6.2. Session level

Once server is added, you will be able to view, configure and manage FIX sessions. This section describes what can be done to a FIX session.
All possible actions are available in the 'Session' submenu and 'Session Administration' toolbar. 
Note, “View → Toolbars” context menu item can be used to hide/unhide this toolbar. 

Add Session

In order to add new FIX session, select necessary server and click “Add Session” button or go to “Session → Add session to server” context menu item.
The same can also be achieved via right mouse click on selected server and referring to 'Add Session to the Server' menu item. 

By default, only mandatory fields should be specified:

• Session Type 
• FIX Version 
• Remote Host and Port 
• Sender and Target CompIDs 
• SSL connection. 
  
  

Any session configuration can be saved as default by clicking “Save as default” button to create new session with pre-defined custom parameters.

Session Qualifier

To establish several sessions with the same SenderCompId and TargetCompId, both Initiator and Acceptor should create several session objects which differ from each other by SessionQualifier property. SessionQualifier property on the Initiator side must be the same as SessionQualifier property of the corresponding session on acceptor side. When Initiator connects to Acceptor, it sends SessionQualifier along with SenderCompId and TargetCompId in logon message. The SessionQualifier tag in the Logon message is optional and can be configured in the engine.properties file. When Acceptor receives logon message with the SessionQualifier it searches for a registered session with SessionId corresponding to received TargetCompId, SenderCompId, and SessionQualifier. If the session is found it is associated with the incoming connection, otherwise, the connection is rejected.
If the user creates a session by passing only SenderCompId and TargetCompId parameters (without SessionQualifier), the SessionId structure is created and stored internally with empty qualifier_ property. If Acceptor registers a session without session qualifier it won't accept any incoming connection with session qualifier defined in logon message. And vice versa, if Acceptor has registered a session or several sessions with qualifiers, it won't accept connections from Initiators without SessionQualifier.

Also SessionQualifierTag is available for defining a tag containing SessionQualifier name (LogonMessageSessionQualifierTag parameter in FIXEdge.properties).

Refer to: How to use SessionQualifier

Extended Settings tab

The following optional parameters can be set:

• FIX Engine Session ID
• Sender/Target SubIDs and Location IDs
• Storage type: 'Persistent' to temporarily store messages on a hard drive (recommended to be able to restore in case of a failure) or 'Transient' storing messages in memory to increase throughput and decrease latency. Note, if 'Transient' mode is selected all  information will be lost in case of failure
• Engine behavior when session is not available: store messages for later delivery (default one) or reject them.
• Socket operation priority to control threads allocation, the following options are available: 
  • Even (default), i.e. threads are allocated 
  • or Aggressive Send, Aggressive Receive or Aggressive Send & Receive corresponding to separate threads for sending, receiving and both sending and receiving respectively. All these settings will improve latency but affect throughput.
• Forced Reconnect: parameter to specify whether all non‐gracefully terminated sessions will try to reconnect.
• Disable TCP Buffer: another configuration option to lower latency, but affecting throughput as messages will be sent independently, not in packages.

Sequence Numbers tab

This tab allows you to manage sequence numbers by doing the following:

• Set/change In/Out session sequence numbers
• Accept/reject all incoming connections ignoring too low sequence numbers at Logon via 'Ignore Sequence Number Too Low At Logon'
• Enable/disable continuing sequence numbers after logout and further create session wit the same ID via 'Intraday Logout Tolerance mode' 
• Control sequence numbers reset policy via 'Force SeqNum Reset Mode'. The following setting are available:
  • always
  • never
  • only in initial state
  • according to server defaults

Security tab

This tab allows specifying properties for user authentication at logon as well as data encryption settings.

• Parameters for user authentication: username and password 
• Encryption type: PKCS, DES, PKCS_DES, PGP_DES, PGP_DES_MD5 or PEM_DES_MD5. Make sure that counterparty is aware of your security settings.

Backup Connection tab

Allows specifying backup connection to assure the uninterrupted information exchange. Check the corresponding box and specify the following:

• Backup host and port
• Auto Switch: is recommended to avoid manual switch each time the connection becomes unstable
• Enable Cyclic Switch: for automatic switching back to primary connection in case the backup one is unstable or lost.
• Active Connection to specify which connection is used: "primary" or "backup". The "restore" value means that previous connection (primary or backup) is used to establish connection.

Custom Logon tab

Custom FIX Logon (MsgType = 'A') message can be specified in this tab.

Scheduler tab

Old-style Scheduler tab

This tab allows specifying scheduled tasks for FIX sessions (functionality is available for FIX Edge only)
It is possible to switch between custom and default scheduler. In order to do so, switch between "Session starts/stops with the server (according to default scheduler)" and "Session starts/stops according to scheduler”.
For custom scheduler you can configure:

• Start/Connect/Disconnect/Terminate time (in local FIX Server time)
• Immediate session start (upon its creation) by checking the "Start Session Right Now" option. In this case, its further operation will be determined by schedule, if it is specified
• Whether session should be recreated on Logout. Initiator-session will be recreated after receiving Logout and Acceptor-session will wait for incoming connection.
• Whether session should be terminated on Logout. Initiator-session will terminate after receiving Logout.

New-style Scheduler tab

This tab allows to define the schedule for the FIX session in a new, more flexible format (functionality is available for FIXEdge only).

┌──────────── second (0 - 59)
│ ┌───────────── minute (0 - 59)
| │ ┌───────────── hour (0 - 23)
| │ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1 - 31)
| │ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 - 12)
| │ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (1 - 7: Sunday to Saturday)
| │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
* * * * * *

It is possible to switch between existing schedules, define custom session schedule or choose default settings:

When choose <Inherit from default>, no schedule is specified and default properties will be applied. If default properties are not specified in FIXEdge.properties, FIX Session will be started/stoped with the server.

When choose <Custom Settings>, you can configure Start/Connect/Disconnect/Terminate time. All the properties from this section can be defined in both CRON format and standard HH:MM format.

The options below can be specified for all the schedules:

• Whether session should be recreated on Logout. Initiator-session will be recreated after receiving Logout and Acceptor-session will wait for incoming connection.
• Whether session should be terminated on Logout. Initiator-session will terminate after receiving Logout.

After the option is chosen, it will be immediately applied either for new created session or edited existing non-active session.

SSL tab

You can enable SSL by checking 'SSL' checkbox in the main parameters.

When SSL checkbox is checked you can choose

• SSL protocols (default: TLS 1.0, TLS 1.1, TLS 1.2)
• Configure use of certificate (default settings allows not to use it)
• Point to private key parameters (default settings allows not to use separate key file)

Configuring SSL certificate

• Use of separate certificate can be configured via "Upload certificate to server" radio button and further browsing and pointing to certificate file location.
• If you want to use certificate of existent session you have to select "Use configured certificate from server" radio button and choose necessary certificate from the drop-down list of available installed certificates.
• If you want to use certificate, which already installed on the FIX Edge server but is not used for any session so far (i.e. is not available in the drop-down list) you have to select "Use certificate from server" radio button and specify path to the certificate file.

Verification of SSL private key

Match between private key and server certificate will be checked if "Check private key" option is selected.

•  Use of separate key can be configured via "Upload key to server" radio button and further browsing and pointing to certificate file location.
• If you want to use key of existent session you have to select "Use configured key from server" radio button and choose necessary key from the drop-down list of available installed keys.
• If you want to use key, which already installed on the FIX Edge server but is not used for any session so far (i.e. is not available in the drop-down list) you have to select "Use key from server" radio button and specify path to the key file.

Start Session

In order to start certain FIX session, select it and click the “Start Session” button or go to “Session → Start Session” menu to start it.

The same can be done via right mouse click on selected session and selection of “Start Session” option from the context menu.

Session details

In order to access all sessions configured for particular server, navigate to the left side of FIXICC GUI and double click on necessary server in the "Servers" list. This will expand list of all configured FIX sessions for the server and display their summary on the right side of the window. 

The following real-time session statuses are displayed next to each session under 'FIX' umbrella of monitored FIX server and in the “Status” table column of FIX session details and/or FIX sessions summary tab(s):

To drill down to session details double click on FIX Session of your interest either in the table or in the list of sessions. Detailed view of selected FIX session will be displayed in the new tab on the right side of the FIXICC GUI.

Session updates

Session updates are sent automatically. In order to set updates frequency and response waiting time, go to “Edit → Options” and select the FIXICC tab.

• "Updating Period" parameter sets updates frequency;
• "Wait For Answer" parameter is responsible for response waiting time.

Edit Session

Right‐click the required session on the list and select “Edit Session” from the context menu to edit session details.

Restart Session

In order to restart certain session, select it and and click the “Restart Session” button in "Sessions" toolbar or go to “Session → Restart Session” menu option.
The same can be done via right mouse click on necessary session followed by selection of “Restart Session” item from the context menu. 

Stop Session

Selected FIX session ca be stopped using “Stop Session” button in 'Sessions' toolbar or via “Session → Stop Session” menu option.
The same can be done via right mouse click on necessary FIX session followed by selection of “Stop Session” item from the context menu. 
 

 

Selected FIX session ca be removed from the server using “Remove Session” button in 'Sessions' toolbar or via “Session → Remove Session” menu option.
The same can be done via right mouse click on necessary FIX session followed by selection of “Remove Session” item from the context menu. 

Remove All Sessions

To remove all configured FIX sessions from the server, click the “Remove All Sessions” button in 'Sessions' toolbar  or go to “Session → Remove All Sessions” menu option.

6.3. Extended Session Level

Send Message

FIXICC allows specifying any FIX message(s) to be sent by server via selected  FIX session. 
This can be achieved so. Click “Send Message” button in the toolbar or go to “Session → Send Message” menu item to open a 'Send message' form, enter FIX message and click 'OK'. 'Cancel' button discards attempt to sent the message and closes the window.
FIX message can be entered either:

• as raw FIX message (using the “SOH” button to insert delimiters) 
• or as predefined FIX message, clicking “Load message” button to load necessary message.

Besides that, it is possible to send preset session level messages:

• Test Request
• HeatBeat

via corresponding 'Send Test Request' and 'Send Heartbeat' buttons in the toolbar or 'Session → Test Request' and 'Session → Heartbeat' menu items.

6.4. Session Log browsing

Session Log browsing functionality  is available in the 'Session' menu and 'Session Administration Extension' toolbar. 
Note, “View → Toolbars” context menu item can be used to hide/unhide this toolbar. 

Open log-files

It is possible to open all log files at once or only incoming or outgoing ones.

• To open all logs, select required session and click “Open All Message Logs” button or go to “Session → Open All Message Logs" menu option
  First messages to be shown are from incoming messages log-file, then from outgoing messages log-file.
• To open incoming logs only, click “Open Incoming message log” button or go to “Session → Open Incoming message log”menu option
• To open outgoing logs only, click “Open Outgoing message log” button or go to “Session → Open Out going message log”menu option.

Once necessary action is chosen, FIX Log Analyzer – FIXEye will launch.

Search in log-files

FIXICC also allows fast data search in FIX log files. In order to do so, select a required session and then

• type your search query in the search box and click the “Search In All Message Logs” button on the toolbar 
• or go to “Session → Search In All Message Logs” menu option. 

First messages from incoming log-file, then from outgoing log-file will be shown.

6.5. Schedules level

Once server is added, you will be able to view, configure and manage Schedules. This section describes what can be done to a Schedule.

┌──────────── second (0 - 59)
│ ┌───────────── minute (0 - 59)
| │ ┌───────────── hour (0 - 23)
| │ │ ┌───────────── day of month (1 - 31)
| │ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 - 12)
| │ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of week (1 - 7: Sunday to Saturday)
| │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │
* * * * * *

Add new schedule

"Add a new schedule" can be chosen from the context menu of the Schedules item:

After clicking on this option, form for adding new schedule will appear:

Schedule can be assigned to the specific session using New-style Scheduler tab.

Name of the schedule should be unique. One schedule can be assign to several sesions. If time zone is not specified explicitly, local time will be applied.

Schedule details

Schedule details can be opened by double clicking on the specific schedule from the Schedules list:

Edit schedule

Schedule editing can be chosen in the schedule's context menu:

After clicking on this option, editing form will appear:

Remove schedule

Schedule removal can be chosen in schedule's context menu:

After clicking on this option, confirmation dialog will appear. After confirmation the corresponding schedule will be removed.

7. Permissions

Permission management is available only if B2BITS Security Service is installed and is running. It is available for user with administration rights only. Users with guest-type will not have access to these settings.

7.1. Users management

User’s permission management functionality is available in the “Edit → Permissions…” submenu.

Add User

To add new user, click the “Add User” button, fill out the form with relevant data and click 'OK'. Clicking 'Cancel' will discard entered settings

User Modification

The following can be done to already defined FIXICC user:

• Remove: via “Remove User” button.
• Modify username and/or password: via “Modify User” button 
• Edit permissions: via “Edit permissions” button (see details in the next 7.2 section)

7.2. Permissions management

Select user from the list and click the “Edit Permissions” button to open permissions management window.

Server Permissions

To assign user with necessary permissions, go to 'Server Permissions' tab, select necessary Server and set new permissions to be granted. The same approach can be used to limit user permissions. Full access to the server can be granted selecting “All” option.

Note: Context menu (right mouse click on the servers list) contains Remove/Add item elements.

Session Permissions

In addition to server-wide, user can be granted session-level permissions. In order to do so, go to 'Server Permissions' tab, select Server and necessary Session and then set necessary permissions to be granted. 
The same approach can be used to limit user permissions. Full access to the FIX sessions at the server can be granted selecting “All” option.

Note: Context menu (right mouse click on the servers list) contains Remove/Add item elements.

Session Group Permissions

In order to set permissions to manage group of FIX sessions, go to 'Group Permissions' tab, select necessary group and set permissions to be granted to this group. 
The same approach can be used to limit group permissions. Full access to the FIX sessions at the server can be granted selecting “All” option.

Note: Context menu (right mouse click on the servers list) contains Remove/Add item elements to Remove/Add group.

Note, FIX session can be added to necessary security group via “Security Groups” field on 'Security' tab.

Troubleshooting

FIXICC can't start because it can't use the directory with metadata

FIXICC keeps the user-specific metadata in the directory specified with parameter default_userdir from fixicc.conf. 

By default it is the directory in the user's home in the application data folder:

default_userdir="${HOME}/.${APPNAME}/dev"

The default directory is inaccessible or default_userdir can be specified to the NetBeans home directory. In this case, FIXICC will fail with the next error on the startup

Your user directory (D:\FIXEdge\fixicc\dev) cannot reside inside your NetBeans installation directory (D:\FIXEdge\fixicc).

Solution

Update default_userdir with the different directory outside of FIXEdge installation dir:

default_userdir="D:/dev"