ACM versions 9.1 and later are designed to work automatically with versions of Windows that have been updated with the DCOM Hardening support. However, there are cases where this behavior is not desirable. You can customize your ACM settings if you have the need to run ACM 9.1 without the DCOM Hardening changes, or if you have a version of ACM prior to 9.1 and need to make it work in a DCOM Hardened environment.
Disabling the ACM DCOM Hardening changes
If you do not want ACM 9.1 to use security settings compatible with DCOM Hardening, the behavior can be changed by modifying the Windows registry. The instructions below describe the changes required to disable the DCOM Hardening related changes in ACM 9.1
Open the Windows Registry Editor and navigate to the ACM settings location
For the 64-bit version of ACM, the location is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\AutomationSolutions\Communication Manager
For the 32-bit version of ACM, the location is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\AutomationSolutions\Communication Manager
Click ‘Communication Manager’ in the left-hand tree view so it is the selected node.
Right-click in the empty space of the right-hand pane and select ‘New > DWORD (32-bit) Value’
Change the name to: AuthLevel
Change the value to: 2
The new entry should look like the one shown below, outlined in red:
ACM must be re-started for the changes to take affect.
Enabling the ACM DCOM Hardening changes in ACM versions prior to 9.1
If you have a version of ACM prior to 9.1 and need to use security settings compatible with DCOM Hardening, you can enable the DCOM Hardening support by modifying the Windows registry. The instructions below describe the changes required to enable DCOM Hardening support in ACM versions prior to 9.1
Open the Windows Registry Editor and navigate to the ACM settings location
For the 64-bit version of ACM, the location is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\AutomationSolutions\Communication Manager
For the 32-bit version of ACM, the location is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\AutomationSolutions\Communication Manager
Click ‘Communication Manager’ in the left-hand tree view so it is the selected node.
Right-click in the empty space of the right-hand pane and select ‘New > DWORD (32-bit) Value’
Change the name to: AuthLevel
Change the value to: 5
The new entry should look like the one shown below, outlined in red:
ACM must be re-started for the changes to take affect.
ACM 9.1 writes the security settings in use to the Windows Event Log. You can verify the settings in use by starting ACM and then looking at the event details of the entry from the source “asiDATA”.
When the DCOM Hardening changes are enabled, the event log details show:
Using DCOM settings: Authentication = Packet Integrity (5); Impersonation = Identify (2)
When the DCOM Hardening changes are disabled, the event log details show:
Using DCOM settings: Authentication = Connect (2); Impersonation = Identify (2)