Configuration¶

This page lists every setting an operator can change: the .env file used by Docker Compose, the files in Tomcat's conf volume, and the settings stored in the database. Most of these settings are covered by the guides in Running Security Shepherd. This is the place to look one up.

Where configuration lives¶

.env¶

Docker Compose reads .env for docker-compose.yml, and also passes every entry into the three containers as environment variables.

Some values are copied into an image or a volume when it's created, so changing them in .env later has no effect on its own. The Applies column says when a change takes effect.

"Container recreate" means docker compose up -d, which recreates any container whose configuration changed. "Image rebuild" means docker compose up -d --build, after mvn -Pdocker clean install -DskipTests for the Tomcat image.

database.properties¶

Tomcat's connection to MariaDB. It's in the conf volume, at /usr/local/tomcat/conf/database.properties. The image creates it from .env when it's built, and the setup page rewrites it.

The connection pool (HikariCP) can be tuned with these optional properties. The defaults suit most events.

If many players see errors at once and the log says Connection is not available, raise pool.maximumPoolSize. Each level's database account has a pool of its own, of up to three connections.

mongo.properties¶

Tomcat's connection to MongoDB, used only by the NoSQL injection level. It's in the conf volume, next to database.properties, and the setup page writes it.

Settings in the database¶

The Admin menu stores its options in the settings table of the core database. Change them through the Admin menu wherever you can.

Security Shepherd reads these settings once and keeps them in memory. If you change a value in the table directly, restart Tomcat (docker compose restart web) for it to take effect.

To list them:

docker exec -it secshep_mariadb mariadb --skip-ssl -uroot -p core -e 'SELECT * FROM settings'

Event times¶

Security Shepherd can open the levels at a set time, freeze the scoreboard, and close the levels at the end of an event. There's no page for these in the Admin menu, so set them in the database and restart Tomcat.

The times are in the format 2026-11-14T09:00:00, in the server's time zone (TZ in .env). For example, to run an event from 09:00 to 17:00 and freeze the scoreboard for the last hour, open the database:

docker exec -it secshep_mariadb mariadb --skip-ssl -uroot -p core

At the MariaDB [core]> prompt, enter:

UPDATE settings SET value = '2026-11-14T09:00:00' WHERE setting = 'startTime';
UPDATE settings SET value = '2026-11-14T16:00:00' WHERE setting = 'lockTime';
UPDATE settings SET value = '2026-11-14T17:00:00' WHERE setting = 'endTime';
UPDATE settings SET value = '1' WHERE setting IN ('hasStartTime', 'hasLockTime', 'hasEndTime');

Then type exit, and restart Tomcat:

docker compose restart web

Set hasStartTime, hasLockTime or hasEndTime back to 0 to turn a time off.