Scorpion Software Blog

Allowing AuthAnvil to send email on SBS 2008

If you find that during the System Test in the AuthAnvil Manager that you always fail to connect to the SMTP server, it is usually because AuthAnvil can't talk to it. On an Exchange 2007 box, that is USUALLY because you have not allowed anonymous users to send email. Since AuthAnvil does not use authenticated SMTP, you will need to grant the anonymous user permission on the Hub Transport.

You can do that by following these steps:

1. Open up the Exchange Management Console
2. Expand Server Configuration
3. Click Hub Transports
4. In the "Receive Connectors" tab, right-click on the "Default <servername>" and select Properties. (ie: "Default CONTOSO")
5. Click the Permission Groups tab
6. Check Anonymous users

At this point, if you rerun the System Test, you will find you can properly send email.

Authenticated SMTP support is on our TODO list. Until then, you will need to enable Anonymous User to the Permission Groups if you want to use Exchange 2007 to send out your AuthAnvil enrollment, token management and security alert emails.

On-Demand Recording for today's RWWGuard webinar now available

For our customers that were not able to attend our webinar today on Deploying strong authentication for Microsoft's Remote Web Workplace with RWWGuard, you can now download and watch a recording of that event in the "Online Training and Recordings" section of the Scorpion Software Customer Portal.

Thanks to all those that attended. I appreciate all the interesting questions and follow up emails!

Webinar: Programming and Scripting with the AuthAnvil Web Services API

If you own AuthAnvil and have custom LOB applications that you would like to add two-factor authentication to, did you know that you can do that now, for free? How about those of you that use tools like PowerShell to do administration. Did you know you can administer AuthAnvil using the same scription environment?

If you want to learn how to do this, join us for this free live technical training.

Date: December 17th, 2008
Time: 10am PST
Topic: Programming and Scripting with the AuthAnvil Web Services API

Description: Learn how to consume AuthAnvil Web Services with languages like PowerShell and C# to authenticate and administrate AuthAnvil. In this presentation we will actually build PowerShell scripts and write a simple C# application to show you how easy it is to add support for AuthAnvil to your IT workflow and line of business (LOB) applications.

Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/451168841

Upgrading from AuthAnvil v1.5 or older to AuthAnvil v2

It has come to our attention that some people would like to upgrade from an older version of AuthAnvil directly to v2. Our instructions in the Upgrade Center only include information from v1.6, but it is possible to upgrade from an older version, starting with v1.2. If you have an earlier version then that, please open a support case in the Customer Portal.

The trick is to make sure you have a proper AuthAnvil Backup file (*.bup). You will need to use the aabackup.exe file from your particular version, up to v1.5.

During the initial installation of the AuthAnvil v2 database you will have the option to import your older BUP file into the new system that was created with the older aabackup.exe tool. You can get more information on how to use the older tool by reading the first few steps here. The only gotcha is that the old URLs to download the tool no longer work, and you will instead have to download it here.

If you have any difficultly beyond these instructions, feel free to open a new support case in the Customer Portal. One of our customer service reps would be happy to assist you.

Where to install RWWGuard on Essential Business Server 2008

I've heard a few clients now who are thinking about migrating to Essential Business Server (EBS), and want to know if RWWGuard will work there, and if so... on which of the 3 main servers.

The answer is that yes, with our latest version you can definitely deploy strong authentication to Remote Web Workplace using RWWGuard 2008. The trick is to install it on the messaging server, NOT the security server like many people assume. The reason is that RWW itself executes on the messaging server, not the edge security server as some people in the community have been saying.

Let me be clear. When you remotely connect to a network protected with EBS, your session will be directed through the Forefront Threat Management Gateway to RWW running on the messaging server. RWWGuard will intercept that session request, and display a logon page which will include an AuthAnvil Passcode field. After validating the passcode along with the Windows credential, RWWGuard wil pass it back to RWW, and the rest of the session continues on as before.

So if you want to run RWWGuard on EBS, you can definitely do it. Just make sure you buy a subscription to RWWGuard 2008 and install it on the messaging server. And the installer will do the rest!

If you would like to learn more about how to deploy and configure RWWGuard, consider attending our webinar on December 3rd at 10am PST on Deploying strong authentication for Microsoft's Remote Web Workplace with RWWGuard. Reserve your seat by registering at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/197170176.

AuthAnvil v2 releases early!

Scorpion Software is pleased to announce that we are releasing AuthAnvil v2 ahead of our December 1st launch date!

All customers can now download the latest version directly from the Customer Portal.

Don't forget to check out the online HOWTO videos under the Education tab to see how quickly and easy you can deploy AuthAnvil v2.

Many thanks to our partners who have been actively testing the release candidates over the last few weeks. It has been a real pleasure to get feedback on the new features, and to learn about the interesting ways some of you are deploying the new release. The refreshes of the final builds have helped to knock out some interesting deployment situations (see today's earlier post) and we are happy to report that our partners are now deploying on:

• Windows Server 2003
• Small Business Server 2003
• Windows Server 2008
• Small Business Server 2008
• Essential Business Server 2008

If you haven't heard, with AuthAnvil v2 we are now able to deploy to both 32bit and 64bit Windows Server platforms for both our Strong Authentication Server and all the applicable agents. We have also released a new Credential Provider for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, and added a new administrative web service which allows you to now do much of your standard AuthAnvil admin directly with PowerShell!

We also now support multiple divisions, branches or companies running on the same AuthAnvil server, which means if you wish to provide a hosted MSP solution to hundreds of customers and thousands of users using the same architecture with AuthAnvil v2 you can. And with our new monthly subscription licensing system you can defer deployment costs, consolidate billing and use our pay-as-you-go model to only be charged for the actual tokens that you are using.

There is a lot to see and work with in the new version. If you didn't get a chance to attend our "Introduction to AuthAnvil v2" webinar last week, don't forget you can watch a recording of it in the "Online Training and Recordings" section in the Customer Portal.

Are you still here reading this? Go download it already!

Interesting observation in the RC release of installing AuthAnvil v2 Database

So for the last couple of weeks many of our Certified Partners have been working on deploying AuthAnvil v2. We have had a few reports now of difficulties deploying the AuthAnvil database onto a SQL 2008 target from a Windows Server 2003 host, and with enough details from those installs we finally figured out what the problem is.

It stems from the wrong SQL client libraries being installed beforehand, which is causing a problem as they conflict with the database libraries we link to. It ends up if you have used Microsoft's default client libraries for SQL2005 and try to target a SQL2008 source, it simply would not work. The reason is the roll up to support SQL2008 actually exists in the SQL2008 SP2 roll out, which is NOT applied if you just install the SQL client tools.

The end result is you have a defunc SQL install. This causes the AuthAnvil Database Management tool to fail, with an error stating "This version of SQL Server (10.0) is not supported".

So how did we fix this? We have recompiled all our code to target Microsoft's latest (October) release of its SQL client librariers, which is version 10. These libraries ARE backwards compatible with SQL2005, so you will never be caught by this again. And in our installer, we do a pre-requisite check for the SQL client MSIs that we need. If they do not already exist on the system, our installer will alert you and exit.

So, even if you are targeting a SQL 2005 database, you will need to install the SQL 2008 redist packages. There is no harm in having both SQL 2005 and SQL 2008 client libraries on the system, as they can run side by side. In particular, you will need to install:

• Microsoft SQL Server System CLR Types
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Management Objects
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Native Client

And you should install it in that order. Now, if you forget to install the SQL 2008 Native Client, you will have a different issue. You will find a side-by-side DLL reference error where Microsoft.VC80.CRT is not the correct version on your server. This is because Microsoft compiled their latest stuff with a NEW set of DLLs that do NOT ship with the their standard MSIs, and is NOT available for general download. In other words, until you install the newer DLL (version 8.0.50727.1833) from the Native Client MSI... it simply won't work.

Many thanks to Travis Sheldon and Vlad Mazek from Own Web Now for working with us and being patient as we try to debug this on all the different operating systems and SQL databases. This is an ugly installation and configuration problem with SQL that we simply couldn't account for easily in our test environments. At least now we can stop you from getting confused if you install or use the wrong libraries!

Welcome to the new blog!!

Congratulations!! If you are reading this, you made it to the home of our new blog.

Why is that important? By partnering with SixApart and their TypePad hosted service, we will be able to better open the conversation with you. We are now able to deliver video, pictures and text at any time from almost anywhere.

Proof is in this post... It is being written on my iPhone!

"HOWTO - Installing and Configuring AuthAnvil v2" screencast now available

If you are preparing to install AuthAnvil v2, you might want to learn how to install the AuthAnvil Stong Authentication Server (SAS) onto Winodws Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008.

Today I recorded a screencast to show you how easy it is to deploy and configure the AuthAnvil SAS. You can watch it in the "Online Training & Recordings" area in the Education section of the Customer Portal.

If you have any feedback on the screencast, please let us know.

"HOWTO - Installing the AuthAnvil Database" screencast available

If you are preparing to install AuthAnvil v2, you might want to learn how to install the AuthAnvil database onto a SQL 2005 or SQL 2008 server.

Today I recorded a quick 6 minute screencast to show you how easy it is to deploy and configure the AuthAnvil database. You can watch it in the "Online Training & Recordings" area in the Education section of the Customer Portal.

If you have any feedback on the screencast, please let us know.