Configure the Runtime

Overview

There are several ways to configure the Runtime:

Environment variables

Startup variables

The following optional environment variables may be defined to configure the Runtime startup.

Environment variable Description

JAVA_HOME

Path of the Java Virtual Machine used by the Runtime. This variable is set to the default Java Virtual Machine installed, and may be changed to use a specific JVM version.

XDI_RUNTIME_PROPERTIES_LOCATION

Path of directory containing the configuration file. Use this property to store the configuration separately from the Runtime installation. For example, /xdi-conf/properties/. By default, this directory is the properties subdirectory of the Runtime installation directory.

XDI_RUNTIME_OPTS

Space separated list of additional java arguments to use when running the Runtime runnable scripts.

XDI_COMMAND_OPTS

Space separated list of additional java arguments to use when running the Runtime startcommand.bat or startcommand.sh scripts. All other scripts are using the XDI_RUNTIME_OPTS variable.
With the default configuration, the xDI Runtime memory is automatically managed by the JVM. This is recommended and enough in most cases. If you want to force memory settings, use the XDI_RUNTIME_OPTS and XDI_COMMAND_OPTS variables to pass the corresponding Java settings, such as -Xmx, -Xms and -Xss.

Environment variables in configuration files

You can use system environment variables in Runtime configuration file parameters using the following syntax:

${environment.variable:<ENV_VARIABLE_NAME>:<default value>}

In this syntax:

  • <ENV_VARIABLE_NAME> is the environment variable name

  • <default value> is the fallback value to use if the environment variable is unset.

For example, with the following syntax the launchSchedulerEngine parameter will take the value of the XDI_DESIGNER_SCHEDULER_ENABLE environment variable, but fall back to a true value if that environment variable is unset.

<parameter
    name="launchSchedulerEngine"
    value="${environment.variable:XDI_DESIGNER_SCHEDULER_ENABLE:true}"
/>
You can find examples of configurations customized with environment variables in the properties/samples/enginesParameters directory.
Use this mechanism to configure Runtime entirely using environment variables, such as when running it in Docker containers.

Deprecated environment variables

Some environment variables from older versions of Semarchy xDI are still available but are deprecated, and will no longer work after Designer version 2024.1 LTS. They are listed in the following table, along with suggested replacements.

Legacy environment variable Suggested replacement

STAMBIA_JAVA_HOME

JAVA_HOME

STAMBIA_PROPERTIES_LOCATION

XDI_RUNTIME_PROPERTIES_LOCATION

STAMBIA_INIT_MEMORY

Add related java options to XDI_RUNTIME_OPTS and XDI_COMMAND_OPTS instead.

STAMBIA_MAX_MEMORY

Add related java options to XDI_RUNTIME_OPTS and XDI_COMMAND_OPTS instead.

STAMBIA_STACK_SIZE

Add related java options to XDI_RUNTIME_OPTS and XDI_COMMAND_OPTS instead.

XDI_RUNTIME

(not needed, no replacement)

XDI_RUNTIME_HOME

(not needed, no replacement)
Migrating the STAMBIA_INIT_MEMORY, STAMBIA_MAX_MEMORY, and STAMBIA_STACK_SIZE environment variables is optional. We recommend removing them, and letting the Java virtual machine manage memory by itself.

Configuration files

The runtime uses an engineParameters.xml file to store its configuration. This file is located in the properties sub-directory of the Runtime installation directory by default.

You can define the configuration file location for the runtime by setting an XDI_RUNTIME_PROPERTIES_LOCATION environment variable.

To make upgrades easier, it is recommended to copy the properties directory to a location outside the runtime installation directory, and set the XDI_RUNTIME_PROPERTIES_LOCATION to point to the new location. This way, overwriting the runtime folder during an upgrade will not lose any configuration information.

The runtime also supports a legacy configuration file named engineScheduler.properties which holds a standalone scheduler configuration.

Runtime configuration file

By default, the Runtime configuration file is located in the properties sub-directory of the Runtime installation directory, and is named engineParameters.xml.

You can use this file to configure:

Scheduler configuration file

Previous versions of Runtime used an engineScheduler.properties file to store scheduler configuration information. Runtime still supports this file for compatibility purposes.

Refer to Legacy configuration file for more information.

Support for this file may be removed in future releases.