SCInterface Troubleshooting Guide

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This troubleshooting guide was created as a reference for diagnosing some of the most common issues with SCInterface. This guide is separated into the various components of SCInterface to make it easy to follow.

Contents

PHP Web Interface

The PHP Web Interface can be extracted to any web server that supports PHP4 or PHP5 including Apache for Windows. Most problems with the UI can be resolved by making sure that all of the SCInterface prerequisites are met as outlined within the SCInterface Quick Start Guide.

Things to Check for Common UI Issues

The UI must be able to communicate with the SCM

  1. Try disabling any firewalls running on the SCM and UI to ensure that all ports are open.
  2. View the system logs of the SCM to see if the UI is even able to communicate with the SCM. By default, the SCM listens to UI requests on port 51026.


Verifying the UI is Installed Correctly

Take a look at the HowTo: Install SCInterface Web UI from Source wiki article for manual installation instructions to ensure that the UI is installed correctly.

Unable to Login to the UI

The following error message may appear on the web interface: 

WARNING: The Master Server (SCM) is down or the UI is unable to communicate with the
following Master Server(s):

    * localhost on port 51026

Make sure that each Master Server (SCM) is installed, running and that nothing is
blocking communication between each Master Server listed above and this web
UI.

The reason this message is appearing is the PHP UI is unable to communicate with the SCM.

Possible Solutions:

  1. Make sure that the SCM is running.
  2. Make sure that your configuration settings within api_config.php are pointing to the correct SCM.
  3. If you are able to see the login prompt, there seems to be some other communication issue between the UI and the SCM. View the Linux SCM troubleshooting section.

Setting the default logout timeout

The following instructions are for setting the default timeout when you wish to have the web interface automatically log you out of the system if there is no activity.

SCInterface v2.0 or earlier default logout

SCInterface v2.0 or earlier would automatically log you out whenever the PHP session variable session.gc_maxlifetime would have the session expire. Setting this within your PHP php.ini configuration file and restarting your web server will adjust the timeout.

SCInterface v2.2 or later default logout

As of SCInterface v2.2 or later, a new variable can be set within your PHP UI installation. From within the uiuser directory, modify scinterface/www/includes/variables.php and add (or edit) the following variable: 

$DEFAULT_SESSION_TIMEOUT = 600; //Timeout set to 600 seconds or 10 minutes

If this variable is not present with variables.php, the default value will be set to 30 minutes or 1800 seconds.

List All Applications within the Add New App Wizard

On some installations of the SCInterface web interface, the installation wizard under Admin -> Add New App may only show a select list of available SConnectors. To have it display all available SConnectors that can be installed on your system:

  1. Login to your web server where the SCInterface UI is located.
  2. Edit the file scinterface/www/include/variables.
  3. To enable all SConnectors to be listed, set the $DISPLAY_ALL_APPTYPES to true as shown below.
    • $DISPLAY_ALL_APPTYPES = true;
  4. To only show those SConnectors that have automated installers, set the $DISPLAY_ALL_APPTYPES to false as shown below.
    • $DISPLAY_ALL_APPTYPES = false;

PHP Error: SAFE MODE Restriction in effect

The following error may may appear after trying to log into the web interface for the first time: 

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: 
SAFE MODE Restriction in effect. 
The script whose uid is 10022 is not allowed to access 
owned by uid 0 in /var/www/httpdocs/scinterface/logic/util.php on line 40

Solution:

Turn off the safe mode in php.ini by modifying this line: 

;
; Safe Mode
;
safe_mode = Off

Make sure you restart httpd after editing php.ini.

Disable SELinux

SELinux can cause conflicts with the SCM, SC and Apache. To disable SELinux:

  • In Fedora Core and RedHat Enterprise, edit /etc/selinux/config and change the SELINUX line to SELINUX=disabled.

To make the changes temporary and without rebooting: 

echo 0 >/selinux/enforce

Not Able to Upload Files Through the File Transfer Tab

When trying to upload files through the File Transfer Tab, the interface may come back with no error message and the file is never uploaded. Most of the time, this is due to a configuration problem with your PHP configuration (.ini) file. File uploads within the PHP configuration file must be enabled in order for this functionality to work.

Restoring Admin Permissions when Permissions are Removed

If the sysadmin user gives admin rights to a regular user, the regular user is assumed to be trusted for that application or SC. In this case, they can even remove the sysadmin from being able to administer a given application. A fix will be in future releases that will allow only the sysadmin to override all permissions assigned - even if assigned by other administrators.

To restore permissions where your admin rights have been revoked

  1. First try to see if the user will give sysadmin back the permissions.
  2. If they do not, here are two workarounds from the console prompt to access the database and restore the default permissions:
    1. To reset all permissions for a specific application to the default, SSH into the SCM and from the shell prompt type:
      echo "DELETE FROM serverpermissions WHERE serverid=##" | su postgres -c "psql SCM_ServerDB"
      Replace ## with the application id number (a number between 1 and 1000000) of the application that you need to reset. You can find this on the Admin page for the application or by hovering over the URL for the application for configuring the application.
    2. Or, run the following command from the console prompt. This will reset only the privileges for the owners of all applications, so that the owner of the application has rights to the application again. In this case, we assume all owners for a given application should also be able to administer their application.
      echo "UPDATE serverpermissions SET permission=63 WHERE serverid||'_'||userid in (SELECT serverid||'_'||ownerid from appservers)| su postgres -c "psql SCM_ServerDB"
  3. Next, log back into the SCInterface user interface to update the permissions since the permissions have been reset for that given application.

Linux

The following section provides information and guidelines for troubleshooting issues with SCInterface on supported Linux operating systems.

Linux Installer

Since every platform is not exactly the same, there may be some troubleshooting required in order to diagnose any issues you may be experiencing. Below are some of the most common way to resolve many different problems experienced during an SCInterface installation. If you need additional assistance, get some help with the installation.

Verifying Installed Components

The first thing to do is to view the installer error log, which is stored by default within your temp folder (normally under /tmp/). If the installer fails at any point, an error log will be error indicating the issue that the installer encountered. Normally, the errors have to do with missing dependencies and can be viewed from the installer log. Here is an example of a core dependency missing for the SCM installer: 

Verifying dependencies 

sh              : OK
screen          : OK
expect          : Not found
sudo            : OK
useradd         : OK
groupadd        : OK
bzip2           : OK

One or more packages are missing.  Please make sure that they are 
installed and that they are included in your path.
Script done, file is /tmp/SCI_Install_Log_##########.log

where SCI_Install_Log_##########.log is the error log. Notice that the installer indicated that expect was not installed on the system: 

 expect          : Not found

As of SCInterface v2.2 or later, the installer will attempt to automatically install the application using apt-get, yum or yast (if present and configured to pull down from the correct repository). If either of these fail, the installer will stop and the application will need to be manually installed before continuing.

After installing expect, we reinvoked the SCInterface installer to attempt to reinstall the SCM. After reinvoking the SCInterface installer, only those SCInterface components that have not been installed on this system are choosen.

Please reference the SCInterface Quick Start Guide for Linux for step by step instructions for installing SCInterface.

Unable to find useradd or groupadd

When running the Linux installer, the following message appears: 

########################################################################
########################################################################
Starting the SC Installation Script
########################################################################
########################################################################

Verifying dependencies

sh : OK
screen : OK
expect : OK
sudo : OK
useradd : Not found
groupadd : Not found
bzip2 : OK

One or more packages are missing. Please make sure that they are installed and
that they are included in your path.

This is probably because the useradd and groupadd commands cannot be located because you sued as root instead of typing 'su -'. Typing 'su -' to login as root from the shell should get the the SCInterface installer to see useradd and groupadd commands.

Linux SC

The following section provides some ideas and suggestions for checking communication between the SCM and the Linux SC. This section is generally useful for debugging the following error message from the Linux SC: 

# service SC start

Starting the SCInterface Server Controller

Startup failed: Error : 30572:1202394838 : This is generally caused
by a connection error or an authentication error. If it is an authentication
error, then make sure that your SCM host and port parameters are properly set
(displayed by the 'Initial connection to..' line) and that the address field in
SCInterface for your SC matches with the previous 'I am' statement. If these
are all correct, try resetting your SC's password from the SC admin panel and
try restarting your SC
  1. Verify Hostname of a Linux SC.
  2. Make sure the the port number of the SC is configured correctly on the SCM. This can be set under the Admin -> SC section of the UI.
  3. Make sure the time and timezone on the system that is running the SC is accurate.
  4. Make sure the SCM is running and that there are no error messages. The SCM log is under /home/scmuser/log.
  5. Make sure that the SC is running and that there are no error messages. The SC log is normally under /home/scuser/log.
  6. The ports used by the SCInterface components can be modified in the SCInterface UI. By default, you will want to make sure that these ports are open on any firewalls:
    1. SCM : 51026 tcp : this port is used by the client interface, thus only your webserver needs to connect here.
    2. SCM : 51126 tcp : this port is used by the SCs to connect to the SCM.
    3. SC : 51025 tcp. The SCM will connect here, and potentially other SCs
      1. The App Move and App Copy functions (as of SCInterface v2.2) will need these ports if ftp and ssh are disabled on both hosts).

If all of the above have been checked, try doing the following:

  1. Verify that the hostname is accurate. This is under Admin -> SControllers (Tab) -> Choose the SC you wish to edit.
  2. Reset the SC password under Admin -> SControllers (Tab) -> Choose the SC you wish to edit and select the Reset Password check box to reset the password and try to reconnect.
  3. If behind a router, try entering the IP address of the router (public IP address) instead of the IP address of the system (private IP address) under Admin -> SControllers (Tab) -> Choose your SC. The SCM is going to see your system as the router's IP address, not your system's IP address.
  4. Telnet from your SC to the port you are connecting into and make sure that you get a string similar to this output to the screen. If you do not see the output similar to below (the string will vary greatly from connection to connection), then your firewall may be blocking access to the SCM. 
> telnet scm1.scinterface.com 51126
Trying 69.9.181.34...
Connected to scm1.scinterface.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
2D2B49D0721C9CFD9D798BC406B1652FF6E58187893ACC487474731E55084C434CC80
3D4EDCECB0051FA3D65694B776890E41722E5A8416EC058D5E937CBA592A7BAC92558
DBE9F589897FBFFC3E6ACBEE5E62BE83C7228A935DD3624E977526B968B4CBC009F76
0E77B6A8827018DF60C8A8B668BEE3108A129DECBE3508CED
  • Viewing the At a Glance tab within the UI should show the SC as running (green). If everything is showing as gray, make sure that Showing Status button at the top right-hand corner of the At a Glance page is checked.

Below is a sample screenshot of what the SC looks like when it is offline:

Image:ui_sc_offline.jpg

Notice that the light is yellow and not green. This is because the SCM is unable to communicate with the SC.

  • Make sure that the IP address you are using to connect into the SCM is configured correctly within the web interface under Admin -> SControllers.
  • NAT Routers: Make sure that you forward the appropriate port to your SC Host. By default, this is TCP 51025. You will get a message saying "The SCInterface Control Manager cannot connect back to this host" in your log and the SController will terminate. Note that this error message will also show up if your port is blocked by any type of port filter/firewall.
Configuring an SC to run on the same system as the SCM

If your SC is running on the same system as your SCM, do not use localhost for the SC's address when configuring it within the UI. Make sure to use 127.0.0.1 as the address instead.

Verify Hostname of a Linux SC

Sometimes there are issues around the SC being able to communication with the SCM. This hostname must match what the SCM has within its database, otherwise, the SC's log will show as 'Authentication failed' from the SCM. More often than not, this is due to the hostname being set improperly.

  1. View the SC log
    This is normally under /home/scuser/log. There may be error messages in there that can help diagnose communication problems.
  2. Verify the hostname that the SC is seeing and write this down
  3. Log into SCInterface
  4. Click on your SC
  5. Go into admin area then go in the edit/modify SC page
  6. Set the IP address SC within the address field.
    1. If your SC is running on the same system as your SCM, do not use localhost for the SC's address when configuring it within the UI. Make sure to use 127.0.0.1 as the address instead.
    2. If your SC is behind a router, try entering the IP address of the router (public IP address) instead of the IP address of the system (private IP address). The SCM is going to see your system as the router's IP address, not your system's IP address.
  7. Put a checkmark in the "Reset password" checkbox
  8. Press that 'edit' button at the bottom
  9. Restart your SC from the console
Debugging Linux SC Communication Issues

Top things to check:

  1. Reset the SC password under Admin -> SControllers (Tab) -> Choose the SC you wish to edit and select the Reset Password check box to reset the password and try to reconnect.
  2. The ports used by the SCInterface components can be modified in the SCInterface UI. By default, you will want to make sure that these ports are open on any firewalls:
    1. SCM : 51026 tcp : this port is used by the client interface, thus only your webserver needs to connect here.
    2. SCM : 51126 tcp : this port is used by the SCs to connect to the SCM.
    3. SC : 51025 tcp. The SCM will connect here, and potentially other SCs
      1. The App Move and App Copy functions (as of SCInterface v2.2) will need these ports if ftp and ssh are disabled on both hosts).
  3. If behind a router, try entering the IP address of the router (public IP address) instead of the IP address of the system (private IP address) under Admin -> SControllers (Tab) -> Choose your SC. The SCM is going to see your system as the router's IP address, not your system's IP address.
  4. Telnet from your SC to the port you are connecting into and make sure that you get a string similar to this output to the screen. If you do not see the output similar to below (the string will vary greatly from connection to connection), then your firewall may be blocking access to the SCM. 
> telnet scm1.scinterface.com 51126
Trying 69.9.181.34...
Connected to scm1.scinterface.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
2D2B49D0721C9CFD9D798BC406B1652FF6E58187893ACC487474731E55084C434CC80
3D4EDCECB0051FA3D65694B776890E41722E5A8416EC058D5E937CBA592A7BAC92558
DBE9F589897FBFFC3E6ACBEE5E62BE83C7228A935DD3624E977526B968B4CBC009F76
0E77B6A8827018DF60C8A8B668BEE3108A129DECBE3508CED
  • Viewing the At a Glance tab within the UI should show the SC as running (green). If everything is showing as gray, make sure that Showing Status button at the top right-hand corner of the At a Glance page is checked.

Below is a sample screenshot of what the SC looks like when it is offline:

Image:ui_sc_offline.jpg

Notice that the light is yellow and not green. This is because the SCM is unable to communicate with the SC.

  • Make sure that the IP address you are using to connect into the SCM is configured correctly within the web interface under Admin -> SControllers.
  • NAT Routers: Make sure that you forward the appropriate port to your SC Host. By default, this is TCP 51025. You will get a message saying "The SCInterface Control Manager cannot connect back to this host" in your log and the SController will terminate. Note that this error message will also show up if your port is blocked by any type of port filter/firewall.
  • View the SC log on the system to view any error messages or communication issues. The SC log is typically located under /home/scuser/SController/log.
  • Another SC may have already been configured to connect in as this SC. From within the web interface, go into the Admin -> SController area and put a check mark next to 'Dynamic IP Address' (if available) and 'Reset Password'. This should reset the password that the SC is trying to use to connect into the SCM. Next, restart the SC from the command line. View the log of the SC if you are still having trouble.
sudo: sorry, you must have a tty to run sudo

When viewing the overview screen for an SC, the following message is displayed within many of the fields: 

sudo: sorry, you must have a tty to run sudo

To fix this

  1. Login to a shell on the SC that is running on this system
  2. With your favorite text editor, edit the following line within /etc/sudoers from: 
Defaults requiretty

and comment this line out by changing it to: 

#Defaults requiretty

Save the file and then refresh the web interface and the information about the SC should now appear.

sudo: must be setuid root

When viewing the SC information on a system, the following error message may appear: 

sudo: must be setuid root

This generally occurs on cPanel servers because of a restriction that was in place for sudo. Running the following command allows sudo to run as 'root': 

chmod 4711 /usr/bin/sudo
Linux application status will not return status

A Linux application status will not return status and the icon is always gray. There is probably an issue with 'sudo' on this system. Check the SC log (normally under /home/scuser/log) and see if something similar to the following appears in the log: 

  Error : 5427:1201883514 : 
    Something went wrong while executing statement(
    sudo -H -u 'scpj2570' sh -c 'if [ \! -d "/home/scpj2570/srcds_l/." ]; 
    then if [ -e "/home/scpj2570/srcds_l/." ]; 
    then rm -fr "/home/scpj2570/srcds_l/.";
    fi;
    mkdir "/home/scpj2570/srcds_l/.";
    chmod 600 "/home/scpj2570/srcds_l/."; 
    fi;chmod g+rx "/home/scpj2570/srcds_l/."; ';
    ) :

Solution: Make sure the 'sudo' can be invoked by the 'sc' users'.

FTP option for my application is not working in Linux

If after setting the FTP password for a particular application, the user still cannot login, you may not have an FTP server enabled.

Make sure you have a ftp server (ftpd) that uses local password authentication. PureFTP or ProFTP are recommended FTP servers for use with SCInterface.

Enabling SSH access for users

WARNING: Recommended for advanced users only. SCInterface support does not support this option at this time.

By default, a user access to SSH on Linux is disabled. SCInterface sets there default login to user 'nologin' for their default shell. To enable SSH access:

  1. Make sure an SSH server (sshd) is installed
  2. Configure the user to use a shell other than 'nologin'.
  3. Set the user's password using the passwd command. It is highly recommended that SSH access not be enabled since the applications that run within the user's memory space could be altered by the user if they a provided with an SSH login.
Diagnosing Very High CPU or Memory Usage

On a rare occasion, the SC may act abnormally. Things such as excessive memory or CPU utilization could be an indication of the SC experiencing problems on your particular Linux kernel. To assist SCInterface with determining what might be happening with the SC, follow these steps and send SCInterface technical support the information through http://support.scinterface.com. This way we can investigate and possibly resolve the problem for you. As with any issue, the more details and information you can provide, the more likely we will be able to provide a solution.

  1. "Pause" the SCs (to make your system responsive)
    pkill -STOP SController
  2. Get SC Processes and some info about each
    ps ufp `pgrep SController`;
  3. Get SC Core dumps. This will produce a bunch of SC.pid files, one for each process.
    for pid in `pgrep SController`; do gcore -o SC.$pid $pid; done;
  4. Resume then kill the SC.
    pkill -CONT SController; pkill SController; sleep 1; pkill -9 SController;
  5. Next, tar up:
    1. The executable SController (or whatever file /home/scuser/SController is a link to)
    2. All of the SC.## files in the /home/scuser folder
    3. The output from the ps command.
  6. Email the tarball of this output to SCInterface technical support (as well as) to us.
  7. After stopping the SC, you should be able to restart it using
    service SC start
    OR
    /etc/init.d/SC start
Parser must be initialised before use

The following error message may appear after trying to start the Linux SC by typing the service SC start command: 

Starting the SCInterface Server Controller
Startup failed: Error : 4038:1216130434 : Parser must be initialised before use

Within the /home/scuser/log file, the following message may also appear: 

Error : 3530:1216130332 : After calling Parser(30100,51026,10,3) : Could not bind to port : Address already in use
Error : 3530:1216130332 : Parser must be initialised before use

Solution:

  1. Make sure another instance of the SC is not running by typing:
    netstat -anp | grep 510
  2. If you see an instance of SController running (not SCManager), kill the SController service by first making sure you are logged in as root and type:
    service SC stop;
    pkill -9 SController
  3. If you are still not able to start the SC,
    1. Login to the web UI.
    2. Modify the SC under the Admin section of the UI so that the port is set to another port. The default port should be 51026 for the SC. You should only have to change this to another port if you have more than one SC running on the same machine.
Linux FTP Server Does Not Allow Connections

When enabling FTP for a given application under Admin interface for the application, the user is prompted with the username but is unable to login with the password defined. Make sure the following is configured on your Linux SC:

1) FTP service is running. We support and highly recommend vsftp for enabling FTP service with the Linux SC. 2) Once the FTP service is installed and running, verify that /bin/false is inside of /etc/shells.

At this time, other FTP daemons should work, however, we will only support vsftp.

Change the IP Address of the Linux SC

If all of the above have been checked, try doing the following:

  1. Login to the UI as an administrator that can modify the SC.
  2. Under the Admin section, edit or modify the SC. This is under Admin -> SControllers or Servers (Tab) -> Choose the SC you wish to edit.
  3. Modify the Hostname / IP Address to the new IP address that you wish to use.
    1. Note: If this SC is running on the same system as your SCM, this should be set to 127.0.0.1
  4. Reset the SC password by putting a check in the Reset Password check box.
  5. Select Modify SC or Modify Server to save those settings.
  6. Return to the console for your SC and start the SC by typing:
    service SC start

Linux SCM

This section provides details for resolving issues with the Linux SCM. One of the first things to check is the SCM log located under /home/scmuser/log. This log will log any errors that may occur with the SCM.

The following sections provide troubleshooting steps to try to diagnose the error messages that do appear within the SCM log.

Confirming Communication with the SCM

After you start SCM make sure its running by checking the process list like: ps -ef | grep SCManager

If you verify that its running you can test communication with telnet: telnet <hostname_of_scm> 51026

If you see some return characters its accepting requests. In this case just make sure the UI is pointed to the hostname of the SCM in sci_phpapi/api_config.php. The hostname defaults to localhost so if the UI and the SCM are on the same machine, there is no need to change this value.

Database Functional

Make sure within the system log that the SCM is able to communicate with the Postgresql server. If it isn't, you will see error messages similar to these within the SCM log: 

Error : 8549:1162158993 : DB Connection not happening 
Error : 8549:1162158994 : Couldn't create transaction 
Error : 8549:1162158994 : Aborting query

Possible fixes include:

  1. Verify the that database is populated with the SCInterface tables.
  2. Make sure that the postgresql server is running and that access to the server is not restricted by a firewall.
  3. Try installing a PostgreSQL management tool to verify that the tables are populated and that you are able to connect into the database. Some useful tools include:
    1. pgAdmin III - Cross-platform administration tool - http://www.pgadmin.org/
    2. PhpPgAdmin - Web-based PostgreSQL administration tool - http://phppgadmin.sourceforge.net/
  4. Verifying Database Connectivity
Verifying Database Connectivity

The following is useful for diagnosing problems where the SCM is unable to communicate with the PostgreSQL database. For example, an error message like this may appear when trying to start the SCInterface SCM (/etc/rc.d/init.d/SCM start): 

Starting the SCInterface SCM
Startup failed: Error : #####:########## : DB Initialization failed, shutting down

OR 

Starting the SCInterface SCM
Startup failed: Error : 19952:1193747825 : DB Initialization failed, shutting down
Quickly Test Database Connectivity
  • Connect to the database as the SCM user would
    1. become the scmuser : (as root) su - scmuser
    2. if database is on same host as SCM
      1. connect to the local database : psql SCM_ServerDB
      2. you should not be prompted for a password. if so, edit your /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf file and make sure that the lines beginning with local and having SCM_ServerDB or SCM_Logs in them are the first 'local' entries. you may have a local entry that requires md5/password authentication, this must come after the SCM lines. If any changes were made here, restart the database server. Usually 'service postgresql restart' or '/etc/init.d/postgresql restart' will do the trick.
    3. if database is elsewhere
      1. get the hostname, port, databasename, database user and password from the top of the runme file : head -50 ~scmuser/runme.sh
      2. 'psql -H hostname -p port -U username databasename -W' with the proper values for hostname, port, username and databasename
      3. when prompted for a password, enter it
    4. you should be in and see something like 'SCM_ServerDB>'
    5. Make sure serverlist is there and fully populated
      1. \dt serverlist
        • On Success, you will see a small table listing the serverlist relation.
        • Otherwise 'No matching relations found.' : Database creation failed, you need to reinstall the scm database and disable selinux. This step requires some kicking, the SCInterface folks will definately help you here.
    6. Make sure that the dbserver entries are correct
      1. 'select * from serverlist where servertype='dbServer';
        • if only the SCM on the same host will connect, make sure that 'address'es are set to something that resolves to this host. (the SCM will use unix sockets for local connections, so you don't need to worry about firewalls yet)
        • if this database is to be accessed by remote SCMs, make sure that the addresses resolve to this host and that it can be used for database connections.
    7. Disconnect from database : '\q'
PostgreSQL Database Failure Scenarios

The PostgreSQL database will fail if:

  • You chose a different host than localhost for your db location in scm setup.
    • Doing this would skip db config altogether. Reinstall and use default options
  • Your db server isn't allowing local connections.
    • if this is the case, modify your pg_hba.conf usually located under /var/lib/pgsql/data/.
  • Your db user and scm system user are different.
    • You can add a mapping from system user -> db user in your pg_ident.conf file and fix your pg_hba.conf file accordingly
    • Setup md5 authentication for scmuser by assigning a password to your db user (scmuser) from within the database
    • Then add a "export DB_PASSWORD = 'blah'"; at the top of your /home/scmuser/runme.sh script. (blah would be your password in this example).
  • Finally, take a look at how to Configure PostgreSQL Defaults with SCInterface.

Troubleshooting here can be lengthy, so unless you have a clear understanding of what you're doing, make sure you use all default options when installing the SCInterface components.

Related Articles:

/bin/sh : bad Interpreter when trying to install SCM

The SCM setup will fail, more precisely the database setup with an error that looks like "/bin/sh : bad interpreter". This generally occurs on cPanel systems or systems with /tmp being mounted with nosuid and noexec options. What happens is that the installer will download the tarball with the data required to setup or update the database then execute a bash script to actually install/update the databases, and this is done from /tmp.

Solution:

1. Temporarily remount your /tmp folder to allow exec and suid.

i.e. : 

# mount 
... 
/dev/hdc1 on /tmp type ext2 (rw,nosuid,noexec) 
... 

# mount -oremount,rw /dev/hdc1 /tmp

2. Run the installer

3. Remount /tmp with normal settings 

# mount -oremount,rw,noexec,nosuid /dev/hdc1 /tmp
Error : SController 30000 has no owner

The following may appear within the SCM database log under /home/scmuser/log: 

.........
Error : 10026:1195447573 : SController 30000 has no owner
Error : 10031:1195447577 : SController 30000 has no owner
.........

This may repeat itself several hundred times. This is a result of a misconfigured SC within the SCM database. To remove this SC, run the following from the same system as the SCM's PostgreSQL database: 

su - scmuser;
echo "delete from serverlist where serverid=30000;" | psql SCM_ServerDB;

If this command was successful, the following will appear: 

DELETE 1
HowTo: Configure A Custom Installer Repository

The following describes how to create a custom installer repository:

HowTo: Configure A Custom Installer Repository

There was an error during license transfer

When following the directions within the SCInterface SCM License by clicking on the link Download from License Manager under the SCM's configuration page, the following error message appears: 

General Error: There was an error during license transfer - [command license update]

This is because there is no SC running on the same system as the SCM. There are two options:

  1. Make sure that the SC is running on the same system as the SCM
  2. Make sure your system time and timezone is accurate using the linux date utility on your SCM. Make sure the contents of /home/scmuser/log does not say:
    Your system time is not properly set. Try configuring ntp or using rdate to sync with a timeserver.

-OR--

  1. Manually load the license onto the SCM as outlined within the SCInterface SCM License guide.
Your system time is not properly set. Try configuring ntp or using rdate to sync with a timeserver.

This means that either your system time is not set correctly or that the SCM process was not able to verify it. There should be some extra messages in the log to help you diagnose this. Otherwise, make sure that these steps works :

' su - scmuser; wget -qO- http://download.scinterface.com/lg/public/time.php; echo ""; date +%s; '

You should have two values, and the difference between the two should be less than 1800 (half an hour). If not, make sure that your timezone is set correctly, as well as the system time. Tools like rdate will help you set your time : 'rdate -s time.netarus.com'

Disable SELinux

SELinux can cause conflicts with the SCM, SC and Apache. To disable SELinux:

  • In Fedora Core and RedHat Enterprise, edit /etc/selinux/config and change the SELINUX line to SELINUX=disabled.

To make the changes temporary and without rebooting: 

echo 0 >/selinux/enforce
No SCM can exist at this host

Problem:

When starting the SCM, the following error message appears: 

Starting the SCInterface SCM
Startup failed: Error : 2222:1111111111 : No SCM can exist at this host.

Solution:

First thing to check:

For all evaluation customers, make sure the SCM is able to access the internet.

Second thing to check:

Make sure that you have a license file under /home/scmuser/. For licensed users that are not able to have their SCM connected to the internet, you can manually download your license within the SCInterface support portal at http://support.scinterface.com and click on the plus sign next to Downloads to view your licensed SCMs.

Also, take a look at the log file within the /home/scmuser/ directory and see if there are any other error messages with being able to obtain the license file.

Third thing to check:

If all of the above has been checked, this is normally occurs when moving the database for the SCM from one host to another or changing the hostname of the SCM or the license is invalid. To correct this error message so that the SCM can start:

Verify that the hostname matches the hostname within /etc/hosts: 

127.0.0.1     myscm localhost

...where myscm is the hostname for your system.

Verify that this resolves: 

ping myscm

...where myscm is the hostname for your system.

And the output of running this command matches the hostname of your system: 

hostname -f

...where myscm is the hostname for your system. Next, run: 

echo "UPDATE serverlist SET address='`hostname -f`' WHERE servertype='iGMServer';" | sudo -u postgres psql SCM_ServerDB

More than likely your dbServer entries are also setup with the other hostname so run this command as well: 

echo "UPDATE serverlist SET address='localhost' WHERE servertype='dbServer';" | sudo -u postgres psql SCM_ServerDB

After running those two commands, restart the SCM by typing: 

service SCM start
SConnectors will not update to the latest version

The SConnectors will not update through the UI if the Linux SC running on the SCM is disabled or not running. Start the Linux SC on the SCM in order to update your SConnectors with the Admin section of the UI.

No information about your SCM in the main database

The following error message may appear within the SCM log (/home/scmusers/log) if the hostname of your server that is running the SCM has changed: 

Error : 2830:1216297859 : Cannot initialise databases since there is no information about your SCM in the main database
Log   : 2830:1216297859 : Hostname: my_scinterface
Error : 2830:1216297859 : No SCM can exist at this host.

Solution #1:

Configure the hostname of your server back to the original hostname and/or IP address and restart the SCM.

Solution #2:

If you performed a new installation of SCInterface, the fastest (and safest) route it to simply uninstall the SCM and reinstall it from the Linux console.

Solution #3:

WARNING: Be careful when accessing the PostgreSQL database directly. Make sure to always backup your database. More information on backing up your SCInterface PostgreSQL database is available within the SCInterface Database Optimizations and Tuning article.

  1. Login as root into your database server. In most setups, this is the same server as your SCM. From the shell prompt, type: 
echo "UPDATE serverlist SET address='`hostname -f`' WHERE servertype='iGMServer' OR servertype='dbServer'" | su postgres -c "psql SCM_ServerDB";

The console should return something like this: 

UPDATE 4

Next, make sure you can ping your hostname'. Type: 

ping -c 4 `hostname -f`

If you do not get a reply back, you may need to update your /etc/hosts file with the hostname as well.

Finally, you should be able to restart your SCM by typing: 

service SCM start
No permissions for sysadmin to view an Application or SC

In some cases, you may have accidentally removed administrator privileges from the sysadmin account. In case this happens, you may have an application or SC that the 'sysadmin' can no longer view through the UI. This only can apply to the applications or the SCs. The 'sysadmin' user account cannot be deleted - only renamed.

Background: SCInterface will allow you - as the system administrator - to have all rights revoked from you from within the user interface. However, only if these permissions are explicitly removed, will the 'sysadmin' not be able to access the application or SC. 'sysadmin' always has the ability to gain control back to application or the SC where admin rights may have been lost. By default, if any permissions are no available, 'sysadmin' will automatically regain control as a fail safe.

Solution:

Therefore, to regain permissions to an SC or an application where rights have been explicitly revoked from the 'sysadmin', all of the permissions for that SC or application must be removed.

WARNING: Be careful when accessing the PostgreSQL database directly. Make sure to always backup your database. More information on backing up your SCInterface PostgreSQL database is available within the SCInterface Database Optimizations and Tuning article.

  • Make note of the servername for your server.
  • Login as root into your database server. In most setups, this is the same server as your SCM. From the shell prompt, type: 
echo "select * from serverlist;" | su postgres -c "psql SCM_ServerDB";
  • Using the up and down arrows, locate the 'serverid' in the left column for the server that you are trying to gain access to. Write down this server id.
  • Run the following command and replace MYSERVERID with the number (an integer from 1 to 100000) with the server id of the server you are trying to reset permissions: 
echo "delete from serverpermissions where serverid=MYSERVERID" | su postgres -c "psql SCM_ServerDB";
  • You should see something like the following appear: 
DELETE 2
  • Log back into the web interface as 'sysadmin' and your SC or application should now be visible to only 'sysadmin' since all of the permission for that server were deleted.

Linux Application or Device

The following areas are useful within the UI for debugging communication issues with a particular application or device:

  1. Under the Config section for an application
    1. Click on the Log tab to view the system log for the application
    2. Click on the Commands tab. The following commands are useful for getting the state of an application running:
      1. set permissions - Run this command if you have installed the application and it still won't start. This is very useful for reseting the permissions so that SCInterface can actually start and stop the application or device.
      2. grad screen info - This will grab the text from the applications terminal window so you can see if it is actually running or not
      3. show running processes - This will grab the processes that are running for this application
  2. Post your question to the SCInterface Forums
  3. Contact Netarus Professional Services for premium support.
Importing an existing Linux Application or Device

The following instructions will guide you through importing an existing running application into SCInterface that is installed on the same system as your SC.

Prerequisites

  1. Make note of the full path of your application including the executable. For example:
    1. The location of the application may be in: /home/user1
    2. The executable may be: myapp

Preparing the Linux OS

  1. If you have not already done so, make sure only one user owns the application and the application belongs to the servers group. An example of this may be a user called user1. Make sure the user meets the following requirements:
    1. The user's home directory is the same as the folder of the executable.
    2. The user belongs to the servers group.
    3. Here's an example of manually adding a user from the command line: useradd /bin/sh -g servers -d /home/user1 user1
    4. Type man useradd for additional instructions on adding new users
  2. chown the folder of where the executable is located (i.e. /home/user1) to user1 by running: chown -R user1 /home/user1
  3. chgrp the folder /home/user1 to servers by running: chgrp -R servers /home/user1
  4. Make sure that the servers group has the correct permissions by running: find /home/user1 -exec chgrp servers {} \;
  5. Manually start the application to make sure it starts. Make sure to stop the application before continuing.

Adding the application to SCInterface

  1. Login to the SCInterface web interface.
    1. This user must have Admin permissions on the same SC where the application was installed under /home/user1.
  2. Click Admin -> Applications.
  3. Click on the Add New App tab. This will start the Add New Application wizard.
  4. Select your SC where the application is installed
  5. Choose the application type that you are adding. This is very important to select the correct application. This is where the name of the executable is defined.
    1. Advanced users only: To view the executable name and types, go under the SConnectors tab to learn more about configuring the drivers available for SCInterface.
  6. When walking through the wizard, make sure to pay particular attention to the following fields:
    1. Base Path (i.e. /home/user1)
    2. System User (i.e. user1)
    3. Remove the checkmark next to Create System User.
    4. Remove the checkmark next to Install Files and Default Config Settings.
  7. Walk through the remaining sections of the interface and once finished, click Add Application to add the application into the system.
  8. If you added the application successfully, navigate to the At a Glance page and click the Start button next to your application.
Manually Installing a Linux Application

A separate wiki articles is available that guides a user through manually installing an application without using the SCInterface automated installation. Here is the link: HowTo: Installing a Server or any Application


audit_log_user_command(): Connection refused

The following error message appears whenever attempting to install an application: 

audit_log_user_command(): Connection refused

Solution:

This is sudo complaining of missing functionality. Updating sudo on your platform to the latest version will resolve this problem.

For Fedora/RedHat/CentOS platforms only: Package managers such as yum are good for performing these kinds of updates. To update sudo using yum, login as root and type: 

yum update sudo

Additional Linux Resources

Utility to Restart All Services for Redhat/Fedora/CentOS

This script will restart all of the necessary dependencies within SCInterface to ensure that everything is functioning as expected on a daily basis. This will only run on Redhat/Fedora/CentOS based platforms. This is useful if you find that your apache service occasionally stops responding.

  • Make sure you have cron installed by typing:
    crontab -u root -l
    • If you see something like the following, cron is installed:
      no crontab for root
  • From the command line, type:
    vi /etc/cron.daily/restart_scinterface_services
  • Within vi, paste the following text inside of the document: 
#!/bin/sh
service httpd stop
service SC stop
service SCM stop
service postgresql stop
sleep 1
service postgresql start
service SCM start
service SC start
service httpd start
  • Save the file by typing:
    :q
  • From the command line, set the permissions of restart_scinterface_services executabled by typing:
    chmod 755 /etc/cron.daily/restart_scinterface_services

Windows

The following section provides information and guidelines for troubleshooting issues with SCInterface on supported Microsoft Windows operating systems.

Windows SC Installer

Please reference the SCInterface Quick Start Guide for Windows for step by step instructions for installing the Windows SC.

Installing the Java Run-Time Environment (JRE)

You may be prompted to install the Java run-time environment (JRE) before the setup can continue. The JRE can be downloaded from:

http://jdl.sun.com/webapps/getjava/BrowserRedirect?locale=en&host=www.java.com

-OR-

http://www.java.com

Windows SC

The following section provides some ideas and suggestions for checking communication between the SCM and the Windows SC.

  1. Verify Hostname of a Windows SC.
  2. Make sure the the port number of the SC is configured correctly on the SCM. This can be set under the Admin -> SC section of the UI.
  3. Make sure the time and timezone on the system that is running the SC is accurate.
  4. Make sure the SCM is running and that there are no error messages. The SCM log is under /home/scmuser/log.
  5. Make sure that the SC is running and that there are no error messages. On windows, the SC Management Tool should show an:
    1. Image:online_sc.gif - an orange SC logo means that the SC is running.
    2. Image:connecting_sc.gif - SC is attempting to connect into the SCM
    3. Image:offline_sc.gif - a gray SC logo means the SC is not connecting into the SCM.
      1. Right click on the taskbar icon to view the system log.
  6. The ports used by the SCInterface components can be modified in the SCInterface UI. By default, you will want to make sure that these ports are open on any firewalls:
    1. SCM : 51026 tcp : this port is used by the client interface, thus only your webserver needs to connect here.
    2. SCM : 51126 tcp : this port is used by the SCs to connect to the SCM.
    3. SC : 51025 tcp. The SCM will connect here, and potentially other SCs
      1. The App Move and App Copy functions (as of SCInterface v2.2) will need these ports if ftp and ssh are disabled on both hosts).

If all of the above have been checked, try doing the following:

  1. Verify that the hostname is accurate. This is under Admin -> SControllers (Tab) -> Choose the SC you wish to edit.
  2. Reset the SC password under Admin -> SControllers (Tab) -> Choose the SC you wish to edit and select the Reset Password check box to reset the password and try to reconnect.
  3. If behind a router, try entering the IP address of the router (public IP address) instead of the IP address of the system (private IP address) under Admin -> SControllers (Tab) -> Choose your SC. The SCM is going to see your system as the router's IP address, not your system's IP address.
  4. Telnet from your SC to the port you are connecting into and make sure that you get a string similar to this output to the screen. If you do not see the output similar to below (the string will vary greatly from connection to connection), then your firewall may be blocking access to the SCM. 
> telnet scm1.scinterface.com 51126
Trying 69.9.181.34...
Connected to scm1.scinterface.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
2D2B49D0721C9CFD9D798BC406B1652FF6E58187893ACC487474731E55084C434CC80
3D4EDCECB0051FA3D65694B776890E41722E5A8416EC058D5E937CBA592A7BAC92558
DBE9F589897FBFFC3E6ACBEE5E62BE83C7228A935DD3624E977526B968B4CBC009F76
0E77B6A8827018DF60C8A8B668BEE3108A129DECBE3508CED
  • Viewing the At a Glance tab within the UI should show the SC as running (green). If everything is showing as gray, make sure that Showing Status button at the top right-hand corner of the At a Glance page is checked.

Below is a sample screenshot of what the SC looks like when it is offline:

Image:ui_sc_offline.jpg

Notice that the light is yellow and not green. This is because the SCM is unable to communicate with the SC.

  • Make sure that the IP address you are using to connect into the SCM is configured correctly within the web interface under Admin -> SControllers.
  • NAT Routers: Make sure that you forward the appropriate port to your SC Host. By default, this is TCP 51025. You will get a message saying "The SCInterface Control Manager cannot connect back to this host" in your log and the SController will terminate. Note that this error message will also show up if your port is blocked by any type of port filter/firewall.
Known Issues : Startup / Initialization
  • SController will not restart and say that the SCM cannot connect back to it if applications it started are still running when the SC is shut down.
    • Reason : the spawned applications have a bond to their mother application, the SController. Not all resources of the SC are released until all bonds to children are severred. This seems to be caused by the OS and we haven't figured out how to daemonize the child processes. The new SC will be able to bind its listening socket server but will not be able to accept connections. The OS (Windows) doesn't show the old SC still being binded to that port either (thus why the bind call succeeds when it shouldn't).
    • Workaround : Manually terminate any applications that would have been spawned by the SC then restart the SC
Known Issues : Runtime / Interations with applications
  • In service mode, applications are spawned as user "system" and their console / gui will not be available for interaction under logged-in user.
    • Reason : It seemed that spawning the SC service in interactive mode would help here, but it's not always the case. Service mode will probably be deprecated as we will try to go towards using terminal services instead. Post any suggestions to the forums.
    • Workaround : switch to non-service mode and the SC will be started at login. Although the service is started prior to login, it doesn't appear to accept connections before your first login anyhow.
  • Cannot stop my BF2 server
    • Reason : SCInterface interacts with the BF2 server using rcon. The rcon password for the application can be changed by modifying the default.py script (through config->configFile or through alterConfigs) and restarting your server. We can set a value to be used by default when interacting with your server if you provide us with that value. The stop button will then be functional and the rcon_password parameter will automatically be populated with this value in the config->commands section for actions requiring this value. Changing this value on the SCInterface side is currently limited to super-admins (us) but will be included in a future release of the web ui.
    • Fix : set an rcon password for your server and email us which server you'd like to enable rcon on. You don't need to email us the password, but you will need to do this every time you switch your rcon password.
Known Issues : Network Configuration

When trying to add an application, sometimes users won't be created or the UI will will give a false negative that the Windows SC is not running.

  • Reason : This usually occurs when there is more than one network interface card (NIC) or even virtual network interface cards such as VMWare or Virtual Iron NICs. The Windows SC is not able to route its communication from the
  • Workaround : Disabling and re-enabling any extra NICs on the Windows system and then re-enabling seems to resolve the problem with Windows IP routing. This is done by:
    1. Login as Administrator to the Windows SC.
    2. Stop the Windows SC
      1. Open the SCInterface Management Tool
      2. Click File -> Shutdown
    3. Disable all NICs on the system except for the primary NIC/IPs that the Windows SC is using.
      1. Open the Windows Control Panel under Start -> Control Panel
      2. Double click on Network Connections
      3. With the exception for the primary network interface that is Windows SC is communicating with the SCM, right click on every NIC that is listed and select Disable
      4. Repeat this until all NICs are disabled except for the primary network interface
    4. Start the Windows SC
      1. Open the SCInterface Management Tool
      2. Click File -> Start
    5. Login to the web interface and try installing an application
      • If you have not already done so, make sure the the SC is registered within the SCM and is visible from the At a Glance page.
    6. Everything should be functioning smoothly now.
    7. Log back into the Windows system that is running the Windows SC and re-enable the NICs
      1. Open the Windows Control Panel under Start -> Control Panel
      2. Double click on Network Connections
      3. Right click on every NIC that is listed and select Enable
    8. For good measure, reboot the windows system
    9. After rebooting, make sure that the Windows SC is started
    10. Try repeating the process that you implemented before such as adding another application to see if the problem is resolved
  • Problem still occuring? Check your routes by:
    1. Logging into the Windows system
    2. Click Start -> Run.
    3. Type:
      cmd
    4. From the command window type:
      route print
    5. Make sure that you only have one primary route and default gateway listed. Remove any extra routes and restart the Windows SC.
Verify Hostname of a Windows SC

Sometimes there are issues around the SC being able to communication with the SCM. This hostname must match what the SCM has within its database, otherwise, the SC's log will show as 'Authentication failed' from the SCM. More often than not, this is due to the hostname being set improperly.

  1. View the SC log
  2. Verify the hostname that the SC is seeing and write this down
  3. Log into SCInterface
  4. Click on your SC
  5. Go into admin area then go in the edit/modifySC page
  6. Set your address to mysc.scinterface.com where mysc.scinterface.com is the hostname of your SC.
    1. If using an IP address, make sure to put a checkmark in the "dynamic ip address" checkbox
  7. Put a checkmark in the "Reset password" checkbox
  8. Press that 'edit' button at the bottom
  9. Restart your SC from the management console
Windows SC Turns Off When Logging Out

Problem: The Windows SC never wants to stay online. It seems to be on for as long as I am logged in through Remote Desktop (RDP) or on the console.

Solution:

  1. Login to the console or over Remote Desktop as an Administrator
  2. Open the Windows SC management tool.
  3. Choose 'Tools' -> 'Running in Service Mode'.

The Windows SC will now run in service mode. When exiting the Windows SC management, just choose 'Exit' not 'Exit and Shutdown'. This will keep the Windows SC running.

If you do not want the Windows SC to run in service mode, when you disconnect from your remote desktop session, just click the 'X'. This will keep your remote desktop session active.

Debugging Windows SC Communication Issues

Top things to check:

  1. Reset the SC password under Admin -> SControllers (Tab) -> Choose the SC you wish to edit and select the Reset Password check box to reset the password and try to reconnect.
  2. The ports used by the SCInterface components can be modified in the SCInterface UI. By default, you will want to make sure that these ports are open on any firewalls:
    1. SCM : 51026 tcp : this port is used by the client interface, thus only your webserver needs to connect here.
    2. SCM : 51126 tcp : this port is used by the SCs to connect to the SCM.
    3. SC : 51025 tcp. The SCM will connect here, and potentially other SCs
      1. The App Move and App Copy functions (as of SCInterface v2.2) will need these ports if ftp is disabled on both hosts).
  3. If behind a router, try entering the IP address of the router (public IP address) instead of the IP address of the system (private IP address) under Admin -> SControllers (Tab) -> Choose your SC. The SCM is going to see your system as the router's IP address, not your system's IP address.
  4. Telnet from your SC to the port you are connecting into and make sure that you get a string similar to this output to the screen. If you do not see the output similar to below (the string will vary greatly from connection to connection), then your firewall may be blocking access to the SCM. 
> telnet scm1.scinterface.com 51126
Trying 69.9.181.34...
Connected to scm1.scinterface.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
2D2B49D0721C9CFD9D798BC406B1652FF6E58187893ACC487474731E55084C434CC80
3D4EDCECB0051FA3D65694B776890E41722E5A8416EC058D5E937CBA592A7BAC92558
DBE9F589897FBFFC3E6ACBEE5E62BE83C7228A935DD3624E977526B968B4CBC009F76
0E77B6A8827018DF60C8A8B668BEE3108A129DECBE3508CED
  • Viewing the At a Glance tab within the UI should show the SC as running (green). If everything is showing as gray, make sure that Showing Status button at the top right-hand corner of the At a Glance page is checked.

Below is a sample screenshot of what the SC looks like when it is offline:

Image:ui_sc_offline.jpg

Notice that the light is yellow and not green. This is because the SCM is unable to communicate with the SC.

  • Make sure that the IP address you are using to connect into the SCM is configured correctly within the web interface under Admin -> SControllers.
  • NAT Routers: Make sure that you forward the appropriate port to your SC Host. By default, this is TCP 51025. You will get a message saying "The SCInterface Control Manager cannot connect back to this host" in your log and the SController will terminate. Note that this error message will also show up if your port is blocked by any type of port filter/firewall.
  • View the SC log on the system to view any error messages or communication issues. The SC log is typically located under C:\Program Files\SCInterface\. This can also be viewed by launching the SCInterface Windows taskbar utility under Start -> Programs -> SCInterface.
  • Another SC may have already been configured to connect in as this SC. From within the web interface, go into the Admin -> SController area and put a check mark next to 'Dynamic IP Address' (if available) and 'Reset Password'. This should reset the password that the SC is trying to use to connect into the SCM. Next, restart the SC from the command line. View the log of the SC if you are still having trouble.
Debugging Windows SC Applications

You may need to try to determine why an application is not starting with the correct startup parameters or not running at all when you select the start button from the UI. Here are some helpful hints to try to determine what might be going on:

  1. If the SConnector is a child of Windows Services, you would look for a service called SCI_app$appID (where $appID is the application ID number within SCInterface).
  2. Use regedit to go see the parameters used to start the application:
    1. These are usually stored under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\
    2. Then look for SCI_app[$appID] (where $appID is the application ID number within SCInterface).
    3. Under the SCI_app[$appID] key, you should see appParameters.
  3. Next, go to the folder where your application is located and run the command with the parameters and you'll see why it does not start.
Running the Windows SC in Application or Console Mode

Running the Windows SC in application or console Mode is extremely useful to attempting to debug issues with the Windows SC process at a lower level.

Choose either Option #1 or Option #2 to run the Windows SC in console mode:

  1. Option #1: Running the SC in Application Mode (only applicable to Windows SC v2.2.20080212 or later):
    1. Login as Administrator on the console or over Remote Desktop (RDP
    2. Open the SCInterface Management Tool and stop the SC service
      • Make sure the Windows SC is stopped. You can verify this by making sure that no instances of javaw.exe are running within task manager).
    3. Within the Management Tool, remove the checkbox next to Tools -> Running in Service Mode.
    4. Click File -> Start SC.
    5. A black console window will appear. This is the Windows SC running in application or console mode.
    6. Continue to step #3 below.
  2. Option #2: Running from the command line:
    1. Login as Administrator on the console or over Remote Desktop (RDP
    2. Open the SCInterface Management Tool and stop the SC service
      • Make sure the Windows SC is stopped. You can verify this by making sure that no instances of javaw.exe are running within task manager).
    3. Click Start -> Run
    4. Type cmd and press [ENTER].
    5. Type the following within the command window (you must change to this directory, otherwise the SC won't be able to access its configuration files):
    6. On Windows XP, Vista or server x64
      cd "\Program Files (x86)\SCInterface"
    7. On others
      cd "\Program Files\SCInterface"
    8. Type the following within the command window to start the SC in console mode:
      java -cp scontroller.jar scinterface.scontroller.SController
    9. Continue to step #3 below.
  3. The SCInterface controller will start in a console window to see if there are any exceptions being caught or error messages being displayed within the black console window.
  4. While in application/console mode, press CTRL-BREAK (not CTRL-C) and the Windows SC will output the thread states of the Windows SC (javaw.exe) process.
Manually Starting the Windows SC Management Tool

To manually start the Windows SC Management tool, navigate to the SCInterface folder under Program Files and type: 

java -cp scontroller.jar;jdic.jar scinterface.scontroller.manager.Tray
FTP option for my application is not working in Windows

If after setting the FTP password for a particular application, the user still cannot login, you may not have an FTP server enabled.

With Microsoft Windows, make sure you have the IIS (Internet Information Services) ftp server enabled. The FTP server can be enabled generally under Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs -> Windows Components. For more information, search for installing IIS under windows. At this time, no other third party FTP servers are supported under windows. Third party FTP servers may be used if they allow windows user authentication.

Change the IP Address of the Windows SC

If all of the above have been checked, try doing the following:

  1. Login to the UI as an administrator that can modify the SC.
  2. Under the Admin section, edit or modify the SC. This is under Admin -> SControllers or Servers (Tab) -> Choose the SC you wish to edit.
  3. Modify the Hostname / IP Address to the new IP address that you wish to use.
    1. Note: If this SC is running on the same system as your SCM, this should be set to 127.0.0.1
  4. Reset the SC password by putting a check in the Reset Password check box.
  5. Select Modify SC or Modify Server to save those settings.
  6. Return to the Windows desktop and right click on the SC icon on the task bar and start the SC.

Windows Application or Device

The following areas are useful within the UI for debugging communication issues with a particular application or device:

  1. Under the Config section for an application
    1. Click on the Log tab to view the system log for the application
    2. Click on the Commands tab. The following commands are useful for getting the state of an application running:
      1. commands pending
  2. Post your question to the SCInterface Forums
  3. Contact Netarus Professional Services for premium support.
Manually Installing a Windows Application

A separate wiki articles is available that guides a user through manually installing an application without using the SCInterface automated installation. Here is the link: HowTo: Installing a Server or any Application

Getting Help With SCInterface

There are numerous options for obtain support with SCInterface. Here are some important links to reference:

Retrieved from "http://wiki.scinterface.com/index.php/SCInterface_Troubleshooting_Guide"
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