Creating a Special User Account

If you run the Server as a Service, you should create a special user account, which gives the Server the right to access other machines on the network for necessary maps, xrefs and output directories. This account must be identical across all rendering server machines.

By assigning a user to the rendering Server service, you configure the rendering server to operate with the permissions and access rights of that user account. Without this assignment, the rendering server operates with system permissions, which do not let the server service access map, xref, image, or output directories on other machines.

Note: These steps require you to have administrative privileges on every machine where you set up this account.

For the following procedures, Windows XP was set to display a Classic Windows interface.

Next Step

The backburner.xml File

Procedures

To create a new user (Windows 2000 and XP):

1. From the Start menu, select Settings Control Panel Administrative Tools Computer Management.
2. In the Computer Management dialog, go to System Tools Local Users and Groups Users.
3. In the right-hand pane, right click in a blank area and choose New User to display the New User dialog. If the New User option is unavailable, you don't have the required administrative privileges.
4. In the New User dialog, do the following:
   • Enter a user name for the new account in the Username text box. This can be any name, but it should be the same across all network rendering machines.
   • Enter a password for the new account in the Password and Confirm Password boxes. Like the user name, this password needs to be the same for all rendering servers.
   • Turn off “User Must Change Password At Next Logon” and turn on “Password Never Expires”.

     This will bypass errors when you assign this special user account to the rendering service.

   • Click Create to create the new user and password.

     When the network is part of a domain it is a good idea to have your network administrator create a special user account on the domain. This user account would have read/write access to the network servers where maps, xrefs and frames are stored.

   • Click Close.
5. Do not close Administrative Tools.

To assign a user to a rendering service (Windows 2000 and XP):

Do the following on every computer used as a rendering server:

1. Make sure each server system is set up with the Network Rendering Server running as a service.
2. From the Administrative Tools windows, choose Services to display the Services dialog.
3. From the Service list, right-click the Backburner Server item.
4. Choose Properties to display the Properties dialog.
5. On the Log On tab, choose This Account and enter the name of the new user you created for the special user account.

   If a user account was created on the domain, you would enter [domain name]\[user name] as This Account, or you can browse the domain for the user.

6. In Password and Confirm Password fields, enter the password for the special user account.
7. Click OK to exit the Properties dialog.
8. If the service is started, stop it by right-clicking the item and choosing Stop.
9. Right-click the item and choose Start to restart the service with the newly assigned user.
   Note: If you did not turn off “User Must Change Password At Next Logon” when setting up the new account, you will encounter errors. You will need to re-login the newly assigned user so you can first change the password. Once the password is changed, the Backburner Server should start.
10. Close the Services dialog