How to Install BPA Platform

The following topic describes how to install the BPA Platform Server and Client component.

It is recommended you perform the installation locally, rather than over your network.

Installation Considerations

For a detailed description of external software prerequisites, including supported operating systems, request the BPA Platform System Dependencies matrix.

Installation Time Considerations

It is recommended you perform the installation or upgrade during a time when the machine hosting this installation of BPA Platform is quiet — that is, avoiding the time when Windows updates are being downloaded or installed, or when Windows Maintenance is running. Such Windows processes take precedence over the BPA Platform installation. If carried out at the same time, you may see the installer stop at the ProcessTempInstalling stage. Although it may look like the installer has hung, it has paused until the Windows process has completed.

This applies to all components of all the Installation Console.

Back-End Database Considerations

You have two choices for the BPA Platform back-end database, also referred to as the BPA Platform store:

Note that the following SQL Server platforms are also supported:

User Account Considerations

The BPA Platform installation must be run using a user account with administrator privileges. If using an operating system with Microsoft™ User Account Control (UAC), it may be necessary to “elevate” the installer — right-click the installation self-setup.exe and select Run as Administrator.

Domain Considerations

If the machine hosting this installation of BPA Platform is part of a Windows domain, care should be taken to ensure restrictive group security policies (GPOs) are “relaxed” for this machine. Attention should be paid to software restriction and application control policies. The BPA Platform machine must have full access to the registry, hard drive, and network drives and ports — this must be considered when applying local group policies. To view the machine’s applied security policies, go to Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy.

By default, communication between the BPA Platform server and any remote agents and clients is over ports 4222 and 4223, though this can be changed. Any firewalls, including Windows Firewall, proxied by the BPA Platform machine must allow access to these or customised ports.

Terminal Services Mode Considerations

If the Windows Server hosting BPA Platform is being used in Terminal Services Mode, you must change the terminal to “install mode” before running the BPA Platform installation — the command is change user /install.

Once the installation is complete, use change user /execute to return to “execute mode”.

Security Considerations for the Microsoft SQL Server Trigger Tool

When using Microsoft SQL Server™ with a non-server administrator user account, you must grant the following permissions to allow access to the database and be able to create triggers:

1. To browse the server, the user account must be granted the VIEW ANY DEFINITIONS permission.

   Use the following SQL script to grant VIEW ANY DEFINITION:

   USE [master]
      GRANT VIEW ANY DEFINITION TO [user]

2. To view a list of databases, for each database to be viewed there must be a database user created and mapped to the non-server administrator user account.

   To create and map database users, either use the following SQL:

   USE [databasename]
      CREATE USER [username] FOR LOGIN [username]
      GO

   Or do the following in SQL Server Management Studio (tree-browser view):

   1. Servername > Security > Logins.
   2. Double-click the login.
   3. Choose the user mapping page; select Map for all databases the login user needs to see.
3. To view tables in a database, the user must be granted the SELECT permission for the database schema that owns the table.
4. To create the trigger on the table, the user account must be granted the ALTER permission for the schema that owns the table.

   Use the following SQL to grant SELECT and ALTER permissions for a user account on a schema:

   USE [databasename]
      GRANT SELECT, ALTER ON SCHEMA::[schemaname] TO test1

   Or do the following in SQL Server Management Studio (tree-browser view):

   1. Servername >Databases > Databasename > Security > Schemas.
   2. Double-click the schema.
   3. Select the Permissions page.
   4. Click Search and add the user to the Users or roles list.
   5. Select Grant for the Alter and Select permissions.

Security Considerations for the Oracle Trigger Tool

The user account used by the Oracle Trigger The Oracle Trigger tool uses the Oracle Server trigger functionality to create a trigger on a table of a specified Oracle data source. When a specified data modification is attempted, such as, an attempt to add or delete a table row, the trigger then causes a task to run. Agent, must be granted CREATE ANY DIRECTORY permissions for the server offline event queuing mechanism to function fully.

Upgrade Considerations for Crystal Runtimes when using the Run Crystal Report Tool

The Run Crystal Report The Run Crystal Report tool automates the execution of SAP® Crystal Reports®. Recordsets and variables from other task steps can be consumed to dynamically populate the report at runtime. In addition, where the report requires access to a database, security credentials can be passed from in the Run Crystal Report step. tool accepts reports created in SAP^® Crystal Reports^® versions:

A separately licensed Crystal Runtime component, supplied by SAP, is required to use the Run Crystal Report tool. Crystal Runtime version 13.0.35 is available with this release of BPA Platform. To download and install this version, BPA Platform requires access to the internet.

Any previous versions of the Crystal Runtime, supplied with earlier versions of BPA Platform, are now deprecated — these may not be compatible with all versions of Crystal Reports, and may not provide full functionality.

The BPA Platform Configurator You use the Configurator to install third-party software that may be required by available tools. Connection to required agents are also configured here. Note that you can only launch the Configurator if logged into the machine with Administrator rights. no longer detects the deprecated versions of Crystal Runtime when installed on the host machine; instead, it now allows you to download and install the latest version where the required license has been purchased and is valid.

Any tasks using a deprecated version of Crystal Runtimes should continue to run successfully. However, it should be noted that any issues encountered and raised with our Support Team will require an upgrade to the latest released runtime version before an investigation is carried out.

Windows Server 2016 Program Groups (Start Menu) Considerations

If using a Windows Server 2016 machine to host BPA Platform, you must ensure it is fully up-to-date with Windows updates.

You may find the BPA Platform 2024 program group in the Start menu list does not expand to show the BPA Platform and Configurator applications. Update and restart the BPA Platform machine.

Installing BPA Platform 2024

The following procedure describes how to install the Server & Client component of BPA Platform. For a detailed description of how to install the other components, see How to Add More Features to BPA Platform.

To install the 2024 release, do the following:

1. Download the BPA Platform 2024 installation from our Partner Area.
2. Unzip the file to your preferred location on the BPA Platform computer.
3. Run self-setup.exe to launch the Installation Console.

   As part of the initial launch process, required installation files are extracted to C:\Windows\Installer. You must ensure this folder is not deleted as the Installation Console requires these files for any further installations, upgrades, or component un-installs.

   

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4. (Optional) By default, all files are installed to C:\Program Files (x86)\Codeless Platforms\BPA Platform. To change the destination folder, click Modify and select the relevant folder.
5. (Optional) By default, the Installation Console uses C:\iwtemp as a temporary folder during installation. To change the temporary folder, click Modify and select the relevant folder.
6. Click Install for the Server & Client feature.

7. Enter your BPA Platform product key and click Next.

   Note that the key is case-sensitive.

   If you do not have a product key, contact your account manager or business partner.

8. Click Accept to confirm your acceptance of the End-User License Acceptance. The installation does not continue unless this is accepted.
9. Click Yes to start the installation.

   Progress is displayed at the bottom of the console.

10. When complete, you can choose whether to immediately configure BPA Platform or do this at a later stage. It is recommended you configure this now as you cannot launch the BPA Platform client until you have completed basic configuration at least.

    Click Launch.

11. Go to How to Configure the BPA Platform Server.

Creating Multi Server Instances

The Multi-Instance feature enables the creation of multiple instances of the BPA Platform server within a single product installation. This enables partners to host multiple customers on the one Windows Server each with their own BPA Platform database and set of runtime services.

All product features within each instance are isolated and distinct to each other, including users, instance-specific settings, and properties (such as Maintenance, Impersonation and Notifications), tool connections and tasks thus ensuring that each clients’ activity is secure and not accessible from another instance.

During BPA Platform2024 configuration, if your main product licence key permits it, you will be prompted with the option to create addition BPA Platform server instances.

Click Yes to create a new BPA Platform server instance.

Multi-Instance Creation

To create a new BPA server instance, do the following:

1. In the Server Instance Configuration pane, select the Add a new Server instance option.

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2. In the Instance Name field, enter a unique name for the new BPA server instance. The Instance Name will be used to identify the new BPA server instance. Once created, it cannot be changed.
3. (Optional) In the Description field, provide a brief description of the new BPA server instance.
4. In the Product Key field, enter the BPA Platform product key for the new instance. This key must be unique - reuse of keys in more than one instance is not permitted. If you need to add multiple instances for one customer - for example sandbox and production instances, please contact your partner or Codeless Platforms account manager.
5. Click Next. The SQL Login Details pane is displayed.

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6. Enter the hostname, server name, or IP address of the computer hosting the SQL Server. If located on the same computer as this server instance, enable Localhost instead.
7. By default, the database hosting the store is named using the assigned Instance Name. Leave this as is or enter a new name for the store.
   If an Azure SQL Database is to be used for the instance, then this must have been created separately before it can be used here. This is to ensure that the user maintains control over the initial database creation and configuration.
8. Enable the correct method of authentication as expected by the SQL Server instance and enter the credentials below, if required.
9. Click Next. The Store Location pane is displayed.

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10. If required, you can change the location of the database file and database log file:

• Select Override Default Database Location and enter the new path for the SQL Server store's .mdb file.
• Select Override Default Log File Location and enter a new path for the SQL Server store's .ldb file.

11. Click Save.
12. You are prompted for new credentials for the BPA Platform Administrator. Enter a new Password and repeat the same password in Confirm to ensure they match.
    For security reasons, ensure that the Administrator account password is different for each instance created.
13. Click OK. The new BPA server instance is created and displayed in the Configurator tree.

14. If required, a selected Sever Instance can be deleted by clicking the Remove button.

This procedure so far covers the basic configuration to allow access to the BPA Platform client for the default and additional server instances.

At this point, you can click Close and launch the BPA Platform client for any instance. To do this select BPA Platform Client from the BPA Platform 2024 Program Group in the Windows Start menu.

For the default or main instance enter the server name or IP address into the Server field and then complete the relevant Authentication credentials.

For Client access into an individual instance, enter the server name or IP address into the Server field, followed by the relevant Instance Name. Then complete the Authentication details for that instance.

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All standard tools are available for task creation except for the Event tools and those requiring extra setup in the Configurator (Run Crystal Report, Run Microsoft Reporting Services The Run Microsoft Reporting Services tool automates the running of Microsoft Reporting Services (MSRS) reports., Run Microsoft Word (Merge) The Run Microsoft Word (Merge) tool is used to create a task step that creates single or multiple documents in common Microsoft Word formats containing mail-merged data., and Send Text Message The Send Text Message tool is used to create and send data-driven, personalised text messages to customers, employees, prospects, suppliers, and so on. Sending can be automated to guarantee the timing of the text messages.). You can return to the Configurator at any time to complete the configuration for the other features.