Working with STR

Owned by Jenni Wallin
Last updated: May 04, 2023 by Former user (Deleted)
3 min read

A principle behind the configuration representation used in the STR, is to support both manual configuration, i e editing configuration files in a text editor, and scripted configuration using the mzsh topo command. Most changes to the files can be done in either way. 

The figure below illustrates how you can edit a particular system property, either using a command or a text editor. 

Updating a system property in STR

Manual Configuration

There are three methods of manually editing configurations in STR.

Method 1

  1. Open a configuration file under MZ_HOME/common/config/cell/default/master.

  2. Edit the file and save.

  3. Run the mzsh command topo activate. This is required in order the for changes to become effective. 

    $ mzsh topo activate

Method 2

  1. Open a configuration by running the mzsh command topo open. The configuration opens in vi or the editor specified by the environment variable EDITOR.

    Example - Opening a cell configuration

    $ mzsh topo open cell:default

    Example - Opening a container configuration

    $ mzsh topo open main1

    Example - Opening a pico configuration

    $ mzsh topo open ec1

    or

    $ mzsh topo open container:main1/pico:ec1

    If the pico name is not unique in the system, you will be prompted to specify the container.

    Example - Multiple pico configuration sharing the same name

    $ mzsh topo open ec2 (/home/main1/common/config/cell/default/master/containers/main1/picos/ec2.conf,ec2,topo://container:main1/pico:ec2)
(/home/main1/common/config/cell/default/master/containers/exec1/picos/ec2.conf,ec2,topo://container:exec1/pico:ec2)

Multiple entries, select one:
 (1) topo://container:main1/pico:ec2
 (2) topo://container:exec1/pico:ec2
 [1] :
  2. Edit the configuration and save. The mzsh command topo activate will be called with the --verbose option and the saved changes are displayed in a scripted syntax.

Method 3

As an alternative to the command line  tool, you can manage pico configurations and start/stop pico instances from the System Administration GUI. For further information, see Managing Picos in Desktop.

Activation and Validation

When you use the mzsh commands  topo set or topo open, changes are automatically validated before they are copied to the active registry. If the command and its arguments can be parsed but fails the validation, you can update the configuration or use a reset command to undo the changes.  

You can disable the validation by using the option --no-activation. Changes performed by the mzsh topo will then remain in the master registry until you submit a separate activate command. 

 $ mzsh topo set --no-activation


The options --dry-run and --verbose are useful to learn the mzsh topo syntax. When you have edited the configuration manually, use the following command, to view the corresponding edits in a scripted syntax:

$ mzsh topo activate --dry-run --verbose

Example - Output from activate with verbose option

$ mzsh topo activate -v --dry-run
mzsh topo set topo://container:main1/pico:ec1/val:config.properties.ec.httpd.port 9096  # (was: 9092)
Dry-run: Validation successful
Dry-run: Stopping without performing activation
Dry-run: Active registry not changed

You can then restore the master registry with the the command mzsh topo reset.

Restart the picos to apply the changes

Note!

Changes to the STR are not applied on running pico instances or services. For instance, if you have updated the properties of the Platform and an EC, both must be restarted after activation.

Example, after an mzsh topo activate of ec5, mzsh shutdown and startup needs to be done to apply the changes.

$ mzsh shutdown ec5
$ mzsh startup ec5

Note!

Note that the sorting and layout of the configuration files may change when it is updated both using manual editing and the commands. That means that the exact ordering of keys, and layout of the file could change. However: this will not affect how the system interprets the configuration at runtime. It is not supported to edit the configuration files using command line utilities (such as sed or awk), all scripted changes must be done via the mzsh topo command, to minimize the risk of invalid assumptions regarding the exact layout of the configuration files.

For further information about the various sub-commands that are available in the mzsh topo command, see 2.1.15 topo in Command Line Tool User's Guide.

For further information about how to manage pico- and service configurations, see Managing Picos with Topo and Managing Service Configurations.

File Paths in Attributes

When you enter a path that is relative to MZ_HOME in the value of an attribute, it is recommend that you use ${mz.home} as a substitution.

In the following example MZ_HOME will be resolved to its current value e g /home/user/mz.

Example - Resolved path

$ mzsh topo set topo://container:main1/val:common.pico.rcp.tls.keystore $MZ_HOME/keys/platform.keys

The next example uses a path that is always relative to MZ_HOME.

Substituted path

$ mzsh topo set topo://container:main1/obj:common.pico.rcp.tls.keystore '{ keystore=${mz.home}"/keys" }'

Note!

When you are using ${mz.home} as a substitution, make sure to set attributes as part of an object, using the obj keyword.

Conflicting Attributes

The name of an attribute may contain the full name of another attribute. For instance, mz.httpd.security.keystore is a system property but its name is also a part of mz.httpd.security.keystore.password.

In this case you must ensure that the name of both properties are surrounded by quotes, or one of the properties will be overwritten at activation.

Example - Handling conflicting attributes, manual editing

common : {
    "pico.rcp.tls.keystore" : "home/mz/keys",
    "pico.rcp.tls.keystore.password" : "..."
}

When there are conflicting properties and you are using the mzsh topo command, also add single quotes, surrounding the target path (topo://..).

Example - Handling conflicting attributes, scripted editing

$ mzsh topo set 'topo://container:<platform container>/val:common."pico.rcp.tls.keystore"' "home/mz/keys"
 
$ mzsh topo set 'topo://container:<platform container>/val:common."pico.rcp.tls.keystore.password"' "..."