Sakai 23 Configuration
1.0 Create a sakai.properties
file
sakai.properties
file is a central configuration file that is typically stored in a /sakai
subdirectory relative to the Tomcat home directory ($CATALINA_HOME
). It is a non-XML text file containing a series of key/value pairs that is read using the load method of java.util.properties. Settings in sakai.properties
govern everything from setting your institution's name to configuring your database. All settings in sakai.properties
are read on startup; any changes you make subsequently will only take effect when you restart web application server. You may want to create a local.properties file in the same directory as sakai.properties. Properties listed in local.properties override sakai.properties. For a source installation the default default.sakai.properties
file is located in the config
module:
sakai-src/config/configuration/bundles/src/bundle/org/sakaiproject/config/bundle/default.sakai.properties
The bin package does not include a sakai.properties
file. This is a deliberate exclusion; it eliminates the possibility of overwriting a local sakai.properties
file if a bin package is opened over an existing Sakai installation.
If you need to override the default settings you must create your own sakai.properties
file either from scratch or from a known working copy adding new key/value settings in order to customize your installation. We recommend that you review the default.sakai.properties
file included in the source installation or in the appropriate maintenance branch.
Version | default |
---|---|
master | default.sakai.properties |
23 | default.sakai.properties |
The default location for your local sakai.properties
file is $CATALINA_HOME/sakai
. This folder is not created by Maven during the build and deployment process, so you will have to create it manually or via a script. You can also store Sakai's configuration files outside of your web application server's file hierarchy. For example, in a development environment you may find yourself frequently reinstalling Tomcat and unless you create a build script to automate the Tomcat installation and configuration process avoiding having to recreate $CATALINA_HOME/sakai
and sakai.properties
each time has its advantages.
To locate your properties file outside of your web application server environment modify the Java startup command or the JAVA_OPTS
environment variable and set a system property named sakai.home
. Make sure your external location is readable and writable by your web application server.
-Dsakai.home=/path/to/desired/sakai/home/
sakai.properties
settings, see the sakai_properties.doc
in /reference/docs/architecture/sakai_properties.doc
.2.0 Configure home page tool set per site
wsetup.home.toolids.*
property is not set, the Worksite setup tool will default to the following set of tools for the home page: sakai.iframe.site
, sakai.summary.calendar
, sakai.synoptic.announcement
, sakai.synoptic.chat
, sakai.synoptic.messagecenter
. Synoptic tools will be added or dropped from home page depending on whether their linked tool exists in the site or not. See SAK-15504 - Upgraded site: editing My workspace leads to duplicate Home CLOSED and SAK-16747 - tools are not auto-added into Home tool page CLOSED for more details.wsetup.home.toolids.count=5 wsetup.home.toolids.1=sakai.privacy wsetup.home.toolids.2=sakai.iframe wsetup.home.toolids.3=sakai.synoptic.announcement wsetup.home.toolids.4=sakai.synoptic.chat wsetup.home.toolids.5=sakai.synoptic.messagecenter
3.0 Work site setup group helper
sakai.properties
:wsetup.group.helper.name = sakai-site-manage-group-helper
4.0 Session timeout warning
loggedOutUrl
sakai property. See SAK-13987 - Session Timeout Popup Utilizing Polling data from entity broker CLOSED SAK-8152 - Sakai should warn a user before the user's session times out and data is inadvertently lost CLOSED for more details.To enable the session timeout warning, set the following properties in your local sakai.properties
with a time interval of your choosing:
timeoutDialogEnabled=true timeoutDialogWarningSeconds=600
5.0 Configure email
sakai.properties
. In order to send mail Sakai requires the address (name or IP) of an external SMTP server that will accept mail from Sakai:smtp@org.sakaiproject.email.api.EmailService=some.smtp.org
Sakai's SMTP server is Apache James for Sakai 10 and earlier and SubEthaSMTP from 11. Most sys admins prefer running a standard mailer like Postfix on port 25 and configuring it to forward requests to Sakai. You may also currently have a mailer service running on port 25 (Linux usually has it running by default). So consider setting Sakai's SMTP service to run on a different port (e.g., 8025) in order to avoid conflicts.
To enable Sakai to receive mail you'll need to set the following properties:
# flag to enable or disable SMTP service for incoming email (true | false) #Default=false. smtp.enabled=true # dns addresses used by SMTP service for incoming email. (only supported on versions <= Sakai 10) smtp.dns.1=255.255.255.1 smtp.dns.2=255.255.255.2 # SMTP port on which incoming SMTP service listens. # Recommend running on 8025, and using a standard mailer on 25 to forward mail to Sakai. # Default=25. smtp.port=8025
Additional settings can be enabled to add support emails for a variety of tasks.
# Email support address used in incoming email rejection messages. mail.support=address@somedomain # A variation on this that's used in some places instead of the one above! Best to set both of them support.email #To change the postmaster address in general smtpFrom@org.sakaiproject.email.api.EmailService # Email address to send errors caught by the portal, and user bug reports in response. portal.error.email=address@somedomain # Email address used as the "from" address for any email sent by Worksite Setup tool or Site Info tool. setup.request=address@somedomain # Send an email to the user when the user is added. notifyNewUserEmail=true #For msgcntr notifications msgcntr.notification.from.address #Whether or not to send the real address as msgcntr notifications msgcntr.notification.user.real.from=true (false)
6.0 Configure logging
WARN:
messages. There are going to be some "normal" ones at startup, and some will likely slip by at runtime, but any warning is potentially something you might want to check out.Logging levels can be specified in sakai.properties
. This augments and overrides the levels set in the default config file. Example:
log.config.count=3 log.config.1 = ALL.org.sakaiproject.log.impl log.config.2 = OFF.org.sakaiproject log.config.3 = DEBUG.org.sakaiproject.db.impl
This uses the established (if awkward) method of having a name.count
followed by name.1
, name.2
etc. to form an array of strings for the value "name". In this case, the name is "log.config". The values are of the form LEVEL.logger
, and the possible levels are: OFF TRACE DEBUG INFO WARN ERROR FATAL ALL
.
Sakai uses log4j 2 for logging. See the official log4j 2 documentation for more information about how to configure it if you have questions, but a few notes are collected here below.
To change the logging for Sakai in the source modify kernel/api/src/main/config/log4j2.properties
the following property:
logger.sakai.name = org.sakaiproject
logger.sakai.level = INFO
logger.sakai.additivity=false
logger.sakai.appenderRef.console.ref = Sakai
To turn on debug logging for all of Sakai, change the value from INFO to DEBUG. In order to enable debug logging for a single Sakai components, add a line such as in the following example, which will leave most of Sakai at INFO, but generate DEBUG level messages for the SQL service:
logger.sakai.level = DEBUG
The logging controls are part of the LogConfigurationManager, implemented as a component in the Kernel. It can be disabled, if that's desired, with an entry in sakai.properties
:
enabled@org.sakaiproject.log.api.LogConfigurationManager = false
For Mac and *nix systems, the most important log is found in Tomcat's logs/catalina.out
. It can be instructive to watch this log as Tomcat is starting up, by using a startup command like the following:
bin/startup.sh; tail -f logs/catalina.out
Tomcat on Windows tends to be a little more puzzling about its logs, and it includes more of them, but its default behavior is to open catalina.out
in a new window as soon as you start Tomcat. If you need more information about the logs in Windows, we'll refer you to the official Tomcat documentation.
The SMTP server logs from Sakai will be written to the $CATALINA_HOME/sakai/logs directory.
7.0 Managing temporary files
Depending on usage, Sakai may create many large temporary files in the system temporary file storage location (e.g. /tmp). It is a good practice to routinely remove temporary files older than a day, especially if you have a lot of users or have heavy usage of mail sending with attachments. Note that you should not simply remove all temp files on a schedule as some of them may be in active use (also be careful about removing temp files which are used by other processes).