What Do the Words Used in Installing ABM Service Mean?
These are the words the site's IT person meets while installing and running ABM Service: on the setup windows, in ABM Service Server Manager, on the download page and in the log files. Each entry says what the word means here, and which older or everyday words people use for the same thing.
What does 'ABM' mean?
ABM is Advanced Business Manager, the business management program whose company databases and control database ABM Service works with. The ABM Service desktop app needs ABM installed and working on the same PC, and opens from buttons on ABM's toolbar. ABM Service never changes ABM's own tables, procedures or views. Some programs of the older ABM suite also have names starting with "ABM Service"; a row called just "ABM Service" in Apps & Features belongs to that older suite. The desktop app's rows are ABM Service Desktop and ABM Service Desktop Machine Components, and ABM Service Server's are ABM Service Server and one ABM Service Web Server row per company.
What does 'ABM Service' mean?
ABM Service is the product these pages install: the application office staff use for calls, customers and the Scheduler, in a web browser or in the ABM Service desktop app. It comes as two products with their own setups, the ABM Service desktop app for PCs and ABM Service Server for web access. The Customer portal, for the service company's own customers, is part of it too.
What does 'ABM Service desktop app' mean?
The ABM Service desktop app is the Windows program office staff use to open ABM Service screens from ABM's toolbar or from the ABM Service Desktop Start menu entry. It is installed in two halves: a machine half, once per PC by an administrator, and a per-user half that installs itself for each Windows user and keeps itself up to date. It does not need ABM Service Server, because it starts its own small background part on each PC and talks to ABM's databases directly.
What does 'ABM Service Server' mean?
ABM Service Server is the product that lets people use ABM Service in a web browser. It is installed once per server by the ABM Service Server setup, and every company you add to it becomes a Windows service with its own web address. People sometimes call it the web portal. It does not use Internet Information Services (IIS). The older ABM web portal is a separate, earlier product.
What does 'ABM Service Server Manager' mean?
ABM Service Server Manager is the window on the server where you add, change, start, stop, update and remove companies and read their logs. Open it from the Start menu; it always asks for administrator permission. Only one manager window can be open on a server at a time, and the setup and uninstall wait while it is open. The same program, ABM.Service.Server.Manager.exe, also takes commands from an elevated command prompt for scripted installations.
What do 'ABM user' and 'system administrator' mean?
An ABM user is anybody in ABM's own user list; they sign in to ABM Service with the same name and password they use in ABM, as long as they have a password in ABM and ABM has given them the company. The system administrator is ABM user 1, the only person who sees the Administration menu in ABM Service. User 1 applies the recommended indexes, decides whether web sign-ins need an authenticator app, and gives customers access to the Customer portal.
What does 'ABM web application' mean?
The ABM web application is what each company on ABM Service Server serves to people's browsers. It is downloaded from the software supplier's update feed, once for all companies on the server, and updates itself every night at the apply time. Its version is shown on each company's line and on the ABM web application line at the foot of ABM Service Server Manager; no version yet means a new company has not finished downloading it.
What does 'ABM2_ tables' mean?
ABM2_ is the prefix of every table ABM Service adds to an ABM company database. They are created automatically, in one all-or-nothing step, the first time somebody signs in or opens a screen after a version that needs them has started. The company database's SQL Server login needs permission to create tables for this. People sometimes call it the database upgrade or the schema update.
What does 'apply time' mean?
The apply time is the hour and minute, in the server's local time, when every company on ABM Service Server installs a newer ABM web application. It is midnight unless you change it with Apply at... at the foot of ABM Service Server Manager. Apply at... sends the time to every company that is answering the manager at that moment; a company added later, or one whose Windows service was stopped, keeps its own time (midnight for a new company) until you set it again.
What does 'bundled copy' mean?
The bundled copy is a copy of the ABM Service desktop app carried inside the ABM Service Desktop machine setup. A user's first start installs it when the update address cannot be reached, so the first start still works offline. It is the version that was current when that machine setup was built; the machine uninstaller's message calls it the seed installer.
What does 'call' mean in ABM Service?
A call is a piece of service work logged for a customer, which some people call a job or a ticket. The launcher ABMCall.exe opens one call, and ABMCallsManager.exe opens the Calls list. Giving a call to an engineer is called scheduling on every ABM Service screen, which some people call assigning; ABMScheduler.exe opens the Scheduler board where that happens.
What does 'channel' mean?
A channel is one stream of ABM Service releases. Production is the released product every customer site uses, with no label in its names. Development is the software supplier's own test builds, with "Development" in its names and a dev mark beside the version; it is sometimes called a dev build or a test build, and does not belong on a customer PC or server unless the software supplier asks for it.
What do 'launcher log' and 'child log' mean?
These are the two log files each company on ABM Service Server writes every day. The launcher file, named launcher- and the date, records what the company's Windows service did: starts, stops, health checks, update checks, downloads and going back to an earlier version. The child file, named child- and the date, is the web server's own output, including its errors. Read them with Open logs in ABM Service Server Manager.
What does 'code-signing certificate' mean?
The ABM Service code-signing certificate, issued to "ABM Service", organisation "Advanced Business Manager", signs every file on the ABM Service download page and the programs they install. It is the software supplier's own certificate rather than one bought from a certificate authority, so every ABM Service setup, desktop or server, adds it to the computer's Trusted Root Certification Authorities and Trusted Publishers stores, which is what a security scan reports. That trust is what lets the setup's own signed install scripts run under Windows' signed-scripts-only policy, and what the desktop app's first-run installer checks each download against: it refuses to run one that is not signed with this certificate. Until a setup has run once on a computer, the Windows permission prompt says the publisher is unknown, which is expected.
When the certificate is taken out again:
- A setup that fails before anything is installed removes it again, unless another ABM Service product is already on the computer.
- An uninstall removes it only with the last ABM Service product on the computer, whether desktop or server, production or development. While another one is installed it stays, because that product still needs it.
What does 'company' mean on ABM Service Server?
A company is one ABM company database added to ABM Service Server with Add a company..., served at its own web address. Each company is its own Windows service, with its own port, settings and logs, and is started, stopped, updated and removed on its own. People may call it an instance, a site or a tenant; the command line calls its name /instance:.
What does 'company database' mean?
The company database is the ABM company database people work in: calls, customers and everything else. On ABM Service Server it is the first group in Add a company, The company database, with a SQL Server login that can read, write and create tables. One company on the server is always one company database.
What does 'control database' mean?
ABM's control database, usually called ABMControl, is where ABM keeps its users, their passwords and which companies each user may open. ABM Service reads it to sign people in. The desktop app finds it the way ABM does, from ABM's ControlPath setting and the ABMServer.log file in ABM's control folder; on ABM Service Server it is the second group in Add a company.
What does 'database line' mean?
The database line is the grey line under a running company in ABM Service Server Manager, saying when the company last reached its database. The company asks every five minutes. It turns red, as database: not answering since a time with SQL Server's message, when the database stops answering; the company keeps running and people see errors.
What does 'The database is being updated' mean?
The database is being updated is the window people see while ABM Service is adding its own tables to the company database, with a Try again button. It normally clears in a moment. If it says the database could not be brought up to date, the changes were undone, and the company database's login is almost always missing the permission to create tables.
What does 'download page' mean?
The download page is the ABM Service download page, https://download.abm-portal.com/downloads/, where both setups are downloaded. Current shows the setup a new machine should be given today, on an ABM Service Desktop card and an ABM Service Server card; Earlier lists every release, newest first, with each dated copy kept for 60 days.
What do 'first start' and 'first-run installer' mean?
The first start is the first time a Windows user opens the ABM Service desktop app on a PC, from an ABM toolbar button or the Start menu. The first-run installer, put on the PC by the machine setup, then shows a window headed Setting up ABM Service, downloads the app and installs it into that user's profile. No administrator rights are needed.
What does 'launcher' mean?
"Launcher" means two different things. On a PC, the launchers are the seven small programs the ABM Service Desktop machine setup installs, such as ABMCall.exe and ABMScheduler.exe; six are run by ABM's toolbar buttons and the seventh, ABMServiceLogin.exe, by the ABM Service Desktop Start menu entry. Some people call them stubs. On ABM Service Server, the launcher is the program each company's Windows service runs, also called the service software or server software; Update launchers in the server manager moves companies onto the installed version of it.
What do 'machine half' and 'machine setup' mean?
The machine setup is the ABM Service Desktop machine setup, the file ABMService-Machine-Setup-production.exe, run once per PC by an administrator. What it installs is the machine half: the launchers, the ABM Service Desktop Start menu entry, the first-run installer, the bundled copy and the update address. It appears in Apps & Features as ABM Service Desktop Machine Components, and does not update itself; run a newer machine setup to refresh it.
What does 'per-user half' mean?
The per-user half is the ABM Service desktop app itself, installed into each Windows user's own profile on their first start and kept up to date for that user alone. It appears in that user's Apps & Features as ABM Service Desktop. On a terminal server each Windows user has their own copy.
What do 'port' and 'web address' mean?
The port is the number that makes a company's web address on ABM Service Server: http://, the server's name, a colon and the port. The manager offers the lowest free port from 5080 upwards, opens it in Windows Firewall, and shows it on the company's line after port. Two companies can never share a port, and the address serves plain http.
What does 'put back' mean after an update?
An update is put back, which some people call a rollback, when a new version does not start and the company returns to the version it had. A new ABM web application gets three tries of a minute; if it fails it is put back and marked as failed on that server, so the nightly update does not retry it. A new service software is put back by the setup or by Update launchers.
What does 'recommended indexes' mean?
The recommended indexes are extra indexes on ABM's largest tables that make ABM Service's screens faster, named with the prefix IX_abm2_. They are never added automatically: only the system administrator, ABM user 1, applies them, one at a time, from the Database screen under the Administration menu in ABM Service. The Database screen removes only an index the current version no longer uses, when the administrator ticks Remove it too; your software supplier can remove the others if that is ever needed.
What does 'service software' mean?
The service software is the program under every company on ABM Service Server, kept in a folder named Host- and its version; the server manager's messages also call it the server software or the launcher. It updates only when someone runs a newer ABM Service Server setup, which moves every company onto it together, with about ten seconds offline.
What do 'Name here' and 'Site name' mean?
Name here is a company's fixed name on ABM Service Server; it becomes its Windows service, its folder and its firewall rule, and cannot be changed afterwards. Site name is optional: it is how the company is shown in the manager and in its Apps & Features entry, and changing it never changes the web address.
What does 'silent install' mean?
A silent install runs an ABM Service setup or uninstaller with /quiet, for a deployment tool or a script. Run from an elevated command prompt or a system account, it shows no window, asks no questions, writes its log and returns an exit code: 0 for success and 1 for failure. Both uninstallers also return 2 when something was in the way and nothing was removed: another ABM Service setup or uninstaller was running, or, for ABM Service Server, a company is still on the server or ABM Service Server Manager is open.
What does 'tray icon' mean?
The tray icon is the ABM Service desktop app's icon beside the clock, showing the company's initials. There is one for each company a person has open, because each company runs as its own copy. It stays while the app runs, even with no window open, and gets a dot and an Install update item, followed by the version, when a new version is waiting. Choose Exit on it to close that company's copy completely, for example before an uninstall; any other company's copy carries on.
What do 'update address' and 'update feed' mean?
The update address, which the server pages call the update feed and some people call the feed, is where ABM Service looks for new releases: updates.abm-portal.com, over HTTPS. On a PC the full address is written in the file FEED_URL.txt in the ABM Service Desktop program folder; on ABM Service Server a FEED_URL.txt in the server's program folder holds it. Each computer needs HTTPS access to it to receive updates.
What does 'Update now' mean?
Update now is the button under a company in ABM Service Server Manager that installs the newest ABM web application straight away instead of waiting for the apply time. Its confirmation says how many people are connected and will be interrupted. It also retries a version that failed to start on that server before.
What does 'users connected' mean in the server manager?
The number of users on a company's line in ABM Service Server Manager is how many different network addresses used that company in the last five minutes, not how many people are signed in. Everyone reaching the server through one address counts as one, such as the people on one Remote Desktop server or everyone coming through a reverse proxy, and one person on a laptop and a phone counts as two. It is a guide to how busy the company is, not a licence count.
What does 'WebView2 Runtime' mean?
The Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime is the part of Windows that draws the ABM Service desktop app's screens. The ABM Service Desktop machine setup installs it from Microsoft if it is missing; a PC with no route to Microsoft needs Microsoft's offline installer first. It is shared with other programs, so uninstalling ABM Service leaves it in place.
What does 'Windows service' mean for a company?
Each company on ABM Service Server runs as a Windows service named AbmService- followed by the company's name, shown in the Services window as ABM Service Web Server with the name in brackets. It starts with Windows and is restarted by Windows if it stops unexpectedly. Stopped (Windows service) on the company's line means the whole service is stopped.
What do the company states in the server manager mean?
Running means the company is serving. Starting means its web server has been started and has not answered yet, Restarting means it stopped and is about to be started again (a new company shows it until its first ABM web application has downloaded), and Updating means a new ABM web application is being switched to. Stopped means someone pressed Stop; Unhealthy means its web server stopped answering and will be restarted after about three minutes of that. Not answering means Windows says the service runs but it is not replying to the manager. Half made means a company folder exists without its Windows service, usually after an interrupted Add a company....