1 Overview
Once the Prerequisites are completed, run the SoftwareCentral installer.
The steps in the installer may differ from this manual depending on your settings.
On the first screen, the installer will check that the server meets the minimum requirements.
Follow any messages the installer may give.
Run the installer on the web server, signed on with an account that has local administrative rights. Its steps are, in order:
- The requirements check.
- The service account.
- The site information and the database.
- The edition, the authentication method and the connection to your Intune tenant.
- Your Configuration Manager details (only if you kept ConfigMgr support).
- The installation itself.
2 Service account
On the next screen, you must enter the service account credentials. For ConfigMgr and hybrid environments, this must be a domain user. For Intune only installations in can be a local account in the format servername\username.
The service account must be a local administrator
This is the account SoftwareCentral runs as. Use a dedicated account that only has the permissions described in Prerequisites.
3 Site information and database
Now you must provide the site information for SoftwareCentral. It is recommended to use the default names and paths.
The site information is the name of the IIS site, its port, the name of the application pool and the folder SoftwareCentral is installed in. The installer also asks for the database details below.
Enter the server name for the SoftwareCentral database. Note that if the database is not on the default instance, include the instance name as servername\instance.
If you are using an Azure database, use "servername.database.windows.net".
4 Edition, authentication and Intune
Intune only:
In this step you can choose to install SoftwareCentral as an Intune only version or with ConfigMgr support. Choose "Disable ConfigMgr support" to use the Intune only version
Authentication method:
By default, SoftwareCentral use Azure OpenID authentication where users sign on with their work account. This option also offers multi-factor authentication and single-sign-on (SSO).
You can also choose to use Windows Authentication where users sign on automatically using their local Windows account. This requires an on-prem Active Directory and only domain users can access SoftwareCentral.
Multi-tenant support:
Check this to allow users from multiple Intune tenants to sign on to SoftwareCentral. Only users from tenants added to SoftwareCentral can access SoftwareCentral.
Use Entra ID:
Get group memberships from Entra ID instead of the on-prem Active Directory.
5 Connect to Intune tenant
Click on the "Connect to Intune tenant" button to automatically connect SoftwareCentral to your Intune tenant. (You can add additional tenants after the installation.)
This will open a browser window, prompting you to sign on to Azure. Use an account that has permissions to register an app with Microsoft Entra ID and assign the app registration with the required permissions.
After you have connected to Intune, you must grant admin consent to the new API permissions. A link where you can grant admin consent will be shown in the installer after a successful connection.
You can also manually create an app registration.
For Azure OpenID authentication, you must create the app registration now, before you continue the installation. Follow the guide here: Create App Registration for Azure OpenID Authentication.
For hybrid environments, you can connect to Azure from the Settings menu in SoftwareCentral. Follow the guide here once SoftwareCentral has been installed: Intune Configuration
SoftwareCentral signs in to the tenant with a certificate, which is the preferred method. If you did not connect to Intune in the installer, the first-time configuration lets you generate a self-signed certificate, download the .cer file to upload to the app registration, and test the connection (see Configure SoftwareCentral for the first time).
6 Configuration Manager
If you are installing SoftwareCentral with ConfigMgr support, you will see a step where you have to enter the details for your Configuration Manager (MECM).
Click on the "Check MECM" to verify the connection and create the login for MECM database. You can see the required permissions under Prerequisites. You may assign these permissions manually if the installer is unable to.
7 Install
When you have clicked on the "Install" button, SoftwareCentral will be installed.
If anything went wrong during the installation, the installer will highlight the errors with suggestions on how to resolve them.
A log file named "SoftwareCentralInstaller_Log.txt" is generated in the same folder as the installer, if any errors occurred.
This log file will contain more details about any errors.
8 After the installation
During setup, the SoftwareCentral installer may have installed additional server roles, features or the IIS Rewrite add-on that may require the server to be restarted. If prompted for a server restart, accept it before you continue, or restart the server manually before continuing this the configuration.
Once the site is installed, you can continue to Configure SoftwareCentral for the first time
The installation is not finished until you have done the first-time configuration. It must be started from the web server itself, in IIS Manager.
9 Best practice
- Use a dedicated service account with only the permissions listed under Prerequisites.
- Accept the default site names and paths unless you have a reason to change them.
- Choose the edition with care. Intune only versus ConfigMgr support cannot be changed without a new installation and a new database.
- For an Azure SQL database, make sure auto-pause is disabled before you run the installer.
- If anything went wrong, keep the installer's log file (SoftwareCentralInstaller_Log.txt). It holds the details of the errors.
- Back up the database before an update or uninstall, and keep a protected backup of the certificate you use for Intune.