Identifying your server

Giving your server a unique ID permits most of the server configuration data to be stored in the Helix Core Server. This is an alternative to using startup options or environment variables. A unique server ID is essential for configuring replication because p4 configure settings are replicated from the master server to the replicas along with other metadata.

Configuring the following servers require the use of a server spec:

Type	Description
Commit Server	central server in a distributed installation
Edge Server	node in a distributed installation
Build server	replica that supports integration with a build server (or build farm)
Standby server	read-only replica that uses p4 journalcopy
Forwarding standby	forwarding replica that uses p4 journalcopy

The p4 serverid serverid command can be used to create a small text file named server.id in the P4ROOT directory of the server. For example,

p4 serverid UK-commit-1

The server executable, p4d, can also create this server.id file with the syntax:

p4d -r $P4ROOT -xD serverid

For example, from the P4ROOT directory:

p4d -r . -xD UK-commit-1

To see the server id, see the output of the p4d -xD or the p4 serverid command. If the response is "Server does not yet have a server ID", set the server ID with

p4d -r $P4ROOT -xD serverid

To change an existing server ID, delete the server.id file from the P4ROOT directory, then set the server ID.

Define the server

After you create the ServerID, bring up the Server spec by using the p4 server command.
For example, issue these two commands:

p4 -p svrA.company.com:11111 serverid myMaster
p4 server myMaster

In the Server spec, specify a type of service, such as commit-server, in the Services field.

Two ways to set configurables:

Add configurable settings to the DistributedConfig field of the server spec. For example:

DistributedConfig:
    monitor=2
    security=6

or run commands similar to these:

p4 -p svrA.company.com:11111 configure set myMaster#monitor=2
p4 -p svrA.company.com:11111 configure set myMaster#security=6

After the configuration data has been replicated

A master and each replica is likely to have its own journal and checkpoint files. To ensure their prefixes are unique, use the journalPrefix configurable for each named server.

Run this command:

p4 -p svrA.company.com:11111 configure set myMaster#journalPrefix=/p4/ckps/myMaster

The output is:

For server 'myMaster', configuration variable 'journalPrefix' set to '/p4/ckps/myMaster'

Then run this command:

p4 -p svrA.company.com:11111 configure set myReplica#journalPrefix=/p4/ckps/myReplica

The output is:

For server 'myReplica', configuration variable 'journalPrefix' set to '/p4/ckps/myReplica'