Installing and Troubleshooting Signal Service

Overview

Signal Service automatically installs as part of SOTI MobiControl 15.6 or later Management Server (MS) and Deployment Server (DS). You cannot opt out of installing Signal Service.

Note: By default, the MS and DS connect to the Signal server on TCP port 13131.

By default, the primary Signal Service is hosted on the initial server where the SOTI MobiControl installer (15.6.0 or later) is run.

Note: In a multi-server environment, SOTI recommends installing Signal on the server you use as the Deployment Server Device Management Address (DMA).

In SOTI MobiControl 15.6.1 and later, you can change the Signal Service address, port, and Primary Signal Service designations in the SOTI MobiControl Administration Utility. See Signal Service for more information.

The Signal host environment has the following requirements:

  • .NET Runtime 6.0
  • ASP.NET Core Runtime 6.0
Tip: You can install these components using the ASP.NET Core 6.0 Runtime - Windows Hosting Bundle.

Signal Network Diagram

The following diagram illustrates an example multi-server environment with Signal configured.

Signal network example diagram

Troubleshooting

In SOTI MobiControl 15.6.1 and later, you can use the Administration Utility to:

Signal Service issues can arise when SOTI MobiControl Management Server and Deployment Server fail to communicate with the Signal server. This can cause:

  • Inability to view or save Signal policies in SOTI MobiControl.
  • Expected Signal policy actions to not occur (for example, those shown in the Execution History or Logs tabs of the Signal Policy detailed view).
  • Signal connection errors (such as Exception: Connect - Could not connect to Signal server) to appear in the MS and DS log files.

Perform the following steps to resolve connection issues:

  1. Confirm the Signal Service is running in the Windows Services Manager application. Start the service if it is not running.
  2. Check for errors in the Signal log located at C:\ProgramData\SOTI\Soti.Signal.log. Certificate errors in the log may indicate a configuration problem with the client certificates sent by SOTI MobiControl. To get more details, increase the logging level for the Signal Server. Edit the line under logging for Signal in

    C:\Program Files\SOTI\Signal\appsettings.json

    to:
    "Soti.Signal": "Debug"
    Note: The logging level is Error by default.

    You must restart the Signal Service for the changes to take effect.

  3. A No server certificate found error means that there are no certificates in the Windows Local Computer Personal store that match the Signal Service address for the configured URL. Install a matching server certificate on the system.
  4. If there are no attempts to connect to Signal, check for routing, DNS, or firewall configurations that might prevent the MS or DS from communicating with the Signal server. The MS and DS connect to the Signal server on TCP port 13131 by default.