, permissions to the updated registry key are reset by the aspnet_setreg tool, and must be altered to allow Forsta Plus read access.

Note: The <confirmprog>\bin\SetRegPerm.exe tool will set the required permissions in registry automatically

Alternatively, start the registry editor on the server and browse to the 'SOFTWARE\FIRM\ConFIRM\SessionState' key. Right-click the key and choose 'Permission', and allow read access to this key for the Network Service system account. Also allow for permissions to be inherited by sub keys.

Uninstalling Forsta Plus

To uninstall Forsta Plusfrom a server, run the setup tool and choose Uninstall to remove the server from the Forsta Plus configuration and remove the application files from the server. The Forsta Data folder will not be deleted, but the CIFS share will be removed as part of the uninstall process.