Configuration

The GUI-based Forsta Plus configuration can be accessed from the Authoring module by a system administrator, and configuration settings are stored in an SQL database. When installing additional servers to a Forsta Plus environment, new servers will automatically register in the configuration system, with assigned roles based on the features that were selected during setup.

Important
There is one exception where servers will not automatically be added to the Forsta Plus configuration, specifically when setting up additional dedicated SQL Server instances or servers. Since there is no Forsta Plus code being run when installing additional SQL Server instances, adding database servers must be done manually (go to Multiple SQL Server instances/servers for more information). Contact [e-mail] if you need more information about this subject. For customers with the premium support package, configuration assistance for multiple SQL Server instances will normally be provided free of charge. Functionality to enable additional database servers from the GUI may be included in a future version of Forsta Plus.

Once the installation is completed for all servers, log on to Forsta on an Authoring server as a user with the SYSTEM_ADMINISTRATE permission. The first logon should automatically redirect you to the system configuration page. If you need to access it later, it can be located in the Admin menu as shown below:

Figure 1 - The Admin > System Configuration menu

Configuration System Concepts

Configuration settings have been arranged into categories that can apply to the whole site, for a group of servers assigned to a role, or per-server only for settings that can differ for each server. Descriptions for configuration settings are displayed when you allow the mouse pointer to hover over the setting name.

Site-Wide Settings

Site wide settings apply to all servers within the site. They can only be set on the site (top) level and cannot be overridden on a role or server level. The initial site wide settings are migrated from the first server to be installed or upgraded, and will not be overwritten by subsequent installs. Once set, new servers added to the site or upgraded from a Forsta Plus version with registry-based configuration will automatically inherit the site wide settings when added to the site.

Role-Wide Settings

Role-wide setting applies to the group of servers configured with that role. To assign a role to a server, double-click on the server in the Servers folder and select the checkboxes corresponding to the roles you want to assign:

Some role-wide settings apply to more than one role and will change for all roles if the setting is changed in one of the roles.

Note: Servers installed with specific features only cannot be adapted to running new features simply by assigning the role. This is because certain features must be installed during setup and cannot be added on the fly in the system configuration in the versions of Forsta Plus currently available. Selecting a role for a server will only enable configuration options for the server that are applicable to the role, and will make the server a deployment target for certain tasks (for example, selecting the ‘deployment’ role will make the server a target for launched production surveys but will not copy existing surveys on the system to the new server.) To change the role on a server, it is recommended to start by re-running the Forsta Plus Configuration Tool on the server, select the required role, apply the changes, then synchronize necessary data folders. Contact Support for details.

Role-wide settings can be overridden at the server level. When a role setting is overridden on a server, the setting value will be shown in a yellow background when viewing the server settings - see below. Also, a 'Revert to default' checkbox will be available (checking it and clicking Save will revert the setting to the value defined on the role level).

Role-wide settings

Figure 2 - Role-wide settings overridden at the server level

Server-Wide Settings

Some settings (such as server name, UNC path for file deployment, etc.) are unique to each server and needs to be set on a per-server basis. These settings can be changed when a server is selected from the Servers folder.