nxserver.dbworksettings storage location virtualized?

Hi to all,

I've a question about the nxserver.dbworksettings file and how you people
all dealing with it.

We've recently updated the nxserver which our application is using, we were
using version 2.7.0.6 and now we're using 2.0.8.4. after some day's our
customers start calling us with the message that their nxserver doesn't
contain any settings anymore, all are turned back to default.

After some little investigation we found the problem, Nexus has changed
their OS detection code to determine where to place the
nxserver.dbworksettings file. with the old server the code only maintain an
different directory on Vista OS'es (in all other OS'es the
nxserver.dbworksettings file remains besides the nxserver.exe) but on the
new server the it also looks if the OS is equal to Vista or Higher e.g. Win7
and W2K8. Nice feature change, we wanted that we know this before so we can
better anticipate to the problem, but ok it happened so no big deal.

Back to today's recent 'problem' :-)
Our customer is running the nxServer.exe (version 2.8.0.4) as an standalone
executable on a SBS2008 machine from a particular directory, so let's call
it in this example "C:\ENK Software". He configured the server as an Secure
server. When starting our application he needs to login, everything looks
and is OK.
When he closes the server and install it as an Service everything looks OK
but it isn't, when starting our application he suddenly don't need to login
anymore..... After stopping the service and starting the Standalone nxserver
executable again to check and verify the "secure server" setting we see that
is checked! When we restart our application we need to login. (also the same
for the nxEnterpriseManager.exe)

So far you can follow it? so concrete.. nxserver as standalone app uses
secure server and nxserver service doesn't use secure server.

After some investigation we discovered the following:
The logged-in user on the SBS2008 machine is an 'normal' user with full
administrator rights, but this account is using UAC so the storage location
of the nxserver.dbworksettings is virtual redirected (virtualized?) to the
following location:
C:\Users\<LoggedInUserName>\AppData\Local\VirtualS tore\ProgramData\NexusDB2\nxServer\C%3A%5CENK%20So ftware%5C

In the scenario when the nxserver is running as an service, with using an
custom user with "service starting" rights for logging-on and starting the
service there is no virtual redirection (virtualization?) of directory's
available. So the default storage location of the nxserver.dbworksettings
will be C:\ProgramData\NexusDB2\nxServer\C%3A%5CENK%20Soft ware%5C (as
expected)

So it look like it that there is an difference where the nxserver stores
it's settings, after manually copying the nxserver.dbworksettings file from
the virtualized folder to the 'normal' (service) folder the service is
working as expected, our application need to login again :-) yeay


Can someone verify this behavior, and do you have any suggestions for
avoiding this kind scenario's. Ok, i understand that switching off UAC can
be an solution, or copying the config file from one dir to the other dir,
but both are not really an solution, more an workaround in my opinion. Also
can somebody confirm if service accounts don't use virtual redirected
folders?


Kind Regards,

Richard Lichtendahl
ENK Software BV,
The Netherlands - Europe (+1 GMT)

And now you know why running nxServer as an application has been deprecated.

Richard Lichtendahl wrote:

> Hi to all,
>
> I've a question about the nxserver.dbworksettings file and how you people all
> dealing with it.
>
> We've recently updated the nxserver which our application is using, we were
> using version 2.7.0.6 and now we're using 2.0.8.4. after some day's our
> customers start calling us with the message that their nxserver doesn't
> contain any settings anymore, all are turned back to default.
>
> After some little investigation we found the problem, Nexus has changed their
> OS detection code to determine where to place the nxserver.dbworksettings
> file. with the old server the code only maintain an different directory on
> Vista OS'es (in all other OS'es the nxserver.dbworksettings file remains
> besides the nxserver.exe) but on the new server the it also looks if the OS
> is equal to Vista or Higher e.g. Win7 and W2K8. Nice feature change, we
> wanted that we know this before so we can better anticipate to the problem,
> but ok it happened so no big deal.
>
> Back to today's recent 'problem' :-)
> Our customer is running the nxServer.exe (version 2.8.0.4) as an standalone
> executable on a SBS2008 machine from a particular directory, so let's call it
> in this example "C:\ENK Software". He configured the server as an Secure
> server. When starting our application he needs to login, everything looks and
> is OK. When he closes the server and install it as an Service everything
> looks OK but it isn't, when starting our application he suddenly don't need
> to login anymore..... After stopping the service and starting the Standalone
> nxserver executable again to check and verify the "secure server" setting we
> see that is checked! When we restart our application we need to login. (also
> the same for the nxEnterpriseManager.exe)
>
> So far you can follow it? so concrete.. nxserver as standalone app uses
> secure server and nxserver service doesn't use secure server.
>
> After some investigation we discovered the following:
> The logged-in user on the SBS2008 machine is an 'normal' user with full
> administrator rights, but this account is using UAC so the storage location
> of the nxserver.dbworksettings is virtual redirected (virtualized?) to the
> following location:
> C:\Users\<LoggedInUserName>\AppData\Local\VirtualS tore\ProgramData\NexusDB2\nx
> Server\C%3A%5CENK%20Software%5C
>
> In the scenario when the nxserver is running as an service, with using an
> custom user with "service starting" rights for logging-on and starting the
> service there is no virtual redirection (virtualization?) of directory's
> available. So the default storage location of the nxserver.dbworksettings
> will be C:\ProgramData\NexusDB2\nxServer\C%3A%5CENK%20Soft ware%5C (as
> expected)
>
> So it look like it that there is an difference where the nxserver stores it's
> settings, after manually copying the nxserver.dbworksettings file from the
> virtualized folder to the 'normal' (service) folder the service is working as
> expected, our application need to login again :-) yeay
>
>
> Can someone verify this behavior, and do you have any suggestions for
> avoiding this kind scenario's. Ok, i understand that switching off UAC can be
> an solution, or copying the config file from one dir to the other dir, but
> both are not really an solution, more an workaround in my opinion. Also can
> somebody confirm if service accounts don't use virtual redirected folders?
>
>
> Kind Regards,
>
> Richard Lichtendahl
> ENK Software BV,
> The Netherlands - Europe (+1 GMT)