philb1208
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2019 3:24 pm

HTTP Authentication

Thu Aug 01, 2019 2:33 pm

Hi,

I read that I can configure HTTP authentication for an IIS server. Is it possible to do this with an Ubuntu nginx web server? I couldn't quite tell from the documentation page i was on.

Thanks

Phil

Daniel
Posts: 8237
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:11 pm
Contact:  Website

Re: HTTP Authentication

Fri Aug 02, 2019 10:12 am

Hello Phil,

No, I am afraid we do not have support for NGINX web servers at all.

If there is anything else we can help you with just let us know.

All the best,
Daniel
Daniel Radu - Advanced Installer Team
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philb1208
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2019 3:24 pm

Re: HTTP Authentication

Fri Aug 02, 2019 3:05 pm

Hi Daniel,
Just to be sure.

I'm not trying to configure an nginx server with the installer. The server is already in place but my installer requests a config file via http. The file downloads fine but I am trying secure it with http authentication.

This isn't possibe?

Daniel
Posts: 8237
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:11 pm
Contact:  Website

Re: HTTP Authentication

Tue Aug 06, 2019 2:18 pm

Hello Phil,

If the entire operation consists of a file deploy/update operation, then you should be able to achieve what you need by using our "Files and Folders" page. Just add your config file in "Files and Folders" page of your setup project and see if this helps.

Otherwise please give me more details about how do you manually implement this setting so I can better understand a possible workaround for your requirement.

All the best,
Daniel
Daniel Radu - Advanced Installer Team
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philb1208
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2019 3:24 pm

Re: HTTP Authentication

Tue Aug 06, 2019 4:03 pm

Hey Daniel,

I'll try explain my scenario a bit more.
We have an application that we install as a windows service, the application collects system performance data and writes it back to a database.

Currently:

We store our configurations in a windows share. When the service is installed, we provide it with a UNC path to check for its configuration files. If we need to make any changes, we edit the config on the central share, our service will restart every 2 minutes and reload its configuration.

1) Service starts
2) Service connects to \\servername\share\config and finds “config.conf”
3) A back up of this config is stored locally to the machine.
4) Service will restart, loading any configuration changes.
5) If the config is valid, start the service – Else, load the config back up.


This works for us, but means additional steps during deployment. We need to create the windows share and a DNS record for the share which is something we don’t always have control of and leaves us waiting for third party teams to make changes for us.

Ideally:
The database server where this data is sent also has a small web application we use to manage the database and certain aspects of the configuration.

Our plan is to host the config and update files (which I’ve tested separately and work fantastic)

http://myapplication/config
http://myapplication/updates

The process would then become

1) Begin the installation process
2) During the installation, the installer downloads the specified config files
3) This config is saved into the application data folder (C: \ProgramData\Application\Config) and a backup is created. I create a variable CONFIG_PATH which points to C: \ProgramData\Application\Config

4) The service is installed and I can then give its configuration flag
-config [CONFIG_PATH]config.conf

At this point I know I can achieve what I want regarding storing and accessing the configurations. Our next concern is securing this directory. There is a minimal chance anyone would try to browse this directory, but we would like to secure it using http authentication.

I read through an article in your documentation, but this was based around connecting to an IIS server. We’re using a Linux server to manage our database and run our web application using nginx.
My main query is whether the installer can be configured to work with http authentication when contacting a non IIS server or whether it will only work when connecting to an IIS server.

If not then we’ll need to think of another way to handle authentication.

Thanks,
Phil

Daniel
Posts: 8237
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:11 pm
Contact:  Website

Re: HTTP Authentication

Mon Aug 12, 2019 11:52 am

Hello Phil,

Thank you for the detailed explanation on this.

The answer is yes, the installers built with Advanced Installer can successfully download files hosted on any web site no matter what web server technology uses the related web site.

To achieve what you want you should just try to use our "File Download" operation from "Files and Folders" page of your setup project.

All the best,
Daniel
Daniel Radu - Advanced Installer Team
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philb1208
Posts: 44
Joined: Thu Jul 04, 2019 3:24 pm

Re: HTTP Authentication

Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:10 am

Hi,

Apologies for never returning to this. I was out of the office when you replied to this and I'm only just getting back to working on this.

I've configured a file download to grab the config file from my server, however the server requires authentication. So if i browse to the URL in question i am prompted for a username and password.

Is there a way to pass this username and password to the install builder so it can authenticate with my server and download the config? I think if i was using an IIS server i would be alright however our application database is a linux based system so IIS is not really an alternative.

Thanks

Phil

Daniel
Posts: 8237
Joined: Mon Apr 02, 2012 1:11 pm
Contact:  Website

Re: HTTP Authentication

Mon Sep 09, 2019 12:30 pm

Hi Phil,

Could you try to embed the credentials into your URL string and see how this works?

Just use an URL like this:

Code: Select all

http://<username>:<pwd>@myapplication/config
where <username> and <pwd> are your user and password credentials.

All the best,
Daniel
Daniel Radu - Advanced Installer Team
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