Enabling an external content repository for source control

You can change the configuration values for the external content repository. Any changes affect where new content is stored; it does not affect how existing content is stored or retrieved.

1. Set the Versioned Content External Repository – Write Enabled property to false if you want all new content to be stored in the CCM server database regardless of its size. Content that was previously stored in an external content repository continues to be retrieved from that external content repository.
2. Change the Versioned Content External Repository – URI property if you want new large content to be saved to the new server. Previously saved content remains on and is retrieved from the old server.
   Note: There is no limit to the number of external content repository servers that can host previously stored content. However, only one external content repository can be configured to store new content at any given time.

IBM® Engineering Workflow Management stores the access credentials for each Versioned Content External Repository – URI value that you enter. If you change the Versioned Content External Repository – URI value and its associated credentials, the old URI and credentials are stored so that Engineering Workflow Management can continue to retrieve content on that server while using the new credentials to access the currently configured external content repository.

1. In the left pane, under Configuration, click Advanced Properties.
2. Click Versioned Content External Repository – User ID to change the user name.
3. Click Versioned Content External Repository – Password to change the password.
4. To change the credentials for previously configured WebDAV servers, you must edit the external content repository credentials file directly:
   1. Open the JSON credentials file called externalContentRepositories.conf, located in the CCM directory, typically in ./<server>/conf/ccm, where <server> is the CCM server installation directory. The following externalContentRepositories.conf file contains two external content repositories with their credential data. Notice that the passwords are encrypted:

      [
          {
              "PASSWORD": "[qoSGR4gvSUY=]",
              "URI": "https:\/\/example.com\/artifactory\/content\/",
              "USER": "repoUser1"
          },
          {
              "PASSWORD": "[DZCEyaFThdWaWOsOL2l2Cg==]",
              "URI": "https:\/\/example.com\/artifactory\/content2\/",
              "USER": "repoUser2"
          }
      ]

   2. Use a text editor to change the USER and PASSWORD fields for the appropriate external content repositories. Edit the characters between the quotation marks for the USER and PASSWORD values. New passwords are entered in plain text. Save the file and Engineering Workflow Management automatically detects the changes, updates the password fields with their encrypted values, and begins using the new credentials. Here is the updated externalContentRepositories.conf file:

      [
          {
              "PASSWORD": "newPassword1",
              "URI": "https:\/\/example.com\/artifactory\/content\/",
              "USER": "repoUser1"
          },
          {
              "PASSWORD": "newPassword2",
              "URI": "https:\/\/example.com\/artifactory\/content2\/",
              "USER": "newRepoUser2"
          }
      ]

      The externalContentRepositories.conf file includes entries for file-based external content repositories; however, credentials are currently only used for WebDAV repositories, and are not supported for file-system-based content repositories.

You can use the repository tools moveContent command to move previously stored content in three ways.

In Engineering Workflow Management, you can monitor content stored in SCM by using Java Management Extensions (JMX) managed beans (MBeans).

1. Open the Server Administration page of your CCM server, and click Manage Server.
2. In the left navigation, click Advanced Properties. Scroll down to the Serviceability Component section, locate the com.ibm.team.scm.service.internal.content.metrics.VersionedContentMetricsTask section and enable the beans that you want to monitor.

   Table 1. Versioned Content Metrics Task

   Property name	Default value	Description
   Delay between invocations	604800	The time in seconds between invocations of the Versioned Content Metrics background task, which collects data to publish as MBeans. Note: After you enable MBeans and restart the server, the beans are collected after the "Delay between invocations" expires.
   Enable Versioned Content Repository Metrics MBean	false	When set to true, publishes information for all content repositories in which content has been stored.
   Enable Versioned Content Component Metrics MBean	false	When set to true, for each component, publishes an MBean that contains information about the number of files, and the size and storage location of content claimed by files in each component.
   Enable Top File Sizes MBean	false	When set to true, publishes information about the largest files stored in SCM.
   File Sizes MBean – Number of Files to report	20	The number of files to report on for the Top File Sizes MBean.
   File Sizes MBean – size threshold	1000000	The minimum size in bytes for files to be considered by the Top File Sizes MBean.

When the Content Repository Metrics MBean is enabled, an MBean is published that contains a list of the content repositories in which content has been stored. The CCM database is represented as a repository with DATABASE as its URI.

When the Component Metrics MBean is enabled, an MBean is published for each SCM component.

The number of files reported by the Top File Sizes MBean is controlled by the CCM server advanced property File Sizes MBean – Number of Files to report under VersionedContentMetricsTask. When the Top File Sizes MBean is enabled, a bean is published for each of the largest files whose size is greater than that specified by the File Sizes MBean – size threshold (in bytes) property.

You might use Engineering Workflow Management in a clustered environment.

When you back up a Engineering Workflow Management configuration that uses external content repositories, it is important to back up the CCM database first, and then back up the external repositories. When data is restored, the server reflects the state immediately after the database backup regardless of when the external content repositories are backed up.

Note the following best practices for configuring external content repositories: