ePortal IIS Instructions??

[eshaq786]

Hi

 

Does anyone have any instructions on setting up IIS on 2008 for use with eportal? Im stuck at configuring IIS.

 

Any help appreciated.

[sonofsanta]

Worked for me last summer, can't think it's too different right now (PDF):

Configuring IIS for use with ePortal.pdf

[eshaq786]

You sir deserve a gold medal! Thank you so much. You just saved me £400.

 

I installed a new server and migrated CMIS from 2003 to 2008. All was working fine apart from IIS. I knew I was close as IIS was working but got stuck at the last hurdle. My local authority ICT provider called Link2ICT were being right wankers and refused to help me out unless I gave them £400 as they said they will not touch it since I did the installation and migration. I refused to pay as I knew it was just a few settings that needed to be added to IIS and certainly not worth £400. Your instructions will be what they would've most likely followed anyway and I just needed the last few steps of that anyway. Glad I asked on here for help.

 

I'm just waiting for a call back from them so I can tell them to shove it. And maybe offer to sell them the instructions for £400 since thats what they think its worth.

[sonofsanta]

More than welcome - think I got them from someone on here last year anyway along with a few other docs.

 

For the record, though, if you log in at advancedfirstline.com, there's a link to Latest Install Guides on the right that has that doc available so you really can tell Link2ICT to stuff it up their hoohahs, if the information is freely available as part of your support contract. Re-installing Facility onto a new server is your right - Advanced Learning don't mind you doing it, it's nowt to do with anyone else.

[ICTRambling]

You sir deserve a gold medal! Thank you so much. You just saved me £400.

 

I installed a new server and migrated CMIS from 2003 to 2008. All was working fine apart from IIS. I knew I was close as IIS was working but got stuck at the last hurdle. My local authority ICT provider called Link2ICT were being right wankers and refused to help me out unless I gave them £400 as they said they will not touch it since I did the installation and migration. I refused to pay as I knew it was just a few settings that needed to be added to IIS and certainly not worth £400. Your instructions will be what they would've most likely followed anyway and I just needed the last few steps of that anyway. Glad I asked on here for help.

 

I'm just waiting for a call back from them so I can tell them to shove it. And maybe offer to sell them the instructions for £400 since thats what they think its worth.

 

This isn't stricly correct - I believe you were asking for the proprietry install notes that have been written for the technicians to use when carrying out an install. You were quoted a day rate (Less than £400) for a technician to carry out the intstall and then offered a 50% discount as a goodwill guesture.

 

sonofsanta is correct, you are perfectly entitled to set this up yourself and there are install notes freely available online but obviously if we have developed proprietry resources or are being asked to support something then we are entitled to put a charge on this.

 

At the end of the day it comes down to the time/cost balance - is it easier (and cost effecitve) to do it yourself or quicker to pay someone to do it while you carry on with other work.

[eshaq786]

This isn't stricly correct - I believe you were asking for the proprietry install notes that have been written for the technicians to use when carrying out an install. You were quoted a day rate (Less than £400) for a technician to carry out the intstall and then offered a 50% discount as a goodwill guesture.

 

sonofsanta is correct, you are perfectly entitled to set this up yourself and there are install notes freely available online but obviously if we have developed proprietry resources or are being asked to support something then we are entitled to put a charge on this.

 

At the end of the day it comes down to the time/cost balance - is it easier (and cost effecitve) to do it yourself or quicker to pay someone to do it while you carry on with other work.

 

Proprietary notes? You're having a laugh ain't you. All you just do is slap the link2ict logo on the instructions available from advanced learning. Even then, these notes should be available to us as part of the support we pay. You didn't even bother to offer the freely available instructions to me that sonofsanta kindly provided. You just jumped straight to deciding to charge me for it. Wonder how many schools have fallen for this crap of yours. You would have a far better reputation if you actually genuinely helped people rather than resorting to making money at every opportunity you get.

 

I'll be looking at alternative MIS providers since link2ict have proven once again that they are a bunch of money grabbing thieves.

 

And it is actually quicker for me to do it because the service and response time from link2ict is rubbish. Seasons change by the time you get back to someone even when we stress that it is a priority.

[APC]

As Birmingham schools generally use a very specific way of making eportal available securely over the internet, I'm sure the notes from Advanced Learning will not provide all the information required.... If you are from the school I think you are - it doesnt appear you have got it to work as yet?

[eshaq786]

You probably got the wrong school mate. All working over here. As it's all internal it doesn't require the ssl certificates although that can be done but we don't use eportal externally anyway and have never done so.

[FZAMI]

Can I ask why do you need to configure IIS if you don't use eportal externally? Eportal works fine internally without any additional configuration.

[eshaq786]

Eportal itself is a webpage which you need IIS to host even if it is only accessed internally. You may not have had to configure it as it may have previously been done but you certainly do need additional configuration if you deployed it on a new server.

[FZAMI]

Eportal itself is a webpage which you need IIS to host even if it is only accessed internally. You may not have had to configure it as it may have previously been done but you certainly do need additional configuration if you deployed it on a new server.

 

Are you sure? Advanced Learning provide Apache Tomcat as an alternative to IIS to host web pages.

[eshaq786]

Check the instructions posted above. They are from advanced learning. IIS works with apache tomcat to serve the pages.

[FZAMI]

The notes show you how to configure IIS, they don't say you need IIS. I have been using eportal internally for many years and have never configured IIS - in fact I have never added IIS role to the server. I rely purely on Tomcat. As we only access it internally I want to keep things simple.

[eshaq786]

The notes show you how to configure IIS, they don't say you need IIS. I have been using eportal internally for many years and have never configured IIS - in fact I have never added IIS role to the server. I rely purely on Tomcat. As we only access it internally I want to keep things simple.

 

Well if that is the case, it certainly didn't work for me. It only started working when IIS was properly setup. Who knows but atleast its working now....no thanks to link2ict ofcourse.

[FZAMI]

Well if that is the case, it certainly didn't work for me. It only started working when IIS was properly setup. Who knows but atleast its working now....no thanks to link2ict ofcourse.

 

You do know that Tomcat default port is 8080 which you need to specify with your URL? IIS of course uses standard port 80 for HTTP.

If you don't believe me try it now. Turn off your IIS service and use http://:8080/eportal. You will get the login screen. Trust me I have been using it for years.

[eshaq786]

You're right. Connected on port 8080. The eportal instructions provided by link2ict initially did not include any information about that or any information regarding web services by IIS or tomcat. It was the bare minimum really. Rest of it was me poking around to get it working. If only I had this information from the start. Would've saved me a lot of headache.

 

Also makes me wonder why the hell link2ict didn't just offer this information up to me about me not having to configure IIS at all. Like I said before, they just wanted to get some money out of me before doing anything. That small snippet of information about tomcat would've done the job.

[FZAMI]

You're right. Connected on port 8080. The eportal instructions provided by link2ict initially did not include any information about that or any information regarding web services by IIS or tomcat. It was the bare minimum really. Rest of it was me poking around to get it working. If only I had this information from the start. Would've saved me a lot of headache.

 

Also makes me wonder why the hell link2ict didn't just offer this information up to me about me not having to configure IIS at all. Like I said before, they just wanted to get some money out of me before doing anything. That small snippet of information about tomcat would've done the job.

 

I guess they assumed you wanted external access hence wanted to install IIS. It is standard practice to use SSL for external access. Your MIS data is after all very sensitive and you wouldn't want to access it un-encrypted over the public internet. I would even go further - you shouldn't even access it unencrypted internally. You don't know who is outside your school with a wireless device.

 

 

To secure the IIS you do need commercial SSL certificates which you have to pay for. There is a fair bit of configuration to get the security hardened/enforcing HTTPS conenctions and blocking HTTP conenctions. For external access you need a public facing IP address and external DNS etc and all this costs money. I believe Link2ICT do all this for their schools in Birmingham and hence the charge. If you are expecting them to support your setup I understand where they are coming from.

[APC]

Indeed FZAMI is correct I believe... I understand that Link2ICT have always provided schools with a secure method of accessing ePortal from anywhere including inside school - which is not the case if you just use the tomcat service. As this method is very different from that provided by Advanced (or Serco previousl)y I assume the notes are very specific in-order for it to a; work correctly and b; be supportable by Link2ict when things go wrong.... Its a service I would certainly pay for to ensure the pupil / staff data is as secure as possible.

[michael2k6]

Hi all,

Sorry I'm a little late to the thread. I just wanted to clear up the reason for the differences in responses to you all as users. Our schools who have support directly from us have access to Firstline, which is our support site. Documentation such as the attached above can be found on that site. In that case, each school, as part of their contract, has a support service from us. Schools who are part of a local authority contract get their support from their local authority, who in turn get their support from us.

 

It will be down to the local authority and the support agreements schools have in place to determine which services are documented, supported, or chargeable.

 

As an example, we may provide installation and configuration instructions, but if we were asked to assist with a server migration it would be considered consultancy work.

In terms of the external access to ePortal, there are a fair few things to take into consideration before going ahead and doing it, but those schools with Local Authority support usually all follow the same process and so the local authority would normally take control of that; it keeps things very simple. Schools who would approach that on their own have a number of different ways to achieve it depending on their network, ISP, firewalls, etc, and do it on an individual basis. The important thing to take from this is that the security principals are always the same but the methods may differ quite dramatically.

I'd always recommend that if you are supported by your local authority, follow their guidance (where present) and utilise their services wherever possible; at least check that by doing it on your own or differently you're not breaching contract otherwise you may end up unsupported or with a configuration unknown to them.

 

On a technical note, you can use Tomcat over a secure connection, but it's not quite as easy as using IIS, so most would use IIS an an extra layer. Our documentation all recommends using IIS.

 

And finally, to clear up any confusion, the OP would not have access to Firstline, as by the looks of things there is no support contract between the OP and Advanced, they would need to seek the documentation from the LA which is why the thread was started initially. I'd always encourage users who get support directly from Advanced to go to Firstline for the manual every time, in case there has been an update to it (such as a change of O/S leading to IIS version, etc).

 

Kindest Regards

Mic Sanderson

Advanced Learning