Changing the Triaster Server Publication User

The Triaster Server Publication User

The Triaster Server Publication User (or Triaster Services User) is the account under which automated publications run. It would be the account under which we would install and configure Triaster Server, Visio and Process Navigator; it is particularly important that Visio and Process Navigator are configured under this account, as such configurations are user-specific.

This article describes how that account can be identified, any dependencies, and how it can be changed.

Why might the account change? In the initial set-up of a Triaster Server, we may be supplied with a temporary account while a dedicated service account is sought. Or a Triaster Server where all resources are initially hosted on the one server, so a local account would suffice, may be reconfigured to, say, use a map store on a separate file server. In that case, a domain account would be required to replace the local one.

Requirements

These are the requirements of a Publication User account:

A local administrator	If a domain account is used, it only need be a local administrator.
An interactive account	Components of the solution are configured and run under this account.
Password never expires	Perhaps this is not strictly true, but managing password changes for this account would be onerous, as is hopefully explained later.

Identifying the Publication User

Perhaps the easiest way to identify the Publication User is to check the account under which the Triaster Publication Server 2011 service runs.

Dependencies

There are components and their configurations that depend on the Publication User account, which would need to be amended if the Publication User account was changed.

'Triaster Publication Server 2011' service

This service would need to be reconfigured to run under the new account.

'Triaster Improvement Workbench Server 2011' service

If all resources are on the one server, this service would be expected to be run under the local System account, in which case, nothing needs to change. However, if resources processed by that service are elsewhere - for example, maps on a separate file server - it would need to run under a domain account, typically the Publication User account.

Visio

Although sessions of Visio run in an automated publication are not interactive (as they are run by the Triaster Publication Server 2011 service), Visio does need to be configured under the Publication User account. This is the usual configuration for use with Process Navigator, described in Mapping Options.

DCOM configuration

On some systems, Visio automation instability needs to be addressed by a setting in DCOM, associating Microsoft Visio Drawing with the Publication User.

This is a configuration where credentials are required.

Where Microsoft Visio Drawing is not listed under DCOM Config's Component Services, other remedies have been found to be sufficient.

Process Navigator

Activation

Process Navigator's activation is user-specific, so activation would need to be checked and re-applied if the Publication User was to change. Please see Activating Process Navigator

Disable Rollback

Process Navigator's rollback feature enables the restoration of files when a process that updates files is cancelled. It will take a back-up of the whole multi-map root prior to running such a process. This is not helpful in a non-interactive, automated publication, and can add considerable extra time to such publications. It is best that this feature is disabled for Process Navigator running as the Publication User.

Run Process Navigator.
Click Tools > Options...
Click the Rollback tab.
Untick the Enable Automated Rollback on Cancel box.
Click OK to close the dialog.
Close Process Navigator.

Note: This is a user-specific configuration, as are all such Process Navigator settings.

'KillVisio.cmd' and 'KillVisioTasks.cmd' scripts

These scripts end Visio.exe processes run by the Publication User that may otherwise interfere with Visio automation. They are found in this location:

Triaster\TriasterServer2011\PublicationFiles

They contain explicit references to the Publication User user-name (note, just the user-name; a computer or domain prefix isn't required).

KillVisio.cmd

REM ========== SCRIPT VARIABLES ==============
REM To enable the setting of variables within a FOR loop
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
REM Change the following to the actual account name and process of interest
SET UserAccountName=Triaster User

KillVisioTasks.cmd

REM End any Visio.exe process run by the Publication user
taskkill /fi "username eq Triaster User" /fi "imagename eq visio.exe" /f

Scheduled Tasks

There are Windows scheduled tasks related to Triaster Server that run under the Publication User account. Although, in some cases, they do not strictly need to, it is at least tidier that they do. This is another scenario that would require the credentials of the account.

Check such tasks in Task Scheduler, where they would be expected to be listed in a Triaster folder, although that should not be assumed.

These details should help to give an insight into the role of the Publication User account. Changing that account is not difficult, but the steps required are varied, and are not obvious.