Helix Versioning Engine Administrator

Guide:Fundamentals2018.1

March 2018

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Contents

How to use this guide 13Feedback 13

Otherdocumentation 13

Syntaxconventions 13

Whats new in this guide 152018.1release 15

2017.2release 15

"Triggersforexternalfiletransfer"onpage1 15Serverbackgroundtasks 15Parallelthreads 15

Overview 16Basicarchitecture 16

Basicworkflow 17

Administrativeaccess 18

NamingHelixServerobjects 18

Installing and upgrading the server 20Installarchitecture 20

Planningtheinstallation 20

Network 21CPU 21Memory 21Diskspaceallocation 21Filesystem 22Protectionsandpasswords 23

GettingHelixServer 23

Linuxpackage-basedinstallation 24

Installation 24Post-installationconfiguration 27Updating 29

UNIXnon-packageinstallation 31

Downloadingthefilesandmakingthemexecutable 32CreatingaHelixServerrootdirectory 32TellingHelixServerapplicationswhichporttoconnectto 32

3

Communicatingportinformation 33IPv6supportandmixednetworks 34RunningtheHelixServer(p4d)asanunprivilegeduser 34RunningfrominetdonUNIX 35StartingthePerforceservice 36StoppingthePerforceservice 36RestartingarunningPerforceservice 36

Windowsinstallation 37

Windowsservicesandservers 37InstallingthePerforceserviceonanetworkdrive 38StartingandstoppingthePerforceservice 38MultiplePerforceservicesunderWindows 39Windowsconfigurationparameterprecedence 40StartingandstoppingtheHelixServer 41Supportforlongfilenames 41

Installedfiles 42

UpgradingthePerforceservice 42

UsingoldHelixServerapplicationsafteranupgrade 43HelixServerLicensingandupgrades 43UpgradingHelixServer 43UpgradingHelixServer-between2013.2and2013.3 44Verifyingfilesbysignature 45

Releaseandlicenseinformation 46

Addingorupdatingthelicensefile 47

LicensefileintheP4ROOTdirectory 47p4licensecommand 48HelixVisualClient(P4V)Administrationtool 48

Configuring the server 50Enablingdistributedversioning 50

Definingfiletypeswithp4typemap 50

Implementingsite-wideexclusivelockingwithp4typemap 53

Definingdepots 53

Managingclientrequests 54

UsingP4PORTtocontrolaccesstotheserver 54Requiringminimumclientrevisions 54Rejectingclientconnectionrequests 55

4

Disablingusermetricscollectionprompt 56Casesensitivityandmulti-platformdevelopment 57

HelixServeronUNIX 57HelixServeronWindows 58

SettingupandmanagingUnicodeinstallations 58

Overview 58SettingupaserverforUnicode 59ConfiguringclientsforUnicode 62TroubleshootinguserworkstationsinUnicodeinstallations 65

Configuringlogging 65

Loggingerrors 66Loggingfileaccess 66

ConfiguringP4Vsettings 66

ViewingeffectiveP4Vproperties 67PrecedenceofP4Vsettings 67Performance-relatedP4Vproperties 68Feature-relatedP4Vproperties 70MiscellaneousP4Vproperties 73Swarmintegrationproperties 74StagingP4Vhelpfileslocally 76TroubleshootingP4Vproperties 77

Windowsconfigurationparameterprecedence 78

Working with depots 80Overview 80

Namingdepots 80Listingdepots 81Deletingdepots 81Movingdepotsinaproductionenvironment 81

Standarddepots 81

Streamdepots 82

Specdepot 82

Creatingthespecdepot 83Populatingthespecdepotwithcurrentforms 83Controllingwhichspecsareversioned 84Largesitesandoldfilesystems 84

Archivedepots 85

5

Unloaddepot 85

Remotedepotsanddistributeddevelopment 85

Howremotedepotswork 86Usingremotedepotsforcodedrops 87

Securing the server 92Securingtheserver:workflow 92

UsingSSLtoencryptconnectionstoaHelixServer 93

Serverandclientsetup 93Keyandcertificatemanagement 93Keyandcertificategeneration 94Secondaryciphersuite 97UsingSSLinamixedenvironment 97

Usingfirewalls 97

Authenticationoptions 98

Overview 98Serversecuritylevels 98Definingauthenticationforusers 100

Authenticatingusingpasswordsandtickets 101

Password-basedauthentication 102Passwordstrengthrequirements 102Managingandresettinguserpasswords 103Ticket-basedauthentication 103Loginprocessfortheuser 104Loginprocessfortheserver 104LoggingoutofHelixServer 105Determiningticketstatus 105Invalidatingausersticket 106

LDAPauthentication 106

AuthenticatingagainstActiveDirectoryandLDAPservers 106CreatinganLDAPconfiguration 107DefiningLDAP-relatedconfigurables 110AuthorizationusingLDAPgroups 111TestingandenablingLDAPconfigurations 111GettinginformationaboutLDAPservers 112UsingLDAPwithsinglesign-ontriggers 113

Authorizingaccess 113

6

Whenshouldprotectionsbeset? 113Settingprotectionswithp4protect 113Grantingaccesstogroupsofusers 121Commentsinprotectiontables 125Howprotectionsareimplemented 125AccesslevelsrequiredbyHelixServercommands 126

Backup and recovery 135Backupandrecoveryconcepts 135

Checkpointfiles 136Journalfiles 138Versionedfiles 140

Backupprocedures 141

Recoveryprocedures 144

Databasecorruption,versionedfilesunaffected 144Bothdatabaseandversionedfileslostordamaged 146Ensuringsystemintegrityafteranyrestoration 148

Monitoring the server 150Monitoringdiskspaceusage 150

Specifyingvaluesforfilesysconfigurables 150Determiningavailablediskspace 151

Monitoringprocesses 151

Enablingprocessmonitoring 151Enablingidleprocessesmonitoring 152Listingrunningprocesses 152

Settingservertraceandtrackingflags 153

Commandtracing 154Performancetracking 154

Showinginformationaboutlockedfiles 155

Auditinguserfileaccess 155

Loggingandstructuredlogfiles 156

Examplesofpossiblelogentries 156Loggingcommands 157Enablingstructuredlogging 157Structuredlogfilerotation 158

Managing the server and its resources 160Forcingoperationswiththe-fflag 160

7

Managingthesharingofcode 161

Managingdistributeddevelopment 162

DistributeddevelopmentusingFetchandPush 162Codedropswithoutconnectivity 164

Managingusers 165

Usertypes 165Preventingautomaticcreationofusers 167Renamingusers 168Deletingobsoleteusers 168Revertingfilesleftopenbyobsoleteusers 169

Deletingchangelistsandeditingchangelistdescriptions 169

Managingshelves 169

Backingupaworkspace 170

Managingdiskspace 170

DiskspaceRequirements 170Savingdiskspace 171Reclaimingdiskspacebyarchivingfiles 172Reclaimingdiskspacebyobliteratingfiles 173

Managingprocesses 174

Pausing,resuming,andterminatingprocesses 174Clearingentriesintheprocesstable 175

Managingthedatabasetables 175

ScriptedclientdeploymentonWindows 176

TroubleshootingWindowsinstallations 176

ResolvingWindows-relatedinstabilities 176ResolvingissueswithP4EDITORorP4DIFF 176

Tuning Helix Server for performance 178Tuningforperformance 178

Operatingsystems 178Disksubsystem 179Filesystems 179CPU 179Memory 181Network 181Journalandarchivelocation 182Usepatterns 182

8

Usingread-onlyclientsinautomatedbuilds 182Usingparallelprocessingforsubmitsandsyncs 183

Improvingconcurrencywithlocklessreads 184

Commandsimplementinglocklessreads 185Overridingthedefaultlockingbehavior 187Observingtheeffectoflocklessreads 187Side-trackserversmusthavethesamedb.peekinglevel 188

Diagnosingslowresponsetimes 188

Hostnamevs.IPaddress 188Windowswildcards 189DNSlookupsandthehostsfile 189Locationofthep4executable 189Workingoverunreliablenetworks 189

Preventingserverswamp 190

Usingtightviews 191Assigningprotections 192Limitingdatabasequeries 192Limitingsimultaneousconnections 194Unloadinginfrequently-usedmetadata 194Scriptingefficiently 196Usingcompressionefficiently 198Otherserverconfigurables 199

Checkpointsfordatabasetreerebalancing 199

Customizing Helix Server: job specifications 200ThedefaultHelixServerjobtemplate 200

Thejobtemplatesfields 201

TheFields:field 202TheValues:fields 204ThePresets:field 204TheComments:field 205

Caveats,warnings,andrecommendations 206

Example:acustomtemplate 206

Workingwiththird-partydefecttrackingsystems 208

P4DTG,thePerforceDefectTrackingGateway 208Buildingyourownintegration 209

Using triggers to customize behavior 210

9

Creatingtriggers 210

Sampletrigger 211Triggerdefinition 212Executionenvironment 214Triggerbasics 216

Triggeringonsubmits 223

Change-submittriggers 225Change-contenttriggers 226Change-committriggers 228

Triggeringonpushes