is a web-based application which allows users to centrally manage, monitor and control Aspera servers and transfers. Console offers the following features:
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Transfer monitoring and control | View transfers, pause / resume / cancel, change transfer rates. |
| Transfer Initiation | Initiate and schedule transfer jobs remotely. |
| Node Configuration | An administrator can configure all nodes directly from Console such for options such as bandwidth, priority, and encryption. |
| Email Notification | Notify users of transfer events with customizable messages. |
| Reporting | Create detail and summary reports of transfer activity. |
| Role-based access control |
Manage what transfers are visible and controllable to Console users with security groups. |
Figure 1 shows the relationship between Console, managed nodes, and an unmanaged node. A managed node is defined as a node which can be configured by Console. In addition, its transfer activities can be managed from Console and are logged to the Console database. Console controls managed nodes by connecting with SSH to allow node configuration and file browsing. Console handles regular nodes and legacy nodes differently in the following ways:
- For regular nodes, Console makes REST calls to the Node API to pull transfer details into console as well as to start and control transfers.
- For legacy nodes, Console processes data that gets pushed to the database by the node. Console also communicates with legacy nodes via SOAP calls to start and control transfers and to check for cases where nodes failed to log the end of a transfer.
Unmanaged nodes are not under control of the Console and are used as external transfer endpoints. In the blue box, Node 1 and Node 2 are managed nodes. All transfer activity on these nodes can be monitored and controlled. Node 3, outside of the blue box, is an unmanaged node. Console is only aware of transfers on this node that are with a managed node (for example, Transfer 2, above).
Figure 2 illustrates the concept of nodes and endpoints. An endpoint is an individual user account on a node which can perform Aspera transfers. You can have one or multiple endpoints on a node depending on your business needs. As shown above, Node 1 contains Endpoint A (asp1@node1) and Endpoint B (asp2@node1). Transfers take place between endpoints, for example, Transfer 1 between Endpoint A and Endpoint D, and Transfer 2 between Endpoint B and Endpoint C.