The Administration Tool

The Administration Tool, also referred to as AdminTool in this documentation, is a powerful web application for remote monitoring and management of SmartFoxServer 3.

Features

The main features of the SmartFoxServer AdminTool are:

• advanced visual configuration of all the server settings, including Zones and Rooms;
• powerful runtime monitoring tools which allow checking the Zone, Room and User status on the live server, with advanced Room and User filtering capabilities, statistics and more;
• complete runtime data showing the live server status at a glance, letting administrators to keep the server performance under strict control;
• advanced console for in-depth traffic analysis, including visits, unique and new visitors, percentage of new visits, demographic data aggregation, client technology statistics and much more;
• kick and ban users, and manage the lists of banned usernames and IP addresses;
• multiple administrators can access the tool at the same time to communicate and work together; where needed, notifications make all online administrators aware of the changes made by others;
• modular architecture allowing fast deployment of additional custom-made modules.

Modules

The administration modules available in the AdminTool are ideally divided into two categories: monitoring and configuration. It is also possible to create your own custom modules, to integrate configuration, monitoring and management capabilities for your game or application.

Monitoring modulesConfiguration modules

Dashboard
Live traffic information (sessions, users, data transfer, threads, etc); realtime and history charts for all main server status indicators (CPU, memory, network traffic, queues).

Zone Monitor
Runtime monitoring of SmartFoxServer Zones, Rooms and Users.

Analytics
Reporting console for business data analysis.

Ban Manager
Banned users and banned IP addresses management.

Log Viewer
SmartFoxServer runtime logs display, backup and download.

BlueBox Monitor
Runtime monitoring of HTTP-tunnelled connections.

Server Configurator
SmartFoxServer global setup.

Zone Configurator
Creation and configuration of SmartFoxServer Zones and static Rooms.

Uploader
Server-side Extensions and Java Servlets deployment.

License Manager
SmartFoxServer license setup and verification.

First access

After completing the SmartFoxServer 3 installation successfully, point your browser to http://localhost:8088/admin/ to access the AdminTool.

When the connection screen is displayed, you can connect to your local SmartFoxServer instance immediately by entering the following values:

• Host: localhost
• Port: 8088
• Username: sfsadmin
• Password: sfsadmin

Predefined user

The predefined administrator (sfsadmin) should be removed as soon as possible, creating a new administrator in the Remote Admin tab of the Server Configurator module. This is very important in particular when the server is deployed to the production environment and can be accessed publicly.

Connection screen

The connection screen is the first view you will be presented after launching the AdminTool.

An administrator can fill the form with the connection details below, and access the server administration by pressing the Connect button.

• Host — A domain name or an IP address.
• Port — The WebSocket (WS) port dedicated to server administration.
• Username and Password — The administrator's access credentials.

The provided connection details are validated against the settings entered in the Remote Admin tab of the Server Configurator module to allow or deny access to the user.

Encryption

Communication between the AdminTool's client and the SmartFoxServer instance can be encrypted by means of the Encrypt switch in the connection screen. This also changes the port to the default WebSocket Secure (WSS) port value.

Enabling encryption requires SmartFoxServer to be previously configured as described in the Configuring SSL/TLS document; additionally you have to enable AdminTool's encryption in the Remote Admin tab mentioned above.

If the Remember me checkbox is checked, the connection details (except the password) are saved in the browser's local storage: the form will be filled automatically the next time the AdminTool is launched.

This screen also gives access, in the top-right corner, to the control to set the AdminTool's theme (light or dark).

Main interface

Other than the main area of the user interface, where the administration modules are loaded (faded in the image below), the relevant interface elements are:

1. The title bar shows the current module's name and the host and port number of the server to which the AdminTool is connected. If a custom name is assigned to the SmartFoxServer instance (see the General tab of the Server Configurator module), this is displayed in the title bar too ("My server" in the image above).
2. Here the AdminTool shows the version number of the SmartFoxServer instance to which it is connected.
3. The Doc () button opens the current module's documentation in a new browser window.
4. The Chat () button shows the administrators' activity and chat panel. Using this panel, administrator connected to the same SmartFoxServer instance can exchange messages in the internal public chat and check each other's activity. If a message is received while the panel is closed, a badge showing the number of unread messages is displayed above the Chat button: .
   1. The table at the top of the panel shows the name of the currently connected administrators, together with the administration module they are using and their uptime.
5. The Gear () button shows the control panel to restart/stop the server and more. This also contains the host, port number and version of the server to which the AdminTool is connected, just like the title bar.
   1. The Restart (yellow) and Halt (red) buttons respectively stop the server and stop&restart it; of course this causes an immediate disconnection of all connected administrators. Check the note below for additional information.
   2. The Logout button closes the current connection to SmartFoxServer and switches the view back to the connection screen.
   3. If a new version of SmartFoxServer is available, the Get new version button is displayed and a red dot is also visible above the Cog button: . Check the Server updates section below for more information.

   Halt and restart functions

   1. Supported operating systems: Windows, Linux, macOS.
   2. When SmartFoxServer is restarted using the AdminTool, a new process is created, which is not detected by the command line tool. This means that you can either control the server via command line or via AdminTool, but you can't mix the two.
   3. During the restart process, some exceptions may be logged: this is normal and those exceptions are harmless, in fact you will be able to access your SmartFoxServer instance again using the AdminTool in a few seconds.
6. The last button in the header, together with the associated dropdown, allows selecting the AdminTool's theme (light or dark). Select Auto to match the operating system theme.
7. The sidebar shows the icons (and name, on large monitors) of the available administration modules. Click/tap one to load the module. A tooltip also shows the module's name and a brief description. Note that the AdminTool "remembers" the last opened module and will reload it automatically the next time it is accessed.

Server updates

The AdminTool provides a basic server version check system. It automatically checks if a new version of SmartFoxServer 3 is available on the website as a full installer or patch. In case it is found, the Cog button in the header shows a red badge, and the Get new version button is displayed in the control panel (see 5c above).

Click/tap the button to open a panel showing the update details and a button to go to the download page of the SmartFoxServer website (automatic installation is not available).