Starting KCM Instance

This section describes the requirements that must be satisfied before you run the StartInstance.exe tool.

1. The account used to run StartInstance.exe must have the local Administrator permissions on the target server.

   The following steps are required only if you are starting the Contract Manager for the first time, or you are changing its configuration.

2. License. For additional information, refer to the License section of this guide.

3. KCM instance database. For additional information, refer to the "KCM Repository database" section below.

4. Configuration import file if you plan to import the existing configuration of the KCM instance. For additional information, refer to Export functionality and initialization of new components topic.

5. Database load if you plan to load the already existing content to the new database. For additional information, refer to the Dump and load the Repository database section of Kofax Communications Manager Repository Administrator's Guide.

6. Contract information for registering this instance on the Contract Manager.

7. Configure the TLS versions that are allowed for making SSL connections.

The installation will automatically create the KCM Designer Administrator account. You can change its password as described in the Change your password topic in KCM Designer Help.

This section describes how the StartInstance.exe tool works.

1. It compiles the KCM Core scripts.

2. It starts all Windows services of the KCM instance and sets their startup type to Automatic.
3. It verifies that the database is not connected to another KCM Instance. It happens when the database contains a validation id that differs from the validation id of the KCM Instance. This verification takes place every time, regardless of whether the database is changed or not.

   Sometimes the database has a validation id, but is not connected to another KCM Instance. This can happen if the other KCM Instance was not stopped properly or is a remnant of KCM 5.6 or earlier when validation ids were not cleared upon stopping. In this case, you can remove the validation id from the database by running the checkdatabase.exe tool with the /unlock option. You can find this tool in the Software/ITP Server/Bin folder of the extracted KCM 5.7 package.

4. When the database is changed or configured for the first time, the following additional verifications also take place:

   • When the database mode is New, the database should be empty.

   • When the database mode is Check, the database should have repository content and the Partner and Customer of the KCM Instance are the same as the Partner and Customer in the database.

   • When the database mode is Overwrite, the database should have repository content and the Partner and Customer of the KCM Instance differ from the Partner and Customer in the database.

5. It locks the database for the KCM Instance by writing the validation id of the instance into the database. This lock takes lace every time, regardless of whether the database is changed or not.
6. When the database is changed or configured for the first time, the following additional database steps also take place:

   • When the database mode is New :

     • If a database file is specified, this file is loaded and then subsequently upgraded to the current KCM version if necessary.

     • Otherwise, the initial tables for the KCM/repository are created, optionally the InstallationTest project is loaded, and the repository Administrator user is created.

   • When the database mode is Check or Overwrite:

     • The database is upgraded to the current KCM version if necessary.

   • The partner and customer of the KCM Instance are written to the database.

   • The predefined channels are imported into the KCM Repository database on top of all the channels that already exist.

7. Optionally: the previously exported configuration is imported.

8. The instance is registered on the Contract Manager (unless Registration!ContractManagerLocation=None).
9. If a contract does not exist, it will be created and associated with the KCM Instance.

This command also provides an option to install an example web application that you can use for testing purposes. For more information about this, refer to the following topic: Manage example web application.

To run the installed KCM instance, execute the following steps:

1. Open the command line interface (CLI). It could be PowerShell or Command Prompt.

2. In the CLI, navigate to the folder where the StartInstance.exe is located.

3. Call the StartInstance.exe file with the necessary parameters.

   If you launch StartInstance.exe without any parameters, it will start the KCM instance with default configuration.

   If everything is correct, the process will run without errors. You will be able to follow the it by reading the CLI output.