Skip to main content

SonarQube SonarScanner reference

You can run an automated SonarQube SonarScanner scan to analyze your code repos and ensure that they are secure, reliable, readable, and modular, among other key attributes.

You can set up SonarQube scans using a SonarQube step or a Security step (legacy workflow).

important notes
  • STO supports repository scanning only for SonarScanner.
  • STO supports all languages supported by SonarScanner.
  • Before you scan your repo, make sure that you perform any prerequisites for the language used in your repo. For details about specific language requirements, go to the SonarQube language reference.
  • By default, STO allocates 500Mi memory for the Sonarqube scan container. This should be enough for Ingestion scans. For Orchestrated and Extraction scans, Harness recommends that you allocate at least 2GB for the container. You can customize resource limits in the Set Container Resources section of the SonarQube scan step.

Before you begin​

You need to run the scan step with root access if you need to add trusted certificates to your scan images at runtime.

You can set up your STO scan images and pipelines to run scans as non-root and establish trust for your own proxies using self-signed certificates. For more information, go to Configure STO to Download Images from a Private Registry.

SonarQube step configuration​

The recommended workflow is to add a SonarQube step to a Security Tests or CI Build stage and then configure it as described below.

A Docker-in-Docker background step is not required for this workflow.

Scan​

Scan Mode​

The orchestration mode to use for the scan. The following list includes the UI and YAML values for the supported options.

  • Orchestrated A fully-orchestrated scan. A Security step in the Harness pipeline orchestrates a scan and then normalizes and compresses the results.
  • Extraction A partially-orchestrated scan. The Security step pulls scan results from an external SaaS service and then normalizes and compresses the data.
  • Ingestion Ingestion scans are not orchestrated. The Security step ingest results from a previous scan (for a scan run in an previous step) and then normallizes and compresses the results.

Scan Configuration​

The predefined configuration to use for the scan. All scan steps have at least one configuration.

Target​

Type​

  • Repository Scan a codebase repo.

    In most cases, you specify the codebase using a code repo connector that connects to the Git account or repository where your code is stored. For information, go to Create and configure a codebase.

Name​

The Identifier that you want to assign to the target you’re scanning in the pipeline. Use a unique, descriptive name such as codebaseAlpha or jsmith/myalphaservice. Using descriptive target names will make it much easier to navigate your scan data in the STO UI.

Variant​

An identifier for a specific variant to scan, such as the branch name or image tag. This identifier is used to differentiate or group results for a target. Harness maintains a historical trend for each variant.

You can see the target name, type, and variant in the Test Targets UI:

Target name, type, and branch

Workspace​

The workspace path on the pod running the Security step. The workspace path is /harness by default.

You can override this if you want to scan only a subset of the workspace. For example, suppose the pipeline publishes artifacts to a subfolder /tmp/artifacts and you want to scan these artifacts only. In this case, you can specify the workspace path as /harness/tmp/artifacts.

Ingestion File​

The results data file to use when running an Ingestion scan.

Generally an Ingestion scan consists of a scan step (to generate the data file) and an ingestion step (to ingest the data file).

In addition to ingesting scan data in the external scanner's native format, STO steps can also ingest data in SARIF and Harness Custom JSON format.

For more information, go to Ingest Scan Results into an STO Pipeline.

Authentication​

Domain​

The URL of the SonarQube server. Required for Orchestration and Extraction scans. This value corresponds to the sonar.host.url setting in SonarQube.

Enforce SSL​

The step and the scanner communicate over SSL by default. Set this to false to disable SSL (not safe).

Access Token​

The access token to log in to the scanner. In most cases this is a password or an API key.

You should create a Harness text secret with your encrypted token and reference the secret using the format <+secrets.getValue("project.container-access-id")>. For more information, go to Add and Reference Text Secrets.

note

Harness recommends that you use a SonarQube user token that includes permissions to run scans and to create projects.

If you use a project token, you must have access to the SonarQube project that you want to scan.

For more information, go to Generating and using tokens in the SonarQube documentation.

Scan Tool​

Exclude​

If you want to exclude some files from a scan, you can use this setting to configure the sonar.exclusions in your SonarQube project. For more information, go to Narrowing the Focus in the SonarQube docs.

Java Libraries​

A comma-separated list of paths to files with third-party libraries used by your tests. For SonarQube scans, this corresponds to the sonar.java.libraries parameter.

Java Binaries​

A comma-separated list of paths to the folders with the bytecode files you want to scan. For SonarQube scans, this corresponds to the sonar.java.binaries parameter.

Log Level, CLI flags, and Fail on Severity​

Log Level​

The minimum severity of the messages you want to include in your scan logs. You can specify one of the following:

  • DEBUG
  • INFO
  • WARNING
  • ERROR

Additional CLI flags​

You can use this field to customize the scan with specific command-line arguments supported by that scanner.

Fail on Severity​

Every Security step has a Fail on Severity setting. If the scan finds any vulnerability with the specified severity level or higher, the pipeline fails automatically. You can specify one of the following:

  • CRITICAL
  • HIGH
  • MEDIUM
  • LOW
  • INFO
  • NONE — Do not fail on severity

The YAML definition looks like this: fail_on_severity : critical # | high | medium | low | info | none

Settings​

You can add a tool_args setting to run the sonar-scanner binary with specific command-line arguments. For example, suppose the scan is experiencing timeouts due to long response times from a web service. You can increase the timeout window like this: tool_args = -sonar.ws.timeout 300.

Additional Configuration​

In the Additional Configuration settings, you can use the following options:

Advanced settings​

In the Advanced settings, you can use the following options:

Security step configuration (legacy)​

You can add a Security step to a Security Tests or CI Build stage and then configure it as described below.

Docker-in-Docker requirements​

note

Docker-in-Docker is not required for ingestion workflows where the scan data has already been generated.

You need to include a Docker-in-Docker background service in your stage if either of these conditions apply:

  • You configured your scanner using a generic Security step rather than a scanner-specific template such as Aqua Trivy, Bandit, Mend, Snyk, etc.
  • You’re scanning a container image using an Orchestration or Extraction workflow.
Set up a Docker-in-Docker background step

  1. Go to the stage where you want to run the scan.

  2. In Overview, add the shared path /var/run.

  3. In Execution, do the following:

    1. Click Add Step and then choose Background.
    2. Configure the Background step as follows:
      1. Dependency Name = dind
      2. Container Registry = The Docker connector to download the DinD image. If you don't have one defined, go to Docker connector settings reference.
      3. Image = docker:dind
      4. Under Optional Configuration, select the Privileged checkbox.
Configure the background step

Scan types​

STO supports the following scan types for SonarQube:

  • orchestratedScan — A Security step in the pipeline runs the scan and ingests the results. This is the easiest method to set up and support scans with default or predefined settings.
  • dataLoad — The pipeline downloads scan results using the SonarScanner API.
  • ingestionOnly — Run the scan in a Run step, or outside the pipeline, and then ingest the results. This is useful for advanced workflows that address specific security needs. See Ingest scan results into an STO pipeline.

Target and variant​

The following settings are required for every Security step:

  • target_name A user-defined label for the code repository, container, application, or configuration to scan.
  • variant A user-defined label for the branch, tag, or other target variant to scan.
note

Make sure that you give unique, descriptive names for the target and variant. This makes navigating your scan results in the STO UI much easier.

You can see the target name, type, and variant in the Test Targets UI:

Target name, type, and branch

For more information, go to Targets, baselines, and variants in STO.

SonarQube SonarScanner settings​

  • product_name = sonarqube
  • scan_type = repository
  • product_config_name = default — Runs a SonarQube scan with default settings.
  • policy_type — Enter one of the following:
    • orchestratedScan — A Security step in the pipeline runs the scan and ingests the results. This is the easiest method to set up and support scans with default or predefined settings.
    • dataLoad — The pipeline downloads scan results using the SonarScanner API.
    • ingestionOnly — Run the scan in a Run step, or outside the pipeline, and then ingest the results. This is useful for advanced workflows that address specific security needs. See Ingest scan results into an STO pipeline.
  • repository_project — The repository name. If you want to scan https://github.com/my-github-account/codebaseAlpha, for example, you would set this to codebaseAlpha.
  • repository_branch — The git branch to scan. You can specify a hardcoded string or use the runtime variable <+codebase.branch>. This sets the branch based on the user input or trigger payload at runtime.
  • fail_on_severity - See Fail on Severity.
  • tool_args - You can add a tool_args setting to run the sonar-scanner binary with specific command-line arguments. For example, suppose the scan is experiencing timeouts due to long response times from a web service. You can increase the timeout window like this: tool_args = -sonar.ws.timeout 300.

ingestionOnly settings​

The following setting is required for Security steps where the policy_type is ingestionOnly.

  • ingestion_file The results data file to use when running an Ingestion scan. You should specify the full path to the data file in your workspace, such as /shared/customer_artifacts/my_scan_results.json.

    In addition to ingesting scan data in the external scanner's native format, STO steps can also ingest data in SARIF and Harness Custom JSON format.

    The following steps outline the general workflow for ingesting scan data into your pipeline. For a complete workflow description and example, go to Ingest Scan Results into an STO Pipeline.

    1. Specify a shared folder for your scan results, such as /shared/customer_artifacts. You can do this in the Overview tab of the Security stage where you're ingesting your data.

    2. Create a Run step that copies your scan results to the shared folder. You can run your scan externally, before you run the build, or set up the Run step to run the scan and then copy the results.

    3. Add a Security step after the Run step and add the target name, variant, and ingestion_file settings as described above.

orchestratedScan and dataLoad settings​

  • product_domain — The URL of the SonarQube server. Use the value of the sonar.host.url parameter in SonarQube.
  • product_access_token — The access token to communicate with the SonarQube server. You must create a secret for the token and use the format <+secrets.getValue("secret_name")> to reference the secret. This example references a secret created at the project level. For additional details on referencing secrets, go to Add and Reference Text Secrets.
    Go to the SonarQube docs for information about creating tokens.
  • product_project_name—The name of the SonarQube project. This is the also the target name in the Harness UI (Security Tests > Test Targets).
  • product_project_key — The unique identifier of the SonarQube project you want to scan. Look for sonar.projectKey in the sonar-project.properties file.
  • product_exclude — If you want to exclude some files from a scan, you can use this setting to configure the sonar.exclusions in your SonarQube project. For more information, go to Narrowing the Focus in the SonarQube docs.
  • product_java_binaries — When scanning Java, you need to set the sonar.java.binaries key in SonarQube. This is a list of comma-separated paths with the compiled bytecode that correspond to your source files. See Java in the SonarQube docs.
  • product_java_libraries — sonar.java.binaries is a comma-separated list of paths to files with third-party libraries (JAR or Zip files) used by your project. See Java in the SonarQube docs.