Appian Cloud Web Administration

This page applies to Appian Cloud only. It may not reflect the differences with Appian Government Cloud.

Appian provides a number of useful tools and features to assist you in administering your site. These are in addition to the many standard Appian web administration features.

The site logo that appears in the header and on the login screen can be updated using Appian's Administration Console.

Changing the logo displayed at the top of the screen is possible through Appian's Administration Console.

Changing the logo displayed on the Appian log-in screen can be accomplished along with other branding changes through Appian's Administration Console.

Favorites Icon

The favorites icon (favicon.ico) that appears in your browser when you are using Appian can be modified using Appian's Administration Console.


Appian Cloud Database Administration

Access to the administrative interface of the relational database deployed as part of your site is available from the navigation menu as Cloud Database.

  • The relational database administrative interface is phpMyAdmin.
  • The relational database will be either MySQL Community Server or MariaDB Server. You can determine the database version by running SELECT version() query on phpMyAdmin.
  • MySQL, MariaDB and phpMyAdmin are widely adopted solutions with abundant online documentation. Appian Technical Support does not provide general or training assistance for using those tools.
  • There is a system group called "Database Administrators" to control access to phpMyAdmin in Appian Cloud sites. This group provides better control for customers to restrict access to the database administrative interface, since only members of this group can access phpMyAdmin.
  • Refer to the Query DB Smart Service topic for additional information about the capabilities of this smart service in combination with the relational database provided.
  • Appian Cloud database is provided for customers to store data linked to their applications. Using this instance of the database to store other types of data is strongly discouraged by Appian and is outside of the scope of the Appian Cloud service.
  • The Appian Cloud database is not provided as a full-featured database solution. Customers who want a full-featured database can host their own relational database and connect to it over the Internet or through VPN.
  • The Appian Cloud database is configured for High Availability using GTID-based replication. Consequently, the use of CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE and DROP TEMPORARY TABLE in transactions, procedures, functions, and triggers is not supported. Please see the MySQL documentation on Restrictions on Replication with GTIDs for more information. Same limitations apply to MariaDB.
  • Appian Technical Support is not responsible for the administration of any customer data you may store in your database, beyond performing regular backups.
  • Please review your service agreement to find or confirm your maximum allocated storage space.
  • Even though there may be no pre-defined limits (besides disk) to the amount of process data that can be stored in the Cloud database, it is important to bear in mind that you might experience decreased query performance as disk footprint increases unless you properly design the schema.
  • Appian strongly recommends following industry best practices to manage the data stored in the relational database. These include but are not limited to:
    • Use of a normalized schema
    • Proper indexes on the data
    • Optimized queries and views
  • Appian maintains performance for tables supplied by Appian. You are responsible for performance for tables you create.
  • Access is provided to the following tables in the Cloud database performance schema to analyze the performance of the database. Appian Technical Support does not provide general assistance interpreting or utilizing the information in these tables:
    • performance_schema.events_statements_history
    • performance_schema.events_statements_current
    • performance_schema.events_statements_history_long
    • performance_schema.events_stages_history
    • performance_schema.events_stages_current
    • performance_schema.events_stages_history_long
    • performance_schema.events_statements_summary_by_digest
    • performance_schema.table_io_waits_summary_by_table
    • performance_schema.table_io_waits_summary_by_index_usage
  • The following stored procedures are available to analyze the running queries and metadata locks in the Cloud database:
    • AppianProcess.getMyProcessList(): This stored procedure produces a list of running threads started by the user executing the stored procedure. A problematic long-running query can be identified and killed using the information generated.
    • AppianProcess.metadataLocks(): This stored procedure shows the data about current locks. This information can be used to identify the exact process that is locking a database object, in order to take any required action.
      • For MySQL, running the stored procedure outputs:
        • object_type
        • object_schema
        • object_name
        • lock_type
        • lock_status
        • thread_id
        • processlist_id
        • processlist_info
      • For MariaDB, running the stored procedure outputs:
        • table_schema
        • table_name
        • lock_type
        • lock_mode
        • lock_duration
        • processlist_id
        • processlist_info

System User

The Appian super user account (Administrator) is used by Appian Technical Support as needed to assist customers whenever an issue requires access to the application from the user interface. The primary user account created for each customer has the same rights and roles as the Administrator account.

Lost Password

The Appian Cloud login page includes a link that allows users to request their password to be reset.

  • Users are asked for their username registered in Appian.
  • For security reasons, the user is not given an indication as to whether or not the username entered is valid. The confirmation screen displayed is the same for valid and invalid entries.
  • The system automatically generates a personalized email message with a link where users can reset their password. The email also includes instructions to access the system once the password has been reset.
  • The URL in the email is only valid for 15 minutes. It is only valid for the username associated with the email.
  • On the password reset page, users must type and confirm their new password. Upon submission a confirmation screen is shown with a link for them to access their Appian site with the new password.

Log Files

Access to the Appian and Application Server logs is available through the user interface for users who have access to the Designer interface.

  • To view logs for the node that the user is currently logged into, do one of the following:
  • Access the navigation menu and select System Logs
  • Navigate the browser to the URL <cloud-domain>/suite/logs
  • To view logs for all nodes in a multi-node Cloud site: Navigate the browser to the URL <cloud-domain>/suite/shared-logs.

Application server logs and login audit logs are rotated on a daily basis (GMT) and the date is appended at the end of the file name. Unless otherwise indicated in customer’s service agreement logs can be compressed after 6 months, and can be deleted after 1 year except for login-audit logs which are retained for 3 years.

Process Archives

Process Archives are stored in the same server hosting a customer site. Customers who want to unarchive can do so leveraging some of the available shared components in Appian Forum or can work with Appian Technical Support to unarchive using the available scripts to manage process archives.

Unless otherwise indicated in customer’s service agreement, process archives can be compressed after 6 months, and can be deleted after 1 year. Once compressed, customers must request the process archives from Appian Technical Support.

System Properties

Appian Cloud utilizes standard configuration settings that are the default for Appian. Designers are required to design and tune their applications to be within standard configuration settings.

These standard configuration settings have been set based on data collected throughout time from all Appian deployments and have been set to prefer the stability and performance of the system.

Designers are required to design their applications to work within those specifications rather than requesting custom settings to circumvent sub optimal design patterns or poor performing system integrations.

The only changes to settings allowed are those that are exposed via the web browser via the Appian Administration Console.

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