ThingWorx Foundation 9 Trial Installer fails to install on Windows Server 2019

[rmeng]

Hi,

I just downloaded the newest trial from the download section and tried to install it.

The installer failed, then proceeded to delete all the log files and stack traces during the rollback.

After searching this forum I was finally able to find some logs in the %temp% dir, but not all of them obviously.

Here is what I have found, I hope it is enough to get the install going.

I replaced all the Java versions with the official Oracle Java 8 202 and set up all the env vars.

Thx for help,

Ralf

[Rick-Stanley]

I am sorry you are having trouble using the trial installer. A ThingWorx Trial that is hosted by PTC Cloud services is also available on the Developer Portal.

Windows Server has default permissions set to prevent software from being installed that acts as a server. You will need to configure these permissions to allow ThingWorx to be installed and open a server networking port. It is much easier to install ThingWorx on Windows 10. You can turn off Windows Defender to allow the installation to complete with one click.

The problem was most likely, either ThingWorx was unable to start, or the install script could not connect to ThingWorx after it was up and running.

Reasons why ThingWorx may have been unable to start:

1. A ThingWorx trial was previously installed on this machine and the trial period has expired.
2. ThingWorx was unable to open the specified server port due to insufficient permission or a process already running on that port.
3. ThingWorx was unable to write to a required directory locations.
4. Anti-virus software may have prevented ThingWorx from starting.

Reasons why the installer script could not connect to ThingWorx:

1. Anti-virus or Firewall software prevented the installer from connecting.
2. ThingWorx took too long to start and the installer timed-out.
3. The SSL cert is not where either the install script or ThingWorx Foundation expects it to be located.

Windows Server has default permissions set to prevent software from being installed that acts as a server. It is much easier to install ThingWorx on Windows 10. You will still need to turn off Windows Defender to allow the installation to complete.

[rmeng]

Ok, lets see if we get closer to a working solution.

Reasons why ThingWorx may have been unable to start:

1. A ThingWorx trial was previously installed on this machine and the trial period has expired.

No, there never was ThingWorx anywhere in our network. We are a company evaluating ThingWorx for our upcoming IOT platform and got sent here to download and install the software by sales.

1. ThingWorx was unable to open the specified server port due to insufficient permission or a process already running on that port.

There is nothing running on that port (thats why I chose it) and the installer has admin permissions, which means it has any right to open a port and can also hand that permission to the ThingWorx software. It could also modify the Windows Firewall btw, if it needed to.

Also, if it indeed WAS a problem with opening the port, then the installer should not delete the whole installation, it should just log into a file that it could not open that port. ThingWorx didnt do that, so either it isnt the problem or the software is very badly programmed (which hopefully is not the case).

1. ThingWorx was unable to write to a required directory locations.

Nothing like that was logged. Shouldnt it log the actual error then? Should be very easy to detect, right?

1. Anti-virus software may have prevented ThingWorx from starting.

There is no anti-virus running on that server.

Reasons why the installer script could not connect to ThingWorx:

1. Anti-virus or Firewall software prevented the installer from connecting.

No. The port is freely available and even cleared through the firewall. Which is not really needed anyway cause the installer is localhost.

1. ThingWorx took too long to start and the installer timed-out.

Why? How to fix that?

1. The SSL cert is not where either the install script or ThingWorx Foundation expects it to be located.

I installed without SSL and disabled that option. There is no point in having SSL cause it will be behind a loadbalancer anyway, which terminates SSL.

Windows Server has default permissions set to prevent software from being installed that acts as a server. You will need to configure these permissions to allow ThingWorx to be installed and open a server networking port.

Ok I got two questions about that:

1. Which default permissions do you mean, where do I change them and why doesnt your installer change them for me as it has admin privileges?

2. Why can any other installer in this world install itself, open ports and act as a server, but yours can not? (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL, MongoDB, MariaDB, Docker, Apache, Kafka, HiveMQ, Redis, InfluxDB to just name a few)

So I attached those log files. What do they tell someone with knowledge about the actual problem the installer has? It obviously is something with Chef, as there is a line in those log files. So lets talk a bit about that?

Thx for the suggestion with Cloud and Windows 10, but there is no way ever that currently any company will put its IOT data into a cloud service (thats why we are evaluating PTC after all) and there definitely is no way an on premise IOT backend will ever run on Windows 10.

Thx a lot for your time.

[Rick-Stanley]

I just confirmed that installing ThingWorx trial works on a Windows Server 2019 Datacenter instance running in Azure:

I created a 4 CPU, 16GB server running the latest available version of Windows Server 2019:

After the server was created in Azure:

1. I installed 64 bit Java 1.8.0_261 downloaded from Oracle

2. I changed the PATH variable from the default way that Oracle sets it, and added the Java /bin directory to the PATH. You can confirm the PATH is correct by running `keytool` and `java -version` from a command prompt. Confirm that you have 64 bit Java installed.

3. I downloaded and unzipped the ThingWorx installer from the ThingWorx Developer Portal.

4. I turned off Windows Defender anti-virus software:

5. I ran the ThingWorx installer as Administrator using these configurations:

When installation completed, I browsed to `http://localhost:8080/Thingworx` and entered `Administrator` and the password I had entered during the install process.

[rmeng]

Yes.. I did exactly the same, but not in Azure.

Ok, I couldnt install that Oracle version because this is a commercial business, I am running a production backend and the Oracle license doesnt allow me to install that version.

Anyway... it did not install for me.

How can I find out why it does not install from the log files?

Thx!

[Rick-Stanley]

The last line of the log file indicates that Java keytool was unable to run.

1. Anti-virus software could be preventing keytool from running.

2. The user running the installer may not have sufficient privileges to modify files or write to the directory.

3. The location of the Java application ‘keytool’ is not on your PATH. 

Please confirm step 5 of this guide gives the expected result:

https://developer.thingworx.com/en/resources/guides/foundation-windows-install-guide/foundation-windows-install-requirements

[rmeng]

Ok great, I went through the list:

The last line of the log file indicates that Java keytool was unable to run.

1. Anti-virus software could be preventing keytool from running.

I attached the Windows security screen... you can see that all firewalls are disabled and that there is no antivirus line because Windows Defender has been completely uninstalled and there is nothing else on that server.

Also the keytool works fine if I start it from the command prompt.

2. The user running the installer may not have sufficient privileges to modify files or write to the directory.

The user that runs it is the domain administrator account. So it has permission to access pretty much anything. Also I made sure that none of the folders exist before the installer starts. Is there any other specific folder that needs to be accessed outside of the folders that the installer creates?

3. The location of the Java application ‘keytool’ is not on your PATH.

You can see on the original post in the images that the paths are set, and the keytool works in the console for me.

So step 5 is confirmed.

What else can I check?

[rmeng]

Ok, I managed to find a solution.

I was able to install it on another computer by using a newer Java version (one that I am not allowed to install on the real servers because of the Oracle license).

So, although the sales team said this is not a problem, to me it looks like ThingWorx Foundation can not be installed using the last "free" Java version.

Can you confirm that?

[Rick-Stanley]

The installer worked for me with Java 1.8.0_202

[slangley]

Hi @rmeng.

If you feel your questions have been answered, please mark the appropriate post as the Accepted Solution for the benefit of others with the same questions.

Thank you for your participation in our community!

Regards.

--Sharon