AWS based SH server issues after crash

Server Administration
1

Our AWS instance crashed today and now a bunch of Access remotes are missing. My SH backup will be missing some new machines. Is there anything I can look at on the server to recover rather than going to backup?

2

Machines will continue to attempt to contact the SimpleHelp server on the URL that they have been configured to register with. If machines are not registering this probably indicates that the AWS instance is no longer accessible on the same ports and protocols as before.

If you access the /availableports page of your SimpleHelp server you will see what ports SimpleHelp can respond on. Make sure that these ports are open for both TCP and UDP communication. If they are not you’ll either need to configure the instance’s firewall or the AWS security groups to allow access.

3

As gchristelis stated, The server is just a mechanism to facilitate communication. Clients will attempt to connect to the server and when they do, you will see them. The connection isn’t dependant on what you last had/saw on the server. The only thing that matters is the address and port the client is trying to connect too, and that the server is on and listening to those addresses and ports.

Did you have server protection enabled in SimpleHelp? I forget what it’s called ATM put it generates a unique fingerprint and the clients and server must match.
https://simple-help.com/kb---server-id-and-authenticity
https://simple-help.com/kb---remote-access-services-report-a-warning-about-expecting-a-different-simplehelp-server

Maybe you forgot to add a port to simplehelp? Were you using something besides 80 or 443?
AWS firewall is misconfigured?
You forgot a secondary address?
Did the server get a new address?
Domain / ip mismatch?

Maybe the machines just haven’t come back online yet?

Hope you figure it out. I know it can be panic-inducing when something like this happens.
Simple-Helps client-server model though is pretty resilient.

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4

Thanks for answers. The missing machines are ones that can be offline for longer periods than normal. I realize now that you have to take steps to get machines off the console. So if those machines go back on they should show up again - that works for me.

I’ve never seen a whole group disappear - I think something did happen on the server.

5

Hi Doug. The whole group will disappear if the last machine in the group is offline. This keeps your online groups clean. The groups will re-appear soon as one in the group re-connects again.

Normally they would show under the “Offline” section on the left hand side just below the online ones. But since they have not connected yet, they will not show under offline.

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6

The category did show up again. The category is individuals (as opposed to companies I support) on break/fix basis.

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