Setting Up a Transfer Node for a Windows Node

A node is defined as a host machine running an Aspera transfer server product (IBM Aspera Enterprise Server, IBM Aspera Connect Server). Aspera's Web applications authenticate to remote node services using a Node API username and password. The Node API credentials can then be used to create nodes. Different nodes may use different Node API username and password pairs.
Note: The following instructions require administrative privileges.
  1. Verify you have installed a valid Shares license on your transfer server.
    > ascp -A
    If you need to update your transfer server license, follow the instructions in the Updating Product License section of the IBM Aspera Enterprise Server Admin Guide.
  2. Create a new system account on the node using Control Panel > User Accounts.
    Tip: After creating a Windows user account, log in as that user at least once for Windows to set up the user's home folder.

The following steps require you to modify the aspera.conf file. You can find the aspera.conf file at:

OS Version File Location
32-bit Windows C:\Program Files\Aspera\Enterprise Server\etc\aspera.conf
64-bit Windows C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspera\Enterprise Server\etc\aspera.conf

  1. Add the user in aspera.conf and set the docroot.
    <user>
        <name>shares</name>
        <file_system>
            <access>
                <paths>
                    <path>
                        <absolute>home/shares</absolute>
                        <read_allowed>true</read_allowed>
                        <write_allowed>true</write_allowed>
                        <dir_allowed>true</dir_allowed>
                    </path>
                </paths>
            </access>
        </file_system>
    </user>
    CAUTION:
    Aspera recommends that you not use spaces in your docroot. If your docroot contains spaces, you may not receive all email notifications relating to transfer activity.
  2. Verify persistent storage is enabled in aspera.conf for use with stats collector.
    In the central_server section, set persistent_store to enable as shown below.
    <central_server>
        <address>127.0.0.1</address>
        <port>40001</port>
        <compact_on_startup>enable</compact_on_startup>
        <persistent_store>enable</persistent_store>
        <persistent_store_on_error>ignore</persistent_store_on_error>
        <persistent_store_max_age>86400</persistent_store_max_age>
        <event_buffer_overrun>block</event_buffer_overrun>
    </central_server>
  3. Restart the Aspera Central service from the Services window. Open Start Menu > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Right-click Aspera Central and select Restart.
  4. Set up a transfer user with a Node API username and password.
    > cd C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspera\Enterprise Server\bin\
    > asnodeadmin.exe -a -u transfer_user -p secure_password -x system_user
    Run the following command to check the system user was successfully added to asnodeadmin:
    > asnodeadmin.exe -l
    The result should be similar to the following example:
                    user       system/transfer user                    acls
    ====================    =======================    ====================
               nodeadmin                     shares    []
  5. Install the IBM Aspera Connect Browser Plug-In key. Locate the key in the following location:
    OS Version File Location
    32-bit Windows C:\Program Files\Aspera\Enterprise Server\var\aspera_id_dsa.pub
    64-bit Windows C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspera\Enterprise Server\var\aspera_id_dsa.pub
    Run the following commands in a terminal window to create a .ssh folder if it does not already exist in the shares user's home directory:
    > cd "C:\Documents and Settings\shares"
    > mkdir .ssh
    Use a text editor to create or edit the following file: C:\Documents and Settings\shares\.ssh\authorized_keys. Copy the shares user's key string into this file and save it.
    Note: The file must be named "authorized_keys" without file extensions. Some text editors add a .txt extension to the filename automatically. Be sure to remove the extension if it was added to the filename.