MicroStrategy ONE

MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server

MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server is a proactive information delivery server that distributes personalized business information to users via email, printers, file services, SMS, and mobile devices.

System Requirements

For all certified systems, see Platform Certifications.

Compatibility and Interoperability

For the complete MicroStrategy platform compatibility and interoperability specification, see Compatibility and Interoperability.

Installing MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server

MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server is composed of a Delivery Engine and a Subscription Portal. The Delivery Engine and Subscription Portal can be installed on the same machine or on different machines. This is specified by selecting the appropriate options during product installation on each machine in the system. For steps to install MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server, see the Narrowcast Server Installation and Configuration Guide.

Download the software from the MicroStrategy download site.

If you encounter problems during the installation procedure, see the Troubleshooting appendix in the Installation and Configuration Help. If you require additional assistance, contact Technical Support.

Directory Structure

The following table provides the default folder structure that appears after you install MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server with no previous version of MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server installed.

The default folder is:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MicroStrategy\Product Name when installed on a 64-bit Windows environment.

If installing over a previous version of the product, the folder remains the same.

Folder Contents
\MicroStrategy\Narrowcast Server MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server program files, SQL scripts, sample code, tutorial-related files, objects to be imported during configuration
\Common Files\MicroStrategy Shared MicroStrategy program files; product documentation, Readme files and Release Notes; shared tools and utilities

Upgrading Narrowcast Server

To benefit from the latest functionality available in this version of MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server, the administrator must upgrade the MicroStrategy system. Additionally, pre-11 versions of MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server are not interoperable with MicroStrategy 11 software. It is recommended to upgrade pre-11 versions of Narrowcast Server to ensure proper functionality.

  • MicroStrategy products 10.4.x and 2019 and above can be upgraded directly to MicroStrategy ONE or MicroStrategy 2021.

For information about upgrading Narrowcast Server, see the Narrowcast Server Upgrade Guide. This manual guides you through the process of upgrading and covers the following:

  • How the upgrade process works
  • What prerequisites must be met before upgrading
  • What features will be upgraded
  • What features will not be upgraded
  • What post-upgrade steps must be performed to ensure that features are upgraded properly

You can find information on the NCS SDK, samples, and information about compiling in the MicroStrategy Developer Library. You can access the MicroStrategy Developer Library from the following locations:

  • In Windows, the default location is:
    • C:\Program Files (x86)\MicroStrategy\SDK\docs\DeveloperLibrary.htm when installed on 64-bit Windows environments.
  • In UNIX, the default location is /opt/MicroStrategy/SDK/Docs/DeveloperLibrary.htm or $HOME/MicroStrategy/install/SDK/docs/DeveloperLibrary.htm if you do not have write access to /opt/MicroStrategy.

Uninstalling MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server

Before you uninstall the product, note the following:

  • You should make backups of files that have the extension "properties" located in the Subscription Portal, Subscription Engine, and Common Files folders and subfolders. These files are modified when you configure your system, so when the uninstallation program deletes them you lose the modifications.
  • If you have configured services using the Subscription Portal Administration Wizard to support dynamic subscription or page-by personalization, you should also make backups of files that begin with "DYN" and have the extension "xml" located in the same folders. To locate and back up these files, you can use Windows Explorer or MS-DOS commands in the Command Prompt window. Your drive letter and folder structure may vary.
  • You must uninstall all Narrowcast Server components (Delivery Engine, Subscription Engine, Subscription Portal) before you attempt to uninstall Narrowcast Administrator.
  • If you uninstall and reinstall the product, your system is not restored to its original state. You must reconfigure the server configuration of using the System Configuration Wizard in Narrowcast Administrator. Additionally, you must restore the Subscription Portal configuration either by choosing a different Subscription Engine machine using the System Configuration Wizard, or by restoring the files that you backed up before you performed the uninstallation procedure.

For information about uninstalling MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server, see the Narrowcast Server Installation and Configuration Guide.

Resolved Issues

For a list of all the resolved issues in this MicroStrategy release, see Resolved Defects and Enhancements.

Troubleshooting

The information below provides troubleshooting information for known issues with MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server. For comprehensive troubleshooting information related to Narrowcast Server, see the troubleshooting section in the Narrowcast Server System Administrator Guide.

The troubleshooting techniques and procedures listed below for MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server are broken up into the following sections:

Troubleshooting Known Issues

Issues that have a prefix of S (that is, S#####) are customer cases that can be tracked through MicroStrategy Technical Support. Those that are prefixed with T (T#####) are MicroStrategy internal issues. Internal issue numbers do not correlate to customer case numbers.

  • T209900 - The File ITM allows write access to anywhere on the Narrowcast Server local drive when the File devices use only the macro "%%PhysicalAddress%%".

    Workaround: To control where users can create File locations, configure your File ITM devices to use relative paths (for example, \\server\share\%%PhysicalAddress%%) instead of using only "%%PhysicalAddress%%". To further restrict the write access you can disable "Create required folders" and "Overwrite files with same name". Additionally, you can enable "Append timestamp to file name".

  • T281348 - When trying to import an Excel 2007 .xlsx file as a template the error message "Failed to read the Excel file" is returned.

    Workaround: Save the Excel 2007 .xlsx file in "Excel 97-2003 workbook" format. You can then import the file as a template successfully.

General Troubleshooting

  • Symptom: When using the Subscription Book synchronization tool, some CSV files are rejected as corrupted, even though they are valid
    • Cause: The synchronization tool cannot process CSV files in which the number of fields in each row does not match the number of fields in the header row. (145685)
    • Resolution: When generating CSV files, ensure that every row has the same number of fields. You can configure Excel to do this by adding an extra "dummy" column to the end of each row, and populating that column with values in each row.
  • Symptom: When you try to edit a subscription information object, an error message with the text "Element not found" is encountered.
    • Cause: If an information source definition is modified so that various pieces of information are no longer retrieved from the Subscription Book, editing a subscription information object that relies on this information produces this error message. (147990)
    • Resolution: Modify the information source definition temporarily to allow retrieving information from the Subscription Book. Modify the affected subscription information object definition so that it no longer retrieves information from the Subscription Book. Then revert the information source definition back to its previous state, removing the ability to retrieve information from the Subscription Book.

Using the MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server SMTP Transmitter through a Network Firewall

In some cases, corporate networks make use of firewalls to protect the internal LAN resources from external unauthorized access. MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server is unable to transmit SMTP messages if the server Internet access is restricted by a firewall. In this case, all the SMTP messages need to be sent through an SMTP e-mail server with relay capabilities configured as a smart host. Configure the device(s) to deliver through a smart host:

  1. In the Device Editor, click the Delivery Options tab.
  2. Specify the IP address of the SMTP server. The SMTP server should have access to the Internet and it should be configured to relay messages originated in the MicroStrategy Narrowcast Server machine.
  3. Specify the port number where the SMTP server receives incoming e-mail.
  4. Select the Use Smart Host Always check box.
  5. Do the same for all the devices used by subscribers.