Useful Update Parameters in Automated Deployment
The configuration merge feature can be used to update any combination of settings in an instance’s CPF. Several automated deployment use cases that you may find useful and make good examples of the power of the configuration merge feature, along with the parameters involved, are discussed in this page. The following sections are related to merge updates to update parameters in the instances CPF and are those used to modify values in the deployed instance’s CPF before the instance is started, thereby updating the default CPF in the deployment source (installation kit or container). Each parameter name provided is linked to its listing in the Configuration Parameter File Reference so you can easily review a parameter’s purpose and details of its usage.
Change the Default Password
As described in Authentication and Passwords in Running InterSystems Products in Containers, you can use the PasswordHash setting in the [Startup] section to customize the default password of the predefined accounts on an instance at deployment, which eliminates the serious security risk entailed in allowing the default password of SYS to remain in effect. (The password of each predefined account should be individually changed following deployment.)
| [Startup] Parameter | Specifies |
|---|---|
| PasswordHash | Default password for the predefined user accounts based on a cryptographic hash of the value and its salt |
The [Actions]/CreateUser parameter also takes a PasswordHash argument that is equivalent to the parameter (see [Actions] Parameter Reference).
Configure and Allocate Memory
There are a number of parameters affecting an InterSystems IRIS instance’s memory usage, the optimal value of which can depend on the physical memory available, the instance’s role within the cluster, the workload involved, and performance requirements.
For example, the optimal size of an instance’s database cache, which can be specified using the globals parameter, can vary greatly depend on the instance’s role; as noted above, sharded cluster data nodes typically require a relatively large cache. But even within that role, the optimal size depends on the size of the cluster’s sharded data set, and the implemented size may be smaller than optimal due to resource constraints. (For more information, see Planning an InterSystems IRIS Sharded Cluster in the Scalability Guide.) Further, because the database cache should be carefully sized in general, the default database cache setting (the value of globals in the iris.cpf file provided in the container) is intentionally unsuitable for any production environment, regardless of the instance’s role.
Some of the memory usage settings in the [Config] section of the CPF that you might want to update as part of deployment are listed in the following table:
| [Config] Parameter | Specifies |
|---|---|
| bbsiz | Maximum process private memory per process |
| globals | Shared memory allocated to the database cache (not from shared memory heap) |
| routines | Shared memory allocated to the routine cache (not from shared memory heap) |
| gmheap | Shared memory configured as the shared memory heap |
| jrnbufs | Shared memory allocated to journal buffers from the shared memory heap |
| locksiz | Maximum shared memory allocated to locks from the shared memory heap |
For more detail on these and other memory-related parameters, see System Resource Planning and Management, Memory and Startup Settings, Configuring Journal Settings, and Monitoring Locks.
Configure SQL and SQL Shell Options and Map SQL Datatypes
You can specify the SQL and SQL Shell settings for instances you are deploying by merging one or more of the parameters in the [SQL] section of the CPF. In the Management Portal these settings can be reviewed and modified on the SQL page (System Administration > Configuration > SQL and Object Settings > SQL). You can map SQL system data types and SQL user data types to their InterSystems SQL equivalents on deployed instances using the [SqlSysDatatypes] and [SqlUserDatatypes] sections of the CPF, respectively. For more detail on SQL Shell setting and datatype mapping, see Configuring the SQL Shell and Data Types (SQL), respectively.
Update Parameter Example
The following sample CPF merge file includes some of the update parameters discussed in the preceding sections. The SystemMode parameter specifies a label that is displayed at the top of the Management Portal.
[Startup]
SystemMode=TEST
PasswordHash=FBFE8593AEFA510C27FD184738D6E865A441DE98,u4ocm4qh
[config]
bbsiz=-1
globals=0,0,900,0,0,0
routines=64
gmheap=256000
jrnbufs=96
locksiz=1179648
[SQL]
DefaultSchema=user
TimePrecision=6
[SqlSysDatatypes]
TIMESTAMP=%Library.PosixTime
