> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cognite.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Configure simulator connectors
> Learn how to set up and configure Windows-based simulator connectors to enable communication between simulation tools and Cognite Data Fusion (CDF).
The connectors act as translators between your simulator's specific commands and CDF, facilitating bidirectional data flow while operating as a client making outbound https-connections only.
## Before you start
**Infrastructure setup**
* A Windows virtual or physical machine with storage space for model files.
* Simulation software installed with valid licenses.
* Windows administrator access for service configuration.
**Authentication setup**
* Registered service application in your Identity Provider (IdP).
* Client secret for authentication.
* Properly configured access groups in your IdP.
* Dedicated data set in CDF for storing simulator data.
* Appropriate [CDF group access capabilities](/cdf/access/guides/capabilities#simulator-connectors).
**Network configuration**
* Firewall allowing outbound traffic to `https://{cluster}.cognitedata.com`.
* TLS certificate validation settings.
* Proxy configuration (if applicable).
## Configuration settings
To configure a simulator connector, you must edit the configuration file. The file is in [YAML](https://yaml.org) format, and you'll find configuration file examples listed under the `config` folder in the directory where the connector is installed.
Don't base your configuration on the `config.example.yml` file. Instead, use `config.minimal.yml` as your base and copy the parts you need from `config.example.yml`.
1. Download simulator connectors from Data fusion > Integrate > **Extractors and connectors**.
2. Create `config.yml` in the connector's installation directory. Start with `config.minimal.yml` as a baseline.
3. Configure authentication values using your IdP credentials.
1. Create a dedicated Windows service/user account on the connector machine.
2. Set `read` and `write` access for the service account to the connector installation folder.
1. Configure the Windows service to use the local dedicated account.
2. Start the Windows service.
3. Monitor startup using Windows Event Viewer.
4. Verify the connector registration under **Integrations** in the **Simulators** tool in the CDF user interface or by listing *simulator integrations* through the Cognite API.
* When the connector starts, it reads the configuration file, authenticates with CDF, registers itself as a simulator integration, and starts processing models and routines.
* When you've configured the connector, it registers itself and the associated simulator in CDF, and you can create models and routines.
For on-premises connectors, customers are responsible for maintaining connector uptime. Connectors are designed to operate as always-on services to ensure consistent compute availability for users.
## Using values from environment variables
In the configuration file, values wrapped in `${}` are replaced with environment variables with that name. For example, `${COGNITE_PROJECT}` will be replaced with the value of the environment variable called `COGNITE_PROJECT`.
The configuration file also contains the global parameter `version`, which holds the version of the configuration schema used in the configuration file. This document describes version 1 of the configuration schema.
## Configuration sections
### Connector
This section contains information on how the current connector appears in **Simulators**.
| Parameter | Description | Required |
| --------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------- |
| **connector.data-set-id** | Enter the data set ID to read the model files and simulator routines from. Result inputs and outputs will be written to this data set. | Yes |
| **connector.name-prefix** | Enter the connector name that is registered on the API. | No |
| **connector.add-machine-name-suffix** | When set to `true` (default), the connector name is composed of the prefix `name-prefix@vm-host-name` followed by the machine name. | No |
| **connector.simulation-run-tolerance** | The connector will time out simulation runs that are older than this value (in seconds). | No |
| **connector.fetch-runs-interval** | The connector will fetch simulation runs from CDF at this interval (in seconds). | No |
| **connector.status-interval** | The connector will update its heartbeat in CDF at this interval (in seconds). | No |
| **connector.scheduler-update-interval** | The connector will check if scheduled simulations should be triggered at this interval (in seconds) | No |
| **connector.simulation-run-load-balancing-enabled** | When set to `true`, the connector participates in **[Simulation run load balancing](/cdf/integration/guides/simulators/simulator_api)** (*[preview](/cdf/product_feature_status)*), and CDF assigns queued runs across healthy connectors for higher throughput. The default value is `false`, which preserves earlier behavior: runs stay tied to your connector. | No |
| **connector.simulation-run-poll-limit** | The maximum number of simulation runs the connector gets assigned at a time. When `connector.simulation-run-load-balancing-enabled` is `true` (*[preview](/cdf/product_feature_status)*), queued runs and runs assigned to this connector count together toward this limit. The default value is `10`. | No |
### Logger
Log entries are either `Fatal`, `Error`, `Warning`, `Information`, `Debug`, `Verbose`, in order of decreasing importance. Each level covers the ones of higher importance.
| Parameter | Description |
| ------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **console** | Configuration for logging to the console. |
| **console.level** | Set the minimum level of log events to write to the console. Set this parameter to enable console logging. |
| **console.stderr-level** | Log events at this level or above are redirected to standard error. |
| **file** | Configuration for logging to a rotating log file. |
| **file.level** | Set the minimum level of log events to write to file. |
| **file.path** | Enter the path to the files to be logged. For instance, if this is set to `logs/log.txt`, logs on the form `logs/log[date].txt` will be created, depending on `rolling-interval`. |
| **file.retention-limit** | Set the maximum number of log files that are kept in the log folder. |
| **file.rolling-interval** | Enter a rolling interval for log files as `day` or `hour`. The default value is `day`. |
| **remote** | Configuration for logging to CDF. |
| **remote.enabled** | Insert boolean of whether to push logs to CDF or not. The default value is `true`. |
| **remote.level** | Set the minimum level of log events to push to CDF. Valid values are `Error`, `Warning`, `Information` and `Debug`. |
### Cognite
This is the configuration of the connection to CDF.
| Parameter | Description |
| ------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **host** | Insert the CDF service URL. The default value is `https://api.cognitedata.com`. |
| **project** | Enter the CDF project. This is a required parameter. |
| **idp-authentication** | The configuration for authenticating to CDF. |
| **idp-authentication.authority** | The authority used with `tenant` to authenticate to Azure tenants. Use `token-url` if you're connecting using a non-azure IdP. The default value is `https://login.microsoftonline.com`. |
| **idp-authentication.tenant** | Enter the Azure tenant used with `authority`. |
| **idp-authentication.token-url** | Insert the URL used to obtain service tokens, used for non-azure IdPs. |
| **idp-authentication.client-id** | Enter the service principal client ID. |
| **idp-authentication.secret** | Enter the service principal client secret. |
| **idp-authentication.resource** | Insert an optional resource parameter to pass along with token requests. |
| **idp-authentication.scopes** | Enter a list of scopes to pass along with the request. This will typically need to contain `[host]/.default`. |
| **idp-authentication.audience** | Insert an optional audience parameter to pass along with token requests. |
| **idp-authentication.min-ttl** | Set the requested minimum time-to-live in seconds for the token. |
| **idp-authentication.certificate** | Configuration for authenticating using a client certificate. |
| **idp-authentication.certificate.authority-url** | Insert the certificate authority URL. |
| **idp-authentication.certificate.path** | Enter the path to the `.pem` or `.pfx` certificate to be used for authentication. |
| **idp-authentication.certificate.password** | Enter the certificate password. |
| **max-data-points-upload-queue-size** | Set the maximum number of cached data points before they are uploaded to CDF. The default value is `1000000`. |
| **cdf-retries** | Set the number of automatic retries on requests to CDF. |
| **cdf-retries.timeout** | Set a timeout in milliseconds for each try. The default value is `80000`. |
| **cdf-retries.max-retries** | Set the maximum number of retries. A value less than 0 retries forever. |
| **cdf-retries.max-delay** | Set the maximum delay between each try in milliseconds. The base delay is calculated according to `125 * 2 ^ retry` milliseconds. If this is less than 0, there's no upper limit. The default value is `5000`. |
| **cdf-chunking** | The configuration for chunking on requests to CDF. Note that increasing these may cause requests to fail, due to limits in the API. Read the API documentation before making these higher than their current value. |
| **cdf-chunking.time-series** | Set the maximum number of time series per get/create time series request. |
| **cdf-chunking.data-point-time-series** | Set the maximum number of time series per data point create request. |
| **cdf-chunking.data-points** | Set the maximum number of data points per data point create request. |
| **cdf-throttling** | Set how requests to CDF should be throttled. |
| **cdf-throttling.time-series** | Set the maximum number of parallel requests per time series operation. The default value is `20`. |
| **cdf-throttling.data-points** | Set the maximum number of parallel requests per datapoints operation. The default value is `10`. |
| **sdk-logging** | The configuration for logging of requests from the SDK. |
| **sdk-logging.disable** | Set this to `true` to disable logging of requests from the SDK. This is by default enabled. |
| **sdk-logging.level** | Set the log level to log messages from the SDK. The default value is `debug`. |
| **sdk-logging.format** | Set the log message format. The default value is `CDF ({Message}): {HttpMethod} {Url} - {Elapsed} ms` |
| **nan-replacement** | Replacement for `NaN` values when writing to CDF. The default value is none, meaning these values are removed. |
| **extraction-pipeline.external-id** | The configuration for associating this connector with an extraction pipeline. This is used for monitoring and remote configuration. |
| **certificates** | The configuration for special handling of SSL certificates. This should not be considered as a permanent solution to certificate problems. |
| **certificates.accept-all** | Accept all remote SSL certificates even if verification fails. Note: This introduces a risk of man-in-the-middle attacks. |
| **certificates.allow-list** | List of certificate thumbprints to automatically accept. This is a smaller risk than accepting all certificates. |
### State store
This section includes the configuration parameters for storing state in a local database.
| Parameter | Description |
| ------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **location** | Enter the path to the database file containing the state store. |
| **database** | Select which type of database to use. Only `LiteDb` is currently supported. The default value is `None`. |
## Maintain connectors
* Connectors might require significant disk space for caching model files stored in CDF
* Connectors don't have auto-update features, so regular manual updates are necessary to get bug fixes and new features
* The underlying simulation software may also require periodic updates
* When troubleshooting problems, check the connector logs in the installation directory and Windows Event Logs