Global parameters to control iQ.Suite

The global parameters that iQ.Suite provides are often forgotten in the hustle and bustle of configuring modules. And wrongly so! They can control many settings, fine-tuning and basic behaviours. You can find the available parameters in the respective administration manual under CROSS-MODULE FUNCTIONS – Global Parameters, fairly near the beginning of the manual (version 11: section 6.1.7). You will undoubtedly find the occasional parameter that will help you to achieve your goals.

General information about global parameters
Global parameters can be defined either in notes.ini or in the Admin Portal under Global – Global Parameters. iQ.Suite already sets parameter entries in the notes.ini file and in the front-end during the installation routine. If parameters have been defined in both places, the settings in the Admin Portal entries apply. They override those in notes.ini. Some parameters can only be defined in notes.ini, e.g. Toolkit_ExecDir and Toolkit_DataDir. The manual tells you whether a parameter can only be set in notes.ini (“notes.ini only”) or via the front-end as well.

Default settings apply if a parameter has not been defined/enabled either in notes.ini or in the front-end. These defaults are described in the manual.

A general parameter document consists of the tabs Basics, Advanced and Comments.

On the Basics tab you assign a name and choose a server to which the document applies. The name of the document as such is irrelevant as far as functionality is concerned; it merely helps the administrator to keep track of things. You enter the parameter name under Key and the associated value under Value(s). These entries must have the exact syntax that is required (see the administration manual).

On the Advanced tab you can narrow down the parameter values in the Possible Values field and thus reduce the error rate during data entry by only allowing certain input formats in the Value(s) field on the Basics tab.

Defining the temporary work directory for iQ.Suite
By way of example we will discuss a parameter which ought to be defined and enabled directly after iQ.Suite has been installed or updated: Toolkit_TempDir. It is used to define the temporary work directory for iQ.Suite.

To ensure that virus scanning works properly, a virus test file that is not dangerous (EICAR, see http://www.eicar.org/anti_virus_test_file.htm) is stored in iQ.Suite's temporary work directory. By default, this directory is the Temp directory of the file system or of the user who is logged on. When you log on as an administrator, the temporary iQ.Suite files are located, for example, in the directory C:/Documents and Settings/Administrator/Local Settings/Temp/. You can see this (under Windows) by querying the system's/user's Temp variable in the shell using the command echo %temp%.

If you list the contents of this directory you will see whether the work directories of the two grabbers lie beneath this tree as in the following case:

If you list the contents of this directory you will see whether the work directories of the two grabbers lie beneath this tree as in the following case:

The EICAR test virus is now stored and checked beneath the directories _td_grab and _tm_grab when the respective grabber starts. The test virus will trigger an alarm if an on-access scanner is active and these directories have not been excluded from scanning. The grabbers notice the parallel access and terminate with an error message on the console, via e-mail and in the iQ.Suite log. Console message:

08.08.2008 08:08:28 tm_grab: Error: temporary directory "C:DOCUME~1ADMINI~1LOCALS~1Temp" unusable (error 0x0080000a), maybe an on-access virus scanner running on this directory?

E-mail to the iQ.Suite administrator:

In normal circumstances, the e-mails will remain in the server's mail.box until the problem has been resolved. Only if te_hook has been disabled will all inbound and outbound e-mails be delivered without being checked.

Do the following to solve this:

• Stop the two grabber tasks (tell tm_grab quit, tell td_grab quit) if they have not already stopped.
• Define a meaningful directory for the temporary grabber files via Global – Global Parameters. Typically, this will be on a non-system partition. Let's assume D:Temp for our example. You do not have to create the directory manually as it is created automatically during the first grabber start provided that the following changes have been made.

The required parameter with the key value Toolkit_TempDir must have been created under the name General Temp Directory under Not Active:

Open the document, edit it and save it:

The result should look similar to the example below:

• Exclude the directory D:Temp from on-access scanning. Every on-access scanner supports this. Please refer to the manual for your scanner to see how to do this correctly. Example:

• Start the two grabber tasks (load tm_grab, load td_grab).
  
  If the temporary directory cannot be excluded from on-access scanning for audit reasons, you can use the global parameter ToolKit_OnAccessScanCheck to disable the internal iQ.Suite check by setting the value for this key to OFF. You have to create this parameter (Global – Global Parameters – New – General Global Parameter):