Analysis Server Configuration File (aserver.conf)

The Analysis Server configuration file (aserver.conf) contains settings that are used by the Analysis Server when it is first started. By modifying this file, you can control settings for:

the port the server runs on
the path to be searched for stored analysis components
the path to find user's "public_aserver" directories
which hosts are allowed to connect to Analysis Server

The Analysis Server assumes default values for each setting. Users can override these values if desired.

Shown below is a sample configuration file.

#
# this is the configuration file for the Analysis Server
#
#
# the port for the server to run on
#
port: 1835 
#
# The path where analyses are stored.
#
analysesPath: analyses
# 
# levels: 
# 
# 0 - none 
# 1 - connections only 
# 2 - component start and end 
# 3 - get, set 
# 4 - all 
# 
loggingLevel: 1 
#
# The user path specifies the directories to search for user
# account. The Analysis Server searches for "public_aserver"
# directories within user directories. The path is a semicolon
# separated list of names
#
#userPath: c:\windows\profiles;c:\users
#
# Allow connection by all hosts.
#
allow: *

The Analysis Server looks for the aserver.conf file in the same directory where the server is started. A different file can be specified using command-line arguments. If changes are made to the file while the Analysis Server is running, then the server must be restarted for any changes to take effect.

See also the Web Based Administrator for a more convenient way to modify this file.

Settings

Setting	Syntax	Description
allow	allow: user and hostname filter	default: none New as of build 158. User-based authentication added in v2.01. This command can be used to specify hosts and users which are allowed to connect to analysis server. Hosts can be specified using a wildcard such as .phoenix-int.com, which will allow all hosts in the phoenix-int.com domain, or as 134.23.14., which will allow all hosts whose ip address are on that subnet. Note, however, that using hostnames instead of IP addresses (the first format) will force a DNS lookup on all clients that try to access that directory. Depending on your network, this can have significant performance and scalability problems. You can prefix the host specification with a user or group specification by using the '@' symbol. For example 'bill@10.10.10.' will allow the user bill from any computer in the 10.10.10. network range. Prefix groups with "group.", as in 'group.weights@', which will allow anyone in the group called weights when connecting from anywhere. The user or group specifier must either be an exact name or the wildcard character '*', indicating all users or groups. This command can be used multiple times in the configuration file to specify a list of allowed hosts.
allowDirectTransfer	allowDirectTransfer: hostname filter	This command can be used to specify hosts which you always want to attempt direct transfers from.
analysesPath	analysesPath: dir;dir;...	default: analyses This is the semicolon-separated path that the Analysis Server maps to the root category. You may want to override the default value if you have a shared directory for maintaining libraries of components. Prior to build 173, this parameter was named analysesDir and could consist of only one directory If the librarianFile option is set, this option will be ignored.
associationsDir	associationsDir: dir	default: associations This directory holds the associations.dat data file and the associated Jar files for each association.
authGuestAccount	authGuestAccount: username	default: no guest account Added in v2.01 In order to allow clients from pre-authentication days, you need to set the AuthGuestAccount option. This maps a default user to try and use when old clients connect. The authentication subsystem must additionally be configured to accept this account with no password. This option will have no effect on newer clients Without this option, older clients will not be able to connect when Authentication is being used.
authOptions	authOptions: <options>	default: no default value Added in v2.01 This command allows you to pass configuration arguments to the Authentication sub-system. The format of this option is dependent upon the type of authentication system you are using. Currently, only plain, file based authentication is supported. The format for this is 2 filenames separated by a comma specifying first the password file and secondly the group file. Example: authOptions: passwd,group There is example password and group files delivered with the Analysis Server in the installation directory. These files set up a basic system with an administrator account, "admin", using the password "admin" and a guest account, "guest", with no password.
authSystem	authSystem: <specification>	default: no authentication Added in v2.01 If this option is used, the Analysis Server will require a username and password login from clients before they can connect. This information can be used in security files to allow or disallow access based on user information. Currently "file" is the only available option, which specifies that the Analysis Server should use a file based authentication database, much like UNIX /etc/passwd and /etc/group files. See Authentication for more help on Analysis Server's Authentication features.
customTempDir	customTempDir: dir	default: NONE Added in v4.2 When Analysis Server runs a wrapper that uses run sharing, it creates temporary directories to place the files it's dealing with. By default these directories are created inside of the directory that contains the wrapper. If this option is set, the directories are created in the specified directory instead. Note: Not used if runShareInUserDir is set to 'true'
deny	deny: hostname filter	default: none New as of build 158. User-based authentication added in v2.01. This command can be used to specify hosts and users which are not allowed to connect to analysis server. Hosts can be specified using a wildcard such as .phoenix-int.com, which will deny all hosts in the phoenix-int.com domain, or as 134.23.14., which will deny all hosts whose ip address are on that subnet. Note, however, that using hostnames instead of IP addresses (the first format) will force a DNS lookup on all clients that try to access that directory. Depending on your network, this can have significant performance and scalability problems. You can prefix the host specification with a user or group specification by using the '@' symbol. For example 'bill@10.10.10.' will deny the user bill from any computer in the 10.10.10. network range. Prefix groups with "group.", as in 'group.weights@', which will deny anyone in the group called weights when connecting from anywhere. The user or group specifier must either be an exact name or the wildcard character '*', indicating all users or groups. This command can be used multiple times in the configuration file to specify a list of denied hosts.
denyAccessByDefault	denyAccessByDefault: true\|false	default: false New as of build 158. This setting controls whether Analysis Server security should deny access to analyses whose security file does not explicitly allow or deny a client trying to access those files.
denyDirectTransfer	denyDirectTransfer: hostname filter	This command can be used to specify hosts which you do not want to attempt direct file transfers from.
denyDirectTransferByDefault	denyDirectTransferByDefault: true\|false	default: true Added in v4.2 Does this Analysis Server, by default, allow receiving file variables via direct connections from other Analysis Servers?
dftModule	dftModule: moduleName	default: NONE Added in v5.1 The name of a custom class to use for direct file transfer. If this parameter is non-existant or blank, the standard direct file transfer mechanism provided by Analysis Server is used.
dftConfigFile	dftConfigFile: fileName	default: NONE Added in v5.1 When using a custom class to use for direct file transfer, this setting states the configuration file associated with the module.
directTransferTimeout	directTransferTimeout: ###	default: 60 Added in v4.2 The connection timeout to use when conducting a direct transfer of a file before reporting an error.
enableBasicServices	enableBasicServices: true\|false	default: true Controls whether the basic services are started or not. This is what allows traditional clients connect and run codes. You may wish to turn this off in favor of the SSL Service in a secure environment.
enableHTTPServices	enableHTTPServices: true\|false	default: true Controls whether the HTTP services are started or not. If enabled, a web browser can be used to connect to the Analysis Server to configure and run components.
enableSSLServices	enableSSLServices: true\|false	default: false Controls whether the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption services are started or not. If enabled, an encryption enabled client can be used to connect to the Analysis Server and run components securely.
executablesFile	executablesFile: fileName	default: executables.txt Added in v4.2 This command determines where the executable location file is stored. This file allows the locations of various executables to be specified at the Analysis Server level and then be referenced in various wrappers without needing to specify the exact location in each wrapper. This file is in Java Properties format. An example of the contents of such a file would be: MSD=C:\\Program Files\\Phoenix Integration\\analyses\\TESTS\\ScriptWrapper\\msd.exe SHELL=ShellExecute.exe
fileVarsDirectTransfer	fileVarsDirectTransfer: true\|false	default: true Added in v4.2 Specifies whether the Analysis Server supports sending file variables via direct connections to other Analysis Servers.
HTTPPort	HTTPPort: ###	default: 8080 The HTTP port variable controls which port the embedded HTTP server runs on. You may want to change this setting if you are already running a web server on the same machine you intend to run the Analysis Server on.
jobSubmission	jobSubmission: command	default: NONE (LSF default: "bsub -I") If this setting is used, the following command will preface all textual run commands in wrappers. This is used to be able to submit all wrapper commands to a load balancing system.
jobIdRegex	jobIdRegex: regex	default: NONE (LSF default: "Job <(.*)> is submitted") When used in conjunction with the load balancing command, jobSubmission, this setting specifies how to obtain the job id from the standard output stream of the load balancing software after job submittal.
jobNodeRegex	jobNodeRegex: regex	default: NONE (LSF default: "<<Starting on (.*)>>") When used in conjunction with the load balancing command, jobSubmission, this setting specifies how to obtain the job node from the standard output stream of the load balancing software after job submittal.
librarianFile	librarianFile: fileName	default: NONE New as of v3.0. Specifies a file which configures the available librarians used to publish codes on the Analysis Server. SeeConfiguring Archiving and Versioning for more information about librarians and how to use them. NOTE: If this option is set, 'analysesPath', 'userPath', and 'smartUserScan' options will be ignored.
licenseFile	licenseFile: fileName	default: aserverLicense.lic New as of build 211. Specifies the location to look for the license file.
loggingLevel	loggingLevel: ###	default: 0 This setting controls how much information is logged about each connection to the Analysis Server. Logging levels include: 0 (none) - No log file for the connection is created 1 (connections only) - A log file is created for each connection, but nothing is written to it. 2 (component start, end, and execute) - Each component that is started, executed, and ended in the particular session is logged. 3 (get and set) - level 2 and all get and set requests. 4 (all) - all commands issued to the server are logged.
logsDir	logsDir: dir	default: logs This is the directory where the Analysis Server will write log files. The Analysis Server creates the following log files: connections.log - A log of each connection to the Analysis Server exceptions.log - A log of each error that occurs while the Analysis Server is running. This may be useful for diagnosing a component that is failing connection logs - Each connection to the Analysis Server maintains it's own log file. The contents (or even if the log file is created) is controlled by the loggingLevel setting.
port	port: ###	default: 1835 The port variable controls which port server runs on. You may want to change this setting if port 1835 is already in use by another application, or if you want to run multiple copies of the Analysis Server on the same machine.
publishServices	publishServices: [true\|false]	default: true New as of v2.11 If this option is true, Analysis Server will publish itself to the local network so that clients such as ModelCenter can automatically "know" about servers on the network. You may want to turn this option off if you are in an environment where security is important, such as on the internet. This feature uses multicast sockets to function. If your network does not provide multicast capability, or if you are not on the same sub-net as the Analysis Server, it may not function anyhow. As of v2.11, Analysis Server will no longer publish itself to clients which are disallowed based on the authentication settings. See the allow and deny statements for more information.
rootDir	rootDir: dir	default: . (the directory where the server was started) The root directory specifies the base directory from which other directories are specified. For example, if the root directory is set to "/home/aserver" and the logs directory is set to "logs", then the logs directory is actually mapped to "/home/aserver/logs". Note that if you fully specify a path for one of the other directories, it will ignore the root directory value.
runShareInUserDir	runShareInUserDir: true\|false	default: false Added in v4.2 When Analysis Server runs a wrapper that uses run sharing, it creates temporary directories to place the files it's dealing with. By default these directories are created inside of the directory that contains the wrapper. If this option is set, the directories are created in the users' home directories instead of where the wrappers are located. The username that is used is based on the user that started Analysis Server not who is logged into the Analysis Server using the Authentication feature. This means that this option is probably only useful for when you are using SSH connections to launch Analysis Server as a particular user. NOTE: This option overrides the customTempDir option
smartUserScan	smartUserScan: true\|false	default: false This option is used to have the Analysis Server attempt to automatically scan for user directories. This setting applies only to UNIX systems. If the values is set to true, the Analysis Server will automatically scan the /etc/passwd file and build a list of directories where users directories are stored. These directories will then be searched for "public_aserver" directories. If the librarianFile option is set, this option will be ignored.
sslCertificateExceptionListFile	sslCertificateExceptionListFile: file.xml	default: $runDir/sslCertificateExceptionListFile.xml As of v7.0, this option is used to specify location of a file that has a list of trusted PHX AnalysisLibrary servers. SSL certificate exceptions will be ignored servers in the file. This is used to allow Analysis Server to download class files for object variables from servers with misconfigured SSL setup such as self-signed SSL certificate.
SSLKeyFile	SSLKeyFile: file.key	default: aserver.key As of v2.1, this is the file which contains both the private key and the public certificate that the SSL service of the Analysis Server will use if enabled. This file must either be in Sun's proprietary JKS format, or in the standard PKCS12 format. The key within the file must have the alias 'aserver' assigned to it.
SSLKeyFormat	SSLKeyFormat: <pkcs12\|jks>	default: pkcs12 As of v2.1, defines what file format the SSLKeyFile is stored in.
SSLKeyPassword	SSLKeyPassword: password	default: aria1835 As of v2.1, the password used to encrypt the SSLKeyFile.
SSLPort	SSLPort: ###	default: 1836 The SSL port variable controls which port the SSL Encryption service runs on.
userPath	userPath: dir;dir;...	default: the userPath is empty by default This value specifies the directories that the Analysis Server should search to look for user directories that have "public_aserver" directories in them. Typical values include "/usr/home" or "/home/people". If you have a "public_aserver" directory maintained as "/usr/home/woyak/public_aserver", then you want to set the user path to "/usr/home", not "/usr/home/woyak". The Analysis Server will map a category to each user it finds a "public_aserver" directory stored in their home directory. For example, in the above example, the Analysis Server would create a category named "~woyak". If the librarianFile option is set, this option will be ignored.