© 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Connex Service Install Guide Document Details Document #: 160_CSIG_260714 Overview The Connex client automates data integration between your Point of Sale (POS) system and Net-Chef. The Connex client is a local Windows s ervice used to push data from a locally hosted POS to the Conne x cloud. This document provides installation instructions as well as some technical background for the Connex client. Be sure to grab the latest version of this document here: https://links.crunchtime.com/ConnexInstallGuide Related Documentation • RG - Domain Allow List: https://links.crunchtime.com/RG-DomainAllowList
2 © 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Table of Contents Prerequisites .............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Overview .............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Minimum Platform Configuration ....................................................................................................................... 3 Whitelist .............................................................................................................................................................. 3 Authorization Code.............................................................................................................................................. 4 Installation ................................................................................................................................................................. 5 Installation Steps ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Common Install Issues ......................................................................................................................................... 7 Antivirus Software ............................................................................................................................................... 7 Reinstallation Steps .................................................................................................................................................... 8 Uninstallation Steps ................................................................................................................................................... 9 Command Line Options............................................................................................................................................ 10 Quiet Install ....................................................................................................................................................... 10 Disable Version Check ....................................................................................................................................... 10 Logging .............................................................................................................................................................. 10 Heartbeat ................................................................................................................................................................. 11
3 © 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Connex Service Install Prerequisites Overview The Connex installer is built on Windows Installer framework and is distributed to you as an MSI file. Since the Connex installer installs and starts the Connex windows service, you must run the installer from a Windows account with administrative privileges. Minimum Platform Configuration Memory 4GB total RAM on the machine, at least 250MB of which should be free when the machine is fully booted and all the programs that normally run on the machine are running. Disk Space At least 100MB of free space is recommended CPU 64 bit processor Software Operating System Windows 7 64bit or Windows 10 64bit .NET framework Minimum v4.7.2+ is required Whitelist Depending on the level of integration, the Conne x client may send and/or receive data from servers that are only accessible over the internet. Some of these servers are behind a load balancer. Because the load balancer can add/remove/change IP addresses, it is not safe to specify firewall rules using IP addresses. You can add rules to your firewall(s) that allow for inbound/outbound TCP traffic to the fully qualified domain names listed in the following Reference Guide: https://links.crunchtime.com/RG-DomainAllowList.
4 © 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Connex Service Install Prerequisites (Continued) Authorization Code The Conne x installer requires an authorization code (sometimes referred to as an activation token ) to complete installation successfully. The authorization code is used by Connex during installation to identify which Net-Chef location it should send the data to. This code is unique to this particular location and cannot be re-used. Prior to installation at a location, you will need to request the authorization code from Crunch time via support@crunchtime.com. The following information must be supplied in your request: Information Description Example Location Name Name of the new location. Crunch Cafe - Boston Location Code The location code assigned to this location in Enterprise Manager. This must match the location code from Enterprise Manager exactly. 10002 Location Time Zone The time zone observed by this location. Eastern DST Observed Indicate whether this location observes daylight savings time. Yes (this location does observe daylight savings time) Go-Live Date This is first date for which Connex will send data to Net-Chef. 6/20/2023 Net-Chef URL This location’s Net-Chef URL. www.crunchcafe.net-chef.com Note: Please allow at least two business days between your authorization code request and the location’s anticipated go-live date.
5 © 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Connex Service Install Installation Install The installation wizard needs to be run on the computer that will be using the Connex service. 1. To begin, follow the link below to download the appropriate installer: https://crunchtime.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6312760404883-Connex-Installer-Latest-Version 2. Open the installer and run as a Window Administrator. If your user is not a Windows Administrator (or you are not sure), then right-click the .MSI installer and choose Run as Administrator. Note: The Connex service must be run with administration privileges after installation is complete 3. Enter the provided Authorization Code. 4. Select Next to continue. (Continue)
6 © 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Connex Service Install Installation (Continued) Install (continued) 5. When the Ready to Install screen apperas, select Install to start the installation. 6. Select Finish to exit the installation wizard. (Continue)
7 © 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Connex Service Install Installation (Continued) Confirm Service is Running Once the installation is complete, you will need to confirm the service is running using the following steps: 1. Open the Control Panel. 2. When installation completes, navigate to Windows Services. 3. Confirm the status of the Connex client is Running and the startup type is Automatic. Common Install Issues 1. If you receive a message for an Invalid Authorization Code during installation, assure that the code you used is the one given to you for the specific Location you are installing to. If it is, and you continue to receive this message, contact support@crunchtime.com for further assistance. 2. If after the install the service is not running: • Antivirus software may be blocking the services from running. • The user does not have appropriate Windows Admin permissions to run the installer. • The install may have failed to complete successfully. 3. If the service is running but data isn’t being sent to Connex: • Data may not be in the expected folder. • DB permissions are incorrect (Connex may not have the correct server host, username, or password) Note: If you’re unable to identify the issue, please send connex-installer.log file to support@crunchtime.com for further assistance. These logs can be found in the C:\Users\{userid}\AppData\Local\Temp folder. Antivirus Software In rare cases, certain anti-virus software will falsely flag one of the Connex executables as malware. If this occurs, you will need to configure your anti -virus so it will no longer raise alerts for the Connex software. Most anti-virus vendors support whitelisting of specific files to avoid these false positives. (
8 © 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Connex Service Install Reinstallation Overview In some instances, you may need to reinstall the Connex client. The options are to either install over the existing client or complete a “clean install” by uninstalling the client prior to completing the reinstall. Install Over Existing Client Use the following steps to install a new Connex client over the existing client: 1. Follow the link below to download the appropriate installer: https://crunchtime.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6312760404883-Connex-Installer-Latest-Version 2. Run the installer as before (do NOT uninstall first). Reminder: The installer should be installed as a Windows Administrator. If your user is not a Windows Administrator (or you are not sure), right click the .MSI installer and choose Run as Administrator. 3. Leave the Authorization Code blank and follow the prompts to complete the install. Clean Install Use the following steps to perform a clean install: 1. Uninstall the existing client (instructions below). 2. Re-install the Connex service using the install instructions. Note: If you’re completing a clean install, you will need the location’s authorization code reset. Please contact support@crunchtime.com to request an authorization code reset. (
9 © 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Connex Service Install Uninstallation Uninstall 1. Open the Windows Control Panel. 2. Select the Programs and Features menu. 3. Within the list installed programs, find the Connex Client program as highlighted below: 4. Right-click on the Connex Client row and select “uninstall”. This will run the Connex uninstaller. 5. After the uninstaller is complete, open Windows Explorer and confirm the following: • The Crunchtime directory no longer exists in in C:\Program Files(x86). If it does, delete it and all sub- folders manually. • The Crunchtime Registry was removed Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. (
10 © 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Connex Service Install Connex Command Line Options Overview The Connex Client installer supports any tool that can remotely install Microsoft Software Installer (MSI) files. In addition, we support a few command line options. The examples below use MSIEXEC, which is a Windows tool for command line installation of MSI files. The ‘/i’ option installs a product (in this case the Connex installer). Note: When using command lines to complete a new install, t he location’s authorization code must be included in the command line, or the commands will fail to execute. If you are installing the client for an existing location, the authorization code is not required. In the examples below, the authorization token is “crunch-10002”. Quiet Install The commands /quiet or /qn will disable installer prompters, allowing for silent installation of the Connex client. Example for Version v4.*: msiexec /qn /i connex.msi AUTH_CODE=crunch-10002 Example for Version v5.*: msiexec /quiet /i connex.msi AUTH_CODE='crunch-10002~~API_KEY' BASE_URL='https://valid-url.com' Disable Version Check DISABLE_VER_CHK [true|false] - if not included defaults to ‘True’. Connex automatically verifies that the most recent version of the installer is being used, and fails the installation if this verification fails. Setting this option to ‘False’ allows installation of an older version of Connex. Example: msiexec /qn /i connex.msi DISABLE_VER_CHK=true AUTH_CODE=crunch-10002 Logging The Connex client writes specific installation information to the “C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\connex-installer.log” file In addition, MSIEXEC itself can write its own log information. To do this, use: /L*V "<path to write the msiexec log file>" in the command line. Example: msiexec /qn /i connex.msi DISABLE_VER_CHK=true AUTH_CODE=crunch-10002 /L*V "c:\temp\msi.log" (
11 © 2023 Crunchtime Information Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. | www.crunchtime.com Heartbeat Overview The Connex “heartbeat” is the first command performed each time the services “wakes up” to do work. This command communicates the connection between the PC where the Connex client is installed and the Connex cloud. Connex tracks the time of the last successful connection and can generate an optional report of all locations have not reported a heartbeat. If you would like to receive this alert, please provide the email addresses (distribution groups are acceptable) for those who should receive the alert . To begin receiving this alert, please provide a single email address (distribution groups are acceptable). Note: If you wish to change or stop this alert, please contact support@crunchtime.com. Sample email: INFO PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL Each Location showing in the results below has not had a heartbeat in the last hour, meaning Connex is not able to make a connection with the POS machine at the listed Location. This should be reviewed at the Location. If you believe the Location is successfully connected to the internet and all Connex Windows Services are in a status of “started”, and have no other explanation for this issue, then a support ticket should be opened with Crunchtime. If this Location has closed permanently, please also create a support ticket with Crunchtime Support to relay this information. Location | Time Since Last Heartbeat CrunchCafe : 10002 : Boston | 15 hours,53 minutes CrunchCafe : 10063 : Revere | 3 hours,7 minutes Troubleshooting Tips If you see locations listed above, this may indicate a number of possible problems: • The computer may not be working. • The Crunchtime Service may not be running. • The computer may not be connected properly to the internet. • The Crunchtime Software may be blocked by anti-virus software. • The Crunchtime server addresses may be getting blocked. – Please check connectivity by browsing to https://onprem.ct-connex.com from the POS where Connex is installed. – If you DON'T see the message: "You have successfully connected", then please do the following: ▪ Check the internet connection. ▪ Check the firewall configuration to ensure that traffic from the POS to https://onprem.ct-connex.com is permitted. • (