TM1Web Localhost on Vista not working

[harrytm1]

Hi all,

I have this issue that has been bugging me for the longest time. I have the full TM1 9.4MR1 installed onto my PC, which is running on Vista Home Premium. It has IIS, Excel 2003 and .Net 3 installed too.

I have not been able to run TM1 Web as a localhost successfully.
First Problem:
Initially, I was able to login to TM1 Web. but i was unable to open an Excel report in Web despite the Excel Service running. it seems to fail to convert Excel into XML. I opened Windows Services and checked the properties of TM1 Excel Service, and it shows the path to executable is pointing to tm1_service_launcher.exe. This is odd as my colleague's setting is pointing to Excel service!

could this be the reason of the failure to convert to XML?

Second Problem:
Thinking that the 1st problem was due to an installation error, i proceed to reinstall TM1. this turns out to be a disaster. Now, when i try to access the login pag on localhost, the whole page is screwed (see attached). No pics are displayed, except for the text boxes. if i login, i will only see a minimally displayed left frame.

Anyone knows the root of the problem? Is it due to Vista Home Premium? I have already disable User Control feature before reinstalling but to no avail. the funny thing is, TM1 Web was working initially but Excel service failed a couple of months back... totally weird.

[Michel Zijlema]

Hi harrytm1,

You're not alone in this - I'm facing the same problems on almost the same configuration (I use Vista Business Premium instead of Home).
This was already discussed in this thread (you initiated).
I've managed to get most things working as described in that thread, except for the Excel publishing, which is behaving exactly as you described.
I had given up on this for the time being, but I'm planning to give it another try with the installation of FP2 over the weekend.
I would welcome any tips/hints in advance

I don't think your Vista edition is the problem, I think it is Vista in general (and IIS 7 which is part of Vista and - based on another thread - not officially supported).

Michel

[Alan Kirk]

I don't think your Vista edition is the problem, I think it is Vista in general (and IIS 7 which is part of Vista and - based on another thread - not officially supported).

I think you're right about that; I have Vista Ultimate on my notebook, and I couldn't get Web to run when I had 9.4 on it. Not that I really put hours into the attempt.

As I noted elsewhere, IIS wasn't even part of the standard install of Vista Ultimate and I had to put it on explicitly. And the IIS control panel is completely alien compared to what I'm used to in Server 2003... to the extent that I didn't even WANT to try to get it to work. (Perhaps this is an MS "feature" for our "protection and security". That may also explain the Office 2007 ribbons. After all, you can't do anything wrong, if you can't figure out how to do anything at all...)

[jim wood]

After all, you can't do anything wrong, if you can't figure out how to do anything at all...)

After all random button pressing never caused anything to crash..........click, BOOOOMMMM!!!

what was that????

[Alan Kirk]

After all, you can't do anything wrong, if you can't figure out how to do anything at all...)

After all random button pressing never caused anything to crash..........click, BOOOOMMMM!!!

what was that????

Depends on whether you get to the random ribbon buttons before Vista informs you that "Microsoft Excel has stopped working because today has a "Y" in it."

Actually Word seems to be the flakiest under Vista, mostly when you launch the File -> Open dialog. Because of course that's cutting edge technology right there, boy!

[jim wood]

Opening files... how dare you. You'll be telling me next you would like to print the said documents as well.

[Alan Kirk]

Opening files... how dare you. You'll be telling me next you would like to print the said documents as well.

You mean, you can... PRINT from Vista????

[harrytm1]

thanks to everyone for posting.

the weird part about it was that BOTH TM1 Web AND Excel Publishing were working on my Vista laptop! Then, for some unknown reasons, the Excel service just became unstable and chose to NOT work most of the time.

Anyone notice the Excel Service properties that point to tm1 service instead of Excel service file? I notice that mine is different from my colleague. this probably explains why Excel service was not running after I had checked the Excel logs.

i'm desperate enough to give FP2 a shot... but look where FP1 had led me to... sigh...

[Michel Zijlema]

Hi harrytm1,

I finally found time to dive into this and managed to solve my (and maybe your?) problem.

At first I uninstalled TM1 9.4.1 completely, reinstalled 9.4.1, tested this and then installed 9.4.1 FP2.
After installing 9.4.1 the Excel publishing appeared to be some sort of working (I could open Excel websheets, but I was confronted with lots of hanging background Excel sessions). After installing FP2 the Excel publishing was no longer working, throwing a "Error occurred while converting the MS Excel workbook into XML format: etc" error.

I managed to fix the error by adding the NETWORK SERVICE account (the account the IIS Application Pool by default runs on) to the 'Launch and Activation Permissions' in the DCOM config:
- start DCOMCNFG
- select Component Services\Computers\My Computer\DCOM Config\Microsoft Excel Application
- right-click and select Properties
- go to the Security tab
- select 'Customize' for 'Launch and Activation Permissions' and click 'Edit'
- add the NETWORK SERVICE account and check all allows for this account

After this everything appears to be working as expected.


Michel

[harrytm1]

Hi Michel,

Thanks for the tips. I tried what you recommended and initially, it seemed to work on the budget input websheet in Planning Sample's Budget Planning Bottom Up Application folder. Then I loaded my own project and the "Error while converting to XML" failed. THEN I went back to Planning Sample and it now fails!

- What OS are you using? I'm on Vista Home Premium with default IIS and .Net Framework 3 selected in Windows Feature i.e. nothing more, just the default.
- Is your Vista User Access Control turned out?
- Did you set the TM1's setup.exe file to "run as administrator" (if your UAC is switched on)?
- Last and most importantly, when you access Services and right-click on "Excel Service", does the path point to "tm1_service_launcher" or "Excel Service". Mine is ALWAYS pointing to service launcher while my colleague who is on XP Pro is pointing to Excel Service directly.

I have been reinstalling OS, Office, TM1 etc for countless times these past 3 days and it is killing me! How do i get it work????

[Michel Zijlema]

Hi,

Apparently I was satisfied too quickly . Today the Excel publishing was not working on newly added sheets (the ones that were already converted to XML were still working).
I made another change to the DCOM launch settings which resulted in the Excel publishing working again:
- start DCOMCNFG
- select Component Services\Computers\My Computer\DCOM Config\Microsoft Excel Application
- right-click and select Properties
- go to the Identity tab
- select 'This user' and set your own Vista user as the launching user

Because of this change Excel will always be launched using my own user, but as I am the only user on this laptop I'm OK with this.

I run Windows Vista Business SP1. UAC is turned off.
My TM1 Excel Service points to tm1_service_launcher.
My Excel version is 2003 SP3.

Michel

[Michel Zijlema]

Hi,

Forget about the 'solution' above - after this change I can't load the TM1 Perspectives add-in in Excel without errors.

Michel

[harrytm1]

oh my, seems like we're back to square one... thanks for the heads-up.

FYI, i added all possible users in DCOM for all Security options and still the error occurs... i will post the image of the error message so that we can confirm we are hitting the same problem.

here is the image:

[harrytm1]

Good news, Michel (and whoever is facing the same crap).

manage to get Web AND Client working on Vista Home Premium. I took your recommendation on updating the Identity tab. But instead of change to "This User", I changed to "The Interactive User" instead.

Give it a go and see if it works for you.

To summarise (for those who are troubleshooting):
1) Not sure if Vista's irritating UAC affects the installation process, but i just leave it on anyway.
2) I go to Properties of the setup.exe file and set it to run as an Administrator.
3) After I install Vista, I intentionally enable IIS in Windows Features FIRST. I reboot and then enable .Net Framework.
4) As an added measure, I set up FULL Control on C:\inetpub folder as well as the folder where the project's files are located for "Network Service".
5) I was told that Microsoft updates on ActiveX Killbits will screw up TM1 Web, so I skip that update. Likewise for Security Update KB960715. However, I realise my Vista has never installed KB960715. Anyone has more info on this, please share.
6) I finally install TM1 by running the setup.exe as an Admin.
7) Next, as per Michel's recommendation, access DCOMCNFG using DOS prompt. Go to Computer Service > Computers > My Computer > DCOM Config > Microsoft Excel Application. Right-click "Properties".
8) Go to Security tab.
9) Go to Configuration Permission and add "Network Service".
10) Go to Identify tab and select "The interactive user".
11) DOne. You can test it out using http://localhost/TM1Web/TM1WebLogin.aspx.

[Michel Zijlema]

Hi,

I also had thought about the Interactive User setting and wanted to try this out when I would find the time again. It's good to hear this works for you. I now also changed to this setting and for me this also appears to be the solution - although I still feel it's a workaround and that the 'real' solution should be an IIS setting or someting.
But I can live with this - I'm not expecting ever to be faced with a customer who wants to install TM1Web on a Vista machine

Michel