# What is DEFAULT\_CATTLE\_API\_UI\_INDEX?

**URL:** <https://forums.suse.com/t/what-is-default-cattle-api-ui-index/7367>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [September 20, 2017, 2:08pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/what-is-default-cattle-api-ui-index/7367 "2017-09-20T14:08:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![flypenguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e480ec/32.png) [@flypenguin](https://forums.suse.com/u/flypenguin)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 2:08pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/what-is-default-cattle-api-ui-index/7367/1 "2017-09-20T14:08:28Z")

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In the terraform rancher modules for AWS there is this line:

```auto
[...] docker run [...] -e DEFAULT_CATTLE_API_UI_INDEX=https://releases.rancher.com/ui/${api_ui_version} [...]

```

Now.

I googled quite a bit and found - nothing. What is that version supposed to mean? And do I _have_ to specify it? (I think not, but then what are the consequences?) Why is that of interest to me at all? Where is a list of available versions? What happens when I specify a different version?

Kinda confused here 🙂

Cheers,  
Axel.

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**Author:** ![vincent](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forums.suse.com/vincent/32/7156_2.png) [@vincent](https://forums.suse.com/u/vincent)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/what-is-default-cattle-api-ui-index/7367/2 "2017-09-20T15:46:55Z")

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`api.ui.index` is the setting for where to load the UI index.html that gets returned when you hit the server with a browser, which essentially determines what UI build you get.

Any setting can be changed using environment variables by setting `CATTLE_<name to all caps, substituting dots with underscores>` and adding `DEFAULT_`makes it overrideable by other sources (like the database).

In release builds a copy of the appropriate UI build is downloaded from our CDN and bundled into the release so that it works offline, and this particular setting is set to `local` which makes cattle serve the UI itself.

For non-releases, the default is to load the “latest” copy from CDN, which can be frequently updated separate from server changes.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![flypenguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e480ec/32.png) [@flypenguin](https://forums.suse.com/u/flypenguin)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 4:13pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/what-is-default-cattle-api-ui-index/7367/3 "2017-09-20T16:13:58Z")

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so … if I get this right, _if_ I want to specify this, I should need only “local” (for all releases) and “latest” for all others? 🙂

that makes things way easier.

But I guess I’ll just leave it out.

thanks!

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![vincent](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex022/user_avatar/forums.suse.com/vincent/32/7156_2.png) [@vincent](https://forums.suse.com/u/vincent)\
**Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/what-is-default-cattle-api-ui-index/7367/4 "2017-09-20T20:41:19Z")

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Yes you can leave it out. The basis of those scripts is how we run things like `try.rancher.com` and it uses a copy hosted on our CDN.