Installing NEOSYS Service

INSTALLING NEOSYS SERVICE

Main installation:

Make sure NOT TO COPY an existing NEOSYS installation to another location and ONLY do a 
completely new install with a fresh database, because copying a folder will copy a variety of 
hidden configurations. 

Preparing server for installation

1. Make sure not connected to domain controller
2. Away in a secure place and secure power cable
3. No services like IIS and no server roles are installed
4. Preferably installed with more than one partition (C: D:)
5. Make sure that the boot sequence is correct (CD,HDD,USB)
6. Make sure that the Windows CD or I386 folder is copied to C Drive

Locating servers

Before installation, ensure that Clients servers should be placed out of public areas for safety and also to ensure that USB flash drives for NEOSYS backup cannot be misappropriated.

Installing NEOSYS on partitions

Good server management practice is to have separate partitions for operating system (C:) and data partitions (D:)

In the case of operating system reinstallation (which causes the loss of the C: partition) if NEOSYS programs and data were installed on D: can be preserved. If there is only one partition then NEOSYS programs and data will have to be backed up and restored.

Multiple Partitions

If there is more than one partition then NEOSYS should be installed on any partition (e.g. D:) except the operating system partition (usually C:).

Single Partition

If there is only one partition then depending on the level of sophistication of the client it may be advisable to go to the effort of reinstall the operating system or using third party repartitioning tools to create separate partitions.

Otherwise there is no overriding problem to have NEOSYS installed on the operating system.

Downloading and running installation files

1. http://www.neosys.com/support/neosys.exe ... and install to X:\Neosys
2. http://www.neosys.com/support/neosys2.exe ... and install to X:\Neosys

Creating shortcuts

In x:\Neosys, make a shortcut called ‘Maintenance’ and link it to

x:\neosys\neosys\adagency.bat (for Adagency install)

or

x:\neosys\neosys\accounts.bat (for Accounts install)

Activating NEOSYS using authorization number

Start NEOSYS Maintenance, select Initial Backup and it will give a “Computer Number” and ask for an “Authorisation No”

Send the computer number to NEOSYS admin to get the authorization no.

If you cannot get the authorization number immediately then you can close NEOSYS and when you reopen NEOSYS it will still give the same computer number and accept the same authorization number.

Installing initial Database

Download the initial database file from http://www.neosys.com/support/BACKUP.ZIP and place it in C drive (or any other drive) - but make sure that this file exists in the root folder i.e. C:\BACKUP.ZIP

Next, click on the Maintenance icon, select BASIC DATA SET and type in the admin username and password. The first time when you enter maintenance you will get a command box (like when you do F5). If you do not get a command box, hit the F5 key to get one.

Type FILEMAN - and then select Restore from disk or diskette (which is no 4), select C drive (or whichever drive you put the backup.zip file in) and follow the prompts ahead.

Sometimes it may tell you that you cannot use FILEMAN as you are logged in as MASTER. Hence you need to hit the ESC key, go to General > Backup & Data Management > Restore from disk or diskette, select C drive (or whichever drive you put the backup.zip file in) and follow the prompts ahead.

After you have restored the BACKUP.ZIP file, it will ask you to switch to this database, say NO - because the switch to database option here brings you back to the BASIC DATA SET. Hence press the ESC button, type EXIT on the F5 prompt and startup maintenance again and this time select the STARTUP DATABASE. After you have logged in, go to General > Backup & Data Management > Delete a data set and delete the BASIC DATA SET.

Assigning database codes

It is necessary to make sure that the following guidelines are met while creating database codes:

1. The code should be within 8 letters
2. The client should be as recognisable as possible from the main database code
3. The test database code should end with the TEST word and it is not necessary that it must be recognisable
4. The test database code should always appear after the main database code at login

Examples of wrong and right database codes:

ALTO VISTA ADVERTISING           ALTOVIST and XALTTEST - right        AVISTA and AVTEST - wrong   (AVISTA not "as recognisable as possible")
CONTEXTURE ASSOCIATES            CONTEXT and XCONTEST - right         CONTEXT and CONTEST - wrong (CONTEST alphabetically first in the login screen database drop down)

Creating a .CMD file to start NEOSYS Service:

(Note: change x to the correct drive you have installed NEOSYS on)

In x:\neosys create a file start MAIN-DATABASE-CODE.cmd (eg start ALTOVIST.cmd)

x:
cd \neosys\neosys
Start neosys.js /system ADAGENCY /database databasecode

(where databasecode is the code of the database) (also you need to replace ADAGENCY with ACCOUNTS if this is an accounts only installation)

In x:\neosys create a file start TEST-DATABASE-CODE.cmd (eg start AVTEST.cmd)

x:
cd \neosys\neosys
Start neosys.js /system ADAGENCY /database testdatabasecode

(where testdatabasecode is the code of the testdatabase) (also you need to replace ADAGENCY with ACCOUNTS if this is an accounts only installation)

Differences for Pure Accounts Module Only Installations

Accounts module only has a slightly different startup command. In the above, replace /system adagency with /system accounts to startup a service and use accounts.bat instead of adagency.bat to start up maintenance. Other than that, accounts module setup is identical. Pure accounts clients are very few and tend not to upgrade often so care needs to be taken when upgrading. Upgrade is perhaps surprisingly done using the adagency.exe file.

Creating a .CMD file to copy maindata to testdata

(Note: change x to the correct drive you have installed NEOSYS on)

In x:\neosys create a file copymain2test.cmd

xcopy x:\neosys\data\maindatabasecode x:\neosys\data\testdatabasecode /s /y

eg. xcopy c:\neosys\data\ALTOVIST x:\neosys\data\AVTEST /s /y

Setting up daily scheduled tasks

Automatic Schedules: NEOSYS automatically shuts down at 1am (was 2am) every morning for backup. It closes all the running processes and backups up to the selected drive.

Manually Configured Schedules: Automatic download & Install of Windows Update - to be configured at 3 am everyday

New Instructions

Main database 1 process starting at 6:00am.

Use Support Menu, System Configuration File to request 3 processes for main database and 1 for test database

Old Instructions

Maindata – 1 process Remaining processes (including testdata) need to be configured from NEOSYS web interface - Menu > Support > System Configuration File > Databases

Copy Maindata to Testdata – 1 process at 2:45 am For multiple sites on the same computer put the second site starting five minutes later at 6:05, third site starting five minutes earlier at 5:55, the third site starting five minutes later at 6:10 and so on.

Configuring NEOSYS to start automatically on server start-up / reboot

Unfortunately using this method the NEOSYS processes are not visible when you login as a user.

startall.cmd file

Make a startall.cmd file in the neosys folder something like this, where xxxx and xxxxtest are the names of the usual database start-up cmd files.

start cmd /c "start xxxx.cmd"
c:\cygwin\bin\sleep 5
start cmd /c "start xxxx.cmd"
c:\cygwin\bin\sleep 5
start cmd /c "start xxxx.cmd"
c:\cygwin\bin\sleep 5
start cmd /c "start xxxxtest.cmd"
c:\cygwin\bin\sleep 5

Windows scheduled task

Schedule a task to run the startall.cmd file whenever the computer starts

Installing and upgrading NEOSYS pure accounting systems

Basic installation using NEOSYS.EXE and upgrades using NEOSYS2.EXE are identical to the normal adagency installation process.

Differences are as follows:

1. Maintenance shortcut to ACCOUNTS.BAT
2. Process startup file contains "/system ACCOUNTS" instead of "/system ADAGENCY"
3. Internet address is http://server/neosys/accounts.htm although it auto converts to http://server/neosys/default.htm??ACCOUNTS. Although not to be relied upon, the login page stores a cookie so even plain http://server/neosys or http://server/neosys/default.htm works thereafter until the cookie is lost. To get back to adagency login you use http://server/neosys/default.htm??ADAGENCY
4. BACKUP.ZIP files created by ADAGENCY systems and ACCOUNTS systems are slightly incompatible with the result that restoring one in the other type of system will not work. NEOSYS programmers can convert from one type to the other but it is almost never required since any ad agency that only requires accounts only module is given the adagency version of NEOSYS and accounting only clients becoming ad agencies never happened.