Applies to the QEST Web App

The initial setup of QESTNet requires an administration to input details regarding the location of the QEST Platform Database.

Overview

QESTNet is configured to connect to the QEST Platform database. Details for connecting to the database must be provided to QESTNet in order to log in to the QEST Platform products and continue product configuration. This view of the QEST Web App will be presented if a database connectioni is not defined or a successful database connection test has not been completed.

The view that the user is presented with when loading the QEST Web App prior to a successful database configuration being completed is shown below. It is not possible to proceed past this point until the database connection has been configured and successfully tested.

Database Connection Settings

The following properties can be set for the QEST Platform connection:

Server: the name of the SQL server where the database is attached.
Database Name: the name of the QEST Platform database.
Use Windows Authentication: uses windows authentication to access the database. This will be true by default and will require that the service user running the QESTNet service has been granted dbo rights on the QEST Platform database. For more details regarding granting database access rights for QESTNet please see Granting Access to QEST Platform Databases.
User ID: Required if SQL Authentication is being used rather than Windows Authentication. The user id to use when logging into the database.
Password: Required if SQL Authentication is being used rather than Windows Authentication. The password to use when logging into the database.

Testing the Connection

Beneath the database connection details is a button that will test the database connection with the given details. A successful test is required prior to starting the QEST Platform.

Starting the QEST Platform

Once a successful connection test has been performed, the QEST Platform can be started. Upon starting the QEST Platform, the user will be redirected to the login screen.

Troubleshooting Guide

Restarting QESTNet

If the service user has insufficient permissions to restart the QESTNet service you will receive the following message when attempting to Start the QEST Platform:

The Service user may not have permission. Service 'qestnet (QESTNET)' cannot be stopped due to the following error: Cannot open QESTNET service on computer '<<Computer Name>>'.

This can be fixed by providing the QESTNet service user admin permissions which will allow it to stop and start the QESTNet service. See here for more details on Service User Permissions.

Fixing Incorrect QEST Platform Database Details

If incorrect details are provided for the QEST Platform database and the QESTNet service is restarted manually, it will no longer be possible to modify the database details through the QEST Web App. There are two options for fixing this issue, both of which involve manually modifying the custom.app.config file which is in the /config subdirectory in the QESTNet installation directory (usually C:\Program Files\Spectra QEST\QESTNet).

Protected Location

The default installation path is a protected location on Windows systems so only system administrators will be able to modify files in this location. In order to modify the custom.app.config file it will be necessary to either

Open it in a text editor that is running as an administrative user, or
Copy it to an unprotected location, modify it there and then copy it back, which will require elevated rights

The connection details can be manually modified and fixed in the file itself. See Granting Access to QEST Platform Databases for more details on how this connection string should be formatted.
The following property can be changed from True to False in order to force the QWA to display the Initial Setup page again.

QEST Platform 5.6 Documentation

Initial Setup

Contents