Configuration
  • 05 Mar 2024
  • 7 Minutes to read
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Configuration

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Article Summary

Overview

ReportWORQ administrators can open the Administration screen from the Administration button on the top right side of the page and edit Configuration settings.

The following settings control the configuration of ReportWORQ application components:

Warning: Changes made here may impact active ReportWORQ users

Changing any of the settings documented here may have an impact on the ReportWORQ application, in some cases triggering restarts and other changes to application settings that may cancel existing job executions or other user operations. Please coordinate any configuration changes during a period that will not impact your users.

  • Restart ReportWORQ Service: This will trigger a restart of the ReportWORQ application, which typically takes a matter of seconds. Users will need to refresh their browser to reconnect to the application after the restart.

Configuring the Server

ReportWORQ is a web application that runs within the host service that was created during initial installation and first-time configuration. The repository where all ReportWORQ application data is stored, and all web server settings are saved, is defined here on the Application Settings screen:

ReportWORQ_5_Web_Server_Config

Repository Location

The ReportWORQ repository is where all ReportWORQ application data including Jobs, Data Source Connections, and Distributor Configuration settings are stored. Temporary working files generated during job execution and Job history, are also managed within the repository.  

The Repository Path defines the root location of the ReportWORQ repository. ReportWORQ's default location for this setting is in a "Repository" subfolder where the application is installed. This setting can be changed at any time, but note that it will impact all application users. Changing this location requires a restart of the ReportWORQ application for the updated setting to take effect.

Moving the Repository

To move the repository you must perform the following steps:

  1. Back up the current repository.

  2. Change the Repository Path.

  3. Restart the ReportWORQ application.

  4. Restore the repository backup that was created in step 1.

Please see Backup & Support for more details on steps 1 and 4.

Core Web Configuration

The Server Port and SSL Settings define the core web application security settings as well as how the ReportWORQ application will be accessed by users:

  • Server Port: This is the port number that ReportWORQ users will use to access both the web application and APIs.

  • Enable SSL: This determines whether ReportWORQ traffic is configured to use SSL.

    • Certificate File and Certificate Password are required when Enable SSL is checked and define the certificate that ReportWORQ will use for SSL communication.

    • Create Self Signed Certificate may optionally be used to create an SSL certificate.

Changing any of these settings requires a restart of the ReportWORQ application for the settings to take effect.

Using ReportWORQ-Generated SSL Certificates

Use of ReportWORQ-generated SSL certificates may result in warnings about untrusted certificates when using web browsers that access ReportWORQ. This is because ReportWORQ-generated certificates don't come from a CA (Certificate Authority) or other trusted sources. It is therefore strongly recommended that you only use SSL certificates from a CA or other trusted certificate source when enabling SSL in a production environment.

Determining the ReportWORQ URL Address

The ReportWORQ URL that users use to access the application is determined by the settings above and takes this format:

{HTTP or HTTPS}://{Address of ReportWORQ Host Machine}:{Port}

Where:

  • HTTP or HTTPS: HTTPS is used when Enable SSL is checked. Otherwise, HTTP is used.

  • Address of ReportWORQ Host Machine

    • The fully-qualified domain name (FQDN) of the host server, if configured, for example, reportworq-prd1.company.com

    • The machine name of the host server, for example, reportworq-prd1

    • The IP address of the host server, for example, 10.20.30.111

  • Port: The Server Port setting value.

Examples:

  • Machine name, no SSL-enabled, running on port 8300: http://reportworq-prd1:8300 

  • Fully-qualified domain with SSL enabled, running on port 8300: https://reportworq-prd1.company.com:8300 

Advanced SSL/TLS Configuration

When SSL is enabled in ReportWORQ, there are advanced SSL configuration options that some customers may wish to modify such as supported TLS versions and cipher suites, to ensure that any SSL/TLS communications aren't at risk of known SSL/TLS vulnerabilities. SSL/TLS support typically has two overall components that impact ReportWORQ: 

  • SSL/TLS Client settings: connections from ReportWORQ to other data sources. 

  • SSL/TLS Server settings: connections to the ReportWORQ web application and APIs from ReportWORQ users.

ReportWORQ is designed to inherit all of its advanced SSL/TLS settings from the operating system configuration. Making changes to these settings varies by operating system version and local policies, so please consult with your network/IT security teams if you believe advanced SSL/TLS configuration is required. Once any of those setting changes are applied, ReportWORQ will automatically use them after an application restart.

Automatic Server Recycling

Some ReportWORQ administrators like to have the application automatically restart during overnight hours to free up system resources and reset all connections. The following settings can be used to configure this option:

  • Recycle Mode: Checking this box will enable a daily restart of the ReportWORQ application.

  • Recycle Time: This is the time (in the host server's local time) that the application will be recycled when Recycle Mode is enabled.

Automatic Server Recycling Stops Any Running Jobs

Be sure to schedule automatic recycling at a time you know that no scheduled ReportWORQ jobs will also be running. All jobs running at the time the server is recycled will be canceled as a result of the restart.

Backup and Support

Settings for Backing up the ReportWORQ Repository can be found in the Backup section of the Configuration screen:

  • Create Backup: This button generates and automatically downloads a zip backup of the ReportWORQ repository. Backups can be restored to any ReportWORQ 5 instance.

  • Send Backup to Support: This button generates and automatically sends a zip file and forwarded it to the ReportWORQ Support team.

Logging

Additional settings used to enable advanced logging and provide more information to the ReportWORQ support team can be found on the Configuration screen of the Administration view.

Restart will cancel all running Jobs

Be sure to check for any currently running jobs and notify users before restarting the application.

  • Enable Debug Logging: This enables more detailed logging information and is typically enabled when the ReportWORQ support team needs additional information about Job execution or other ReportWORQ application events.

Disable Debug Logging when not needed

Debug logging creates many, large log files. Leaving it on too long could quickly use up available disk space.

Audit Logging

The Audit logging setting can be found in the Logging section on the configuration screen of the Administration page. By default audit logging is enabled and ReportWORQ retains this data for 90 days.

With this setting enabled a log captures which users log in or fail to log in, what content has changed including updates and deletions, and in which environment it was changed. 

Verbose Audit Logging will track the specifics of deleted content and show a before and after comparison. 

Execution

ReportWORQ has options designed to manage the overall application and server performance, and retention of Job execution history when running ReportWORQ jobs. These settings are located in the Execution section.

  • Enable Out of Process Job Execution: This setting under "Execution Mode" is used to determine whether Job execution happens in a separate process or within the same process that is used to support the ReportWORQ web application. This setting should always be enabled unless you are asked to disable it for support purposes. Enabling this setting ensures that ReportWORQ application users aren't impacted by Job execution and that memory & related resources are freed up following Job execution. 

  • Compress History Files: This option can be enabled/disabled here.

  • History Retention: This setting determines how much Job execution history is preserved. History older than the specified number of days is automatically purged from the ReportWORQ repository.

  • Parallel Job Execution: This setting determines both the number of Jobs that can be executed at the same time as well as the number of operations (threads) used for each Job. Each Job is executed in its own, separate process when the "Enable Out of Process Job Execution" setting is enabled. Examples describing the impact of this setting on RAM and CPU usage are provided below.

Selecting the optimal Parallel Job Execution depends on the available host server CPU and Memory resources. Some examples of CPU and Memory usage are described here, using Parallel Job Execution = 5 as an example:

  • CPU Usage: in this example, ReportWORQ will allow 5 Jobs to run at the same time AND also allow up to 5 threads within each Job to run concurrently. In this example, this means that up to 25 threads could be consumed at one time.

  • Memory Usage: some ReportWORQ Jobs consisting of very large reports may require significant RAM usage during Job execution. If, for example, your jobs typically use 2GB of RAM at their peak and you are running 5 of these jobs at the same time then you may see at least 10GB of RAM consumed, overall, during the execution of all 5 jobs.

It is important to strike a balance that allows ReportWORQ to take advantage of parallel Job processing without overwhelming available hardware resources. If Parallel Job Execution is currently set to a number that may result in CPU and RAM being over or underutilized when the maximum number of Jobs are running in parallel then it may be helpful to adjust this setting accordingly.

  • Notification Email: Configure an email address for notifications here. 

  • Send notification on failures only: This option can be set to alert the email address configured above to any failures specifically.


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