How to Remove a Company or Uninstall ABM Service Server
A company is removed from the server in ABM Service Server Manager with Remove, or from its own entry in Windows' Apps & Features. ABM Service Server itself is uninstalled from Apps & Features, but only once every company has been removed. Neither ever touches the company database.
How do I remove a company from ABM Service Server?
Press Remove under the company in ABM Service Server Manager and confirm with OK. The company stops serving at once and is deleted from this server; the other companies keep serving.
- Open ABM Service Server Manager.
- Press Remove under the company. The button is there whatever state the company is in.
- Read the question: Remove the company ... from this server? It says that Its Windows service, its configuration and its firewall rule are deleted. The database itself is not touched. The other companies keep serving.
- Press OK. A progress window shows stopping the company, then closing the firewall port and the Apps & Features entry....
The company disappears from the manager's list. Its web address stops answering, so tell its users first.
What is deleted: the company's Windows service, its firewall rule, its Apps & Features entry, and its folder under C:\ProgramData\ABM Service\Server\service, which holds its settings, its stored database connections and its logs. The confirmation does not mention the logs, but they go with the folder and cannot be recovered afterwards. What is kept: the company database, including every table ABM Service added to it, and everything in ABM (Advanced Business Manager).
To keep a company's logs for your software supplier, save them before you press Remove. Press Open logs under the company in ABM Service Server Manager, choose a file in the list, press Save a copy... and save it somewhere you can reach, such as the desktop. Save a copy... saves one file at a time, the whole file, so repeat it for each day you need. Files two or more days old are compressed and save as .gz files, which the supplier can read as they are. To copy the whole folder in one go instead, press Folder path in the same window and copy the folder from an elevated command prompt.
When you remove the last company, the manager also empties the downloaded web application and the server's update settings, so the next company added starts clean. The manager's and the setup's own logs are kept.
Can I remove a company from Apps & Features instead?
Yes. Each company has its own entry in Windows' Apps & Features, named ABM Service Web Server followed by its site name (or its name) in brackets. Choosing Uninstall on it runs the same removal as the server manager.
Windows shows nothing of its own for it, so ABM Service asks: Remove the ABM Service web service ... from this server?, saying that It stops serving immediately and that The database itself is not touched. Answer Yes to remove it.
Close ABM Service Server Manager before removing a company this way. While the manager is open, or a setup is running, the removal waits up to two minutes and then gives up without showing a message; the reason is written only to manager.log in C:\ProgramData\ABM Service\Server\logs. If nothing seems to happen, close the manager and choose Uninstall again.
Can I undo removing a company, or move a company to another server?
Neither has a button in ABM Service Server Manager, and the answer to both is to add the company again with Add a company.... The company database is never touched by a removal, so nothing people work on is lost.
- Undoing a removal: Remove cannot be undone, because the company's Windows service, settings, stored connections, firewall rule and logs are deleted. Add it again with the same two databases and the same Port, and it serves the same data at the same web address. People sign in again, and the company added again updates at midnight until you press Apply at... again.
- Moving to another server: there is no export or import, and copying the company's folder does not work, because the stored connections are encrypted for the machine that saved them. Install ABM Service Server on the new server, add the company there with the same details, check its address answers, then remove it from the old server. The web address changes with the server's name, and Apply at... has to be set again on the new server. Anyone who uses an authenticator app for web sign-ins is asked to set it up again at their first sign-in there, because those are protected for the machine too.
How do I uninstall ABM Service Server?
Remove every company first, then uninstall ABM Service Server from Apps & Features and answer Yes. The uninstall removes the server manager, the service software and the server's configuration.
- Remove each company, in ABM Service Server Manager or from its own Apps & Features entry.
- Close ABM Service Server Manager.
- Open Windows Settings, then Apps, then Installed apps (or Apps & Features, depending on the Windows version).
- Choose ABM Service Server, then Uninstall.
- Answer Yes to Remove ABM Service Server?. It confirms that the ABM Service desktop app, if it is installed on this computer, is not touched.
- Read ABM Service Server was removed.
The uninstall also deletes the data folder C:\ProgramData\ABM Service\Server, including the manager's and setup's logs. The last empty folders go the next time the server restarts. It also takes the ABM Service code-signing certificate out of the server's Trusted Root Certification Authorities and Trusted Publishers stores, unless another ABM Service product is still installed on the server. The company databases are not touched.
To uninstall without questions, for example from a script, run the uninstall entry's quiet command: the uninstaller in the server's program folder with /quiet. It is still refused while a company exists.
Why won't ABM Service Server uninstall?
The ABM Service Server uninstall refuses, and removes nothing, while a company still exists, while ABM Service Server Manager is open, or while a setup is running. It checks for companies before asking Remove ABM Service Server?; after you answer Yes it waits up to two minutes for a running setup, and then up to two minutes for an open manager, before giving up. Each message ends Nothing has been removed.
- This server is running a number of ABM Service web services, with their names: remove each company in ABM Service Server Manager first, then run the uninstall again.
- A company was added while this uninstall was waiting: somebody added one in the manager meanwhile. Remove it and run the uninstall again.
- ABM Service Server Manager is open. Close it and run this uninstall again.
- An ABM Service setup or uninstall (of either product or channel) is running. Wait for it to finish, then run the uninstall again.
- ABM Service Server is not installed. There was nothing left to remove; the leftover Apps & Features entry is cleared.
- Uninstall did not complete. followed by the reason: something failed part-way. Run the uninstall again, and if it fails again send the reason to the software supplier.