Getting Started with the Cloud
Welcome to the setup guide for the SoftwareCentral Cloud.
In this guide we will go over the installation and configuration processes.
Before you continue with this guide, you must prepare a Windows x64 machine on your network. It can be a Windows Server 2012 R2 and up, or a Windows 10 machine.
The machine must have Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7 installed.
This machine cannot have an existing version of SoftwareCentral installed.
TLS 1.2 will be enabled by the installer. If you install the CloudConnector on your SCCM server, you must have configured your SCCM server to support TLS 1.2 before you install the CloudConnector.
The machine must be connected to the internet and have a static IP-address / hostname, accessible from remote computers.
You will need to open a port in your firewall and forward incoming TCP connections to the server where the CloudConnector is installed. You can choose the port to open yourself. You may limit incoming connections to come from the following IP addresses: 13.94.125.190, 13.79.187.172, 52.138.222.90, 52.236.95.251
You can test the connection with the CloudConnector installer.
Note that the server with the CloudConnector must be able to communicate via WMI with your SCCM server and your clients.
The following ports must be opened between the CloudConnector and the SCCM server. Note that the ports listed below are the default ports and may vary from the ports used in your environment. The CloudConnector installer will verify that the correct ports are opened:
135 for WMI calls and your custom port range. Read more about opening for WMI calls here: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa822854(v=vs.85).aspx
The following ports must be opened between the CloudConnector and the clients:
389, 445 and 636 for LDAP calls used by the Active Directory module.
You must create a service account, that SoftwareCentral will use to connect to the SCCM server, AD and client computers.
The service account must be a full administrator in the SCCM server.
You can read here which permissions is needed on the Active Directory.
To get some of the benefits from SoftwareCentral, the service account should also be a local administrator on all client computers. These permissions allow SoftwareCentral to probe the clients for log messages and allows SoftwareCentral to trigger remote actions.
The access to SoftwareCentral is controlled by AD-Group memberships. Before you get started, you must create an Administrator Group and make sure that your own account (not the service account) is a member of this group.
Note that you may need to restart the computer you are installing SoftwareCentral on for the AD-Group membership to take effect.
To get started, you need a username and a password for https://softwarecentral.cloud/cm
If you don't have a login for this page, then please contact your dealership for a login.
Go to https://softwarecentral.cloud/cm
After you have logged in, go to the "Cloud Connection Settings" page:
On the Cloud Connections page, you must enter your address and an authentication passphrase of your own choosing. Save the authentication passphrase, as it is needed later in the installation.
The authentication passphrase is a random combination of characters that must be between 8 and 24 characters long. The passphrase is used together with SSL certificates to authenticate traffic between the CloudConnector and the SoftwareCentral Cloud.
Click on the Save button once you have entered your information.
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It is important that the CloudConnector Address starts with https:// |
Click on the "Home" button to go to the download page.
Download the CloudConnector on the computer where you wish to install it.
Unzip and launch the installer. Note that you must run the installer with an administrator account which is also a full administrator on your SCCM server and has read permission on the SCCM database.
The installer will start with a prerequisite check. If your machine does not pass, then follow the instructions in the installer.
Click Next to continue.
Enter the CloudConnector Address, that is your own IP-address and port number.
Enter your username, that is the username we provided for you which you also used to log in to the cloud manager.
Enter your authentication passphrase you made yourself on the cloud manager.
Click "Test Connection", to verify that the CloudConnector can communicate with the SoftwareCentral Cloud.
The installer will now try to connect to the cloud.
If the connection fails, then follow the instructions given by the installer.
If it succeeds, then click Next:
Here you must enter your service account username and password.
The username must be in the format "YourDomain\UserName".
Click Next to continue:
In this step, you must enter the name of your SCCM server (the server where the SMS Provider is installed). If you have a Central Administration Server (CAS), you must use the CAS server.
You must also enter the name of the database server and the database name.
Click on "Check SCCM" to connect to the SCCM server:
If the connection to the SCCM server failed, then follow the instructions in the installer.
If everything succeeded, then click Next to continue:
In this step, you must choose there to install the CloudConnector.
You must also create a share on your local network, where the installer will add some files needed for remote control and the shop.
Note that users of the remote control tool must have read and execute permission on this share.
When ready, click Next and the CloudConnector will be installed.
You have now installed the CloudConnector and can click Finish to close the installer.
If the installation failed, then follow the instructions given by the installer.
In many scenarios it may help to restart the server and run the installer again.
Go to https://softwarecentral.cloud from any computer.
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You can also access SoftwareCentral via https://softwarecentral.cloud/[CompanyName]/SignOn where you replace [CompanyName] with your own company name. SoftwareCentral also supports Single Sign-On with your own identity provider. See Single Sign-On using Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services as Identity Provider for more information. |
The first screen you will see is the log in screen:
Type in your company name and your username and password of your domain user:'
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You may request one or more aliases for your company name if you for instance want a special abbreviation. Please contact your retailer to hear if your aliases are available. |
Click "Log in" to continue.
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If you get an error message, saying that no end-point is listening, then there is a connection problem to your CloudConnector. Make sure that the CloudConnector is installed, rerun the installer if necessary and make sure that the incoming call from the SoftwareCentral Cloud is not being blocked by your firewall. |
In the next screen you must select the administrator AD-Group. Note that you must be a member of this group.
If no domains or AD-Groups are available in the drop-down boxes, then your service account, running the CloudConnector, does not have permission to access your Active Directory. Give the service account the proper permissions and restart your browser.
After you have selected your administrator AD-Group, click "Save".
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After you have pressed save, SoftwareCentral will do an initiation of your cloud. This may take a few minutes. |
You will now be redirected to the Settings page in SoftwareCentral. Here you will have to enter your package share. This is a UNC path to your local package share.
If you have multiple sites, you must add a package share for each site.
SoftwareCentral will use the package share to browse for installation files when you import applications and packages.
Once you have entered your package share, click on the "Save Settings" button in the lower right corner.
SoftwareCentral is now ready to use, but we do recommend that you enter a few more settings, to get the best experience.
The following configuration is not required to the basic functions of SoftwareCentral.
From the settings page, you can set up a mail account that will send mails from SoftwareCentral.
You can use a local SMTP server / relay server or Office 365.
To use the SCCM Reporting interface in SoftwareCentral, you must set your SCCM reporting server, database name and reporting server URL (note that the URL is the local address in your environment):
When managing applications and packages, SoftwareCentral also manages the collections they are deployed to. For security purposes, SoftwareCentral only manages devices, applications and packages under the root folders and collections.
When you installed SoftwareCentral, some default folders and collections were created and selected.
You can change these folders and collections under "Settings/SCCM Folders and Collections":
You can read more about how SoftwareCentral works with collections here.
You can read more about the interface "SCCM Folders and Collections" here.
To use the remote control tool and your own tools, you must register a URI scheme on your client computers.
You register a URI scheme by adding a few registry keys on your computers.
You can read how to manually register the URI scheme from here.
We recommend that you register it by adding a GPO - see the last chapter here.
Read the chapter Getting Started to get the best experience with SoftwareCentral.
You can also see the chapter Functionality Overview for a quick overview of the most basic functionalities.