Default Client-side settings on the Zoom Server

Often times it is desirable that all Zoom clients operate with a specific set of global configuration parameters. For Zoom 5.1 or higher, you can control this by centrally configuring a list of properties and values at the Zoom Server, which will get propagated to all the Zoom Clients connecting to that server.

This feature is not available from Zoom 7.3 onwards. For Zoom 7.3 onwards, follow Server Zoom Properties post to configure these properties and their values at the Zoom Server for use by all Zoom Clients.

 

On the Zoom Server, the path where you should place these files is /zoom/conf/client-settings. Note that configuration files that normally reside at the root level in /.zm are placed at the root level here as well (/client-settings). So, for files that reside inside subfolders in /.zm, you will need to replicate the folder hierarchy on the server in order to synchronize them successfully on the clients. For instance, to synchronize serverwc-settings.xml that resides in /.zm/settings/serverwc, you would need to place the server-side XML file in /zoom/conf/client-settings/settings/serverwc.

Only files that are .properties or .xml will merge the changes with the existing document. All other formats will simply replace the current file.
Zoom Clients who want to be excluded from synchronization may do so on their Settings by disabling the property SYNCUP_ENABLED. This property may also be set on the Zoom Server to be pulled later by Zoom Clients.

 

Here are the steps to accomplish this:

  1. On your Zoom MAM Server, locate the client settings folder.
    Windows: [ZOOM_INSTALL_DIR]\DAM\conf\client-settings\
    Linux: $HOME/zoom/conf/client-settings/
  2. On the Zoom Client machines, make sure that the default server is set in order to pull the properties from the server.
    If any of the property files contain any system environment variable such as $HOME then it will get replaced with corresponding value on client machine based on a client-specific system environment variable. Thus, $HOME would, for example, expand to /users/joe or /user/kate based on the logged-in user.
  3. After the property files are fetched from the server, you may need to restart ClientProxy from Z-icon in the system tray or menu bar. This mechanism will run automatically on the client every 2 days by default and brings in any changes or updates from the server. You can change how often this synchronization happens by adding the property SYNCUP_PERIOD=n in the zoom.properties file, where n is the number of days.
  4. To pull property files on-demand manually on the Zoom Client machine:
    1. Right-click on Z-icon in the system tray or menu bar.
    2. Click Settings from the Z-menu.
    3. Click Advance Properties.
    4. Click Sync now.
      In case of a conflict, it uses the configuration from the server and overrides the local changes on the client machine.

The properties are now synchronized from the global configuration on the Zoom Server. To see changes in any Zoom Client app like Asset Browser and Evolphin Zoom plugin, you need to restart these. In the case of the Evolphin Zoom plugin, you could also Reload Properties from the flyover menu.

Property synchronization still works in Zoom 7.3 and above. However, the properties are synchronized from the Server Zoom Properties page in the Web Management Console instead of the client-settings folder on the Zoom Server.

 

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