Installation PowerShell Parameters

Key Vault Cloud Systems (Alemba Cloud Systems only)

This is the name of the key vault which has been configured for access by your Azure Virtual Machine.

This setting is entirely optional and is only applicable to systems running in Alemba Cloud.

Parameter Name: KeyVault

Environment Variable Name: ASM_KeyVault

Default: Null

Example: mykeyvault

Connection String

This is the ADO Net connection string used to connect to the ASM database. The way we deal with this connection string has been simplified to help support more advanced scenarios such as Windows Authentication.

See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/data/adonet/connection-string-syntax

Even if you had a running ASM before (if it’s not EOS or higher), you have to enter the following variables:

  • Server name

  • Database name

  • User ID

  • Password

Parameter Name: ConnectionString

Environment Variable Name: ASM_ConnectionString

Default: Null

Example: The database ASM uses is installed on an SQL server called SQL01, ASM connects to a database on that server called ASMSQL with the username ASMDBAccount with a password xxxxx. Your connection string will therefore be:

Server=ASMSQL;Database=ASMSQL;User Id=ASMDBAccount;Password=xxxxx

Additional parameters can be added after this string to specify the maximum application pool size and the connection time out. Adding these settings to the end of the connection string will add additional stability:

;Max Pool Size=1000;Connection Timeout=120

Therefore your string, using the previous example will look like:

Server=ASMSQL;Database=ASMSQL;User Id=ASMDBAccount;Password=xxxxx;Max Pool Size=1000;Connection Timeout=120

HostName

This is the URL which will be used to access ASM over the network and will be used to configure IIS.

You can find your existing hostname by browsing to your current ASM version and noting the start of the URL.

For instance the Alemba support site is https://alemba.help/production/portal.aspx. The hostname is the bit between // and the first / i.e. alemba.help

For brand new implementations this could be the servername, but ideally you would install an SSL certificate on the ASM application server with a friendly name for connection. Please consult your local IT department for how to get hold of an SSL certification for use with ASM.

Parameter Name: Hostname

Environment Variable Name: ASM_Hostname

Default: localhost

Example: support.alembacloud.com

System Name

This name refers to the ASM instance and is used to determine the base URL for the ASM system. Assuming you use the default name of production, you would access ASM using https://support.alembacloud.com/production/core.aspx. Again you can find your existing instance name by browsing to your current version and noting the information between the first / and second /.

In our previous example of https://alemba.help/production/portal.aspx, the instance name would be production.

On a brand new implementation of ASM you can call this whatever you like: production, test, dev or anything else!

Parameter Name: systemName

Environment Variable Name: ASM_systemName

Default: production

Example: production

Certificate Thumbprint

The installation can configure HTTPS bindings for the system, but a suitable certificate must be installed on the server prior to running the installation.

Please contact your local IT team to obtain an SSL certificate for the ASM Application, which should be loaded in .pfx format in to the my certificate store with the public key marked as exportable.

Please consider that the IIS worker process must have suitable permissions to access the certificate and ASM is configured by default to use Application Pool Identity for the application pools that run under IIS. You will need to grant the user 'Network Service' permission to the certificate with All rights to expose the certificate to ASM.

The certificate thumbprint is used as a unique identifier for the certificate and can be found in the certificate properties

See the related section in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/iisadministration/new-iissitebinding?view=windowsserver2019-ps for further information.

The default value of null can be used if you do not have an SSL certificate in place, and can be added after patching to this version.

Parameter Name: sslCertificateThumbprint

Environment Variable Name: ASM_sslCertificateThumbprint

Default: Null

Certificate Store Location

The installation can configure HTTPS bindings for the system, but a suitable certificate must be installed on the server prior to running the installation.

This setting defines the install location of the certificate on the local server.

See the related section in https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/iisadministration/new-iissitebinding?view=windowsserver2019-ps for further information

The default value of My can be used if you have no SSL certificate installed

Parameter Name: sslCertificateStore

Environment Variable Name: ASM_sslCertificateStore

Default: My

Accepted Values:

  • Cert:\LocalMachine\My

  • Cert:\LocalMachine\WebHosting

  • My

  • WebHosting

Install Prerequisites

The installation will install all prerequisites by default. When this value is set to n the system administrator assumes responsibility for installing windows features and all other prerequisites.

Parameter Name: InstallPrerequisites

Environment Variable Name: ASM_InstallPrerequisites

Default: y

Accepted Values: y, n

Replace Existing Versions

When this value is set to y, the installation will install reset all IIS configuration during the installation process.

This is the recommended approach and system administrators are advised to capture any non-standard configuration in a PowerShell script to run as part of their upgrade process.

Common items that are overwritten during a patch:

IIS: http redirects, url rewrites

ASM: Custom files you may have altered such as email-subjects.xml, Infra_custom.sql, Email event connector files stored in InstallDrive\alemba\Service Manager\web\systems\systemname folder\config

Alemba recommends that any changes to files follow a change control process and are documented and stored for ease of reapplying post patch.

Parameter Name: CleanInstall

Environment Variable Name: ASM_CleanInstall

Default: y

Accepted Values: y, n

Optional Modules

Specify one or more non-critical modules to install

Parameter Name: optionalModules

Environment Variable Name: ASM_optionalModules

Default: none

Accepted Values:

  • all

  • alemba.web.windows

  • infra.api.wstester

  • infra.console

  • dashboard.platform

ALEMBA.WEB.WINDOWS

Used to support integrated windows authentication. Alemba recommends using SAML or Open ID instead of this legacy authentication method.

INFRA.API.WSTESTER

Install the standard test harness for the classic API. Further configuration is required post installation.

INFRA.CONSOLE

Install the ASM Server Console. Required for Workflow Import/Export.

DASHBOARD.PLATFORM

You need to install this module again even if you had running Dashboards before. In this case only the IIS configurations are going to be reset.

Installs the Syncfusion Dashboard Platform. Requires further manual configuration.

License Key Text

On patching a pre-existing system to this version the existing license key will be maintained.

On creating a brand new implementation of ASM a license key should be obtained through your Technical Account Manager

Parameter Name: LicenceKey

Environment Variable Name: ASM_LicenseKey

Default: none