Alert Environment Variables 6.2

The following sections describe Alert environment variables.

Environment variable precedence

At startup, Alert processes the environment variables set of initial default values. If the value for the corresponding property isn't written in the database, then the environment variable is written into the database. Therefore, the environment variables take precedence over the default user interface.

If there is an existing configuration that the environment variables pertain to stored in the database, then the environment variables will have no effect.  The environmental variables are used only for first time initialization of a provider, channel, or component in Alert.  

Black Duck Provider environment variables

In addition to the original three environment variables used to configure the Black Duck Provider in versions prior to Alert 6.0.0, there are two new environment variables used to create the first provider configuration. 

The new variables are as follows: 

The existing variables are as follows: 

Use the five variables to configure the initial Black Duck Provider.  You cannot create more than one Black Duck provider by using the environment variables.  To create additional Black Duck providers use the Alert user interface.

Environment Variables Added

The following environment variables that you use to use to configure initial Alert startup values were added in Alert 6.0.0.

• ALERT_LDAP_DISABLED
  When ALERT_LDAP_DISABLED=true LDAP authentication is disabled.  All other LDAP configuration fields remain set.

• ALERT_SAML_DISABLED
  When ALERT_SAML_DISABLED=true SAML authentication is disabled.  All other SAML configuration fields will remain set.

• ALERT_ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD_RESET
  When ALERT_ADMIN_USER_PASSWORD_RESET=true the default admin user's password is reset to the default.

Environment variables for Alert host name and port

The environment variables for the Alert host name and port are as follows:

• ALERT_HOSTNAME: The variable used to specify the host name of the Alert server. Supply the host name as the value. Do not set the value as the URL for the Alert server.
  This variable replaced PUBLIC_HUB_WEBSERVER_HOST.

• ALERT_SERVER_PORT: The variable used to set the port for Alert.
  This variable replaced PUBLIC_HUB_WEBSERVER_PORT.

Environment variables for authentication

The following environment variables that started with ALERT_COMPONENT_SETTINGS_SETTINGS have changed to ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS. These variables are used to configure initial Alert values for the first startup. The old environment variables are supported in versions up to but not including Alert version 6.0.0. The changes are listed in the following table.

Updated environmental variables in deployment files

• ALERT_COMPONENT_SCHEDULING_SCHEDULING_PURGE_DATA_FREQUENCY: The frequency for cleaning up provider data. When the purge runs, it deletes all data older than the value. For example, if the value is 3, then data older than 3 days is deleted.

• ALERT_COMPONENT_SCHEDULING_SCHEDULING_DAILY_PROCESSOR_HOUR: The hour of the day (0-23) to run the daily digest distribution jobs.

Startup environment variable override

There are two ways in which you can override Alert's default startup environment variables in Alert versions prior to Alert 6.0.0.

• User interface: In Settings, check the Startup Environment Variable Override checkbox to always override Alert's default startup environment variables with your specified system configuration. This requires a restart of Alert.

• Command-line: Alternatively, you can specify the following environment variable instead of the Startup Environment Variable Override checkbox. Using this at startup also overrides Alert's default startup environment variables. The default value is true.

Setting the override field

For the override field, which is not available in Alert 6.0.0 and later, you are not required to do anything. However, if you change the configuration or set the override field, then the following considerations apply.

• If ALERT_COMPONENT_SETTINGS_SETTINGS_STARTUP_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_OVERRIDE = false, Alert adds values from the environment variables to the configuration if the environment variables do not exist in the configuration stored in the database.

• If ALERT_COMPONENT_SETTINGS_SETTINGS_STARTUP_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_OVERRIDE = true, Alert adds values from the environment variables to a configuration if the environment variables do not exist, and replaces any existing values stored in the database. This is the default behavior.