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What Don't the ABM Service Installers and Server Manager Do?

This page answers the "can I ...?" questions about installing and running ABM Service whose honest answer is no, or "not there, but here". It covers the two setups (the ABM Service Desktop machine setup and the ABM Service Server setup), the ABM Service desktop app's updates, and ABM Service Server Manager, the window on the server where companies are added and looked after. Each answer says what to do instead.

Can ABM Service Server be installed on a server with no internet access?​

It installs, but no company serves until the server can reach the update address. The ABM Service Server setup does not carry the ABM web application: each company downloads it, and every later update of it, from the software supplier's update feed at updates.abm-portal.com over HTTPS. There is no offline package, no file or folder to install it from, and no setting of its own for a proxy that asks for a user name and password. Neither the setup nor ABM Service Server Manager has a setting for a different update address, such as one on your own network: the address comes with the setup file, and running a setup again puts it back. A site that truly cannot allow the address should talk to the software supplier before installing.

What you see on a server that cannot reach the update address:

  • The company's line in ABM Service Server Manager shows no version yet in place of the version, and never changes.
  • The foot of the manager says could not check, with The update feed has not answered since the service started.

What to do instead: allow outgoing HTTPS from the server to updates.abm-portal.com, the one address it needs. Nothing has to come in from the internet; the only incoming traffic is people opening a company's port on your own network. If the server reaches the internet through a proxy, set that proxy for the machine in Windows: the company's Windows service uses the machine's proxy, not the proxy of whoever is signed in. Once the address is reachable, press Update now under the company rather than waiting up to five minutes for its next check.

Can I stop ABM Service Server updating the web application at night, or choose which version a company runs?​

No. Every company on ABM Service Server installs the newest ABM web application from the update feed at its apply time each night, and neither ABM Service Server Manager nor its command line has a setting to switch that off, hold a company on its current version, skip a version or choose an older one. What you control is when it happens:

  • Apply at..., at the foot of the manager, sets the hour and minute, in the server's local time, for every company answering at that moment. The manager has no separate time per company; a company that was not answering keeps its own time until you press Apply at... again.
  • Update now, under a company, installs the newest version straight away, after saying how many people are connected. It always takes the newest; it cannot pick an earlier version.
  • Stop does not hold an update back: when an update is applied, the company starts serving again.
  • Blocking updates.abm-portal.com from the server stops every company downloading anything new, but no fix reaches it either, and it does not stop a version the company has already downloaded: a company downloads a new version within minutes of its release and holds it for its apply time, so that version still installs that night unless the company's Windows service has restarted since. The foot of the manager's Last checked time then only grows older, and once the company's Windows service has restarted, for example with the server, it says could not check.

The one case where a company stays on an older version is automatic: a new version that will not start within its three tries is put back, and the nightly update does not try it again. Running an older ABM Service Server setup takes the server manager and the service software back, not the web application. If a new version of the web application causes a problem for your staff, tell your software supplier, who publishes the fixed version; the next nightly update installs it.

Can I turn off automatic updates of the ABM Service desktop app, or keep a PC on an older version?​

No. Each Windows user's copy of the ABM Service desktop app checks the ABM Service update address every ten minutes and installs a new version as soon as that user has no ABM Service window open. There is no setting, registry value or setup option that turns this off, skips a version, or holds one PC or one office back; that is deliberate, so nobody stays on an old version by ignoring an offer.

  • In an hour, on the small ABM Service update window, only puts the offer away: it comes back about an hour after it last appeared, not an hour after the user pressed In an hour, so an offer that was left on screen for some time comes back sooner. Closing the window with its own close button does the same. The update still installs by itself the moment the user closes their last ABM Service window.
  • An older ABM Service Desktop machine setup lays down older launchers, but does not move anybody's copy of the app back. Each copy goes on updating to the newest release.
  • Blocking updates.abm-portal.com stops a PC receiving updates, but also means new users on that PC start from the copy bundled in the machine setup, and nothing on screen tells anybody the PC is behind: even Check for Updates… on the File menu then says the app is up to date.

To see which version a PC runs, look at the caption bar of any ABM Service window, or choose About on its File menu. What an update offer looks like, and how to make a PC take the latest version now, are in the page on how the desktop app updates itself.

Can the ABM Service desktop app be updated without internet access, or installed for every user in advance?​

No to both, though a PC with no internet access can still be moved to a newer version by running the newest ABM Service Desktop machine setup on it and having each user uninstall their own copy. The ABM Service desktop app installs for each Windows user the first time that user opens it, and updates only from the ABM Service update address over HTTPS, the one that comes with the machine setup; no setting points it at another. There is no file share or folder the PCs can update from, and the ABM Service Desktop machine setup never installs or updates users' own copies: it installs only the launchers, the Start menu entry, the first-run installer and a bundled copy.

  • Installing in advance for everyone: there is no option for it. Each user's first press of an ABM Service button, or of ABM Service Desktop in the Start menu, installs their copy with a small Setting up ABM Service window. On a terminal server, allow for many users doing this on the same morning.
  • A PC with no internet access: a user's first start installs the copy bundled inside the machine setup. That copy is as new as the machine setup you ran, so run the newest machine setup on such a PC to refresh it.
  • Users on an offline PC who already have their copy stay on the version they have. The only way to move them forward without the update address is to run the newest ABM Service Desktop machine setup on the PC, which refreshes the bundled copy, and then have each of those users uninstall ABM Service Desktop from their own Apps & Features; their next start of ABM Service installs the bundled copy again, at the version that machine setup carried.

The simplest answer is almost always to allow HTTPS from the PCs to updates.abm-portal.com, because the check itself is a very small file.

Can the setups choose their folder, set up ABM's toolbar, or switch off screen recording?​

No. The ABM Service setups take two command-line options only: /quiet, which installs with no window and no questions, and /downgrade, which lets the ABM Service Server setup install an older version silently, given together with /quiet. Run a /quiet setup from an elevated command prompt, or as SYSTEM the way deployment tools do: started without administrator rights, Windows first asks for administrator permission, and if that is declined nothing is installed. Nothing else about an installation is chosen at setup time.

  • The folder is chosen for you: an ABM Service folder inside the system folder ABM (Advanced Business Manager) has recorded on the computer, or C:\Program Files\ABM Service when ABM is not installed there. A previous installation's folder is always reused.
  • ABM's toolbar is not changed by the ABM Service Desktop machine setup. Press Copy launcher paths on its finished page, then point each toolbar button at its launcher in ABM's own set-up.
  • Screen recording in the ABM Service desktop app is switched off with a registry value named Recording, set to 0, for the whole PC or one Windows user. It can be pushed with Group Policy or a deployment tool, but it is not a setup option.
  • The channel is fixed by the setup file: a production setup always installs production.

The ABM Service desktop app itself, meaning each user's copy, has no setup options at all, because nobody runs a setup for it.

Can ABM Service use Windows accounts, for SQL Server or for signing in?​

No, neither. ABM Service Server connects to SQL Server only with SQL Server logins, and people sign in to a company's web address with their ABM name and password, not with a Windows or Microsoft account.

  • For SQL Server: Add a company... in ABM Service Server Manager needs a SQL Server login and a password in both database groups, and has no Windows authentication choice. Left blank, the dialog says Enter the SQL Server login and password. (in Settings..., blank keeps the stored login instead), and the command line refuses Windows authentication in the same way. Each company's Windows service runs under an account of its own that has no login on a SQL Server on another machine, and the manager offers no choice of account.
  • For signing in over the web: there is no single sign-on. The ABM Service sign-in page lists the ABM users, and each person types the password they have in ABM. The system administrator, ABM user 1, can require an authenticator app on top, from the Administration menu in ABM Service.
  • In the ABM Service desktop app: a person pressing an ABM toolbar button is not asked to sign in at all, because ABM passes the user it has already signed in. The ABM Service Desktop Start menu entry opens a sign-in window where the person chooses who they are and which company to open.

Ask your database administrator for a SQL Server login for each company database, and one that can read ABM's control database.

Can ABM Service Server answer on https with our own certificate?​

Not by itself. ABM Service Server Manager has no certificate or https setting, and each company on ABM Service Server answers plain http on its own port, on every network address the server has.

To give people an https address, or to reach ABM Service from outside the office, put something in front of the company's web address that answers https with your certificate and passes the requests on to http://, the server's name, a colon and the company's port: a reverse proxy, a gateway or a tunnel service. That is set up separately from ABM Service Server, and your software supplier can advise on it. The company keeps its port, and the manager starts, checks and updates it exactly as before.

Keep the plain-http leg, between that front end and the server, on the server itself or on your own network: the sign-in cookie is marked secure only when a request reaches ABM Service Server over https itself.

Can one web address serve all of our ABM companies?​

No. On ABM Service Server each company is one ABM company database, with its own Windows service, its own port and so its own web address, and its sign-in page has no choice of company. Add each ABM company database separately with Add a company... in ABM Service Server Manager, and give each group of people the address of their company.

  • ABM Service Server works out which ABM company a company database belongs to by itself, so the sign-in page only ever lets in the people ABM has given that company.
  • A person signed in to one company's address is not signed in to another's, even in the same browser.
  • The companies share the web application versions the server has downloaded, but each is started, stopped, updated and removed on its own, so one company can be on a newer version than another after an Update now.

The place where a person chooses a company is the ABM Service desktop app: its sign-in window, opened from ABM Service Desktop in the Start menu, asks who they are and which company to open. In the browser, the address is the choice.

Can I manage ABM Service Server from another computer, or script Start, Stop and Update now?​

Not from another computer: ABM Service Server Manager runs only on the server itself, and each company answers only a manager on the same machine. To look after the server from your desk, connect to it with Remote Desktop and open the manager there. There is no web page or phone app for it, and only one manager window can be open on a server at a time, even for two administrators: a second one waits two minutes and then says An ABM Service Server setup (or uninstall) has been running for over two minutes., even when it is only the other window that is open.

From a command prompt on the server, the manager has six commands: add, set, test, remove, upgrade and version. Start, Stop, Restart, Update now, Apply at... and Open logs have no command and are done in the window.

What you can script instead:

  • Stopping or starting a company altogether: each company is a Windows service named AbmService- followed by the company's name, which can be stopped and started like any Windows service. While it is stopped, the manager shows Stopped (Windows service) and nobody can use the company. The service starts automatically with Windows, so set its startup type to Manual as well if it must stay off after the server restarts.
  • Changing a company's connections or port: set, which also restarts it on the new settings.

Close the manager window before running a command: while it is open, every command except version waits up to two minutes and then stops.

Can ABM Service Server e-mail me or alert me when something goes wrong?​

No. ABM Service Server has no mail server (SMTP) setting and sends no e-mail of its own: no alerts to IT when a company stops, an update is put back or a database stops answering, and no sign-in or password e-mails to anybody. So it does not need a mail server either.

Where to look instead:

  • ABM Service Server Manager: each company's line says whether it is serving, and the line under it says when it last reached its database, in red when it stopped answering. The window refreshes itself every three seconds, and each company checks its database every five minutes.
  • The company's logs: Open logs under the company shows every start, stop, failed health check, download, update and put-back, in two files a day, kept for 30 days.
  • Your own monitoring: point your monitoring tool at the company's web address followed by /health, which answers normally, without anyone signing in, whenever the web server is up, and at the address followed by /health/db, which answers normally when the company can reach its database and with status 503 and SQL Server's reason when it cannot. Checking only that the sign-in page opens, or that the company's Windows service is running, is not enough: the service keeps running while it restarts a web server that has stopped answering, and neither shows a company database that has stopped answering. How the web address and the databases are connected covers both addresses in full.

For the Customer portal, a customer who uses Forgot password is not sent an e-mail: their account is switched off until the service company switches it back on, which the system administrator does from Customer sign-ins on the Administration menu.

Can I see who is signed in to a company, or sign out just one person?​

No. ABM Service Server Manager shows only how many different network addresses used each company in the last five minutes, on the company's line, not who they are, and it has no button that signs out one person.

  • Restart under the company signs out everybody signed in to it, office staff and Customer portal users alike. It is the way to cut off office staff at once, for example after removing somebody's access in ABM's own user list; otherwise a person already signed in stays signed in until they sign out, the company restarts or updates, or they leave it unused for thirty days.
  • For one Customer portal user, the system administrator, ABM user 1, changes that customer's access under Customer sign-ins on the Administration menu in ABM Service. Done in a web browser at the company's address, that ends their sign-in straight away; done in the ABM Service desktop app, it ends within a minute, at the customer's next step in the Customer portal.
  • Before an update, Update now says how many people are connected and will be interrupted, so you can choose a quieter moment.

The count is a guide to how busy a company is, not a licence count: everyone reaching the server through one address, such as one Remote Desktop server or a reverse proxy, counts as one, and one person on a laptop and a phone counts as two.

Can I rename a company, undo removing one, or move a company to another server?​

None of the three has a button in ABM Service Server Manager, and each has the same answer: add the company again, with Add a company.... The company database is never touched by any of them, so nothing people work on is lost.

  • Renaming: a company's name (Name here) cannot be changed, because it is also its Windows service, its folder and its firewall rule. Settings... changes the port, the site name and the connections, and the site name is what the manager shows; the company's Apps & Features entry keeps its old site name until a newer ABM Service Server setup is run. For a new name, remove the company and add it again under that name.
  • Undoing a removal: Remove cannot be undone. It deletes the company's Windows service, settings, stored connections, firewall rule and logs. Add it again with the same databases and the same Port, and it serves the same data at the same address; people sign in again, and a company added again updates at midnight until you press Apply at... again. Save any log you want first, one file at a time, with Save a copy... in the company's Open logs window.
  • 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 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.

Can the setups or the server manager add ABM users, reset passwords or create the ABM database?​

No. Neither ABM Service setup, nor ABM Service Server Manager, changes ABM's users or creates a database. SQL Server, the ABM company database and ABM's control database must already exist, made by ABM's own installation, and the Test in Add a company refuses a database that does not look like an ABM database or ABM's control database.

  • Users, passwords and who may open which company are kept in ABM's own user list, and ABM Service reads them at each sign-in. Add a person, set a password or give somebody a company in ABM; the change applies at that person's next sign-in.
  • An authenticator app for web sign-ins, and which customers may use the Customer portal, are set by the system administrator, ABM user 1, from the Administration menu in ABM Service.
  • The manager changes only how a company is served: its SQL Server connections, its port, its site name, when it updates, and whether it is running.

If the sign-in page shows This user has no password yet. or ABM has not given this user this company., the fix is in ABM's user list; nothing on the server changes it.

Can I stop ABM Service changing the company database, or have its tables removed when I uninstall?​

No to both. ABM Service adds tables of its own to each company database, named with the prefix ABM2_, the first time somebody uses a version that needs them, and there is no setting to skip that or to leave it to a database administrator. So the company database's SQL Server login must be able to create tables, and to add columns and indexes to them, as well as read and write ABM's data. Only the login for ABM's control database can be read-only. ABM's own tables, procedures and views are never changed.

Nothing that removes ABM Service touches the database:

  • Remove, in ABM Service Server Manager, or the company's own Apps & Features entry, deletes the company from the server and says The database itself is not touched.
  • Uninstalling ABM Service Server or the ABM Service desktop app removes programs, folders and settings only.

So the ABM2_ tables stay, with what is in them, such as the Customer portal's sign-ins, and so do any recommended indexes the system administrator applied, named with the prefix IX_abm2_. The Database screen, under the Administration menu in ABM Service, removes only an index the current version no longer uses. To have anything else taken out, ask your software supplier.

Is there a version of ABM Service for Mac, Linux, phones, or for hosting in IIS?​

No. Both products are 64-bit Windows programs. The ABM Service desktop app runs on 64-bit Windows PCs that have ABM (Advanced Business Manager) installed, and ABM Service Server runs on a 64-bit Windows server, where each company is a Windows service with its own web server. ABM Service Server does not install into Internet Information Services (IIS), and there is no Linux or container version.

There is no ABM Service app for phones, tablets or Mac computers. On those, people use ABM Service in a web browser at a company's web address, which needs ABM Service Server running at your site; they sign in with their ABM name and password, and the Customer portal for your customers is on the same address. ABM Service Server answers plain http on your own network; reaching it from outside the office, or over https, is set up separately, usually with a reverse proxy or a tunnel service in front of the server.

Can the ABM Service desktop app work without ABM, or go through ABM Service Server?​

No. The ABM Service desktop app needs ABM (Advanced Business Manager) installed on the same PC, and it always connects to SQL Server directly from the PC, the way ABM does; it has no setting to use ABM Service Server instead.

  • Without ABM, the desktop app cannot find ABM's control database, because it reads ABM's own settings on the PC (the ControlPath value ABM wrote when it was installed). It then says ABM is not installed on this computer. The machine setup itself still installs, into C:\Program Files\ABM Service.
  • Through ABM Service Server: the desktop app starts its own small background part on the PC for the company it opens, and never talks to a server's web address. Each PC therefore needs to reach the SQL Server holding ABM's databases, exactly as ABM does.

For people who do not have ABM on their computer, or whose computer must not reach SQL Server, use ABM Service in a web browser instead, at a company's web address on ABM Service Server.