Configuration Manager: what lives where

By the end of this page you'll know which of the seven screens holds the setting you're after — and the split that organizes everything: the web interface's System Settings govern how Content Central behaves; Configuration Manager governs how it's plumbed into the server.

Configuration Manager runs on the Content Central server itself (Start Menu, under Content Central; Windows asks for administrator elevation — that's expected). Its home screen is seven tiles; two rules apply everywhere:

• Apply is per-screen. Each screen's Apply saves that screen and returns home; Back discards silently — there's no unsaved-changes prompt and no global save.
• Every screen except SQL Settings needs a working database connection — deliberately, since SQL Settings is where you fix the connection. A "Could not connect to SQL Server…" warning when opening other screens points you there.

The connection: Server Name\Instance:, Database Name:, Port Number: (0 for default or dynamic), and the Admin Login / User Login credential pairs, each testable — Test Admin Login, Test User Login.

The big button is Create/Update Database — it creates the database on a fresh install (the install guide walks that) and updates it during upgrades. Take the update path's warnings literally: back up first, stop the services, and the progress window means its banner — "Do not close Configuration Manager, restart this server, or start Content Central services until this update finishes." The close button stays disabled while it runs; that's the design, not a hang.

Every storage root in one place — eleven rows, from Document root folder: and Incoming File Capture root folder: through Coding Queue, Deleted Content, Index, Unprocessed, Reports, Thumbnails, Capture-Form Templates, Workflow Export, and Document Secondary.

One rule governs the whole screen, quoted from its own validation: "No folders on this page can be the same as or a sub-folder of another." The tidy-looking plan of nesting them all under one parent as each other's subfolders is exactly what it blocks — give each root its own branch.

Moving a root here changes where Content Central looks, not where files are — relocations are a move-the-server-class operation with the files copied first.

The Domains list (Add / Delete) with per-domain settings: Enable Active Directory Authentication, the Fully Qualified Domain Name:, and an Active Directory Login (the account Content Central uses to talk to AD) with a Test Login button. Fuller story in Set up Active Directory login. One guard worth knowing: a domain with users still on it can't be deleted — "Delete all users in Content Central that use this domain before deleting the domain."

Read-only, and meant to be: License Status:, Users Licensed:, and the Machine ID: (click it — it copies). There's nothing to enter here; How user licenses work explains why, and what to do with the Machine ID.

Both exist for workflow's benefit:

• External Applications registers programs workflow actions may run — a Name:, the Location: of the executable, and an Argument List: where $object stands in for the workflow's document. Scoped by catalog/document-type visibility.
• Export Data registers named output files (CSV or text) that workflow export actions write to — a Name: and a Location:.

Registering here, using in workflow there — which is also why both screens refuse to delete an entry a workflow action still uses.

One list: the Content Central services, with a checkbox per service — and the semantics that trip people: checked means excluded from health monitoring ("Excluded services will not be monitored and will appear as 'ignored' in system health reports"). It exists for distributed installs where a service runs on another server this machine can't see. On a single-server install, leave everything unchecked.

Success check: open each tile once on your server and confirm it opens clean — any "Could not connect" or schema warning on the way in is Configuration Manager telling you which screen actually needs your attention first.