***This CDI guide is for the following General Ledger, Company, and Currency configurations.***

Centage Support will be reaching out to you directly for all additional setups.

• General Ledgers: Dynamics GP, Dynamics NAV, Dynamics SL, Sage 300/ACCPAC, Sage 500
• Single Company
• Single Currency

Contents: 

Introduction

Installation

Configuration

Scheduling

 

Introduction

Centage Data Integrator (CDI) is a 32-bit Window’s application used to facilitate a transfer of General Ledger data to Centage’s web-based application, Planning Maestro. In this document we will cover installation, configuration, and automation as well as provisioning access for the CDI application to access your General Ledger data.

 

Installation

CDI will need access to your General Ledger data. CDI should be installed on a Windows Server, preferably one hosting the General Ledger data such as a SQL Server.

1. Download CDI installer from a Centage-provided download link.
2. Extract CDI installer from ZIP folder.
3. Run CDI installer on desired install location(s), preferably as an Administrator.
4. A small window will appear.  Click Setup to begin.
   
5. Click Next.
   
6. Review and accept the terms in the license agreement to proceed, then click Next.
7. Specify the desired installation path (default setting recommended) and click Next.
8. Click Install.
9. Click Finish.
   Centage Data Integrator has now been installed. 

 

Configuration

Create a SQL User for CDI extraction

SSMS or SQL user – In order to extract data from your General Ledger system, CDI will require a SQL user with dbo.datareader access to your General Ledger Master Catalogue database and any other database containing production data for your General Ledger system.

Create the user in SSMS and ensure they have ‘Enforce Password Policy’ de-selected so that the password does not expire.

Then under User Mappings, ensure that the user has the db.datareader permissions for all required databases. We recommend creating a dedicated user for this purpose and naming it Centage but it can be any name.

 

Create a Preferences folder for CDI

This can be done within CDI but due to potential permissions conflicts it is easier to do through File Explorer.

Open File Explorer and navigate to the CDI installation path. If you used the default for installation, go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Centage\Centage Data Integrator

Add a new folder named Preferences.

 

Open the CDI application

It is recommended to run CDI as Administrator. CDI may not be able to save files unless it is explicitly run as Administrator (right-click > Run as Administrator) even if you are logged into the server as a user with Administrator privileges.

1. Launch CDI as Administrator. On the Configuration tab, click the Create button.
   
   
2. A “Save As” window will appear. Navigate to the Preferences folder you created if it does not automatically open to that folder. Enter your company name as the File Name and click Save.
   • If you get an error message prompting to save the Preferences file to your Documents folder, try closing CDI and re-opening it as Administrator.
   • If that fails, it is ok to save the Preferences file to the Documents folder. However if it is deleted, CDI will need to be re-configured.
3. Once the File Location text box has populated with the file path, click the Source tab in CDI tool bar.

4. Click the Down arrow button next to the <Select Source Provider> text box.
5. Under “Select connection type to server”, select the radio button for SQL Server (it is likely selected by default).
6. In the “SQL Server” Section,
   • Set the Server Name to the name of your SQL Server. In most cases you will not need the instance.
   • Leave the other settings on their default.
7. Under “Select Authentication Mode”, select the radio button for SQL Server User.
8. Under “Credentials”, ender the User Name and Password for the SQL Server User you created at the beginning of the Configuration process.
9. When you have entered the information as per the instructions above, click the Connect button under the Password box in Credentials.
10. Under “Plan Info”, the Status should now update to “Connected”.
    • If the Plan drop down is available, click on the down arrow on the Plan bar and select the appropriate company name. Depending on your environment, you may have to make sure the right Plan is selected, and not test data. The correct Plan Name is determined by your organization and not Centage.
11. Once the Plan is selected, select the Extract Data Tab
    • The Default Output Path should be correct. Make sure the Output path is set to a folder named Output in the CDI installation folder.

12. Leave all the other settings as the defaults.
13. Click Generate Files in the bottom right to start the Data Extraction.
14. You should receive a notification once the Data Extraction is completed.

15. Once the Data Extraction has completed, select the Upload tab.

16. Folder to upload should default to the correct path.
    • Make sure it is set to the same path as the Output Path in the Extract Data tab.
    • This will typically be C:\Program Files (x86)\Centage\Centage Data Integrator\Output
17. The Centage Planning Maestro site, Planning Maestro Username, and Planning Maestro password will be supplied to you directly and securely by our Centage Support team.
18. Once you have entered the information provided by the Centage Support team, click Connect.
19. Under the Connect button, the connection status should appear indicating a success or failure.
20. If the Connection was successful you should be able to click on the drop down list under “Planning Maestro Profile” and select your Planning Maestro Profile name. This will usually be your company name.
    • The Profile is set up by Centage for you.
21. Once the Profile is selected, click the Upload button to start the Data Upload.
22. The upload can take some time depending on your data and environment. You should receive a confirmation notification when the Upload has completed.
    • If more that one Upload runs at the same time it will fail. Please wait until your Upload completes before re-attempting an upload.
23. Once you have received confirmation of the Upload, you can move on to scheduling the Upload.

 

Scheduling

For CDI to automatically extract and upload on a schedule, you will need to configure a Windows User to act as a Service Account and a Windows Scheduled Task to start the CDI program.

There are multiple ways to set up the Windows User and Scheduled Task. These features are standardized across Windows Environments and will probably already be familiar to most readers. *The following will be an overview of a simple way to do so at a relatively high level.*

1. The Windows User needs the following:
   • A non-expiring password
   • Log on as Batch Job permissions
   • Full Control permission to the Centage Data Integrator installation folder
2. The Scheduled Task will need the following:
   • Start a Program
   • Program/Script: <file path to CDI application file>
     • Default -

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Centage\Centage Data Integrator\CDI.exe"

• Arguments: “<path to the CDI preferences file>” -e -u
  • Default example –

 "C:\Program Files (x86)\Centage\Centage Data Integrator\Preferences\Test.xml" -e -u

3. In the Scheduled Task Properties:
   • Set the Task to Run whether the user is logged on or not
   • DO NOT set to Run with Highest Privileges
   • Change the running user to the Windows user your created
   • Set Configure for to the most recent version of windows allowed for your server

Create a Windows User for the Scheduled Task

We recommend using a dedicated User to run the Scheduled Task for automatic CDI uploads. This can be a domain or local user. *This user will need a non-expiring password.*

This User will need the Log on as Batch Job permission. This permission can be found in the Windows environment CDI is installed on under Local Security Policy (secpol.msc)

              Then Local Policies > User Rights Assignment

              Find Log on as Batch Job close to the bottom of the list and right click to access Properties.

              Use the Add User or Group button to add the user you created.              

This User will need Full Control permissions to the CDI installation folder. One way to assign this is to open Windows File Explorer and find the CDI installation folder.

Right-click the folder named Centage Data Integrator (in which the .exe and other files reside). The default file path for this folder will be C:\Program Files (x86)\Centage

              Select Properties, then the Security tab.

              Click Edit, then Add and add the user you created.

              Once Added, select the user in the list and ensure that Full Control is checked off for the User.

 

Configure the Scheduled Task to run CDI

Open Task Scheduler and Click Create a Basic Task.

Set the Name to CDI Connection and enter a description that will help you remember, then click Next.

              Example – “Scheduled Task for CDI upload for Dynamics GP to Planning Maestro”.

Set the Trigger to Daily, then click Next.

Select a Start time. We recommend around midnight but you can set it to any time that avoid times where high resource services are running on the server, or backups.

              Leave the Recur every option on 1 day.

Click Next to move to the Action tab.

Select the radio button for Start a program and click Next.

In the next window:

              For Program/script: Click Browse and navigate to the CDI application file.

If you used the default installation path it will be in C:\Program Files (x86)\Centage\Centage Data Integrator:

In Add Arguments enter the path to the Preferences file you created in quotation marks, then -e -u

Example using default installation file –

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Centage\Centage Data Integrator\Preferences\Test.xml" -e -u

              Make sure to replace the Test.xml above with the name of your Preferences file:

Once you are ready, click Next.

Check the Open Properties option and click Finish.

On General:

• Set the task to Run whether the user is logged on or not.
• DO NOT set to Run with Highest Privileges.
• Change the running user to the Windows User your created.
• Set Configure for to the most recent version of windows allowed for your server.

Then click OK to save the settings.

You will be prompted for the username and password for the Windows user you created for this task.

At this point, the scheduled task should be set and the CDI data extract and upload should run at the next scheduled time.