CMC Troubleshooting

Table of Contents
CMC Troubleshooting
CMC Client
Store Side Connectivity
Terminals Not Showing Online
Terminals Are Incorrect After Swapping At Site
VNC Configuration
VNC Does Not Show All Windows (Alpha Blending)
General VNC Troubleshooting
Summary of Port Usage
Other Information
Win7/2008 Settings for Ctl+Alt+del command
Terms Showing Offline But they are floating
CMC Troubleshooting
View Document: Command Center Troubleshooting FAQs
Folder path: CMC
Document DetailsDocument Body
Document Id: 10010
Document Type: Troubleshooting
Keywords: Command Center Pollcheck Radiant Heartbeat troubleshooting Deployment Framework
Polling CMC RDF
Attachment: (none)
Created: By Benjamin Alderson on 05/12/2008 05:23 PM
Last Updated: By jared lewis on 03/20/2012 06:01 PM
Title: Command Center Troubleshooting FAQs
Description: Command Center Troubleshooting FAQs
Command Center Troubleshooting FAQs
Microsoft Windows Versions: All
Products: Command Center
Subject: Troubleshooting Command Center
Summary
Command Center (CMC), formerly known as Radiant Deployment Framework (RDF), is a complex
system with several components, often spread across diverse networks. This introduces several
points of failure. This document serves as a starting point for troubleshooting connectivity issues in
CMC.
Information
Definitions
Technicians login to the CMC Client, and the CMC service runs at each store in the system. There
are multiple components at the site level, for the BOH and FOH terminals. The following sections
discuss each and offer troubleshooting steps for each. For more general questions, see RKS doc
10017, the RDF FAQ doc.
CMC Client
When a technician runs the CMC Client, it may fail to connect to the CMC Servers at the data center
for various reasons. If you run the client and it fails to connect, verify the following:
Executable: the filename for the client must always be RDFClient.exe and reside on the local
machine. If you have some other name for your client executable, delete the current executable and
download the latest copy from the following URL and unzip to the same path as the previous
executable (recommended C:RDF):
https://rdf2.alohaenterprise.com/client/RDFClient.zip
Network: verify your connectivity to the CMC Servers by opening Internet Explorer and accessing
the following URL:
https://rdf2.alohaenterprise.com/index.html
If you cannot access this page without errors, you will not be able to connect with CMC.
Certificate errors: If in the previous step, you encounter any certificate errors or prompts, download
and install the Root Certificates Update, available here:
https://rdf2.alohaenterprise.com/client/rootsupd.zip
Once you have installed the update, reboot and try again.
Not Found: If you get a server not found error, then verify your DNS by running the following
command from a command window:
ping rdf2.alohaenterprise.com
The name above should resolve to an IP of 206.123.121.24. If you cannot resolve this IP, you have
DNS issues or an errant entry in your HOSTS file. If the IP is resolved, but the ping fails, then you
likely have a firewall blocking access.
Ports: The CMC client requires outbound access on the standard web access TCP ports, 8080 and
443, as well as the SSH port (22) for VNC (optional). Verify with your network administrator that all of
these ports can access the following IPs:
206.123.121.24 :: rdf2.alohaenterprise.com (all traffic except VNC)
206.123.121.26 :: rdfs.alohaenterprise.com (VNC traffic – “Windows” – prior to HbRdf.dll v1.0.7.0)
206.123.121.27 :: ssh.alohaenterprise.com (VNC traffic – “Native” – HbRdf.dll v1.0.7.0)
Store Side Connectivity
Sometimes stores do not connect to the CMC Servers after being installed. This can occur for a
number of reasons. Following are steps to check to try to correct this.
Environment: CMC currently requires the IBERDIR variable to be defined and pointing to the correct
location. As this is also generally required for POS to function, it is often not a problem. If your BOH
pc has an incorrect or recently changed value for the Iberdir, see below.
Pollcheck.exe: Verify that the size of Pollcheck.exe is not 145KB. Currently, the correct size is
213KB (subject to change with successive releases). If the size is 145K or smaller, download the
latest CMC Installer and reinstall. Pollcheck.exe resides at %Iberdir%FTPPollcheck.exe.
The CMC installer can be found here:
https://rdf2.alohaenterprise.com/client/cmcinst.zip
Service: The CMC Installer will register Pollcheck.exe as the “Radiant Heartbeat” service if it is not
previously installed. Some versions of POS will also register Pollcheck, but it often uses the name of
“Aloha Polling System”.
Verify the service will start/restart without errors. If the service will not start, see next section “Service
Failure”
Verify the executable path in the service properties points to the correct, path of
%IBERDIR%FTPPollcheck.exe
Service Failure: There are a number of reasons why the service could fail to start, but chief among
them is that the service is pointing to the wrong path. While this can be corrected by editing the
registry manually, there is a simpler, safer way.
To unregister the service, open a command prompt and type: SC DELETE POLLCHECK
Run RDFInst.exe to reinstall the service
Verify the service name, executable path, and that it has started
Aloha Keys: CMC reads the Aloha key numbers from the Aloha.ini in the %Iberdir%Data folder to
determine what the key number for the site is. Verify that the key numbers are entered correctly and
do not contain any spaces or junk characters outside the range of 0 to 9 and A to F.
Windows 2000: Machines running any version of Windows 2000 may require an update to the Root
Certificates. This is available as an optional update through Microsoft Update, or you can install it
from this patch:
https://rdf2.alohaenterprise.com/client/rootsupd.zip
Network configuration: The store side components connect to the datacenter via standard TCP ports
(80 and 443), to rdf2.alohaenterprise.com. For VNC access, TCP port 22, 80, or 443 can be used,
and these connections are made to rdfs.alohaenterprise.com. This port is configurable by the user in
the RDFClient. Other services may require connections to other hosts in the same domain,
depending on the service. Minimally, for site commands and VNC to work, the following must be
allowed through the site firewall:
TCP 80 and 443 outbound to rdf2.alohaenterprise.com (206.123.121.24)
TCP 22, 80, or 443 outbound to rdfs.alohaenterprise.com (206.123.121.26)
There is a log file on the BOH server at %Iberdir%RDFRDFLog.txt that is often helpful in determining
why a site cannot connect. Also, sometimes viewing the Application Event Viewer may show
information relevant to CMC errors.
Terminals Not Showing Online
When CMC is initially installed, it copies some files to the %Iberdir%BIN folder. These files are
synchronized by FOH at the next restart of POS, which is often a Refresh Data or End of Day event.
At that time, the POS synchronizes, restarts, and registers the FOH CMC components. If terminals
do not connect to CMC and show online after synchronization of BIN, check that there are no read-
only files in the BIN folder on either the BOH or the terminals, verify that the environment variables
defined in the Ibercfg.bat (or whatever batch file starts POS) match what is defined for the System
Environment Variables.
Terminals maintain a log in the Aloha TMP folder named TermInstLog.txt that may be useful in
determining the root of a problem.
Once the terminals have synchronized after the initial install, each terminal should have an RDF
folder inside its Aloha folder (%localdir%). In this folder is an rdf.ini. In this file is an “Environment
section” [Env], which records the environment in which POS runs, as is pertinent to CMC. Verify that
the variables contained in this section match the terminal’s system environment variables, and the
terminal’s Ibercfg.bat that runs POS. Sometimes, the Term value will equal 1, for example, when the
term is actually term3. In that case, change the value to 3 in the rdf.ini, verify that the system
environment variable, if defined, is also 3, and that the Ibercfg.bat has the same. Then restart the
terminal, and it should try to communicate to the BOH CMC component as term3.
Terminals Are Incorrect After Swapping At Site
If terminals are “swapped” at a site, then manual intervention is usually required to have them
update to reflect correctly in the CMC Client. When terminals first connect to the BOH server, the
server will add their MAC Address and term# to the rdf.ini in %iberdir%rdf. The terminals record their
own term # in the %localdir%rdfrdf.ini as well as “Term=#”. If, for example, terms 3 and 4 are
“swapped”, which includes changing the Windows computer name and “Term” environment variable,
they will be “crossed” in CMC. Term3 will actually be term4, and vice versa. In order to get this
corrected, you can either manually edit the rdfi.in files (if you know which terms were swapped
where), or just start over and let the system re-create the files. If you wish to let the system recreate
the files, simply delete or rename the rdf.ini values in question, or if no other settings are present, the
entire file itself. Then restart the terminals and either reboot the BOH PC or restart the Radiant
Heartbeat service. When everything starts back up, the terminals will detect the local “Term”
variable, record this in the new rdf.ini, then report to the BOH with their new Term value, which is
recorded, along with their MAC Address, in the BOH rdf.ini. Within 10 minutes, the terminal
information in the CMC Client should be updated.
VNC Configuration
VNC is an Open Source application used by CMC for remote desktop connectivity. It is common to
find that a site already has VNC and users connect to the site (either the BOH or the terminals) with
an existing VNC connection. In order to allow CMC to connect over VNC, the “Allow Loopback
Connection” flag must be enabled. If no VNC is found, CMC will install only the necessary VNC files
to the RDF folder on the local machine (FOH or BOH) whenever a user tries to VNC into it for the
first time.
Since some users have unique security configurations in place, we have added the ability to avoid
having CMC change the path to the VNC executables so that a site can continue to use their existing
VNC. In order to configure CMC to not change the “image path” (or “path to executable” in the VNC
Service properties), add the following the rdf.ini in the %iberdir%rdf folder on the machine in
question:
[VNC]
ResetVNCImagePath=0
Once VNC has been configured to allow users outside of CMC connect, and this setting has been
added, users should be able to VNC in via either method and CMC will not change the path to the
executable, thereby leaving the non-CMC VNC settings intact.
Sites can (optionally) be configured to run a command or batch file just before the VNC connection is
established, and/or one minute after the VNC connection is closed. These commands are defined on
the store BOH server at %iberdir%rdfrdf.ini by the following entries to the [VNC] section, as shown
below:
[VNC]
PreApp=PostApp=
Note: You can use batch files, or you can put the command in the area – this will execute one single
command.
For example, you could have the following:
PreApp=%iberdir%binprevnc.bat
PostApp=shutdown -r -t 1
Any batch files called must be present on the target machine. These settings are propagated to the
terminal, so unless the batch file being called is also located on the terminal at the same path, the
call will fail. Even if the call fails, VNC will still connect as usual.
VNC Does Not Show All Windows (Alpha Blending)
When connected through VNC, users have reported that they are unable to view certain screens,
such as Aloha TakeOut. In order to view these screens in VNC, you must enable Alpha Blending
(this is primarily a .Net 3.0 feature). This will be done by default in future releases of Command
Center. However to enable manually you must edit the registry to enable. Perform the following to
enable Alpha Blending in the Windows Registry:
The incorrect use of Windows Registry Editor can lead to serious, system-wide problems that might
require the reinstallation of the operating system. Use this tool at your own risk.
New registry entries described in this document are enclosed in quotation marks. Please ignore
these quotation marks when adding the entry in the Windows Registry. All Registry entries are case
sensitive.
To open the Windows Registry Editor, select Start/Run, type REGEDIT, and click OK.
Path out HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREORLWinVNC3Default.
Verify the CaptureAlphaBlending value exists in the folder. If it does, double-click it and change
Value Data to ‘1’. If it does not exist, choose Edit/New/DWORD Value and name the key
‘CaptureAlphaBlending’. Then double-click the entry and change Value Data to ‘1’.
Select Registry/Exit to exit the Windows Registry Editor.
Restart Windows.
General VNC Troubleshooting
Connectivity via VNC can fail for several reasons, including other, conflicting installations, as well as
an invalid service configuration for the Radiant Heartbeat service. If you are trying to connect to a
site with VNC through Command Center and it never makes the connection, perform the following
steps:
1) Verify the VNC binaries are in place. Go to File Manager, select “rdf” as the remote path and hit
“Load List”. Verify that “vnchooks.dll” and “WinVNC.exe” are present (in the %iberdir%rdf folder). If
they are not both present, go to the %iberdir%BIN folder and find HBCommon.dll and delete it if
present. Then select Query Services, Radiant Heartbeat, right click and select “Restart Service”. The
site will momentarily disconnect, and then it will download a new copy of HBCommon.dll to BIN. The
next time you try to VNC to that machine, it should automatically extract the vnc files to the RDF
folder.
2) Verify the service configuration. Since you can’t VNC into the site, you may need to have
someone at the site open the service control manager to verify that the Radiant Heartbeat service is
set to logon using LocalSystem and has the “Allow service to interact with desktop” option flagged. If
it is not configured this way, change it and restart the service and try VNC again.
If no one is available at the site to check this, you can use a batch file to change the service
configuration remotely. On your local machine, create a new text document and rename it to
whatever you like, such as “reset.bat”. Inside this batch file, add this single line:
sc config pollcheck obj= ”.LocalSystem” password= ”” type= interact type= share
Save the batch file, then transfer it using the file manager to a convenient place anywhere on the
target machine, such as the RDF folder. Then use the Run Command feature to run this batch file
(for example, %iberdir%rdfreset.bat). Then select Query Services, Radiant Heartbeat, and right click
and choose “Restart Service” to restart the Radiant Heartbeat service on the target machine. Try
VNC again after changing the service startup params.
This technique is also useful when you find that the “Capture Screenshot” feature always returns a
white empty box, and the “Record Activity” feature always returns a blank, black screen. The reason
being is that in order for the hbutil.exe application to capture the user session data required for VNC,
screenshot, or recording, it has to be able to interact with the local desktop.
3) Firewall Configuration: In addition to opening the necessary ports, firewalls can also block
Command Center at the application layer. Several firewall hardware manufacturers are now
including this type of anti-virus, anti-spyware and intrusion prevention service. Please check with
your hardware documentation on disabling this service, or adding pollcheck.exe and WINVNC.exe to
the exception list, depending on your security needs. Generally, this may appear in the router
configuration as “Enable anti-virus” or “Enable anti-spyware”. The router sees encrypted traffic
across TCP Port 80, which usually carries plain-text HTTP traffic, and it blocks this since it thinks it
may be malicious. Disabling these options may allow VNC to begin working.
4) Register HbTunnel.dll: Occassionally, VNC will fail to connect on a given site, even though all
configuration appears to be correct. The dll that creates the secure tunnel for VNC access may be
corrupt or need to be re-registered. First, verify the latest copy of hbtunnel.dll is on the site by
attempting to delete the current copy. If it is locked, you may need to stop the VNC service and
restart the Radiant Heartbeat service (and kill any running winvnc.exe processes). Once the file is
not locked and has been deleted, restart the Radiant Heartbeat service, and a new copy will be
downloaded automatically to %iberdir%ftphbtunnel.dll. Before attempting any further VNC
connections, run the following command from the RDFClient:
regsvr32.exe /s %iberdir%ftphbtunnel.dll
This command will display a message on the desktop – use the Capture Screenshot function to
examine it. If it was successful, then attempt a VNC connection – hbtunnel.dll will automatically be
registered.
Summary of Port Usage
Stores connect to the CMC server on TCP port 80 and 443 to rdf2.alohaenterprise.com
(206.123.121.24). Terminals connect to the BOH on 9150, and VNC connections tunnel through Port
9200 + X, where X is the term number to one of 3 external ports, 80 (default), 443, and 22 to
rdfs.alohaenterprise.com (206.123.121.26). The CMC Client uses port 443 for all web
communication, port 8080 for socket-level communication, and port 22, 80, or 443 for VNC.
Other Information
The CMC Client maintains links to many useful documents under the Info button. Be sure to look
there for information on how components of CMC work and what requirements they have.
See also:
5988 – Network Lana Numbers
9300 – Radiant Heartbeat
9993 – RDF Quick Reference Guide
10017 – RDF FAQ document
Win7/2008 Settings for Ctl+Alt+del command
Step 1: Win2007 C-A-D FIX
First, disable interactive services. Go to services.msc » right click interactive services and set to
disable.
Set UAC (universal account control) to never notify
Step 2: GPEDIT.msc fix
a. Login to the remote computer as a local or domain administrator.
b. Click the Start Windows button, select Run, type gpedit.msc and press enter.
c. In the left section, please navigate to: Computer Configuration – Administrative Templates –
Windows Components – Windows Logon Options
d. In the right section, please double-click on the Disable or enable software Secure Attention
Sequence policy and click on Enabled.
e. Set the policy option to either Services or Services and Ease of Access applications.
f. Click OK and close the Group Policy Object Editor.
Step 3: Reg Edit Fix
HKLMSOFTWAREmicrosoftwindowscurrentversionPoliciesSystemSoftwareSASGeneration
REG_DWORD=1
Step 4: Reboot – C-A-D should work after the reboot
Terms Showing Offline But they are floating
Push VNC into the terminal via the BOH or another terminal
To get the terminal on CMC, go to computer management / services and restart Radiant Command
Center Agent or NCR Command Center Agent
If it is not on the terminal, I always copy CMCInst.exe to the bootdrv of the BOH or another terminal
and grab it through the network from the terminal. Put it in the C Root and then run the following
command
C:CMCInst.exe /siteID 137184 /ip alohaboh /industry aloha
Obviously you have to change the SiteID to the correct Key# and make sure the BOH name is
correct.
Wait 1 to 2 minutes, refresh your CMC and the terminal should be online.
CMCINST.EXE should already be in the STAGING folder on the BOH and if you can not find it, it is
always on the S Drive.