The configuration system includes features to cater for non-standard environments. Most CopiaFacts users will have no need to use these features, and they are not recommended for use unless no other solution can be found. We strongly recommend that you use (or convert to) the standard installation scheme, because it may not be possible to support the overrides described in this topic in future CopiaFacts releases or in new operating system versions.
COPIACONNECT.EXE
This program resides in the root of the COPIA share, with CF9REG.DLL, which it requires. Because the COPIA share may reside on a non-Windows file system, the program is only ever run on a machine which needs a connection to the COPIA share.
COPIACONNECT.INI
 | Only use COPIAINSTALL9.exe if you need to change this file. |
The COPIACONNECT.INI file is located on each machine in a 'Copia' sub-folder under Program Data. This location is essential to allow access by all users, services and print drivers. When this file is created, its permissions are set to allow access by all users. In some cases, however, site policy will restrict access to this folder. If so, a Windows environment variable named CopiaConnectIniPath may be set to the full path name of a COPIACONNECT.INI file in an alternate position. Wherever you locate this file, it must be made accessible to all local users and services.
COPIACONNECT.INI contains an entry in the following format:
[CopiaAppdataShare]
UNCname=\\machine\COPIA
It also contains an important Comment:
[DO_NOT_EDIT_OR_CHANGE_UNCname]
Recreate_This_File_By_Running=\\servername\COPIA\CopiaConnect.exe
The value of UNCname must be the UNC path name of a folder, typically in the form \\machine\COPIA, which contains the FAXFACTS and NETBIN folders. The requirement for this value to be a valid UNC path name is removed for Island installs as described below.
The COPIA share located from this INI entry normally contains the four items:
| FAXFACTS\ | the Copia Application Data folder. |
| NETBIN\ | a folder used to save network installer files |
| COPIACONNECT.EXE | the utility program which can be run from other machines which will be running fax server software (such as COPIAFACTS and FFEXTERN) to set up the connection to this COPIA share. COPIACONNECT.exe runs on the machine from which you load it, not on the fileserver where the COPIA share resides, with COPIACONNECT in its root folder, and program resides. |
| CF9REG.DLL | a support library used by COPIACONNECT and other CopiaFacts applications to validate the configuration settings. |
The FAXFACTS folder must contain at least the FFCFG.INI file and the FAXCOUNT.HWL configuration and license file.
CFLINK.INI
This optional file will override the FAXFACTS and NETBIN paths. For special purposes, the FAXFACTS and NETBIN folders may be located elsewhere or with different names, though this is not recommended. To do this, provide a file named CFLINK.INI in the root of the COPIA share (the folder named in COPIACONNECT.INI), which may contain one or both of the following entries, for example:
[CopiaAppData]
UNCname=\\machine\sharename\Fax
[CopiaNetBin]
UNCname=\\machine\sharename\Bin
The value of UNCname must be the UNC path name of a folder which will replace paths of the FAXFACTS and NETBIN folders and which must contain the same content. The requirement for this value to be a valid UNC path name is removed for Island installs as described below.
FFCFG.INI
The FFCFG.INI file must contain the entries
[FFCONFIG]
ExpectedUNCpath=\\machine\COPIA
ServerIP=192.168.1.11
ConfigurationFile=FAXFACTS.CFG
The value of ExpectedUNCpath must be the same as the value of the COPIACONNECT.INI UNCname. These entries will normally be initialized by the installer.
Some cloud servers are delivered with restricted network access, so that local shared folders cannot be accessed using a UNC path such as \\machine\copia. When COPIAINSTALL9 is run with an island command-line parameter, it creates a special 'island' configuration. This has the following differences from a normal install:
•It is identified by a registry key with a boolean value of True:
64-bit: HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Copia\CopiaConnect\Island
32-bit: HKLM\Software\Copia\CopiaConnect\Island
•The local folder of the COPIA share is saved in registry key:
64-bit: HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Copia\CopiaConnect\Copia
32-bit: HKLM\Software\Copia\CopiaConnect\Copia
•Various registry keys with names like UNCname are permitted to contain a path name on a local drive which is not a UNC path name.
•COPIACONNECT.exe is not installed and has no purpose.
•All CopiaFacts client and server software must be installed on the same machine.
The 'Island' configuration method may also be used for a site still running a legacy CopiaFacts version 7 configuration style, where common drive-letter mappings were used across multiple machines, instead of shared folders. This configuration method has been deprecated since the release of CopiaFacts 7.2 in 2005, and we can no longer guarantee that it will support all CopiaFacts components. In this case the Island registry keys shown above will need to be set manually, because they are only set automatically when 'Island' conditions are detected in COPIAINSTALL9.
Mapped Drive Letters
Using paths based on @FFBASE ensures that you can, for example, switch servers by simply running COPIACONNECT from the backup server. This is generally easier than having to change drive mappings as was often done in older operating systems.
| Mapped drive letters have the significant disadvantage that they are not shared across accounts, or between elevated and non-elevated sessions. Some of these issues can be avoided by using an EnableLinkedConnections registry value, added in: |
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Policies/System
We recommend that you search the Microsoft Technet and other sources for EnableLinkedConnections before you add this key.
CopiaFacts supports the use of a non-Windows file system for the COPIA share. Two executable modules will need to located on this file system, although they of course can never run there. COPIACONNECT.EXE and CF9REG.DLL are installed in the root of the COPIA share and are run from there on other CopiaFacts nodes in order to establish a connection to the share.
We recommend creating a COPIA share manually in the root of your file system, with empty NETBIN and FAXFACTS folders. Make sure there is full read/write permission for the user(s) who will be installing CopiaFacts Server on other machines.
Save the downloaded CopiaFacts Install Manager COPIAINSTALL9.exe to \\COPIA\NETBIN. Of course, executable files which you download to the non-Windows file server can only be executed from other Windows nodes where CopiaFacts applications will be used.
You can then run the install manager COPIAINSTALL9 from NETBIN on the first or only machine on which you will install the CopiaFacts server, and use it to download the current CopiaServerInstall910xxx.exe installer. It will automatically download to the NETBIN folder as will any FoIP or hardware installer that you download using COPIAINSTALL9. The Install Manager will also have installed COPIACONNECT.exe and CF9REG.exe into the root folder of the COPIA share. These are required to be run from other nodes to connect to the COPIA share.
Finally you can run the installer (loaded from within COPIAINSTALL9) to install the server applications on the machine you are working on.
When CFMSG is in use to support operation of CopiaFacts applications in service mode, it is normally installed and run on the file server. See the CFMSG documentation for how to configure this service when it is not running on a Windows machine on which the COPIA share is located.
