August 2003
 

Analysts in the News
 

Susie Chapman
 

IMR is pleased to announce that Susie Chapman has passed the CompTIA CDIA+ exam!

The CDIA+ is recognized as the global standard of competency in the document industry. It consists of a vendor-neutral exam that demonstrates an individual's expertise in document technologies, including gathering business requirements, analyzing business processes, recommending and designing solutions, and planning for implementation. CDIA+ certified individuals have the knowledge and experience to sell, design, implement, and support key document technologies, including imaging, COLD/ERM, document management, and storage and retrieval. AIIM recognizes the importance and value of the CDIA+ program through its Master of Information Technologies designation.

Please join us in congratulating Susie Chapman on reaching this important professional milestone.
 

Jason Klinger

Jason is a dedicated and valued part of our Technical Support Department and has received the distinction of being the Technical Support Analyst of the Quarter for 2nd Quarter, 2003. We appreciate his fine work and dedication to customers and the contribution he makes to our team. Thanks for being here, Jason!

The Mysteries of Integrated Security Revealed

Why do I need to implement Integrated Security through Alchemy Server?

Integrated Security through Alchemy Server is a way to control how and what your users are able to access through the database. Alchemy has built in security using either database level or group level and allows you to control how your users view and access the information provided through the interface. You can further use this access to allow Windows Security to integrate with Alchemy.

Example:





Joe User logs into his computer using his windows password, opens Alchemy and accesses a database. WITHOUT the integrated security, he is prompted for a group name and password or a database password.

Using the Integrated Security through Alchemy Server you can eliminate the log in to the database AND control who has access to Alchemy Licenses as well.

Figure 1 shows two roles in the Integrated Security piece of Alchemy Server. The Administrator role will have the administrator for the database and will list every database under server control. Joe User’s Role will have his login name under Users and the database(s) he has permission to see or use that are under Server control under Database Groups. If Integrated security is enabled and Joe User does not appear under any of the roles, he will not have access to Alchemy and will see an error message when he tries to open the interface.

Figure 1: Alchemy Security.

When we enable our Integrated Security our diagram changes a bit.

Alchemy Server Integrated Security takes care of any log ins to the databases.

What if I want to use Integrated Security and Alchemy Web?

To further complicate this subject, lets add Alchemy Web to the picture. Some other things to consider as well include location of the databases and using a “Log On As” User through the Services Applet. If the databases are located on a different drive letter from the install, you must use UNC paths to add your databases to Alchemy Server and you must give the “Log On As” User full permission to that location.

Figure 2 shows the relationship between Alchemy Web Engine and Alchemy Server. Alchemy Web Engine adds the Server controlled Databases to Alchemy Web.

If the services are set up to run under a Local System account, Alchemy Web Engine will not be able to access databases through the Alchemy Integrated Security. A “Log On As” User must be assigned to all three services (LM, PM, Server) through the services applet through Windows. The “Log On As” User must then be added to a role in the Integrated Security piece and given access to ALL of the databases under Alchemy Server Control. The “Log On As” User must also be added to the Alchemy Server Group that is assigned at install.

All of the above considerations will make for a more secure Alchemy environment, but can cause multiple error messages to appear if assigned correctly.


 

Backing up Databases under Alchemy Server Control

A reminder that databases under server control must be disabled, removed or the Alchemy Server service stopped to get successful database backups. One method used by a number of customers is to set up a batch file and schedule it to run before the backup begins. This is simply to stop the Server service (command: net stop Alchemyserver). Another job is then scheduled after the backup completes to re-start the server service (command: net start Alchemyserver) or these commands may be included with the backup job itself.

Quality Control Tip for Scanning

Do you scan with more than one scanner at the same time into a common database? Do you have a scan quality problem (streaks, smudges etc), but are not sure which scanner is doing it? The solution is simple. Use a scan prefix. Its located at the bottom of the document tab in your scan window.

In the example above, I put an “A” in the scan prefix field. Now, all documents scanned on that scanner will have an “A” at the beginning of the file name. If you put a “B” in the prefix field of your other scanner, all files added to the database will have a “B” at the beginning of the file name. So, when you have a quality problem with scanned images, you will know which scanner to look at based on the file name.

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