Configuring for Faspex

Install Enterprise/Connect Server.

If you haven't already, follow the steps in Installation and Upgrades to install Enterprise Server.

The transfer server can be set up in either of the following configurations:

locally, on the same host as Faspex
remotely, on a separate host

Note: For a local setup, most configuration is taken care of automatically when Faspex is installed in a later step. For this reason, Enterprise Server/Connect Server should be installed first.

All steps must be performed as root.

Create the system user on the transfer-server host.

The system user authenticates the actual ascp transfer and must be an operating system account. Run the following commands to: (1) create the group faspex; (2) create the system user faspex; and (3) configure it to use the Aspera secure shell, aspshell.

# /usr/sbin/groupadd -r faspex
# /usr/sbin/useradd -r faspex -s /bin/aspshell-r -g faspex

Create and configure the Faspex packages directory.

Run the following commands to create the packages directory /home/faspex/faspex_packages:

# mkdir -p /home/faspex/faspex_packages
# chown -R faspex:faspex /home/faspex/faspex_packages

Add the faspex user to Enterprise/Connect Server.

Launch the desktop application and click Configuration.
Click the Configuration.

In Server Configuration, open the Users tab. Then click the Add user button.

In the Add User dialog that appears, fill in the name faspex and click OK. The faspex user is added to the user list.

To specify a docroot, select faspex in the user list and click the Docroot tab in the right panel. For the Absolute Path setting, select the Override box, and under Effective Value fill in the following:

/home/faspex/faspex_packages

For the read, write, and browse settings, select the Override boxes and select true.

You can also add and configure the faspex user for Enterprise Server by modifying aspera.conf, instead of using the application GUI. For details, see Setting Up Users.

Configure server settings.

In a Terminal window, run the following commands to set the server name with the name or IP address of your server, enable persistent storage (persistent storage is enabled by default), and ensure that the faspex user has browse privileges:

# asconfigurator -x "set_server_data;server_name,server_ip_or_name"
# asconfigurator -x "set_central_server_data;persistent_store,enable"
# asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;username,faspex;dir_allowed,true"

Restart Aspera Central and Aspera NodeD services to activate your changes.

Run the following command in a Terminal window to restart asperacentral:

# /etc/init.d/asperacentral restart

Run the following commands to restart asperanoded:

# /etc/init.d/asperanoded restart

Verify that you have a valid Faspex-enabled license installed.

From the command line: In a Terminal window, run the following command and inspect the output, which lists the enabled settings:
```
# ascp -A
Enabled settings: connect, mobile, cargo, node, proxy, http_fallback_server, 
group_configuration, shared_endpoints, desktop_gui
```
If the list includes connect and http_fallback_server, you have a Faspex-enabled server license.
In the Enterprise Server GUI: Click Tools > License and if Connect Clients Enabled and Http Fallback Server Enabled are set to Yes, you have a Faspex-enabled license.

If you update your Enterprise Server license (see Updating the Product License), you must reload the asperanoded service afterwards. Reload the asperanoded service by running the following command:

# /opt/aspera/bin/asnodeadmin --reload

Set up the node user.

Associate the transfer user faspex with a node username and password by running the asnodeadmin command, as in the following example in which node-admin is the node user, s3cur3_p433 is the node user's password, and faspex is the system user. Then run asnodeadmin again to reload asperanoded.

# /opt/aspera/bin/asnodeadmin -a -u node-admin -p s3cur3_p433 -x faspex
> asnodeadmin.exe --reload

Install the Connect key.

Locate your Connect key:

/opt/aspera/var/aspera_tokenauth_id_rsa.pub

Create a .ssh folder (if it does not already exist) in the faspex user's home directory by running the following command:

# mkdir -p /home/faspex/.ssh

Run the following commands to create the keyfile authorized_keys (if it does not already exist), and append the key text to it:

# cat /opt/aspera/var/aspera_tokenauth_id_rsa.pub >> /home/faspex/.ssh/authorized_keys

Run the following commands to change the key directory and keyfile's ownership to the faspex user, to allow access by the faspex group, and to set permission bits:

# chown -R faspex:faspex /home/faspex/.ssh/authorized_keys
# chmod 600 /home/faspex/.ssh/authorized_keys
# chmod 700 /home/faspex
# chmod 700 /home/faspex/.ssh

Ensure the firewall is set up correctly on your transfer server.

For details, see Configuring the Firewall.

Configure your remote transfer server in the Faspex Web GUI.

Follow the instructions in the Aspera Faspex Admin Guide: Transfer Server for configuring your remote transfer server in the Faspex Web GUI underServer > File Storage.