Editing the Global Configuration Parameters

To change the Orchestrator global configuration parameters (which can be done only by an Admin user), do either of the following:
To edit orchestrator.yml, open the following file:
/opt/aspera/var/config/orchestrator/orchestrator.yml

If orchestrator.yml is missing in the directory, copy it from the following location into the directory above (which is preferred because it cannot be overwritten during upgrade):

/opt/aspera/orchestrator/config/orchestrator.yml

To edit the configuration in the UI, click Engine > Configuration and edit the parameters on the Configure Orchestrator Parameters page.

The following table describes these parameters.
Parameter name Default value Usage
active_active false Set value to true when Orchestrator is clustered as active-active.
ad_user_groups Contributor When an Active Directory user logs in, this group is assigned by default.
allow_blank_password false Users with no password already set will be forced to create a password.
allowed_logon_attempts 3 Defines the number of login attempts with an incorrect password that are allowed before the user account is deactivated.
archive_dir Operating system-specific (refer to Orchestrator Directory Locations). This directory contains an archive of plugins, capsules and snapshots. The directory contents are generated by actions initiated from the Orchestrator UI.
aspera_dir /opt/aspera The parent folder for all Aspera products.
asynch_threads 2 Determines the number of asynchronous workers that are generated when Orchestrator starts.
auto_activate_portlets false When a portlet is assigned to another user or group, and this is set to true, the portlet is activated. The default behavior is that users need to activate portlets manually.
build not applicable Represents the Orchestrator product build number. This value should not be edited,
cleanup_cutoff 30 Determines the number of days that the data for a successful work order is kept in the database.
config_dir Operating system-specific (refer to Orchestrator Directory Locations). This directory contains an actions folder which has run time instances of the plugins, orchestrator.yml (the product configuration file), database.yml (the database configuration file), licenses folder, capsules folder, actions_config folder, default_plugins_list.yml file, and default_portlet_list.yml file.
custom_tables not applicable Any custom database tables to be backed up should be entered here as comma-separated values.
date_format american Format for dates displayed in Orchestrator.
db_bin
/opt/aspera/common/mysql/bin
This parameter gives Orchestrator the path to the bin directory of MySQL for commands like mysqldump.
default_step_timeout 60 The number of seconds after which a step should fail after a period of inactivity.
delete_journal_with_workorder false When this option is set to true and the user selects a workflow for deletion, both the selected work order and the journal associated with it are deleted.
disable_autocomplete_login_page false By default, the login page allows autocomplete of username and password
engine_heartbeat 1 The frequency with which the Orchestrator engine is polled for status.
engine_instance 0 This parameter takes a unique value in each of the nodes in an active-active or active-passive cluster. Leave default for single node install.
external_facing_uri not applicable Hostname or IP address.
external_javascript_lib not applicable Empty by default. Any new Javascript libraries used must be defined in this parameter.
fast_start false Changing the value to true on Windows prevents Orchestrator from starting all processes at once, which saves computer resources.
hide_preferences_for_groups not applicable If a group name is provided here, the Preferences link on the top right of every screen is hidden.
ifv_skip_start_event false If set to true, start events for inline file validation are skipped.
impose_strong_password false If set to true, strong password policies are imposed, such as the following:
  • Checking the strength of a password during user creation and user change-password operations.
  • Keeping track of unsuccessful login attempts.
  • Not allowing the user to set any of the previous three passwords as the new password.
install_config_file
opt/aspera/var/config/orchestrator/
The path where the configuration file (orchestrator.yml) is stored. This should be a folder that is not overwritten during upgrades.
install_css_dir
opt/aspera/var/config/orchestrator/stylesheets/
A safe place to store custom CSS files so they are not overwritten during upgrades.
install_images_dir
opt/aspera/var/config/orchestrator/stylesheets/images/
A safe place to store custom images so they are not overwritten during upgrades.
install_pages_dir
opt/aspera/var/config/orchestrator/stylesheets/pages/
A safe place to store custom web pages so they are not overwritten during upgrades.
journal_kept_duration 10 The number of days entries are kept in the Journal view.
journal_on true Changing to the value to false deactivates the Journal configuration on an Orchestrator server.
load_basic_workflow_dir Orchestrator Dir + /vendor/workflows The directory that has basic workflows available for loading when Orchestrator starts.
load_default_workflows true Changing to the value to false prevents the Orchestrator server from loading the default workflows.
log_file
/opt/aspera/var/run/orchestrator/log/orchestrator.log
The path to the Orchestrator log file.
log_level debug debug is the highest log level available. Other log levels, in descending order, are info, warn, error,fatal, and unknown.
log_retention_days 7 The number of days after which orchestrator log files are deleted.
logon_timeout 0 This value denotes the number of seconds after which a user is logged off, after a period of inactivity. Setting it to 0 allows users to remain logged in until they manually log off.
maintenance_interval 600 Number of engine "heartbeats" after which an Orchestrator maintenance task is generated. In other words, after creating work orders with a particular frequency of creation, the engine then initiates a maintenance task, such as deleting old work orders.
maintenance_heartbeat_interval 300 The frequency with which Orchestrator maintenance tasks are generated.
make_view_by_workflow_default false If set to true, the Work Order view is changed to View by Workflow.
max_tasks_displayed 12 The number of tasks that should be displayed in the Tasks widget.
mongrel_action_timeout 300 The number of seconds after which a mongrel process is determined to be stuck on an action.
mongrel_max_daemons 3 The number of mongrel instances that should be spawned when Orchestrator is started.
mongrel_max_serve 0 Deprecated.
mongrel_starting_port 3000 The port where the first mongrel instance is generated. Other instances will be assigned a port that is incremented by a value of 1 per generated instance.
orchestrator_dir /opt/aspera/orchestrator Windows The Orchestrator installation directory.
perform_ad_operation false If set to true, Orchestrator performs non-reversible Active Directory operations such as adding, modifying or deleting Active Directory users.
persistence_mode disk Persistence files are stored either on disk or in db.
personalized true If set to false, the CSS is reverted to a UI with a blue header (older Orchestrator UI).
publish_default_workflows true Changing this value to false prevents the Orchestrator server from publishing the default workflows.
purge_cutoff 60 Determines the number of days the data for failed, cancelled and error work orders is kept in the database.
rails_log_level error This value can be increased to warn, info, and debug (listed in increasing order). It can be decreased to fatal.
referer_hosts not applicable Used to block a request from an untrusted source or to enter the hostname or IP address of the Orchestrator server.
run_dir Operating system-specific (refer to Orchestrator Directory Locations). This directory contains run time information and is populated with files and folders from plugins, work orders, portlets. It also contains the log file.
strict_cache_control false If set to true, cache control header are placed on all web pages.
strict_prepost_processing false When set to true, a failure in the pre-processing or post-processing of a step will cause the step to fail.
strong_password_regex ^(?=.{8,})(?=.*[a-z])(?=.*[0-9])(?=.*[A-Z])(?=.*[@#$%^&+=]).*$

The regular expression against which the password is checked when a new user is created and when a current user password is changed. This will take effect only when the impose_strong_password parameter is set to true. The default regular expression requires that the password has the following characteristics:

  • A minimum length of eight characters.
  • At least one uppercase character.
  • At least one lowercase character.
  • At least one of these special characters: @#$%^&+=
synch_threads 4 Determines the number of synchronous workers that are generated when Orchestrator starts.
task_refresh_frequency 30 The frequency with which Orchestrator polls for a new task.
use_db_time false By default, the system time (local time) is used for the date format. If set to true, displays db time.
use_new_designer true If set to false, the Orchestrator designer screen will revert to a plain background, instead of the default grid display.
web_root /aspera/orchestrator/ When this parameter is set to a valid URL (which is different from the default), Orchestrator will make a request to Apache to render the Orchestrator UI at that URL.