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How to Install ABM Service Server

ABM Service Server is what lets people use ABM Service in a web browser. It is installed once per server by the ABM Service Server setup, which lays down the ABM Service Server Manager (the window you add companies in) and the service software every company's Windows service runs. After the setup, open ABM Service Server Manager from the Start menu to add your first company.

What does the server need before I install ABM Service Server?​

The server needs 64-bit Windows, an administrator to run the setup, and a SQL Server it can reach with SQL Server logins for the company database and for the control database of ABM (Advanced Business Manager). Nothing else has to be installed first: the setup carries everything it runs, including the .NET runtime, and it does not install into Internet Information Services (IIS). There is no Linux or container version.

Check these before you start:

  1. Check you can sign in to the server as an administrator. The setup and the server manager both ask Windows for administrator permission.
  2. Check the SQL Server that holds the ABM company database can be reached from this server, and that you have a SQL Server login and password for it. ABM Service Server always signs in to SQL Server with a SQL Server login, never with Windows authentication.
  3. Check you have a login that can read ABM's control database (usually called ABMControl), where ABM keeps its users, their passwords and which companies each user may open. It may be the same login as the company database's, or a different one.
  4. Check the server can reach updates.abm-portal.com over HTTPS. Each company downloads the ABM web application, and every later update of it, from the software supplier's update feed at that address. There is no offline package and no setting for another update address: until the server can reach it, a new company shows no version yet in the server manager and serves nothing.
  5. Choose a free TCP port for each company. The server manager offers 5080 for the first company, then 5081, and so on, and opens that port in Windows Firewall itself.

Note: The company database's login also needs the right to create tables in that database. ABM Service adds a few tables of its own the first time it is used, and cannot finish starting without them.

Where do I get the ABM Service Server setup?​

Download it from the ABM Service download page, at https://download.abm-portal.com/downloads/, under Current, on the card named ABM Service Server (Server · Machine-wide, IT installs it): press Download the server setup. The file is called ABMServiceServer-Setup-production.exe; each release also keeps a dated copy with its version number in the name. The permanent address, the Earlier list of older releases and the SHA-256 fingerprint work exactly as they do for the desktop setup, described in How to Download the ABM Service Desktop Setup.

If Windows or the browser blocks the download, open Windows blocked the download? on the same card. It gives a command to paste into PowerShell or the Command Prompt, with Copy the command to copy it, that downloads the same file without the browser's warning. Windows will still ask you to allow the setup to make changes, and may say the publisher is unknown; the download page says that is expected.

There is also a development channel, whose names all say ABM Service Development (for example ABM Service Development Server Manager). It is for the software supplier's test servers, installs beside the production channel rather than over it, and is not what a customer site should run; What Are the Production and Development Channels? explains the two channels.

How do I run the ABM Service Server setup?​

Double-click the setup file, press Install, and approve the Windows permission prompt. The setup window then shows each step until it says ABM Service Server is installed on this computer.

  1. Open the downloaded setup file. The window titled ABM Service Server Setup says what it will install.
  2. Press Install. While Windows asks for permission you will see Waiting for permission to install....
  3. Approve the permission prompt. If you decline it, nothing is installed and you can press Install again.
  4. Watch the steps: the setup shows Step 1 of 7 and so on, with a sentence for each, such as Working out where to install, Unpacking the manager and the service software and Moving every company onto the service software followed by the version.
  5. Read the completion page. A tick and ABM Service Server is installed on this computer. means it worked, and the line underneath says to open Start and type ABM Service Server Manager to add a company.
  6. Press Close.

Details shows everything the setup did, and Copy details copies it. The foot of the completion page names the Installer log, which is kept at C:\ProgramData\ABM Service\Server\logs\install.log.

If the completion page shows a warning sign instead of a tick, the installation worked but something needs you: usually a company that did not come back after the update. Open ABM Service Server Manager to see which.

Where does ABM Service Server put its files?​

The programs go in the Server folder of an ABM Service folder. When ABM is installed on the server, that ABM Service folder is inside the system folder ABM has recorded for itself on this server; otherwise the programs go in C:\Program Files\ABM Service\Server. A previous installation's folder is always reused; the setup has no option to choose another. Each company's configuration, the downloaded web application and all the logs go in C:\ProgramData\ABM Service\Server.

  • The program folder holds the server manager in Manager, and the service software in a folder named Host- followed by its version. The previous version's folder is kept, so an update can be put back.
  • The data folder under ProgramData can be read only by administrators and the system. That is deliberate, because it holds each company's database connections (stored encrypted for this machine).
  • Start menu: ABM Service Server Manager.
  • Apps & Features: ABM Service Server, and one extra entry per company once you add companies.
  • Certificates: the setup adds the ABM Service code-signing certificate to the server's Trusted Root Certification Authorities and Trusted Publishers stores, so Windows trusts ABM Service's signed programs and the setup's own signed scripts can run. Uninstalling ABM Service Server takes it out again, unless another ABM Service product is still installed on the server.

If the ABM Service Desktop machine setup has already been run on this server, the server joins the same ABM Service folder. The two products do not depend on each other.

How do I install ABM Service Server silently?​

Run the setup from an elevated command prompt with /quiet: for example ABMServiceServer-Setup-production.exe /quiet. It shows no window, asks no questions, and writes everything to C:\ProgramData\ABM Service\Server\logs\install.log. The setup takes two switches only, /quiet and /downgrade: any other, such as /S or /silent from other products' setups, is ignored, and the setup then opens its normal window and waits for somebody to press Install.

  • Exit code 0 means it is installed. A company that did not come back after the update is written in the log as a warning; the exit code is still 0, so read the log or open the server manager afterwards.
  • Exit code 1 means it failed or was refused, and the log says why.
  • An older version over a newer one is refused, with exit code 1, unless you add /downgrade.

Run from a prompt that is not elevated, the quiet setup asks Windows for permission; if that is declined it stops and installs nothing.

Note: The setup is a Windows program, not a console one, so a command prompt does not wait for it to finish before showing the next prompt. To wait for it and read its exit code, run it with start /wait in the Command Prompt, or with Start-Process and -Wait -PassThru in PowerShell.

Can I install an older version of ABM Service Server?​

Yes. Run the older setup and it asks whether to install the older version over the newer one, naming both versions; answer Yes to go ahead. A silent install needs /downgrade for the same thing.

The setup moves every company onto the older service software exactly as it would for a newer one, so every company is offline for about ten seconds.

Can the development channel of ABM Service Server go on the same server as production?​

Yes. The development channel of ABM Service Server installs beside the production channel on the same server, never over it, with its own ABM Service Development Server Manager, its own companies, Windows services and folders. It is meant for the software supplier's test servers, not for a customer site.

  • Names: every development name says Development: ABM Service Development Server Manager in the Start menu, ABM Service Development Server in Apps & Features, and each company's Windows service shown as ABM Service Development Web Server with the company's name in brackets.
  • Folders: the programs go in an ABM Service Development folder beside ABM Service, and the data and logs in C:\ProgramData\ABM Service Development\Server.
  • Ports: the two channels never share a port. Each manager reads the other channel's companies too, so a port a production company has is refused in the development manager, and the other way round, even when that company is stopped.
  • Updates: each channel updates only from its own channel's update feed, and the apply time set in one channel's manager does not change the other's.
  • One at a time: only one ABM Service setup or uninstaller, of either channel, runs on the server at once.

A development company pointed at a customer's live company database changes live data with unreleased software, which is why the development channel stays off customer sites.

Why does the ABM Service Server setup refuse to run?​

The setup refuses, and changes nothing, when something on the server would make the installation unsafe. Each refusal says what to do.

  • ABM Service Server Setup is already running on this computer. You opened the setup twice. Use the window already open.
  • Another ABM Service setup (of either product or channel) is running on this computer. Waiting for it to finish... The ABM Service Desktop machine setup, another server setup, or an ABM Service uninstaller is running. The setup carries on by itself as soon as the other one finishes; if the other one is still busy after two minutes, it stops with Another ABM Service setup (of either product or channel) is already running on this computer. Wait for it to finish, then run this one again.
  • Waiting for the server manager to be free stays on screen while ABM Service Server Manager is open on the server. Close the manager; the setup waits up to ten minutes and then stops with Setup cannot continue while followed by what is open, and Nothing has been changed. The setup never closes the manager for you, because the manager may be in the middle of adding a company.
  • An earlier layout of the server, or web services from an earlier layout, are on the server. Uninstall what the message names from Apps & Features first, then run the setup again.
  • ABM Service Server Setup could not finish. The installation failed. The line underneath says why; Copy for support copies the details for the software supplier.