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Sidecar Environment Variables

These variables apply to both AWS Secrets Manager and Azure Key Vault, except the ones noted.

Key

Required/Optional

Description

Example

ALTR_PRIVATE_KEY_CONTENT

Optional

The private key in the key-pair used to authenticate the sidecar in ALTR’s control plane. The public key is registered in ALTR. Do not provide this variable if you have mounted your private key to the sidecar.

-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY----- ABC ....DEF-----END PRIVATE KEY-----

ALTR_PRIVATE_KEY_PATH

Optional

Defines the location of a mounted private key. If not provided, the sidecar assumes a mounted key exists as /app/private.pem

--

AWS_DEFAULT_REGION

Required

(only for AWS Secrets Manager)

AWS region for Secrets Manager and other AWS services. These are required for database credential retrieval

us-east-2

AWS_REGION

Required

(only for AWS Secrets Manager)

LOG_AUDITS_TO_STDOUT

Optional

This toggle causes logs to be generated and stored, in JSON format, to stdout.

The default is false.

false

LOG_LEVEL

Optional

Controls the application/root logging level used by sidecar (e.g., DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR).

The default is INFO.

DEBUG

LOG_MAX_FILE_SIZE

Optional

Maximum size of the active log file before sidecar rotates it (rolled files are compressed archives).

The default is 100MB.

250MB

LOG_MAX_HISTORY

Optional

Number of rotated log archives to keep before older ones are deleted.

The default is 30.

14

LOG_ROTATION_INTERVAL_DAYS

Optional

Time-based log rotation interval in days (rotation can happen due to time and/or size - whichever occurs first).

The default is 1.

7

SERVER_BIND_ADDRESS

Optional

IP address the sidecar's database listener ports bind to; 0.0.0.0 allows external/Docker access, 127.0.0.1 limits to local machine only.

The default is 0.0.0.0.

127.0.0.1

SIDECAR_CONFIG_REFRESH_INTERVAL

Optional

How often the runtime polls the control plane / data plane for updated sidecar configuration and applies changes (e.g., listener ports/bindings/flags).

The default is 5 minutes.

30s

SIDECAR_DATAPLANE_BASE_URL

Required

Base URL for the control plane API that manages configuration and policies. This is the Data Plan URL that you copy from ALTR once you register the sidecar to ALTR.

https://sc-data-trunnion1.568950776381.sandbox.ct.dev.altr.com

SIDECAR_HEALTH_CHECK_IP

Optional

IP address the health-check endpoint binds to (port 8080 is fixed); set to 0.0.0.0 if a load balancer must reach it. Used for customers to check the health of a deployed sidecar.

The default is 127.0.0.1.

0.0.0.0

SIDECAR_ID

Required

Unique identifier for this specific sidecar instance. It is used to identify this sidecar in the control plane. This is the Sidecar ID that you copy from ALTR once you register the sidecar to ALTR.

1db4ee3c-0e1d-43cc-a5ef-ee8cb209a2ea

SIDECAR_INSTANCE_ID

Optional

The ID that the sidecar software uses to identify itself when communicating with ALTR. If it is not set, the instance generates a random UUID.

Setting an Instance ID provides a consistent identifier that makes monitoring and troubleshooting easier across reboots.

4fc6f120-e666-4a9b-afe6-63a3914aa0ab

SIDECAR_ORG_ID

Required

Your organization’s identifier in ALTR. This ID is used for auditing, telemetry and configuration retrieval. This is the Client ID visible once you register the sidecar to ALTR.

8cd73ffc-2826-4b87-a10b-f9b04afeb6c0

SIDECAR_POLICY_REFRESH_INTERVAL

Optional

Defines how often (in minutes) to refresh policies from the control plane.

1

SIDECAR_TAGS

Optional

Comma-separated key=value telemetry tags used to label/group sidecar deployments.

If not set, the default is no tags. If set, it must be non-empty, else start up fails.

NOTES:

  • Format: comma-separated pairs: key=value,key2=value2

  • Strict parsing: every comma-delimited segment must contain exactly ONE unescaped '='

  • Escaping: use '\=' to include a literal '=' in a key or value (e.g., my\=key=value or key=val\=ue)

  • Backslashes: ONLY '\=' is allowed; other escapes like '\\' or '\u' are invalid (Windows paths with '\' will fail—use forward slashes)

  • Limits: max 50 unique tags (after duplicate-key consolidation)

  • Key rules: 1–128 chars; must NOT start with lowercase 'altr:'

  • Value rules: 0–256 chars (empty value allowed, e.g., key=)

  • Allowed characters (keys/values): Unicode letters, numbers, spaces, and: _ . : / = + - @

  • Not allowed: commas or quotes in keys/values

  • Duplicates: duplicate keys are allowed; later values overwrite earlier ones ("last one wins")

  • Safety: tags may be logged once at startup and are sent upstream—do not put secrets/PII in them

env=prod,region=us-east-1,owner=platform-team1