Synced Install

In this scenario, we want to generate a master website (presuming the database already exists and is your ERP db) on our "local" server using the All-In-One process, then run the install on another machine (handheld or laptop computers intended to be used in the "field", for example) which setups the sync process so the two computers in question will upload and download data. This way, an order created on one of those handheld or laptop computers will sync over to the master database and thus appear in your ERP system.

1. Install Hub

For this, you will need to run the All-In-One Installer first on your local box to spin up the "hub" website. This presumes that SQL has been installed on this machine or on a server that is accessible by this box and houses your primary ERP database.

NOTE: If you have already worked with BirdDog to setup this website, you can skip directly to step 2.

When you run the EXE file, make sure to run it as Administrator
The following questions will need to be answered:
- Install: BirdDog Software Enterprise? True
- Install: BirdDog Software Web? True
- Install: Setup Sync? False
- Install: Crystal Reports Runtime Engine? True
- Install: Visual Studio 2013 Redist? True
- BirdDog Software License Information?
  - Company Name: (This will be provided to you by BirdDog.)
  - Serial Number: (This will be provided to you by BirdDog.)
- BirdDog Software Database Information
  - Server: (This is the server that your database is located on.)
  - Database: (This is the name of your database)
  - Use Trusted Connection: (true) false
  - User: Your sa user
  - Password: Your sa password
- BirdDog Software Enterprise Information
  - Install BirdDog Software Enterprise to:
    default <C:\Program Files\BirdDog Software\Enterprise>
    - You can relocate these files as appropriate during this install process.
  - Create desktop shortcut
  - Create start menu shortcut
- BirdDog Software Web Information
  - Install folder:
    default <C:\Program Files\BirdDog Software\Web>
    - You can relocate these files as appropriate during this install process.
  - Site name: (This is what the site will be called in IIS. If IIS is not installed on this box, this process will activate that Windows module.)
  - Sub folder,Install to Sub-folder of IIS site, leave blank for root:
- Install BirdDog Software JobMaster to:
  default <C:\Program Files\BirdDog Software\JobMaster>
  - You can relocate these files as appropriate during this install process.
Starting install.
Internet Information Services (IIS) (HUB)
- Next, open IIS and confirm that the site exists.
- If IIS was not installed beforehand, your new site may not have automatically started and, in some instances, won't start while the 'default web site' running. In this case, just stop it and start the new one.
- Once it's started, click on the Browse Web Site link over on the right. This should bring up the site in your default web-browser.
- The default login for this is going to be admin / admin. Feel free to navigate around.
- You will need to consult your IT department to ensure this newly created website can be reached outside your domain and has a proper DNS entry.

2. Set Up Sync Locations

Once this is complete, you will need to obtain the following information:

On the website you've spun up, navigate to System Management | System | Sync Locations
Add a Sync Location for the Hub
- Check the "Is Master" box
- Code:
  - Provide this with an appropriate name according to your naming conventions and makes it easily recognizable in the system.
  - For example, MASTER or HUB or something like that is wholly appropriate, but you might want something more appropriate like the database name.
- Description: Hub Database
- Populate Next Order # to Seed Starting Value with 1 - as this is your primary ERP database, these numbers should match what is "next" in the local system.
- Populate Seed Ending Value with 99999
- Save
- Re-Edit the Hub and take note of the GUID (ID=lots of numbers) in the URL. You'll need that later. We generally copy these numbers to Notepad for ease of use.
Now add a Sync for the "spoke"
- Code:
  - Provide this with an appropriate name according to your naming conventions and makes it easily recognizable in the system.
  - For example, let's say you have six handhelds or laptops and have identified them as Laptop1, Laptop2, and so on, you could use that name. The same holds true if you use serial numbers or something.
- Description: (As with Code above, populate this accordingly.)
- Populate Next Order #, Next Customer #, Next Work Order # and Next OE Cash #, and the Seed Starting Value # using a sufficiently high number.
  - This is to ensure that an order number created on a sync location does not conflict with a pre-existing order in the local system, so you may want to jump these ranges up significantly. For example, in our test systems, we have the first sync location "next order #" ranges begin at 10000 and the Seed Starting Value # to start at a really high 10000001.
  - The Seed Starting Values are for tables used entirely in the background that won't be visible to users when using the software but are necessary to avoid data conflicts.
- Populate Seed Ending Value with something higher than the Seed Starting Value. We like to increment the first number and reduce the last one so, using our above example, you could make this 20000000.
- Save
- Re-Edit the Spoke and take note of the GUID (ID=lots of numbers) in the URL. You'll need that later. We generally copy these numbers to Notepad for ease of use.

3. Install Spoke

Now run the All-In-One Installer on the "spoke" (e.g., the laptop that is going to sync back to the hub.)

When you run the EXE file, make sure to run it as Administrator

The following questions will need to be answered:

Install: BirdDog Software Enterprise? True
Install: BirdDog Software Web? True
Install: Setup Sync? True
Install: Crystal Reports Runtime Engine? True
Install: Visual Studio 2013 Redist? True
BirdDog Software License Information?
- Company Name: (This will be provided to you by BirdDog.)
- Serial Number: (This will be provided to you by BirdDog.)
BirdDog Software Database Information
- Server: (This is the server that your SPOKE database will be located on. It should already have SQL installed on it. Inputting localhost will generally work but we still recommend you plugin the Server name that appears when you open SQL Server Management Studio. During this process, the new blank database itself as well as a smaller one called msllockdb used record lock maintenance will be generated on this server.)
- Database: (This is the name of your SPOKE database that you are creating during this process.)
- Use Trusted Connection: (true) false
- User: Your sa user
- Password: Your sa password
- Enter one of:
     ES
     Progression
     BirdDog
Sync hub to connect to:
- This is the website you setup in the previous step. It should have http:// at the beginning. If it does not, the process will get you an "Invalid uri" error message.
Spoke sync location id: This is the GUID for the Spoke website that we set up before.

To paste the GUID that we copied earlier, click onto the tiny image in the menu bar of the Command Prompt (next to the header name), then navigate to Edit | Paste.
Note that if you accidentally copied more than just the GUID from the Notepad, that will be pasted here as well. Rather more frequently than we would like to admit, we've copied the <Enter> after the end of the GUID which pushes the process forward.

Hub sync location id: This is the GUID for the Hub website that we set up before. Follow the same steps as above.
Will the hub or spoke run the sync process and connect to the other side?:
- This allows you to determine which location has Job Master running to sync.
- Traditional sync setups (where BirdDog hosts the "live" spoke site) will have the Hub side running the sync process, so in that case, Hub would be populated here.
- In a multi-sync environment, however, where multiple handheld devices are used during the day in the field, then sync back to the master database when they are returned, Spoke would be input here.
BirdDog Software Enterprise Information
- Install BirdDog Software Enterprise to:
  default <C:\Program Files\BirdDog Software\Enterprise>
  - You can relocate these files as appropriate during this install process.
- Create desktop shortcut
- Create start menu shortcut
BirdDog Software Web Information
- Install folder:
  default <C:\Program Files\BirdDog Software\Web>
  - You can relocate these files as appropriate during this install process.
- Site name: (This is what the site will be called in IIS. If IIS is not installed on this box, this process will activate that Windows module.)
- Sub folder,Install to Sub-folder of IIS site, leave blank for root:
Install BirdDog Software JobMaster to:
default <C:\Program Files\BirdDog Software\JobMaster>
- You can relocate these files as appropriate during this install process.
Starting install.
- In addition to installing the various software, this process will also generate a one-time "Sync 2.3: Mark All Local Data To Sync For Target" job on the hub side. To that end, you will need to ensure that Job Master is running on the hub server.

4. Testing the Spoke Install

Once our installation is complete, we want to verify that everything is good to go.

Enterprise for Windows (SPOKE)

You may have to populate the server information here.
Login information for this newly created database should be admin / admin.
Once we've logged in, the first thing we want to do is verify that the menu items are available - if they aren't, something went wrong with the Crystal Reports install and you'll need to check with BirdDog support.
Initial sync download
- Click on Maintain | Jobs. This will bring up the maintain job schedule. By default, there are going to be four Sync jobs automatically present although they'll be On Hold.
- The one we want to focus on at the moment is the Default all changes - click on the box to the right (this one, with the white lightning bolt in the green circle.) This forces the job to run. Since we haven't done anything in the newly created spoke database, this sync run is going to pull down information from the Hub database.
- Depending on the amount of data being pulled down, this could take a while and sometimes, it is not immediately apparent that the process is working. When it has finished, a popup stating "Job complete." should appear. You should not continue onto the next step until this is complete.

Internet Information Services (IIS) (SPOKE)

Next, open IIS and confirm that the site exists.
If IIS was not installed beforehand, your new site may not have automatically started and, in some instances, won't start while the 'default web site' running. In this case, just stop it and start the new one.
Once it's started, click on the Browse Web Site link over on the right. This should bring up the site in your default web-browser.
As with Enterprise for Windows above, the login for this is going to be admin / admin. Feel free to navigate around and review to see what data has been pulled down from the HUB.
If you want this newly created website to be available outside of this computer, you will need to consult your IT department to ensure it has a proper DNS entry and can be reached outside your domain.

Job Master (SPOKE)

Bring up the Windows Services Manager - there are numerous ways to access this, but I tend to just click on the Windows button, search for Services and click on it.
Locate the BirdDog Software Jobmaster service - it'll probably be Stopped, so go ahead and Start the service. When running, it will run jobs that aren't paused at the appropriate period.