Aspera faspex Administrator Guide

All Platforms
Version 1.5.2
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 2 Getting Started
2.1 faspex Overview
2.2 Manage your faspex Account
2.3 Configure the Server
Chapter 3 Administration
3.1 faspex Users
3.2 faspex Workgroups
3.3 Packages
3.4 Post-Processing
3.5 Email Notifications
Chapter 4 Transfer Files
Download Packages
Send Packages
Appendix 1 Restart faspex
2 The Log Files

1. Introduction

Aspera faspex is a file exchange application that built upon Aspera Enterprise Server for centralized transfer solution. With a web-based graphical user interface, faspex allows more advanced management options for fasp high-speed transfer to match your organization's workflow. faspex provides the following features:

Features
fasp™ transport server
Installed upon the Enterprise Server, a transport server that handles fasp™ connections.
Web- and Email-based Interface
Simple web and email interface for exchanging files and directories.
Package Forwarding
A permitted user can forward packages on the server to others without re-transferring.
Permission Management
Manage user permissions through workgroup assignment or direct-configuration.
Post-Processing
Execute custom scripts after a transfer when certain conditions are met.
Email Notification
Customizable Email Notification of faspex events such as when receiving a package.

The most up-to-date document can be found at http://asperasoft.com/support/documentation/faspex.
For further assistance, please contact us at http://asperasoft.com/support.

2. Getting Started

2.1 faspex Overview

2.1.1 faspex Transfer Overview

The faspex Transfer is illustrated step-by-step in Figure 1:

1. User opens faspex website through web browser. faspex website will trigger the Aspera Connect on the client's computer.
2. When the user successfully logged in, faspex communicates with Aspera Enterprise Server to acquire the file and directory information.
3. faspex returns either the file listing or the upload screen to the client.
4. When the user clicks on a file's download link, or initiates a file upload, the browser passes the transfer information to the Aspera Connect.
5. Once Aspera Connect receives the transfer information, it establishes a connection with the server's Enterprise Server and start the file transfer.

2.1.2 faspex Menu

faspex menu includes six options to administrators:

Send
To send a file package.
My Received
Lists all the file packages you have received.
My Sent
Lists all the file packages you have sent
Workgroup Packages
Lists all the file packages sent to your workgroups.
Preferences
Configure your account preferences.
Server Admin
Configure and manage the faspex.

2.2 Manage your faspex Account

Follow these steps to log in and manage your faspex user account:

Step 1 Install Aspera Connect
faspex requires having Aspera Connect installed on your computer to start transfers. You can download it at http://asperasoft.com/connect.
You cannot transfer files using faspex if you are running on the machine that hosts it.
Step 2 Log in faspex
To start faspex, bring up a web browser and enter the faspex's address. For example:
Step 3 Modify the account information
When logged in, go to Preferences from the faspex menu. You can change the following info:
It is strongly recommended to change the default password the first time you log in.

2.3 Configure the Server

To configure faspex, go to Server Admin from the faspex menu. The server-related settings are located in the following tabs:

faspex Server Configuration
Address and Ports
Display Settings
Date display format:
Enter the date format that faspex uses. The following list shows the variables can be used, the display examples, and the their description:
Package Files
Security
SOAP
faspex SOAP listener URI
The address for Aspera Central to connect to.
(default: http://127.0.0.1:3000/direct_aspera_observer/api)
Aspera Central Server Configuration
General
HTTP Fallback Settings
Transfer Encryption
Encrypt transfers
When checked, fasp™ transfers will use AES-128 transfer encrypted for higher security, which requires additional transfer time, or none for higher transfer speed.
Default User Transfer Settings
Server-to-Server Relay Transfer Settings
If you have more than one faspex server in your organization and have faspex's server-to-server relay set up, specify both the outgoing and incoming bandwidth between servers. To set up the server-to-server relay, please contact Aspera Support.
SOAP Connection to Central
If faspex and Aspera Enterprise Server are not running on the same machine, you can use the following options to configure the SOAP connection between the Aspera Central on Enterprise Server and faspex:
Aspera Connect Version
Enforce minimum Connect version
When checked, warn the users to install the minimum Connect version specified in the text fields in order to enable certain faspex features.

3. Administration

3.1 faspex Users

A faspex user is a login account for Aspera faspex and consists of specified permissions. You can modify the following user permissions to implement faspex into your organizational workflow:

To access all faspex user management options, go to Server Admin in the faspex menu, and locate the Users tab. The following tasks are performed under this page.

3.1.1 Create a new user account

To create a new user account, click the Create New under the Users tab.

The following table contains all options in the Create New User form. When finished, click Create:
Create New User
Account Details
User Permissions
Personal Details
Transfer Settings
Welcome E-mail

3.1.2 Manage user accounts

To manage existing user accounts, go to Server Admin from the faspex menu, and click Users. Click a login name to modify its settings.
The maximum user accommodation in faspex is restricted by the license. To review the account usage, find the faspex account usage. at the upper-right of the user listing.

3.2 faspex Workgroups

faspex uses workgroups to manage users' permissions. To access all faspex workgroup management options, go to Server Admin in the faspex menu, and locate the Workgroups tab. The following tasks are performed under this page.

3.2.1 Create a New Workgroup

To create a new workgroup, go to faspex menu's Server Admin > Workgroups and click Create New.

The following table contains all options in the Create New Group form. When finished, click Create:
Create New Workgroup
Workgroup Details
Workgroup Permissions
Member Management
This section defines the workgroup administrator's management permissions. If both options are un-checked, this workgroup 's administrator will not have permissions to add or remove members.

3.2.2 Manage Workgroups

You can edit the existing groups by going to the Server Admin > Workgroups, and clicking the name of the workgroup to edit.

3.3 Packages

All packages sent through faspex will be stored on the faspex server, and the package files will be kept on the server for a certain days depending on the settings.

To manage the packages, go to faspex menu's Server Admin -> Packages.

The following diagram shows all items in this page:
A Download Icon
Click the icon to download the complete package.
B Forward this Package
Click to forward this package to others if your account has proper permission.
C Details
This box shows the package's information and download activity.
D Browse and Download Contents
Browse and Download Contents Click to navigate into the folders contained in this package, and select individual files, click Download Selected to download only selected files.

To view a package's information, click a package title. The general items in the page is shown below:

A Download Icon
Click the icon to download the complete package.
B Forward this Package
Click to forward this package if your account has proper permission.
C Details
This box shows the package's information and download activity.
D Browse and
    Download Contents
Click to navigate into the folders contained in this package, and select individual files, click Download Selected to download only selected files.

3.4 Post-Processing

faspex allow the administrator to specify custom scripts to be executed automatically on the package when a package completes uploading, such as virus checking, moving files, and create backup.

The post-processing uses a set of filtering options to determine when to execute the customized scripts. faspex can execute shell scripts and Windows batch scripts, you can use the pre-defined environment variables to set up the scripts.

3.4.1 Prepare the Script

To set up the post-processing, a script should be generated and placed on the machine that runs faspex.

When the script is created, store it in the server that runs the faspex. Prepare the script's full path to configure the post-processing in faspex.

The following environment variables can be used in the script, use the variables in the script's variable form, for example the variable faspex_pkg_directory will be available as $faspex_pkg_directory in shell scripts, and %faspex_pkg_directory% in Windows batch:

3.4.2 Configure the Post-Processing

To add a post-processing script, go to the Server Admin from the faspex menu, and click Post-Processing. Click Create New from the page.

Each option in the Add New Script form:
Add New Script
Script to run
Execution criteria
All specified criteria must match the uploaded package's attributes for the script to be run on that package. All options in this section are optional. When the Exact match is checked, the package attribute has to match the specified criterion exactly for the script to be run.

3.5 E-mail Notifications

faspex generates E-mail messages automatically to notify the newly created accounts and delivered packages.

To configure, go to Sever Admin from the faspex menu and click the E-mail Notifications.

3.5.1 Configure the E-mail Server

Under Email Notifications tab contains a Configuration and five templates. First click the Configuration to set up the email server.

faspex supports four types of SMTP authentication options: open, login, POP before SMTP, and manual config.

It is recommended that you choose the manual config option, as it sends email more quickly than the other options. manual config uses a software utility called msmtp, the full documentation of msmtp is located at http://msmtp.sourceforge.net/doc/msmtp.html.

To debug the mail configuration, Enter your email address in the field next to the button Save and send test email and click the button.

Example: Manual Mail Configuration

account default
auth off
tls off
host your.smtp.server.com
port 25
from faspex@your.domain.com

3.5.2 Modify the E-mail Templates

There are five email templates for different purposes: Welcome, Forgot Password, Package Received, Package Downloaded, and Workgroup Package. All templates use the same editing interface and only vary in content, we will use Welcome template as an example. Under Server Admin > Email Notifications click Welcome, you will see the following template preview:

The email notifications can be modified through template mode or HTML code. Click Customize Using Template or Edit HTML to edit in the selected mode.

The following variables can be used to compose the specific email template:
E-mail Notification Variables
Welcome
Forgot Password
Package Received
Package Downloaded
Workgroup Package

4. Transfer Files

4.1 Download Packages

You may receive and download the faspex file packages sent directly to you, or sent to your workgroup. This section shows you how to download packages you have received, and the package sent to your workgroup.

4.1.1 Download Received Packages

When a package is sent to you over faspex, an email notification containing the download link may be sent to your email address. If the email contains the download link, the link will open the package's down page on faspex:
To locate the package you have received, log in faspex and go to My Received from the faspex menu to open the package list. You can download the complete package by clicking the (Download button), or click the package name to advance to the package detail page.

In the package detail page, the general items in the page is indicated in the following graph:
A Download Icon
Click the icon to download the complete package.
B Forward this Package
Click to forward this package to others if your account has proper permission.
C Details
This box shows the package's information and download activity.
D Browse and
    Download Contents
Click to navigate into the folders contained in this package, and select individual files, click Download Selected to download only selected files.

4.1.2 Remove Received Packages

The files in the packages you have received can be removed by the faspex's expiration settings, the administrators, or by you. In the My Received list, click the Remove to delete the files of the corresponding package.
To view the log of all packages you have received regardless of the existence of files they contain, click the View History from the My Received package listing page.

4.1.3 Download Workgroup Packages

If you are a member of a faspex workgroup, you can access the workgroup and download its packages. To do so, go to the Workgroups from the faspex menu. Click the workgroup to access.
In a workgroup, you should see all the workgroup's packages listed in the table. Click the (Download button) to download the complete file package, or click the package name to go to the package detail page.

When clicking the package name from the list, faspex opens the package detail page. General items are indicated below:

A Download Icon
Click the icon to download the complete package.
B Forward this Package
Click to forward this package to others if your account has proper permission.
C Details
This box shows the package's information and download activity.
D Browse and
    Download Contents
Click to navigate into the folders contained in this package, and select individual files, click Download Selected to download only selected files.
In the workgroup package listing page, click View Members to see all the workgroup members.
If you are an administrator of faspex or a particular workgroup, in the workgroup's package listing page you can click the Remove to delete the files of the corresponding package.

4.2 Send Packages

To send a file package through faspex, go to Send from the faspex menu.

The following graph shows all options in the Create and send package form. Click Send Package! when finished:
A To:
Enter individuals or workgroups as recipients. The workgroup's name starts with an asterisk (*).
B Recipient List:
Shows a list of recipient that you can send the packages. You can select the users or workgroups from this list and click (Left arrow) to add them as recipients.
C Title:
Enter the package's title.
D Note:
Enter the package's note.
E Contents:
Drag-and-drop the files to include onto the image, or click Browse for files/folders to browse and select files.
To send a file package through faspex, go to Send from the faspex menu.

When a transfer is initiated, faspex will prompt the Aspera Connect to start the session. Click Allow when the confirmation dialog window appear.
You can access the packages you have sent by going to Sent from the faspex menu. Here you can review the packages you have sent. If a package isn't sent successfully, click (Resume) to restart the transfer.

Appendix 1. Restart faspex

If faspex is not working properly, it is recommended to restart faspex services. Follow the instructions for your platform:

Windows
Step 1 Navigate into faspex's directory in Command Prompt
Open Command Prompt (Start > All Programs > Accessories > Command Prompt), enter the command to navigate into the faspex directory:
> cd "C:\Program Files\Aspera\Faspex"
Step 2 Stop all services
In the faspex directory, execute the command:
> asctl faspex:all:stop
Step 3 Start all services
Execute the command to start all services:
> asctl faspex:all:start
Linux
Step 1 Navigate into faspex's directory in Command Prompt
Use the command to navigate into the faspex directory:
# cd /opt/aspera/faspex/asctl
Step 2 Stop all services
In the faspex directory, execute the command:
# ./asctl faspex:all:stop
Step 3 Start all services
Execute the command to start all services:
# ./asctl faspex:all:start

Appendix 2. The Log Files

You can find the Aspera faspex's log files in the directory:

Log File Directory
Windows
C:\Program Files\Aspera\Faspex\log
Linux
/opt/aspera/faspex/log