Update server configuration & synchronize remote servers

Update of the server configuration and server restart. Overview on the default and custom directories.

Context

The actions described in this article are carried out in the censhare Admin Client or directly on the server.

Introduction

If you are censhare Administrator with the respective permissions, you can configure the server, services and modules of your instance of censhare. All configurations you carry out are stored in customization files. If you are familiar with the directory structure, you can create the customization files directly on the server.

Customization files are stored in the directory "~/censhare/censhare-Custom/". The structure of this directory replicates the structure of the default configuration. The corresponding files are shown in the following table:

Note: The paths in the following table are given in the normalized notation. In other operations documentation articles, you will find the short notation: The default directory "~/censhare/censhare-Server" is shortened to "css" and the custom directory "~/censhare/censhare-Custom/censhare-Server" is shortened to "cscs".

When the runtime area of the censhare application server is built, custom config files overwrite the default config files. If no custom config file exists, the default config file is copied to the runtime area. Custom configurations are not automatically applied to your running system. You have to update the runtime area in order to make your configurations available.

You can do this by executing the Update server configuration action in the censhare Admin Client. This action updates the runtime area and applies your customizations to the running system.

censhare detects updated files on the local server by comparing the timestamps. If a file with a newer timestamp is detected, it is applied.

If you are using a distributed system with one master and several remote servers, you have to push the configuration to the remote servers by executing the Synchronize remote servers action in the censhare Admin Client. This action consists of two steps: it updates the configuration of the master server and transfers the custom configurations to the remote servers. The runtime is thus updated on all servers - master and remotes.

censhare checks files to be updated on the remote servers by comparing the checksum of the files. If a difference is detected, the changed file is applied.

The "Synchronize remote servers" action updates the master server configuration even if you work on a remote. However, we strongly recommend to always work on the master server when updating the custom configurations.

When to update the server configuration

Whenever you create a custom configuration in the censhare Admin Client, the corresponding directory and the custom entry itself are flagged. The flag indicates that you have to update the runtime area of the application server in order for your changes to take effect.

Icon	Meaning
	Flag: Update server configuration required

Note: If you are working directly on the server and copy the custom config file to the respective "~/censhare-Custom/censhare-Server/" subdirectory, neither the flag nor the custom entry is displayed in the censhare Admin Client. Only after you update the server configuration, the custom entry will be shown in the respective directory.

The following table gives an overview of when an update of the server configuration must be executed.

* For some configurations, server restart is not required. However, it is always recommended.

Update server configuration

To update the runtime area of the censhare Application Server, execute the "Update server configuration" action in the censhare Admin Client:

Icon	Meaning
	Button: Update server configuration

In the following dialog, you can select what exactly you want to update:

Start the action by clicking OK in the dialog. The result will be shown in a new dialog window. There you see how many files have been changed and whether any errors occurred during the update. For more details read also the section "Troubleshooting".

Synchronize remote servers

To update the runtime area on the remote servers, execute the "Synchronize remote servers" action in the censhare Admin Client:

Icon	Meaning
	Button: Synchronize remote servers

Start the synchronize process by clicking OK in the dialog. The result will be shown in a new dialog window. There you see how many files have been changed and whether any errors occurred during the update.

Troubleshooting

If you update your system to a newer version of censhare, custom configurations may cause conflicts after the update. This is due to changes in the structure of the default configuration file. When loading the custom configuration file, that has been created from an older version, censhare encounters the differences and marks them as conflicts. In the censhare Admin Client, they are flagged with a yellow warning sign.

In order to solve the conflicts, do the following:

1. Open the directory that is marked with the yellow flag.

2. Open the file(s) in the directory that are marked with the yellow flag.

3. Compare the versions of the custom and default config files. If the default config file has a higher version than the custom config file, the custom config file has to be updated.

4. Apply the structure of the default config file to the custom config file.

5. Update the server configuration. If necessary, synchronize the remote servers as well and restart your censhare server(s).

Result

The custom configuration is applied to all servers of your system.