Alert Environment Variables

The following sections describe Alert environment variables.

This page describes environment variables by function and how these vary with different releases.

Environment variable processing

At startup, Alert processes the default setting of environment variables.

• The environment variable is written into the database if the value for the corresponding configuration property isn't written in the database. Therefore, the environment variables take precedence over the default values shown in the user interface.

• If there is an existing configuration related to environment variables stored in the database, the environment variables will have no effect. 

Environment variables for encryption

ALERT_ENCRYPTION_PASSWORD=
ALERT_ENCRYPTION_GLOBAL_SALT=

Environment variables for the Black Duck provider

The initial Black Duck provider is configured by the following variables:

• ALERT_PROVIDER_BLACKDUCK_BLACKDUCK_URL - URL of provider

• ALERT_PROVIDER_BLACKDUCK_BLACKDUCK_API_KEY - Black Duck API key

• ALERT_PROVIDER_BLACKDUCK_BLACKDUCK_TIMEOUT - Timeout in seconds for connections to Black Duck server.

• ALERT_PROVIDER_BLACKDUCK_PROVIDER_COMMON_CONFIG_NAME -Name of this provider configuration, which must be unique. (Introduced in Alert 6.0.0)

• ALERT_PROVIDER_BLACKDUCK_PROVIDER_COMMON_CONFIG_ENABLED - Set to control whether Alert pulls data from the provider. (Introduced in Alert 6.0.0)

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 for Alert host name and port

Use the following environment variables for the Alert host name and port:

• ALERT_HOSTNAME: Specifies the host name of the Alert server. Do not use the URL for the Alert server to set this value.
  This variable replaces PUBLIC_HUB_WEBSERVER_HOST, which was deprecated in Alert 5.0.0.

• ALERT_SERVER_PORT: Sets the port for Alert.
  This variable replaces PUBLIC_HUB_WEBSERVER_PORT, which was deprecated in Alert 5.0.0.

Environment variables for resetting authentication

Use the following environment variables to reset the authentication mechanisms for the initial Alert startup.
These are useful if you have forgotten the Admin password, or misconfigured LDAP or SAML. These values were added in Alert 6.0.0.

For example, you might want to disable LDAP or SAML authentication, or reset the admin user password. You can re-enable the previous settings when you complete your changes.

• 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.

Environmental variables for scheduling

• 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.

Support for running behind a load balancer

Setting the ALERT_FORWARD_HEADERS_STRATEGY to "native" will signal Alert to use the X-Forwarded headers from requests made to Alert API's to construct the URL's to reach Alert. 

Environment variables for authentication with LDAP and SAML

The LDAP and SAML variables that started with ALERT_COMPONENT_SETTINGS_SETTINGS have changed to start with  ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS in Alert 6.0.0.

These variables are used to configure initial Alert values during the initial startup.

SAML

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_SAML_ENABLED=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_SAML_ENTITY_BASE_URL=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_SAML_ENTITY_ID=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_SAML_FORCE_AUTH=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_SAML_METADATA_URL=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_SAML_ROLE_ATTRIBUTE_MAPPING_NAME=

LDAP

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_ENABLED=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_SERVER=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_AUTHENTICATION_TYPE=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_GROUP_ROLE_ATTRIBUTE=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH_BASE=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_GROUP_SEARCH_FILTER=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_MANAGER_DN=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_MANAGER_PASSWORD=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_REFERRAL=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_USER_ATTRIBUTES=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_USER_DN_PATTERNS=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_USER_SEARCH_BASE=

• ALERT_COMPONENT_AUTHENTICATION_SETTINGS_LDAP_USER_SEARCH_FILTER=

Environment variable for disabling Google analytics

Synopsys Alert transmits data such as IP address, product name, and version to Google Analytics for future product enhancement. This feature can be turned off using the following property and value in the file blackduck-alert.env:

SYNOPSYS_SKIP_PHONE_HOME=true

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: Specify the following environment variable. Using this at startup also overrides Alert's default startup environment variables. The default value is true.
  ALERT_COMPONENT_SETTINGS_SETTINGS_STARTUP_ENVIRONMENT_VARIABLE_OVERRIDE='true'.

  • 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.