Central Service - Running As...

MOVEit Central normally runs as a service. It can be stopped and started from the Services control panel or from the command line, but the cleanest way to stop the service if tasks may be running is with the "Shut Down Service" command in MOVEit Central Admin's "Command" menu. MOVEit Central is usually installed to run under a specific, local Windows administrator account.

Recommended Configuration: Running As a Service Under a Specific Windows Administrator

If you are running MOVEit Central as a service, you must run that service as a specific Windows administrator rather than as "LocalSystem" if you want to access remote (or mapped) Windows file systems. Fortunately, this is how new installations of MOVEit Central are configured.

If you wish to authenticate MOVEit Central Admin (and MOVEit Central API) users to a Windows domain (or Active Directory), you may need to run MOVEit Central under a domain user account that is also an administrator on the local MOVEit Central machine. (If you do not, you may see "RPC Server is unavailable" errors when your domain users attempt to authenticate to MOVEit Central.) It is rarely a good idea to run MOVEit Central as a full domain administrator; running as a domain user with local administrative privileges is preferred.

Converting From MOVEit Central as a LocalSystem Service

If you are running the MOVEit Central service as LocalSystem and you want to switch this to a specific administrator account, please follow the following procedure. Go to Administrative Tools / Services. Right-click on MOVEit Central and choose Properties. Choose the Log On tab. You will see that the Local System account is selected. Choose "This account" and select a local administrator account (for which you know the password). Then choose OK to change the user under which MOVEit Central runs. This step is necessary because Windows will not allow services to access network shares if they are running under the local system account.

The account you choose must have the Act as part of the operating system right. To configure this, go to Administrative Tools / Local Security Policy. Expand the Local Policies tree and choose User Rights Assignment. Double-click on Act as part of the operating system. Choose the Add button on the resulting dialog, and add the user under which the service will be running.

The account you choose must also have full file/folder permission rights to the MOVEit Central "Program Files\MOVEit" folder and cache folder.

Alternate Configuration: Running As a Service, But Visible on Desktop

Some installations, however, prefer to see MOVEit Central doing something on their desktop. This configuration is supported, even as MOVEit Central continues to run as a service.

MOVEit Central's window is normally not displayed when it is running as a service. However, you can force it to be displayed by changing the service to allow it to interact with the desktop. To do this, choose Start / Settings / ControlPanel / Administrative Tools / Services, and choose the MOVEit Central service. Right-click and choose Properties. Choose the Log On tab. Choose Allow service to interact with desktop. You will have to stop and restart the service for this change to take effect.

Alternate Configuration: Running As a Service as LocalSystem

Early installations of MOVEit Central set up the MOVEit Central service to run as "LocalSystem". There is little reason to do so today; while MOVEit Central runs as LocalSystem it may experience problems accessing remote (or mapped) Windows file systems. See the "Converting From MOVEit Central as a LocalSystem Service" section above for instructions how how to convert from LocalSystem to a specific account.

Running MOVEit Central in the Foreground, Not As a Service

There are two ways to run MOVEit Central in the foreground as a "normal" application instead of as a service. Doing so is normally useful in only two situations: you are attempting to replicate and diagnose unusual problems caused by permissions or policies recently applied to the administrative user under which MOVEit Central runs or you want to bring MOVEit Central up with the scheduler disabled so you can examine an imported configuration without running any tasks.

To just run MOVEit Central as a normal foreground application, select the "Run MOVEit Central Service in Foreground" option from the Start menu "MOVEit Central" program group.

To take advantage of other run options, you must start MOVEit Central from the command line. Some of these options can harm your existing MOVEit Central implementation, so please read the entire description of each option before using it. The following options are currently available:

• -? - Causes MOVEit Central to display a very short help dialog and exit.
• -manual - Causes MOVEit Central to run as a normal foreground application. (Using this option and this option only will achieve the same result as selecting the "Run MOVEit Central Service in Foreground" option from the Start menu "MOVEit Central" program group.)
• -config [config_file] - Causes MOVEit Central to launch using a config file other than "miccfg.xml". When this option is used, "-manual" is also almost always used as well.
• -k - Causes MOVEit Central to launch with the scheduler disabled. When this option is used, "-manual" is also almost always used as well.
• -remove - Causes MOVEit Central to uninstall its Windows service entry. (This is much different than uninstalling the entire application.) Using this option could break your MOVEit Central implementation.
• -install - Causes MOVEit Central to install its Windows service entry. (This is much different than installing the entire application.) Using this option could break your MOVEit Central implementation.

Ipswitch technicians use the following batch file (saved in the "/Program Files/MOVEit" folder) to safely launch customer configurations in the foreground for troubleshooting purposes. This batch file disables the scheduler and requires technicians to type in the explicit name of an alternate configuration.

@echo off
SET CUSTOMERCONFIG=%1
if R%CUSTOMERCONFIG%R==RR GOTO NOCONFIG
"c:\program files\moveit\micentral.exe" -k -manual -config %1
GOTO THEEND
:NOCONFIG
echo *** You MUST provide the path of a custom config file!
:THEEND

Additional Considerations:

• If you would like to be able to manage task permission groups from MOVEit Central Admin, be sure the user under which Central runs is an administrator.
• The user under which Central runs should have FULL permissions to the local folder in which the MOVEit Central program and configuration files are stored. The same user must also have FULL permissions to the MOVEit Central cache folder.
• The user under which Central runs need NOT have permission to all Windows file shares you would like to access. Specific Windows file share credentials will be configured for each file share.