SiteScope Configuration File Settings in master.config
Document Id:
KM173406
Is there a reference to uses for the many entries found in the SiteScope master.config file?
Response
Description of SiteScope master.config settings
SiteScope Configuration File Settings (master.config)
This describes the format and contents of the SiteScope configuration files. If you do not see some of the specific entries below it is possible to add them as seperate line items, if necessary.
Any changes to the master.config file will not take effect until the SiteScope service is restarted.
Make a backup of the master.config file before making any changes.
This information is primarily useful for administrators who need to generate the SiteScope configuration files for a large numbers of servers. This information may also be useful because it defines some rarely used options that are not present in the Web browser user interface.
Caution:
Mercury Interactive strongly recommends that changes to SiteScope be performed using the Web browser interface.
By modifying the configurations files directly with a text editor, it is possible to make format mistakes that can stop SiteScope from functioning.
Before making any direct modifications, make a complete backup of the SiteScope directory.
After making any modifications, test that your monitors, alerts, and reports are functioning correctly before placing it into a production environment.
Introduction
The configuration for SiteScope is stored in text files in the SiteScope\groups directory. The files can be edited using any tool that can manipulate text files.
The general strategy is to use the forms to create the configuration you want and inspect the text files to view the configuration created.
All the configuration files share a common format. A file is made up of several records and a line starting with the "#" character is used as a record separator. Within a record, each line specifies a single value using a "name=value" format.
Some of these tags can be used in the master.config, or the header of a mg file, or the monitor frame in an mg file. The header and each frame are separated by a line with # on it. This is useful in reducing the scope of a tag.
If you are instructed to change an entry in your master.config file, but it does not already exist, it is OK to add it as a seperate line item. Make certain to follow the formatting of the entry from the tech note below exactly.
master.config
Global settings are stored in the master.config file.
Initially, the master.config file is empty. Whenever SiteScope starts, it looks at classes\default.config and copies any new default settings into master.config.
_license=
The license number for this copy of SiteScope. The license number is the only setting required by SiteScope that does not have a default value. Without a license number SiteScope will shut down after the evaulation period.
These settings control browser access to SiteScope:
_httpPort=8888
The preferred port used by the internal Web server, blank to disable it.
_adminUsername=
The login name for the SiteScope administrator.
_adminPassword=
The login password for the SiteScope administrator.
_userUsername=
The login name for read-only access.
_userPassword=
The login password for read-only access.
_authorizedIP=
The IP addresses allowed access to SiteScope.
_checkAddressAndLogin=
If this is set to CHECKED, then the user's password is checked and their IP address is verified by SiteScope before access is granted. If it is not checked, then SiteScope checks only one or the other, not both.
_httpAdminRealm
The realm of the SiteScope Administrator when authorizing -- by default, this is "SiteScope Administrator."
_httpUserRealm
The realm of the SiteScope User when authorizing -- by default, this is "SiteScope User."
_disableLoginPage
Set equal to true for disabling the new login page method (i.e., page not dialog). Delete the variable to enable the login page again.
_disableLoginChangePassword
Set equal to true for disabling a user's ability to change his password. Delete variable to enable password changing again.
_ldapAuthenticationCaching=true
Enabled caching of LDAP authentication so that SiteScope will only need to authenticate once per session instead of for each page request. This is useful if LDAP is being used to authenticate access to the SiteScope UI.
_ldapCacheExpirationInSecs=60
Number of seconds before the LDAP authentication cache will expire. This is useful if LDAP is being used to authenticate access to the SiteScope UI. This only takes effect if _ldapAuthenticationCaching is in use.
_ldapMaxSummary=100 (characters or bytes)
Length of the LDAP Monitor status field reported in daily log.
(use in master.config, top of an mg file or frame in an mg file for the desired monitor.)
These settings affect the display of the Web browser interface:
_progressRefreshRate=20
The number of seconds before refreshing the progress window.
_mainRefreshRate=60
The number of seconds before refreshing the main SiteScope window
_groupRefreshRate=60
The number of seconds before refreshing a group window.
_overviewRefreshRate=60
The number of seconds before refreshing the Multi-view window.
_overviewColumns=1
Format the Multi-view using this number of columns.
_overviewOptions=toolbar=no,width=200,height=400,directories=no,status=no,scrollbars=yes,resizable=1,menubar=no
The browser options and size for the Multi-view window.
_overviewHideUserLinks=
Hide all links from the read-only version of the Multi-view.
_overviewServerFont=+0
The relative font size to use for server names in the Multi-view.
_overviewGroupFont=-1
The relative font size to use for group names in the Multi-view.
_overviewHideUserGroups=
A comma separated list of group IDs to be hidden from the user Multi-view page. The group ID is the mg file name without .mg on the end. This entry goes in the groups\multi.config file for each server that is to be affected. It will not work in master.config.
_overviewHideAdminGroups=
A comma separated list of group IDs to be hidden from the admin Multi-view page. The group ID is the mg file name without .mg on the end. This entry goes in the groups\multi.config file for each server that is to be affected. It will not work in master.config.
_httpCharSet=
The character set returned to the Web browser.
_displayGuages=
This will show guages on the SiteScope group views instead of green dots or red diamonds. The guages show what percentage of monitors are in error for the group.
_userEnableRefresh=
Set to true to show the Refresh button for users.
_userHideMoreColumn=
Set to true to hide the More column from users.
_errorInsertHTML=
HTML that is inserted at the bottom of any webpage that shows an error, including the SiteScope Panel, group Detail, Browse Monitors, and Muti-view windows. This can be any HTML, although it is quite useful to use for inserting sound HTML, such as <embed src="/SiteScope/templates.sound/Alarm.au" autoplay=true controller=false>.
_warningInsertHTML=
Works like the _errorInsertHML, except for warnings and OK items respectively.
_goodInsertHTML=
Works like the _errorInsertHML, except for warnings and OK items respectively.
_maxWordLength=8
Maximum number of characters to span before inserting a space into a group name on the main page gauge. This allows the browser to wrap to the next line. It affects the display of the group name only. NOTE: To defeat this feature set _maxWordLength=50.
_maxNumberGroupNameLines=2
Maximum number of lines to display for group name in main page gauge. NOTE: To defeat this feature set _maxNumberGroupNameLines=10.
_mainGaugesPerRow=3
Specifies how many rows will be used when displaying the gauges on the main page.
_noHttpAccessDuringInitialization=
If blank this will not allow the "SiteScope Starting" page to display. If this is set to anything or removed from the master.config completely the page will display. SiteScope Starting page displays by default.
_loginHTMLHeader=<center> HELLO WORLD 12345 </center>
If SiteScope Users are enabled, this will show the included html text above the "SiteScope Login" title on the login page.
These settings affect how much log information is saved:
_dailyLogKeepDays=40
The number of days of log information to keep before deleting old logs.
_dailyLogTotalLimit=
The maximum total size in bytes of primary log data before old logs are deleted.
_maxAuxLogSize=1000000
For SiteScope 7.9.5.x and earlier, the maximum size in bytes of other (error, access, alert) logs before they are deleted. Logs may grow beyond this size, and are then deleted at SiteScope restart. An empty log is then opened for use. In SiteScope 8.0 this no longer applies, rather the change must be made to the SiteScope/conf/log4j.properties file, specifically the def.file.max.size= property.
_postLogFile=
Set to true to keep a log of all the changes made using a browser (in logs/post.log).
_onlyLogEnabledMonitors=foo
This setting if not null, the runs for Disabled monitors will not be logged in the daily log files.
_createDailyPostLog=true
Used for creating daily post logs instead of a single post.log. When this setting is set to true, SiteScope will create daily post logs with filenames in the form of SiteScope\logs\postYYYY_MM_DD.log NOTE - when setting this property, it causes the access logs to contain extra columns of information compared to the single access log setting.
_createDailyAccessLog=true
Used for creating daily access logs instead of a single access.log. When this setting is set to true, SiteScope will create daily post logs with filenames in the form of SiteScope\logs\accessYYYY_MM_DD.log
These settings affect the sending of E-mail:
_autoEmail=
The E-mail address of the administrator for SiteScope.
_autoDaily=
If _autoEmail is set then this will send a daily status email message at 7:07am. These can both be set in the preferences->email page.
_hideServerInSubject=
Set to true to take the (your.server.com) from the end of the E-mail subject.
_mailServer=mail.freshtech.com
The SMTP mail server to use for sending E-mail.
_mailSubjectMax=160
Mail subjects greater than this length are truncated.
_mailToFromRemoveBrackets=true
removes the angle brackets from RCPT TO:<>, so it looks like this: RCPT TO:
_mailSubjectCharSet=
Changes the encoding used in the mail subject. Encoding possibilities can be found here.
These settings affect the sending of Pager Alerts:
_pagerInitOptions=
Initialization commands passed to the modem.
_pagerAttempts=4
The number of times to try sending a pager message.
_pagerAttemptDelay=120
The number of seconds to wait between each attempt to send a pager message.
_pagerTimeout=45
The maximum total time in seconds allowed to send a pager message.
_delayBetweenPages=5
The number of seconds to wait after hanging up the phone.
These settings affect the sending of Post Alerts:
_postAttempts=4
The number of times to try sending a Post Alert.
_postAttemptDelay=120
The number of seconds to wait between each attempt to send a Post Alert.
These settings affect the monitors that check URLs:
_sslSessionKeepAlive=
Set to true to keep the SSL Session alive when monitoring HTTPS sites.
_sslgetOptions= (for versions of SiteScope prior to 7.9.0.0)
Set to -ignoreErrors to ignore "certificate name mismatch" errors. Set to -ignoreUnknownCA to ignore "certificate authority" errors.
These entries may be put in the 'Post Data' field of an individual monitor:
sslgetOptions: -ignoreErrors -ignoreUnknownCA -x
User-Agent:
Custom-Header:
_sslAcceptAllUntrustedCerts=true (for SiteScope 7.9.0.0 and later)
Causes SiteScope to accept untrusted SSL certificates. Same as the check box setting available in the URL monitors, setting this in the master.config makes it universal to all URL monitors.
_sslAcceptInvalidCerts=true (for SiteScope 7.9.0.0 and later)
Causes SiteScope to accept SSL certificates that are deemed "invalid". Same as the check box setting available in the URL monitors, setting this in the master.config makes it universal to all URL monitors.
_sslJavaEnabled=true
Only used in URL type monitors. Code attempts to create a java ssl connection. If this fails then both _sslJavaEnabled and _sslJavaDisabled never get referenced.
If the java ssl connection fails then java ssl cannot be used at all.
If the java ssl connection connects then useJavaSSL=true.
If either of these settings is found then useJavaSSL gets set by _sslJavaEnabled if found, or _sslJavaDisabled if found.
If both exist the _sslJavaEnabled wins.
THEN, if "NT Challenge Response" is selected sslGet overrides the java SSL, even if _sslJavaEnabled=true.
_sslJavaDisabled=true
see _sslJavaEnabled above.
_urlAllowNoStatus=
Set to true to allow webpages without a status result.
_urlContentMatchMax=50000
The maximum number of content bytes to save for content match checks.
_urlHeaderLinesToSave=15
The number of header lines to report in content match errors.
_urlOtherHeader=Pragma: No-Cache
Additional header to pass in HTTP requests. Setting to "Pragma: No-Cache" is part of speeding up image download, if images is checked on a url monitor, and the download is very slow. See _urlLoadThreads= also.
_urlLoadThreads=4
The higher you set this the more threads will be allowed to download a URL page, images, and frames. 4 is a good number. 1 is the default internal number. Set this number higher to help speed up download of images, if images is checked. This is mainly used to simulate browser performance. You may set this in a group file header or individual monitor.
_URLUserAgent=Mozilla/3.01 [en] (Win95; I)
The user agent sent in HTTP requests.
_urlRedirectMax=10
The maximum number of HTTP redirects to follow before returning an error. Set to -1 for no redirects allowed, this will probably require changing the thresholds to make a '301 Error' ok.
_urlUnixSSL=
Set this to anything for https URL Monitors that use Cookies, and are using SSL through Java, rather than sslget through Windows. Cookies will be formatted on one line using this; while sslget requires one Cookie per line.
_urlLocation=,this server
This setting defines a monitoring location for the Global URL monitor.
_URLSequenceMonitorSteps=20
The maximum number of steps to allow in a URL Sequence monitor. You can set this larger than 20 to allow more steps, but if you set it less than 20 the code will reset it to 20. You cannot create more steps than this number using the UI.
_urlKeepAlive=0
If this is set to -1, and you are getting unknown error (-1) on URL monitors, change it to 0 and run the monitor.
_defaultmillisecondprecision=2
Determines how many values appear to the right of the decimal point for timing values in the status field for URL monitors. The default 2 decimal places.
_getExternalFiles=true
Drop this in a master.config or .mg file to include loading of javascript files, applets, and cascading style sheets with "load images" checked on a URL type monitor. Will get files, but does not emulate user experience.
Delete line or delete the "true" to turn off.
_urlHTMLInJavaScript=true
Include everything between these tags in parsing html.( <script", "</script> <noscript", "</noscript> )
By default these tags are ignored. delete line or delete the "true" to turn off.