PhixFlow Help

systemConfiguration

Forms: System Configuration

The system configuration shows all general system wide properties configured in PhixFlow.

To open the system configuration, press the 'Admin' button in the top right hand corner, and select 'System Configuration' from the menu.

General settings tab

The following fields are configured on the General Settings tab:

FieldDescription
Customer NameThis field cannot be modified. The Customer Name is entered during system installation.
PhixFlow InstanceAny text entered here appears on the application banner. For example if you have multiple instances of PhixFlow installed (Live, Test etc.) then you can enter a value in this field so that users can easily see which system they are using.

After changing this field you will need to restart the browser or reload the application (User → Reload Application) to see the new value in the banner.

System Email AddressThe email address where system generated mails will be sent from.
Default Export Excel Version
The default version of Excel to be used when exporting data from PhixFlow to Excel. This is only used if a non-valid excel extension, such as "csv", is used in the file name extension specified in the exporter. Otherwise PhixFlow will determine the correct format from the extension specified in the file name. See file exporters for details.
Validate attribute exists at runtimeSpecifies whether or not PhixFlow should check that an attribute exists when a model attempts to read the value of an attribute from a stream record or a record supplied by a collector. Previously, if no attribute could be found with the given name a Null value was return. If this flagged is ticked PhixFlow will now treat this as an error.
Allow access to data by defaultSpecifies the default data access permission on new streams. Possible values are:
  • "T" - By default, all users will be allowed access to the stream data.
  • "F" - By default, no users will be allowed access to the stream data unless they are a member of a user group which is explicitly added to the stream.
Note that this is just a default behaviour as any user with the permission to add user groups to a stream may change the data access rights for a stream.
Allow anonymous export by defaultSpecifies the default access permission on exporting data from a Datasource. Possible values are:
  • "T" - By default, all users will be allowed access to export functionality.
  • "F" - By default, no users will be allowed access to export functionality unless they are specifically configured against the datasource.
Colour of Windows with Focus

Colour for focused windows in PhixFlow front end.

After changing this field you will need to restart the browser or reload the application (User → Reload Application) to see the new colour.

Colour of Windows without Focus

Colour for unfocused windows in PhixFlow front end.

After changing this field you will need to restart the browser or reload the application (User → Reload Application) to see the new colour.

Online Support Url

The Url to open when the user requests online support through PhixFlow. Under normal circumstances you should not need to update this setting. If you have problem with PhixFlow help, please contact the PhixFlow support team (see the welcome page for contact details).

After changing this field you will need to restart the browser or reload the application (User → Reload Application) to start using the new help location.

Home Screen Message HTML FileThe path and filename of a file containing HTML that will be displayed on the PhixFlow home screen before logging into PhixFlow. See Setup PhixFlow Home Screen Message for details.

System Directories tab

The following fields are configured on the System Directories tab:

FieldDescription
Import File LocationThe default base directory path for files to be imported into Geneva. This field can be left blank. See File Collectors for further details.
Export File LocationThe default base directory path for files to be exported into Geneva. This field can be left blank. See File Exporters for further details.
Template LocationThe location templates when doing excel downloads.
Archive DirectoryThe default base directory path for data to be archived. This field can be left blank.
Restore DirectoryThe default base directory path for data to be restored from. This field can be left blank.
Application LocationThe location of the PhixFlow installation.
Plugin LocationThe location of any PhixFlow plugin applications.
Temporary File LocationThe location of any PhixFlow temporary files that are generated.
Performance File LocationThe location of the resultant analysis performance files when the system tuning 'Generate Performance Files' check box has been ticked.
Restricted DirectoryThe root directory path that all files read using File Collectors must reside under. Note that this value is not editable through the GUI and must be set directly within the database.
File Upload DirectoryThe root location of all uploaded files and all processed incoming email's.
The sub directory structure of the resultant (uploaded files/processed email's) is the following:-

Uploaded Files:
/FileCollector Name/in/YYYYMMDD/UniqueId/

where YYYYMMDD represents the date the files were uploaded and UniqueId is a 32 character unique identifier.

Incoming Email's:
/YYYYMMDD/EmailId/

where YYYYMMDD represents the date the email was read and processed by PhixFlow and EmailId is a 32 character unique email identifier.

For Email's each EmailId folder will contain a file called body.txt representing the main body content of the email and also any corresponding email attachments.

System Tuning tab

The following fields are configured on the System Tuning tab:

FieldDescription
Thread Pool SizeThe number of threads that can be in the pool at any time. This is an advanced option which should not be updated without advice from the PhixFlow support team. This is generally a small multiple of the number of CPU cores on your machine.
Write Processes Per Stream SetThis is an advanced tuning feature which enables PhixFlow to multi-thread the process of writing Stream Data to the database. The value of this parameter is dependent upon machine versus database performance.
Database Flush SizeDefines how frequently objects are written to disc. This is an advanced option which should not be updated without advice from the PhixFlow support team.
Delete Batch SizeDefines the default number of rows to be deleted from a Stream in a single transaction when Archiving or Rolling back data. This is an advanced option which should not be updated without advice from the PhixFlow support team.
Default Page Size

Defines the default number of rows to be loaded into to a grid when displayed in PhixFlow. This is an advanced option which should not be updated without advice from the PhixFlow support team.

After changing this field you will need to restart the browser or reload the application (User → Reload Application) to apply the new default page size.

Maximum Page/Chart SizeThis value defines the largest number of records that can be downloaded from a chart in a single file. Downloads with more than this number of records will be split into multiple files which are zipped together.
Default Buffer SizeWhen reading in data from a collector, this defines how many rows are held in memory before passing them on for processing. This means that if PhixFlow is reading in 10,000,000 records, it doesn't have to wait until all have been loaded before it begins to process them, but can begin processing after the first 2000 have been read. This is an advanced option which should not be updated without advice from the PhixFlow support team.

Enforce Pipe Cache Size

If checked, the Pipe Cache sizes below, and per Pipe, are strictly enforced; a pipe lookup which tries to cache too many records will fail and an error will be reported.

If not checked, exceeding the cache size on a pipe will result in a warning message.

Default Pipe Cache SizeThis value is used when a pipe's cache size has not been set.
Max Pipe Cache SizeThis value is the maximum value that Cache Size can be set to on any pipe; a pipe with a Cache Size greater than this will generate a run-time error.
Result Expiry Time (sec)The length of time the PhixFlow front end application will wait for a result from an asynchronous query before abandoning it. This is an advanced option which should not be updated without advice from the PhixFlow support team.
Maximum File Size Attachment (MB)

Outgoing Email's will only attach files (zipped or unzipped) that do not exceed this configuration limit. An extra message will appear in the email's message subject/body indicating to the recipient that a file attachment has been removed due to this size restriction.

PhixFlow will not impose any upper limit to the size of the attached files if this field is left blank, hence in this case the underlying email servers will determine if the message is sent/received correctly or not.

Maximum Exporters ErrorsIf required, you can set the maximum number of errors found, before exporters will stop attempting to export records.
This is useful where you process large number of records and do not want to wait until all records are processed in case of errors occurred. This value can be overridden in Exporters.
Generate Performance StatsIf checked, PhixFlow will generate performance statistics whilst the analysis engine is running.
Log Statistics to FileIf checked, logging is enabled and Processing Statistics are written to file.
Stats File Logging SecondsA period in seconds controlling how often statistical data is written to file.
Log Statistics to DBIf checked, logging is enabled and Processing Statistics are written to the database. See Processing Statistics for further detail.
Stats DB Logging SecondsA period in seconds controlling how often statistical data is written to the database.

GUI Tuning tab

The following fields are configured on the GUI Tuning tab:

Warning: The following are advanced settings which should not be changed without consulting PhixFlow Solutions.

FieldDescription
Maximum Script Run Time (sec)This sets the maximum time (in seconds) that background clean-up processes in the client application are allowed to run for before handing control back to the user. Setting this too high may result in "Script running slowly" messages.
Inactivity Time (sec)This sets the amount of time (in seconds) that must pass after a user operation before the PhixFlow client application will start any background clean-up processes.
GUI Retry AttemptsThis field can be used to instruct PhixFlow to automatically retry a client (GUI) operation if the client receives a network error. If set to a non-zero value, the client will attempt to resend a request to the server the number of times specified by this field. Each time a request is resent, the GUI will indicate on the status panel the total number of errors received so far and the time of the last error.

This setting should only be used if your network is unreliable. By default this field is set to 0.
GUI Retry Interval (ms)If "GUI Retry Attempts" is set to a non-zero value, this field indicates how long (in milliseconds) the client waits until it attempts to resend a failed request to the server. Typically this is set to 500 milliseconds.

Advanced tab

The following fields are configured on the Advanced tab:

FieldDescription
System LanguageThe system language code specifies which language should be used for login screens and for all non interactive messages.
Default Character SetThe character set PhixFlow assumes when reading from or writing to any plain text or CSV file. Please note that this must be a character set supported by the Java virtual machine and that multi byte settings such as UTF8 (e.g. for Japanese etc.) are supported.
Line Separator StyleThe user can specify a default line separator style that will be used by File Exporters where no particular line separator has been specified. If the user does not specify a default style here then the default will revert to be the default of the operating system on which the PhixFlow server is running. In addition you can specify the line separator on each file exporter where a particular exporter needs to use a style other than the system default.
Data Storage GroupThe Data Storage Group to use when creating tables to store Stream data. This field is interpreted differently depending on the underlying database:
On Oracle, a Data Storage Group is equivalent to a Tablespace.
On SQL Server, a Data Storage Group is equivalent to a Filegroup.
If no Data Storage Group is specified, the database user's default setting will be used.
Default Stream StorageThis specifies the default Storage Type when creating a new Stream.
  • Database: Store the data in a regular table within the PhixFlow database. This is the most common option
  • Database (Partitioned): Store the data in a partitioned table within the PhixFlow database. This option provides improved performance for rollback and archiving of very large Streamsets. The option is only available if "partitioning" is available within your database installation.
  • In Memory: Data for the Stream will not be written to the database. This option can be used (for example) when you want to aggregate large amounts of unsorted data which can then be written to a stored Stream.
Effective DateEffective date to be used when date override is in use.
Schema VersionRead only: the version of the schema currently installed.
Licence KeyThis is the Licence Key for your PhixFlow Installation which is provided by PhixFlow Customer Support. If PhixFlow is not configured with a valid key, analysis tasks will not run and an error message will be displayed in the log file.

A Licence key can sometimes be associated with an expiry date. If the licence has expired an additional field will show the expiry date. After a licence has expired PhixFlow will generate warning messages in the analysis logs for 28 days beyond the expiry date. After this time analysis tasks will cease to run.

Delete Log Messages after Days

If this field is set, a System Task, when run, deletes Log Messages and Managed Files for Log Files older than this number of days.

See Task Plans for how to set up and run a System Task.

Archive deleted log messages to file

Whether to archive Log Messages to file before deletion. Archived Log Messages are written to archive files in the Archive Directory (see above).

There is no option to archive Managed File entries to file before deleting them.

Default Password PolicyThe password policy selected by default when creating new users. Password Policies can be edited in the Password Policies List
Allow Reset Configuration

Before performing a 'Reset Configuration' the administrator must tick this checkbox to allow access to reset the configuration.

WARNING: Resetting the configuration will delete all configuration data in the PhixFlow Instance.

See Configuration Reset for how to reset the configuration

Delete Stats Records after Days

If this field is set, a System Task, when run, deletes Processing Statistics records from the Database older than this number of days.

See Task Plans for how to set up and run a System Task.

Archive deleted Stats Records to fileArchiving is not yet available for Processing Statistics records that have been deleted. Records are currently only deleted after the number of days specified in the System Configuration 'Delete Stats Record after Days' field.

Active Directory tab

The following fields are configured on the Active Directory tab:

FieldDescription
Default DomainThe default Domain which will be initially selected on the login screen.
Active Directory Login GroupNames of Active Directory Groups whose members are allowed to log in into the PhixFlow. Names can be separated by a semicolon. Use {instance} to include the PhixFlow instance name.

Form Icons

 

The form provides the standard form icons.

See Also

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