Microsoft® Application Center 2000 Service Pack 2 Release Notes

These release notes provide the most current information about Microsoft Application Center 2000 (Application Center) and Application Center 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2). This document contains information about product installation, features, known issues, and documentation.

Application Center 2000 Service Pack 2 is localized in Japanese and the English version is globalized so that it can run on all non-English-language-based operating systems.

This service pack is available as an integrated build that contains the Application Center 2000 product, Application Center 2000 Service Pack 1 (SP1), Application Center 2000 Service Pack 2 (SP2), and the security fix for the slammer virus. You install this service pack by running the Setup.hta program, which is located in the root directory of the product CD.

This document contains:

Important Notes

Application Center 2000 Service Pack 1

During the Upgrade

Post-upgrade Processing for the Windows Server 2003 Family

Installation Requirements

The following hardware and software is required for the installation of the Application Center 2000 Service Pack 2 on a computer:

Note

Client-only Installation Instructions and Best Practices

You can install the Application Center 2000 Service Pack 2 client on a computer provided that the following pre-installation requirements are met:

Installation Scenarios

Use one of the following scenarios as a guide for installing or upgrading an Application Center client. If you are not upgrading from Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP Professional then you do not have to perform the operating system upgrades described in these scenarios.

  1. Windows 2000 Professional
    - Upgrade the operating system to Windows XP Professional
    - Run Setup.hta to install the Application Center SP2
  2. Windows 2000 Professional with the Application Center client installed
    - Uninstall the Application Center client software
    - Upgrade the operating system to Windows XP Professional
    - Run Setup.hta to install the Application Center SP2
  3. Windows XP Professional
    - Run Setup.hta to install the Application Center SP2

Server Installation Instructions and Best Practices

You can install Application Center SP2 on computers that are not cluster members or are members of an existing cluster. If Application Center 2000 or Application Center 2000 SP1 is installed on any computer that you want to upgrade, it must be uninstalled before installing Application Center SP2.

You must be logged into an account in the local Administrators group in order to install Application Center SP2.

Pre-installation requirements

The following pre-installation requirements must be met:

For Servers That Are Not Cluster Members

If you are not upgrading the operating system from a version of the Windows 2000 Server family to a version of the Windows Server 2003 family then you do not have to perform the operating system upgrades or post-upgrade processing described in the following scenarios. However, you will have to apply the appropriate operating system fixes described in "Pre-installation Requirements."

For Application Center 2000 servers that have not been upgraded to SP1

For Application Center 2000 SP1 servers

For Servers That Are Members of a Cluster That Uses NLB

Before you start upgrading your NLB cluster to Application Center SP2:

Before you upgrade

Upgrade Scenarios

The following rolling upgrade scenarios are provided. The procedures described in each scenario are designed to minimize both server downtime and risk. Determine which scenario best describes your current environment and upgrade objectives; and use the recommended procedures as as a guide for upgrading your environment to Application Center SP2.

Scenario 1 - An existing Application Center 2000/Application Center 2000 SP1 cluster that uses Windows 2000 Server/Windows 2000 Advanced Server is upgraded to Application Center 2000 SP2. The operating system is not upgraded.

Scenario 2 - An existing Application Center 2000/Application Center 2000 SP1 cluster that uses Windows 2000 Server/Windows 2000 Advanced Server has the operating system upgraded to Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition or Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition. After the operating system is upgraded, Application Center is upgraded to Application Center 2000 SP2.

Scenario 3 - An existing Application Center 2000 SP2 cluster that uses Windows 2000 Server/Windows 2000 Advanced Server is upgraded to Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition or Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition.

Scenario 1

  1. Synchronize the cluster as described in "To fully synchronize your cluster."
  2. Select a cluster member (M1) and use the following tools and parameters to save M1 configuration settings. (These tools, Acmigrate.exe and Dumphm.exe, are located on the Application Center 2000 SP2 CD.)
  3. Remove M1 from the cluster.
  4. Remove Application Center 2000 by using one of the following methods. It is recommended that you restart the computer to complete the process of removing Application Center.
  5. Install Application Center SP2.
  6. Create a new cluster on M1 with a new VIP.
  7. Configure M1 as follows:
  8. Continue migrating members from the original cluster by repeating steps 3-5. Add these members to the new cluster until the new cluster contains approximately one-half of the members of the original cluster.
  9. Revise your DNS settings to use the new VIPs for your sites and monitor traffic on the original cluster until it decreases enough to remove the remaining members without causing excessive disruption in service levels. When appropriate, migrate the remaining members of the original cluster to the new cluster. At this point the only server left in the original cluster is the cluster controller.
  10. Continue running your own QA tests to verify that the new cluster is operating correctly.
  11. When you are satisfied that the new cluster meets all your benchmarks tests and has all the content and settings of the original cluster, proceed to upgrade the original cluster controller by disbanding the original controller, repeating steps 4-5 on it and add it to the newly formed cluster. If the cluster settings or content on the new cluster failed your tests, then you can upgrade the original cluster controller as described in steps 2-7 and use it as staging cluster to deploy to the new cluster. In the latter case, step 3 would be to be to disband the cluster.

Scenario 2

  1. Synchronize the cluster as described in "To fully synchronize your cluster".
  2. Select a cluster member (M1) and use the following tools and parameters to save M1 configuration settings. (These tools, Acmigrate.exe and Dumphm.exe, are located on the Application Center 2000 SP2 CD.)
  3. Remove M1 from the cluster.
  4. Remove Application Center by using one of the following methods. It is recommended that you restart the computer to complete the process of removing Application Center. (If you don't restart the computer and start an upgrade to Windows Server 2003, you will be prompted to restart the computer.)
  5. Install Application Center SP2.
  6. Upgrade the operating system to Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition or Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, as appropriate and complete the specified post-upgrade processing.

    Note

  7. Create a new cluster on M1 with a new VIP.
  8. Configure M1 as follows:
  9. Continue migrating members from the original cluster by repeating steps 3-6. Add these members to the new cluster until the new cluster contains approximately one-half of the members of the original cluster.
  10. Revise your DNS settings to use the new VIPs for your sites and monitor traffic on the original cluster until it decreases enough to remove the remaining members without causing excessive disruption in service levels. When appropriate, migrate the remaining members of the original cluster to the new cluster. At this point the only server left in the original cluster is the cluster controller.
  11. Continue running your own QA tests to verify that the new cluster is operating correctly.
  12. When you are satisfied that the new cluster meets all your benchmarks tests and has all the content and settings of the original cluster, proceed to upgrade the original cluster controller by disbanding the original controller, repeating steps 4-6 on it and add it to the newly formed cluster. If the cluster settings or content on the new cluster failed your tests, then you can upgrade the original cluster controller as described in steps 2-8 and use it as staging cluster to deploy to the new cluster. In the latter case, step 3 would be to be to disband the cluster.

Scenario 3

  1. Ensure your cluster has enough members so that half of the cluster can provide adequate service during the upgrade procedure.
  2. Synchronize the cluster as described in "To fully synchronize your cluster."
  3. Select a cluster member (M1) and use the following tools and parameters to save M1 configuration settings. (These tools are located on the Application Center 2000 SP2 CD.)
  4. Remove M1 from the cluster.
  5. Upgrade the operating system to Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition or Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, as appropriate.
  6. Complete the specified post-upgrade processing.

    Note

  7. Create a new cluster on M1 with a new VIP.
  8. Configure M1 as follows:
  9. Continue migrating members from the original cluster by repeating steps 4-6. Add these members to the new cluster until the new cluster contains approximately one-half of the members of the original cluster.
  10. Revise your DNS settings to use the new VIPs for your sites and monitor traffic on the original cluster until it decreases enough to remove the remaining members without causing excessive disruption in service levels. When appropriate, migrate the remaining members of the original cluster to the new cluster. At this point the only server left in the original cluster is the cluster controller.
  11. Continue running your own QA tests to verify that the new cluster is operating correctly.
  12. When you are satisfied that the new cluster meets all your benchmarks tests and has all the content and settings of the original cluster, proceed to upgrade the original cluster controller by disbanding the original controller, repeating steps 5-6 on it and add it to the newly formed cluster. If the cluster settings or content on the new cluster failed your tests, then you can upgrade the original cluster controller as described in steps 3-8 and use it as staging cluster to deploy to the new cluster. In the latter case, step 4 would be to be to disband the cluster.

For Servers That Are Members of a Cluster That Uses Load Balancing Devices or CLB

Use the appropriate scenario in the "Upgrade Scenarios" section as a guide for performing a rolling upgrade on your clusters. For clusters that use load balancing devices, some steps are not required for the following scenarios:

Rolling Upgrade for Clusters that use CLB

Use this procedure as a guide for migrating a COM+ Application Cluster from Application Center 2000 or Application Center 2000 SP1 to Application Center SP2.

Upgrade Procedure:
  1. Upgrade one-half of the front-end NLB cluster by using the one of the upgrade scenarios described in "For Servers that are Members of a Cluster that uses NLB". Do not enable the upgraded cluster to handle client requests.
  2. Configure the routing list on the original Front-end cluster controller so it references one-half of the original Back-end cluster.
  3. Upgrade the portion of the Back-end cluster that is not referenced in the original Front-end cluster's routing list.
    1. Remove an unreferenced cluster member from the Back-end cluster.
    2. Uninstall Application Center 2000 or Application Center 2000 SP1.
    3. Install Application Center 2000 SP2.
    4. Optional. If you want to upgrade your operating system or if your Front-end cluster is getting upgraded, upgrade the operating system on the new Back-end cluster controller. If you do this upgrade, follow the post-processing steps described for clusters that use NLB.
    5. Create a new COM+ Application Cluster on the upgraded Back-end cluster member.
    6. Upgrade the remaining unreferenced computers in the original Back-end cluster by repeating the preceding steps. Add these computers to the new Back-end cluster.
  4. Configure the routing list on the new Front-end cluster controller so it references the servers on the new Back-end cluster. At this point in the upgrade process you will have two active CLB clusters. One is running the original versions of the operating system and Application Center, the other is running the upgraded version of the operating system (if you upgraded the operating system) and Application Center SP2.
  5. Transfer the active traffic from the original Front-end cluster to the upgraded Front-end cluster.

    6. Note

  6. Disband the original Back-end cluster, and after you upgrade the remaining computers, add them to the new Back-end cluster, repeating steps 3b-3d.
  7. Disband the original Front-end cluster, and after you upgrade the remaining computers, add them to the new Front-end cluster as described in the scenario that you used to upgrade NLB.
  8. Configure the routing list on the new Front-end cluster controller so it references all of the servers on the new Back-end cluster.

For Servers That Are in a Staging Cluster

You should not perform out of cluster deployments from a server with Application Center SP2 installed to a server without Application Center SP2 installed or vice versa. You should stop all deployments; upgrade both the staging and production clusters to Application Center SP2, and then restart deployments.

Note

Unattended Installations

You can install Application Center programmatically by using the command line or batch files. Four configurations are available.

Note

Option Command Notes
Default installation MSIEXEC /i <path> /q /lv* <logfile> Server, Administrative client, and Application Center Event and Performance Logging are installed (this is the default configuration). All features are available with this installation.
No AC Logging MSIEXEC /i <path> /q /lv* <logfile> ADDLOCAL=Server,Client Server and Administrative client are installed. Server and Administrative client features are available, but specific logging features are not. For more information, see "Installing Without Logging Features" in the Application Center Help.
With AC Logging MSIEXEC /i <path> /q /lv* <logfile> ADDLOCAL=Server,Client,ACLOGGING Server and Administrative client are installed. Server and Administrative client features are available, with all logging features. All of the members in a cluster must have the same logging configuration; that is, all of them must have the logging installed or none of them have it installed.
Server only MSIEXEC /i <path> /q /lv* <logfile> ADDLOCAL=Server Administrative client and Application Center Event and Performance Logging are not installed. To include logging, use ADDLOCAL=Server,ACLOGGING.
Administrative client only MSIEXEC /i <path> /q /lv* <logfile> ADDLOCAL=Client This installation is for remote administration of a cluster. The computer with this option installed cannot become a cluster member. The Administrative client installation can not include the With AC Logging option.
Sample monitors MSIEXEC /i <path> /q /lv* <logfile> ADDLOCAL=SampleHealthMonMonitors Several Health Monitor rules for SQL Server and other monitoring tasks are installed. For more information, see "Monitoring Samples" in the Application Center Help. The Sample Monitors are not installed by default in any of above options. To install them with another option, add "SampleHealthMonMonitors" to the ADDLOCAL parameter. This option cannot be used on an Administrative client only install.

Note

  • If you choose to install the Sample Monitors then you must use the default installation directory.
Specifying the Product ID (PID) MSIEXEC /i "e:\Microsoft Application Center 2000.msi" /q PIDKEY=QD4E9F63XR43C73WQH2GD5VK9. The installs the default installation. You can add different parameters to customize as stated earlier. The PID key might appear on the CD packaging as QD4E9-F63XR-43C73-WQH2G-D2VK9, but must be entered as a 25-digit code with no intervening dashes. The PID key here is only an example.

Note

  • The PIDKEY parameter is required for all unattended installation scripts.

Notes

For example, to install the Administrative client only (without Application Center Event and Performance Logging, Server components, or Sample Monitors): MSIEXEC /i "E:\Microsoft Application Center 2000.msi" /q /lv* RemoteInstallLog.log ADDLOCAL=Client. The path to the .msi file must have quotes around it, if it contains spaces.

Additional information about MSIEXEC utility can be found at MSDN Online at http://msdn.microsoft.com.

Known Issues

The following known issues have been identified for Application Center SP2.

Issue:   After the Application Center SP2 integrated build installation is completed on a server, you might be prompted to restart the computer. This is a result of the upgrade to MSDE. Confirm the restart action.

Issue:    Performance counters might stop working. This situation is indicated by the fact that counters that are enabled for display do not appear in the user interface. Rebooting the server resolves the problem.

Issue:   Ports are not protected from assignment by the Windows Server 2003 family. As a result, Application Center processes, such as Replication, which requires a specific port number, might fail if the port is assigned to another process. This type of failure is most common on servers where startup processes use numerous wildcard bindings (binding without specifying a port). If this is the case, the operating system might assign the ports that are needed by Application Center before any Application Center processes start.

You can use one of the following workarounds to resolve this issue:

Issue:    You might receive a WMI security warning if you run a provider under the local system account, which is the case with Health Monitor. As a result, you will receive a group of warnings during the installation of Application Center SP2, and an additional warning every five minutes when Application Center 2000 SP2 is functioning on a server.

Issue:    Application Center 2000 SP2 does not support replication between mixed operating system cluster controllers and members. Replication from a Windows 2000 cluster controller to a Windows Server 2003 member corrupts the IIS metabase on the member. The following scenarios will cause metabase corruption:

Issue:    The IIS sub-authentication feature, which was enabled for Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Advanced Server, is disabled for the Windows Server 2003 family. Subauthentication allows an anonymous IIS request to activate a remote object without any authentication. If Application Center 2000 is running on a server that is running the Windows Server 2003 operating system, anonymous Component Load Balancing (CLB) authentication might fail because of the disabled sub-authentication.

For example:

An ASP page creates an instance of an object that is marked for load balancing. Object activation will fail with either Permission Denied (when using CreateObject) or Access Denied (when using Server.CreateObject and CLB).

There are two options for resolving this issue.

Option 1: You must map the account used for IIS anonymous access on all of the Web sites that instantiate components that are load balanced with CLB to a domain account.

Note

Option 2: You must use a local account with the same name and password on all of the members of the Routing and CLB clusters. The account used for IIS Anonymous requests against all of the Web sites that instantiate CLB components must be mapped to the local account.

Note

Issue:    In the Windows Server 2003 family, the TCP Connections Established (Server Avg Cluster Sum) counter was renamed to TCPv4. The counter will continue working for customers who continue running Application Center 2000 in the Windows 2000 environment and will work for customers who install Application Center on a fresh build of a Windows Server 2003 operating system. However, any historical TCP/IP data for this counter will be lost for customers who upgrade from Windows 2000 Server/Windows 2000 Advanced Server (with Application Center installed) to either Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition; or Windows Server 2003, Web Edition.

Issue:    When Application Center SP2 is installed on either Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition; Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition; or Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, ASP Extensions are enabled. If Application Center is uninstalled these extensions remain enabled.

Issue:    There are reported cases of installation failure when installing Application Center SP2 using a Terminal Services connection. In these cases the message "setup could not restart IIS" appears before installation is complete. However, installation is successful and Application Center works correctly after the upgraded server is rebooted.

Issue:   There is a potential security risk if port 4243, which is used for HTTP-based replication, is assigned to the same network adapter as the cluster IP address. Typically, this is the front-end adapter. Check the port bindings to verify the port number assignment. It is recommended that you assign port 4243 to the back-end adapter to ensure that replication activity is not exposed and compromised.

Issue:   The Windows Server 2003 family does not provide a performance counter for Application Center Request Forwarder.

Issue:    Load balancing COM+ proxies. This is possible but you cannot set the Support Dynamic Load Balancing property for a component through the user interface or with the COM+ Admin SDK. The work around is as to export the COM+ proxy from a COM+ server application where the components are already marked for load balancing.

Issue:   In some situations cluster creation fails when you run the New Cluster Wizard from a client version of Application Center. This occurs because the default installation of Windows 2000 Professional or Windows XP Professional does not install IIS, which is required in order for cluster creation to work. The solution is to install IIS on any client computer that you want to use for cluster creation.

Issue:   If you uninstall Network Load Balancing (NLB) from a computer by using the Windows Components Wizard, error 0x80040005 (E_FAIL) might occur when you try to create a cluster on the computer. If this error occurs you must re-install NLB on the computer. If the computer has the Windows 2000 Server operating system installed you will have to uninstall and then re-install Application Center 2000 in order to install NLB. If you uninstall NLB on a computer running Windows Server 2003 you will have to use the Local Area Connection Properties dialog box in Network and Dial-up Connections to reinstall NLB.

Issue:    Windows 2000 performance counters might get corrupted when Application Center is installed. This issue and its resolution is documented in KB Article 299059, "Event ID: 1088 Perflib Errors on Performance Data Counters". The workaround for this issue is described in KB Article 300956, "How to Manually Rebuild Performance Counter Library Values."

Issue:  On computers that are running a version of the Windows Server 2003 operating system family, Application Center 2000 SP2 has limited compatibility with multiple instances of NLB that are bound to network adapters.

Issue:    After upgrading to Application Center SP2 you will not be able to create a cluster or add a member to a cluster if you stop MSDE. The message "failed to connect to SQL Server" is displayed in this scenario. You must restart MSDE in order to create a cluster or add members to an existing cluster.

Issue:   Event 8015, "Failed to execute a SQL query", is triggered when adding a member to a cluster that has been rebuilt. The workarounds for this Performance Monitor error are:

Issue   If you run W2003SrvPostUpgrade.bat more than once on a server that has a cluster installed, the following non-fatal error is generated: "Internal Error 25034.0x800703e5, Overlapped I/O operation in progress." This error does not affect server functionality.

Issue When reinstalling Application Center 2000 SP2 on Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, setup fails. This is a result of a feature in Windows Server 2003, Web Edition that generates a Local certificate that is bound to the Administration Web site. By default, Application Center replicates all the certificates and correpsonding metabase properties to a new member. As a result, the new member will have its copy of the Administration site pointing to the cluster controller's certificate in the local certificate store. Because the name in the controller's certificate is the controller computer name, SSL (which is used by MSDE setup)connections  to this site will fail. You can resolve this issue by binding the member's auto-generated local certificate to the Administration Web site on the member. Follow these steps to implement this solution:

Issue   When you are running Windows  Server  2003, Web Edition, a newly added cluster member cannot access the Administration Web site. This is a result of a feature in Windows  Server 2003, Web Edition that generates a Local certificate that is bound to the Administration Web site. By default, Application Center replicates all the certificates and corresponding metabase properties to a new member. As a result, the new member has its copy of the Administration site pointing to the cluster controller's certificate in the local certificate store. Because the name in the controller's certificate is the controller computer name, SSL connections to this site fail.

There are two workarounds for this issue:

Note

The second workaround will not resolve the reinstallation issue described in the preceding issue, "When reinstalling Application Center 2000 SP2 on Windows Server 2003, Web Edition, setup fails."

Issue:  The Application Center Setup program can fail and display an error message (Evend ID 1722). This happens when you are using the custom Setup Wizard, which permits you to select different installation destinations for Monitoring Samples and other Application Center server and client features. If you change only the destination for Monitoring Samples, setup fails.

On a computer that is running Windows  2000, installation rollback fails and you cannot reinstall Application Center unless you delete the AC Log Consumer, which was installed and retained in Component Services during the first installation attempt.

Service Pack 2 Fixes for Application Center 2000

This service pack fixes the following issues. You can find these articles by searching on the keywords and/or article numbers in the Microsoft Knowledge base at http://support.microsoft.com.

KB Article Number Feature Area Description or KB Article Title
329744 General Application Center 2000 MMC hangs with 100% CPU when using "Connect."
811675 Component Load Balancing A COM+ cluster goes into suspended state when an Application Center load balanced COM+ application is stopped and restarted.
811678 Component Load Balancing CLB routing list corruption fix
None Load Balancing Application Center does not fully support port rules that are specific to an IP address.
326950 Replication Application Center cannot deploy or replicate .NET Global Assemblies.
299831 Replication Inherited ACLs Not Applied When ACL Replication Turned Off
304385 Replication Application Center 2000 May Replicate Unexpected Files and Directories
305468 Replication Replicated Registry Entry Missing Terminating Bytes
306056 Replication Application Center 2000 Node Certificate Info Replaced During Replication
323881 Replication AC DEPLOY Sends Administrator Password in Clear Text
317811 Replication AC2K Sets Wrong Permission on Files If Not Replicating NTFS
317026 Replication Out-of-Cluster Deployment of a Web Application Fails Silently
325611 Replication Deployment to Target Servers with Similar Names Is Unsuccessful
811097 Replication Application Center 2000 COM+ dll source path replication is incorrect
813532 Replication AC DEPLOY /DISABLE or /ENABLE SYNC returns error code 0x80070005
326931 Replication Replication Performance fix
323224 Request Forwarding Access violation in the Application Center request forwarder filter
815931 Request Forwarding FrontPage publishing using Application Center Request Forwarding through ISA fails

General

Fix:  Application Center 2000 MMC hangs with 100% CPU when using "Connect"

When trying to connect to a cluster from the Application Center MMC using the "Connect as" option, the MMC hangs with 100% processor use. This can be reproduced either locally on any member, controller or remotely with the AC Administrative client installed.

Component Load Balancing

Fix: KB 811675 A COM+ cluster goes into suspended state when an Application Center load balanced COM+ application is stopped and restarted.

All the nodes in a COM+ application cluster except the controller might go into the suspended state when you stop the Application Center load balanced COM+ application on a COM+ application server and it is restarted by CLB polling.

Fix: KB 811678 CLB routing list corruption fix.

The existing program maintains a linked list of targets that are stored in an array. When a new node is needed it takes it from the array at the index of the current size incorrectly assuming that that entry is always not in use.

Load Balancing

Fix: Application Center does not fully support port rules that are specific to an IP address.

This issue is resolved in Application Center SP2 and any port rule changes on the controller, either load balanced or disabled, are now replicated to cluster members. With the exception of changes in the port number range, any changes to port rules on the cluster controller, trigger cluster synchronization.

Replication

Fix: KB 299831 Inherited ACLs Not Applied When ACL Replication Turned Off

The Application Center 2000 File Replication driver does not apply correct parent directory NTFS permissions when NTFS file permission replication is disabled.

Fix: KB 304385 Application Center May Replicate Unexpected Files and Directories

Application Center might replicate content that was not intended to be replicated. If the unintended content includes files that cannot be replicated for any reason, the following error message might appear:

Event ID: 5064
Source: Application Center
Description: Could not send file
Event Type: Error

Fix: KB 305468 Replicated Registry Entry Missing Terminating Bytes

The Application Center 2000 Replicaton driver does not properly calculate the size of data when an empty string is replicated in the registry. The data size is always calculated as "0" for an empty string, which is incorrect because there are actually NULL terminator bytes that have to be written.

Fix: KB 306056 Application Center 2000 Node Certificate Info Replaced During Replication

Application Center 2000 always replicates certificate binding information that is stored in the metabase, and selectively replicates certificates based on whether or not they were created with the No Export option.

Fix: KB 323881 AC DEPLOY Sends Administrator Password in Clear Text

When you use the AC DEPLOY command to start a deployment from a remote computer, the administrator user name and password is sent in clear text format.

Fix: KB 317811 AC2K Sets Wrong Permission on Files If Not Replicating NTFS

Replicated files lose their access control list (ACL) settings if replication is disabled for NTFS permissions. The replicated files retain the default ACL settings of Read and Execute for Administrators and Local System.

Fix: KB 317026 Out-of-cluster Deployment of a Web Application Fails Silently

When you attempt to perform an out-of-cluster deployment of a Web application the deployment might fail silently (the job status indicates success) if the application's virtual directory was not created with the Microsoft Internet Information Services Virtual Directory Creation Wizard.

Fix: KB 326950 Application Center cannot deploy or replicate .NET Global Assemblies

Application Center 2000 cannot specifically replicate the contents of the Global Assemblies Cache (GAC). For more information see "Synchronizing and Deploying Applications" in the Updated Microsoft Application Center 2000 Documentation Errata and Addenda.

Fix: KB 325611 Deployment to Target Servers with Similar Names Is Unsuccessful

When the target server name is a substring of the controller name, Microsoft Application Center 2000 deployments might be unsuccessful, and you might receive the following error message:

           error 0xc014471

           Deployment cannot deploy to the source server

For example, deploying from a controller named Server001S to a target server named Server001. Application Center performs a string comparison of the server name to verify that the controller is not specified as a deployment target. The string comparison that is used only considers the string length of the target server name, so the controller and target could appear to have the same name.

Fix: KB 811097 Application Center 2000 COM+ dll source path replication is incorrect

By default, COM+ applications that are deployed by Application Center reside
in the following source path:

 \Program Files\ComPlus Applications\{GUID}

Fix: KB 813532 AC.EXE DEPLOY /DISABLE or /ENABLE SYNC returns error code 0x80070005

Running one of the following AC commands might return 0x80070005 Access Denied:

AC Deploy /DISABLE SYNC /SOURCE:server /SOURCEUSER:user /SOURCEPASSWORD: password

AC Deploy /ENABLE SYNC /SOURCE:server /SOURCEUSER:user /SOURCEPASSWORD: password

This is due to a impersonation problem in AC.exe the account under which the command was
executed will need to have access to the SOURCE. For example, if the above command
will be run on a stager and the Windows account runing the command does not
have access to the SOURCE, the command will return 0x80070005 even if the SOURCEUSER
has the appropriate rights on the SOURCE.

Fix: KB 326931 Replication performance fix

Replication performance was affected by a circular reference.

Request Forwarding

Fix: KB 299831 IIS access violation in the Application Center request forwarder filter

Internet Information Services might have an access violation caused by the Microsoft Application Center 2000 request forwarder filter (RfFilExt.dll) and terminate. This can occur if the Application Center 2000 request forward filter passes signed, negative values to the Run-Time Library isxdigit routine which expects only unsigned values resulting in an access violation.

Fix: KB 815931 FrontPage publishing using Application Center Request Forwarding through ISA fails

FrontPage publishing using Application Center Reguest Forwarding through ISA fails.

Updated Microsoft Application Center 2000 Documentation - Corrections and Additions

The following corrections and additions to the product documentation should be noted:

Creating a Cluster

Configure Cluster Communication - Domains and Workgroups

In order to add a server to a cluster or join a cluster, the new cluster member must be in the same domain or workgroup as the cluster controller. Application Center does not support mixed domain or workgroup cluster configurations.

Configure Cluster Communication - Default Gateways

Default Gateway Requirement

You cannot create a cluster on a server that does not have a default gateway configured for the management-traffic network adapter. The absence of gateways and routers typically occurs on dedicated private networks (intranets) that are not connected to the Internet. If this is the case, the solution is to use the adapter's IP address as the address for the default gateway.

Default Gateways - General Information

The default gateway identifies the network adapter and router to be used as a last resort for outbound traffic than cannot be routed by any other routing rule. As a result, there can never be more than one Active default gateway on a system, regardless of how many network adapters are installed in the computer. However, you can configure more than one default gateway to provide redundancy if the Active default gateway fails.

Note

If you have more than one default gateway you should control the failover order by setting the gateway metric so that each default gateway has a different metric--the gateway with the lowest metric will be the Active default gateway as long as it is functional.

If you have more than one default gateway with the same interface metric, which is the case if DHCP configures the gateway, or if you manually configure all the gateways with an interface metric of 1, the system selects one of the gateways and arbitrarily designates it as the Active default gateway. The other gateways are not used unless the Active gateway fails. In practice, if you have multiple default gateways with the same metric, the gateway that is listed last when you run a route print is typically the one that the operating system designates as the Active gateway.

Load Balancing

Application Center will co-exist with NLB instances on servers where NLB is not managed by Application Center.

If you are using NLB for load balancing Application

  1. Replication and usage of per-IP portrules is supported on both Windows 2000 and the Windows Server 2003 family.
  2. The existance of unmanaged (by Application Center) NLB instances on the servers is tolerated.

Synchronizing and Deploying Applications

.NET Global Assemblies

As part of the fix for enabling Application Center to deploy or replicate the contents of the GAC, a new resource type, .NET Global Assemblies, was added to the list of resources that you can add to a User-defined Application. Refer to the online help for general information about adding resources to an application. (You can do this by opening the Synchronizing and Deploying Applications/How To... node down to the Add Resources to an Application topic.)

Follow the same steps described in the documentation to add the .NET Global Assemblies resource to your application. After you select this new resource type and click Add, the Add Resource -- Web Page dialogbox is displayed for .NET Global Assemblies. Scroll through the list of Global Assemblies and select the assembly that you want to add. Click Add to complete this task.

Per-IP Port Rules

Application Center supports the usage and replication of per-IP port rules for the Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 operating systems.

Security

Using the Everyone (Denied) Permission When Setting Directory ACLs

Setting the Everyone (Denied) permission for all access types can have unpredictable or undesired effects. Windows 2000 looks for Denied ACEs before Allow ACEs and when it finds the first access controlled entry (ACE) for the subject, it stops searching and does not reach the Allow ACEs. Because the Everyone group includes all Authenticated Users, including the Administrator and System accounts, setting Everyone (Denied) for all access types will effectively deny access to any subjects given specific access, including the computer Administrator, even though the Administrator is granted Full Control.

To exclude the Everyone group from certain access types, while allowing other groups Full Control, exclude Everyone group from the ACL definition. By default, Windows 2000 denies any group access if it is not specifically given access in the ACL. You can assign Allow access rights to specific groups or accounts and the Everyone group does not have any access unless it is part of a group that has Allow access.

Using the Everyone (RWC) Permission for Accessing the IIS Log Files

Exercise caution when assigning Read (R) or Change (C) access to resources in the Everyone group. In the case of IIS log files, this level of permission can expose sensitive data, and allow an attacker to change ACLs on the log file directory. As a guideline, it is recommended that you do not grant this level of access to any files that can be accessed over the network. See also: Using the Everyone (Denied) Permission When Setting Directory ACLs

Using the Everyone (R) Permission for Resources That Access Virtual Directories

Determine what information might be exposed before granting Read (R) access to a resource that has access to the virtual directories. See also: Using the Everyone (Denied) Permission When Setting Directory ACLs.

Command-Line Administration

Reference, Cluster Command: AC CLUSTER /ADD

The /LBNIC:nic_id parameter for the AC CLUSTER /ADD command is not optional, as indicated in the documentation. You will receive the following error message if the /LBNIC:nic_id parameter is omitted:

Command is not complete.

The system returned the following error:
One or more parameters or arguments are incorrect.

The parameter is incorrect. (0x80070057)

Application Center Events

The following events have either been changed, or have been added to this service pack.

Event ID Severity Event name Type of change
4160 Error MicrosoftAC_Cluster_LoadBalancing_NetCfg_NLBBoundToMgmtNIC_Event New Event: Network Load balancing (NLB) is bound to the network adapter that Application Center uses for its management network. This is not a supported configuration. For more information, see the Windows 2000 Help.
5038 Error MicrosoftAC_Replication_Session_General_Failed_Event Change to long message: A synchronization session for server %Target% has failed. Session: %ReplicationID%, Job: %ReplicationJobID%, Status: %Status% %StatusMessage%
5123 Error MicrosoftAC_Replication_Session_DriverEvents_ResourceAvailability_WMIObjectNotFound_Event Change to long message: A WMI object at %PATH% was not found. Session: %ReplicationID%, Job: %ReplicationJobID%
5144 Error MicrosoftAC_Replication_Session_DriverEvents_ComSaveAppChangesFailed_Event Change to error level from Warning to Error.
5150 Warning MicrosoftAC_Replication_Session_DriverEvents_UpdateListApply_NoParentPath_Event New Event: The metabase content at %Path% was not applied because the parent path does not exist on this machine. Session: %ReplicationID%, Job: %ReplicationJobID%
5151 Warning MicrosoftAC_Replication_Session_DriverEvents_AuthenticationFailure_Event New Event: Failed to authenticate user %UserName% Error %Status% occurred
5154 Error MicrosoftAC_Replication_Session_DriverEvents_Complus_Objecterror_Event New Event: An object level error occured while accessing COM+ catalog for path %Path%. Session: %ReplicationID%, Session: %ReplicationID%, Job: %ReplicationJobID%, Status: %Status% %StatusMessage%
5155 Error MicrosoftAC_Replication_Session_DriverEvents_Complus_exportimported_Event New Event: The COM+ application named %Path%, ID: %key% will not be replicated because it contains an imported component. Session: %ReplicationID%, Session: %ReplicationID%, Job: %ReplicationJobID%, Status: %Status% %StatusMessage%
5156 Error MicrosoftAC_Replication_Session_DriverEvents_ObjectSecurity_TargetVolumeFat New Event: Target server's file system for path %Path% is FAT or FAT32. Please upgrade this drive to NTFS, or re-deploy without folder and file permissions. Synchronization session: %ReplicationID%, Job: %ReplicationJobID%, Status: %Status% %StatusMessage%
5157 Warning MicrosoftAC_Replication_Session_DriverEvents_Complus_installchangeloc_Event New Event: Components in multiple directories were found while installing COM+ Application %Path%. These dlls have all been put into the default COM+ application directory. Session: %ReplicationID%, Job: %ReplicationJobID%, Status: %Status% %StatusMessage%

Addtional Information

Release Notes for Related Products

Application Center installs or works closely with other products, and issues with these products might affect features in Application Center. The locations of the release notes for these products are included in the following list:

Public Newsgroups

Peer-to-peer newsgroups are available to help you interact with other users of our products. You can use any newsreader software to access these newsgroups, but you might need to configure it in order to read them. When prompted for News Server, specify msnews.microsoft.com or your default news server. The public newsgroups are:

Before posting to the newsgroups, please review the Microsoft Newsgroup Rules of Conduct.

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