4.4-Pre-Installation

After installing the required software, you will need to take some preliminary steps before installing BSNEE. Please complete all steps before moving on to the 4.4-Installation page.

Mail Server

A mail server (STMP) is used to send application notifications such as error logs, new/restored passwords, and user creation notifications. These notifications are sent to end users and administrators. To set up the mail server during installation, you will need to prepare the following parameters:

• Server Name: e.g. localhost
• User Name: e.g. mailUser
• Password
• FROM Address: e.g. from@mydomain.com
• Port: 25 (by default)
• TLS: This is disabled by default.

Base Domain Name

BSNEE requires a Base Domain Name, which will be used to manage the application once it is installed. Four separate strings will be used by different internal services to regulate BSNEE:

• Website
• Device Handlers
• Web Services
• Web Storage

During Step 6 of the installation process, you must enter the Base Domain Name. There are no supported IP addresses, so you must input only the domain name. The other strings will be automatically generated using the domain name.

BSNEE will not function properly until all strings are registered in the DNS, pointed to your BSNEE server IP address, and are resolvable by both server and client. You may do this prior to, or immediately after, installation. The example chart below shows which DNS records you need to register. It uses "mydomain.com" as the BSNEE Base Domain Name and 10.0.0.1 as the IP address for the BSNEE server.

The default sub-domain names for “api”, “handlers”, and “storage” can be changed during installation. If you attempt to register the strings after installation, you will receive the following error message upon completing Step 6.

Persistent Root and Temporary Storage Folders

BSNEE requires persistent storage and temporary storage. You can select the storage location on your hard drive during Step 5 of the installation process. You can either create new persistent storage and temporary storage folders or configure ones that you already have to match the parameters outlined below. 

Persistent Storage

This serves as a constant space for storing data used by devices. BSNEE can place data on either the local machine server or in a networked shared folder (NAS) within your corporate domain. Note that BSNEE does not support shared folders with separate workgroups. 

Both locations should have high security standards. In order to use the networked shared folder with BSNEE, you must enable Persistent Storage folder sharing (SMB), expose this folder via HTTP, and make it available via a resolvable URL. If the Persistent Storage is located on the same server, you can create another web site in IIS that points to the physical location of the Persistent Storage folder (described on the 4.4-Post-Installation page). You will also need to add the corresponding record to your DNS server.

Temporary Storage

This storage is used for uploading large files. You should allocate no less than 5 GB for the temporary storage folder and locate the folder on the same server where BSNEE services will be installed.

If you want to configure BSNEE to use persistent storage located on the networked shared folder (NAS), complete the following steps before installing BSNEE:

1. Configure network sharing for BSNEE persistent storage so that it is accessible for BSNEE services.
2. Configure HTTP access for BSNEE persistent storage.

Your networked shared folder should have the following permissions (this example uses Windows Server 2008 R2 as the NAS):

Security Permissions at the File System Level 

• DOMAIN\INSTALLATION_USER (Full Access): “DOMAIN” refers to a domain that the current server is a member of, and “INSTALLATION_USER” refers to the domain user that you use to install the BSNEE services server.
• DOMAIN\BSNEE_SERVER (Full Access): This is required for accessing the BSNEE services for file sharing.
• (optional) AUTHENTICATED USERS (Read): This is required for the IIS site on the shared server.

Security Permissions at the Network Share Level

• DOMAIN\INSTALLATION_USER (Full Access): "DOMAIN" refers to a domain that the current server is a member of, and "INSTALLATION_USER" refers to the domain user that you use to install the BSNEE services server.
• DOMAIN\BSNEE_SERVER (Full Access): "BSNEE_SERVER" refers to the computer object in domain. This is required for accessing the BSNEE servers for file sharing.

If you plan to locate persistent storage on the same server used for BSNEE services, you need to manually set up an additional IIS site. You can do this before or after installation, but we recommend completing this task after installation because the installer will create all required folders. See the 4.4-Post-Installation steps at the end of this guide for details.

We recommend you do the following during installation:

1. Install BSNEE as a domain user with administrative permissions.
2. Use the “sysadmin” role for MS SQL Server login if you are using Windows authentication for MS SQL Server during installation.
3. Run BSNEE application pools as the Network Service system user.

MIME Types for IIS 

When IIS is used as a content server, only registered file formats can pass from the BSNEE Persistent Storage site to the web. By default, the IIS web server may not recognize certain media formats. You may also wish to use some custom extensions. Make sure to register the following special MIME types (in addition to any other desired MIME types) with the persistent storage web server.

• .bpf – text/plain
• .bsfw – application/x-file
• .bsp – text/plain
• .brs – text/plain
• .vob – video/mpeg
• .rok – application/octet-stream
• .flac – audio/flac
• .bvw – text/plain
• .mkv – video/x-matroska
• .woff2 - font/woff2 

These additional MIME types are required for Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2 (IIS 7 or 7.5):

• .mp4 – video/mpeg
• .ts – video/mpeg
• .m2ts – video/mpeg
• .ogg – audio/ogg
• .woff – font/x-woff
• .svg – image/svg+xml

Once all MIME types are registered and all other preliminary steps are complete, you’re ready to install BSNEE.

Active Directory

In order to access the BSNEE Administrator UI after installation, you will need to register two administrator roles with your Active Directory system.

BSNEE parses security group names to retrieve the BSNEE Network and BSNEE Role names. Security group names must be formatted in accordance with the Group Name Template parameter (BSNEE-{NetworkName}-{RoleName} by default) set during installation in the LDAP Server Configuration step. You will first need to create two security groups in Active Directory and then add two users to them:

• {NetworkName}=admin, {RoleName}=System Administrators: This group corresponds to the System Administrator Role on the “admin” Network in BSNEE. 

  Example

  BSNEE-admin-System Administrators 

• {NetworkName}=admin, {RoleName}=Order Administrators: This group corresponds to the Order Administrator Role on the “admin” Network in BSNEE. 

  Example

  BSNEE-admin-Order Administrators

BSNEE has two sets of predefined system Roles:

• Administrative Roles (on 'admin' Network):
  • System Administrators
  • Order Administrators
• User Roles:
  • Administrators
  • General Managers
  • Network Managers
  • Creators
  • Publishers
  • Viewers

To add more users to BSNEE, you will need to create at least one additional BSNEE Network (being logged into BSNEE as a member of the “admin” Network) and one security group in the Active Directory for Administrators Role. One BSNEE Network can then be used for multiple BSNEE users assigned to different BSNEE Roles on that Network.

BSNEE will automatically import Active Directory users to the BSNEE database when those users first login, and it will continue updating user profiles with changes as they occur on the LDAP server.

Additional Information

• BSNEE does not support nested security groups.
• A single Active Directory user can be a member of only one Role on one Network, but a person on BSNEE may have different Roles on different Networks.