Setting Up Hot Folders

Hot Folders are used to monitor folders for changes and automatically transfer new or modified files. Hot folders can be used for one-way replication between two locations, or as a way of forwarding files in your workflow.

Important: In order to use a transfer proxy or an HTTP proxy with Hot Folders, you must configure global proxy settings (Tools > Global Preferences) because Hot Folders does not use the proxy settings configured for a user in My Preferences. For more information about enabling a proxy server globally, see Enabling a Transfer Proxy or HTTP Proxy.

Creating a New Hot Folder

To create a new Hot Folder, launch the Aspera application as an administrator. In the file browser, go to the folder you wish to set up as the Hot Folder. Right-click the panel and select New > Hot Folder to open the New Hot Folder dialog. You can also open the New Hot Folder dialog by clicking File > New > Hot Folder.

The New Hot Folder window includes the following configuration tabs:

Tab	Description
Hot Folder	Set the source, the destination, and the synchronization interval.
Transfer	Set the transfer speed and transfer policy.
Tracking	Turn on and configure email notifications for transfer start, completion, and error.
Filters	Create filters to skip files that match certain patterns.
Security	Enable transfer encryption and content protection.
File Handling	Set up a resume rule, preserve transferred file attributes, and remove or move source files.

The following tables describe the options available on each configuration tab.

Hot Folder

Option	Description
Name	The name of the Hot Folder. Use the default name or enter your own. The default name is the name of the Windows folder. Click Generate to restore the default name.
Source	Specify the source for the Hot Folder. If the source is This Computer, then the Hot Folder is in push mode.
Destination	Specify the destination for the Hot Folder. If the destination is This Computer, then the Hot Folder is in pull mode.
Send Changes	Select when to synchronize. The options depend on whether the Hot Folder is in push or pull mode: Push and pull mode: Select Daily at to specify a time to synchronize daily. Note: When the specified time is reached, file transfers from the Hot Folder are allowed for one hour, including any new files added during that window. The one-hour window supports retries. Pull mode: Select Every to specify the interval at which to scan the source Hot Folder and receive updates. Push mode: Select Periodic scan to specify the interval at which to scan the source Hot Folder and send updates if changes are detected. Note: When file notification is not available, this feature must be activated in order to detect file changes in your Hot Folders. Push mode: Select Send immediately to synchronize whenever a file in the folder is changed.

Transfer

Option Description

Policy

Option	Description
Policy	Set the FASP transfer policy. `high` Adjust the transfer rate to fully utilize the available bandwidth up to the maximum rate. When congestion occurs, the transfer rate is twice as fast as a fair-policy transfer. The `high` policy requires maximum (target) and minimum transfer rates. `fair` Adjust the transfer rate to fully utilize the available bandwidth up to the maximum rate. When congestion occurs, bandwidth is shared fairly by transferring at an even rate. The `fair` policy requires maximum (target) and minimum transfer rates. `low` Adjust the transfer rate to use the available bandwidth up to the maximum rate. Similar to fair mode, but less aggressive when sharing bandwidth with other network traffic. When congestion occurs, the transfer rate is reduced to the minimum rate until other traffic decreases. `fixed` Attempt to transfer at the specified target rate, regardless of network or storage capacity. This can decrease transfer performance and cause problems on the target storage. Aspera discourages using the `fixed` policy except in specific contexts, such as bandwidth testing. The `fixed` policy requires a maximum (target) rate. Note: If `--policy` is not set, ascp uses the server-side policy setting (`fair` by default).
Speed	Use this option to specify the target transfer rate and minimum transfer rate. (Files will still be transferred if the available transfer rate is below the minimum).

Set the FASP transfer policy.

high: Adjust the transfer rate to fully utilize the available bandwidth up to the maximum rate. When congestion occurs, the transfer rate is twice as fast as a fair-policy transfer. The high policy requires maximum (target) and minimum transfer rates.
fair: Adjust the transfer rate to fully utilize the available bandwidth up to the maximum rate. When congestion occurs, bandwidth is shared fairly by transferring at an even rate. The fair policy requires maximum (target) and minimum transfer rates.
low: Adjust the transfer rate to use the available bandwidth up to the maximum rate. Similar to fair mode, but less aggressive when sharing bandwidth with other network traffic. When congestion occurs, the transfer rate is reduced to the minimum rate until other traffic decreases.
fixed: Attempt to transfer at the specified target rate, regardless of network or storage capacity. This can decrease transfer performance and cause problems on the target storage. Aspera discourages using the fixed policy except in specific contexts, such as bandwidth testing. The fixed policy requires a maximum (target) rate.

Note: If --policy is not set, ascp uses the server-side policy setting (fair by default).

Speed Use this option to specify the target transfer rate and minimum transfer rate. (Files will still be transferred if the available transfer rate is below the minimum).

Tracking

Option	Description
Send Email Notifications	Select to enable email notifications and to display configuration options; however, notifications are not sent until they are enabled (click Preferences on the main screen of the application). For more information, see Configuring Transfer Notifications. Important: For Hot Folder email notifications to work, the GUI must remain open.
When (not displayed until checkbox is enabled)	Select one or more events that trigger the notification (transfer start, completion, and error).
To (not displayed until checkbox is enabled)	Enter the email addresses of the recipients.
Template (not displayed until checkbox is enabled)	Select a notification template from the drop-down list. Add, delete, edit, and preview templates by clicking Manage Templates. For more information on configuring templates, see Configuring Transfer Notifications.
Message (not displayed until checkbox is enabled)	Include a custom message with the notification.

Filters

Click Add and enter the filter pattern to use to exclude files or directories from the transfer. The exclude pattern is compared with the whole path, not just the file name or directory name. As shown below, the asterisk (*) can be used to represent zero to many characters in a string, for example *.tmp matches .tmp and abcde.tmp:

Filter Pattern	Excludes these files
*dirName	path/to/dirName, another/dirName
*1	a/b/file1, /anotherfile1
*filename	path/to/filename, /filename

Note: The temporary files that are used by Aspera to resume incomplete files are automatically ignored based on the resume suffix that was set by the sender.

Security

Option	Description
Encryption	Select the encryption cipher (AES-128, AES-192, or AES-256) to use for encrypting data in transit, or disable encryption by selecting none. Aspera strongly recommends using encryption. However, encryption may decrease performance, especially at higher transfer speeds and with slower computers.
Content Protection	Enable client-side encryption at rest: In Push mode, select Encrypt uploaded files with a password to encrypt the uploaded files with the specified password. The protected file has the extension .aspera-env appended to the file name. In Pull mode, select Decrypt password-protected files downloaded to require entry of the decryption password when downloading encrypted files. For more information about client-side encryption at rest, see Client-Side Encryption at Rest (EAR).

Option

Description

Encryption

Select the encryption cipher (AES-128, AES-192, or AES-256) to use for encrypting data in transit, or disable encryption by selecting none.

Aspera strongly recommends using encryption. However, encryption may decrease performance, especially at higher transfer speeds and with slower computers.

Content Protection

Enable client-side encryption at rest:

In Push mode, select Encrypt uploaded files with a password to encrypt the uploaded files with the specified password. The protected file has the extension .aspera-env appended to the file name.

In Pull mode, select Decrypt password-protected files downloaded to require entry of the decryption password when downloading encrypted files.

For more information about client-side encryption at rest, see Client-Side Encryption at Rest (EAR).

File Handling

Option Description

Resume

Option	Description
Resume	Select Resume incomplete files to enable the resume feature. Select the file comparison method from the When checking files for differences dropdown menu: Compare file attributes - Compares the sizes of the existing and original file. If they are the same, then the transfer resumes, otherwise the original file is transferred again. Compare sparse file checksums - Performs a sparse checksum on the existing file and resumes the transfer if the file matches the original, otherwise the original file is transferred again. (Default) Compare full file checksums - Performs a full checksum on the existing file and resumes the transfer if the file matches the original, otherwise the original file is transferred again. Under When a complete file already exists at the destination, select an overwrite rule when the same file exists at the destination. By default, files on the destination are overwritten if different from the source.
File Attributes	Select Preserve Access Time to set the access time of the destination file to the same value as that of the source file. Select Preserve Modification Timeto set the modification time of the destination file to the same value as that of the source file. Select Preserve Source Access Time to keep the access time of the source file the same as its value before the transfer. Note: Access, modification, and source access times cannot be preserved for node and Shares connections that are using cloud storage.
Source Handling	Select Automatically delete source files after transfer to delete files that transferred successfully from the source. Push mode: Select Automatically move uploaded source files to a directory after transfer and specify the location on the source machine to which they should be moved. Only a path to an existing location on the client can be specified. Only files are moved, not the parent directory structure. To preserve the directory structure, enable the --src-base option after the Hot folder is created: Quit Aspera. Stop the Aspera Sync service by going to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services, selecting Aspera Sync, and clicking Stop. Open C:\Program Files\Aspera\\etc\sync-conf.xml, locate the `<EXTRAOPTS>` entry, and edit it as follows: `<EXTRAOPTS>--src-base=ldir_path</EXTRAOPTS>` Where `ldir_path` is the source path for the Hot Folder and matches the setting for `<LDIR>`. Save your changes and restart the Aspera Sync service. Pull mode: Select Transfer source directory contents only to transfer only the contents of the directory and not the directory itself. If this option is enabled, for a source folder /folder1 containing file1 and file2 being pulled to the destination folder /destination, only file1 and file2 are transferred, not /folder1. If this option is not selected, the transfer produces /destination/folder1 (containing the two files) on the destination machine. Select Delete empty source subdirectories to remove empty subdirectories from the source once the files that they contain transfer successfully. This option is usually used to clean up the Hot Folder when source files are moved or deleted after transfer.

Select Resume incomplete files to enable the resume feature. Select the file comparison method from the When checking files for differences dropdown menu:

Compare file attributes - Compares the sizes of the existing and original file. If they are the same, then the transfer resumes, otherwise the original file is transferred again.
Compare sparse file checksums - Performs a sparse checksum on the existing file and resumes the transfer if the file matches the original, otherwise the original file is transferred again. (Default)
Compare full file checksums - Performs a full checksum on the existing file and resumes the transfer if the file matches the original, otherwise the original file is transferred again.

Under When a complete file already exists at the destination, select an overwrite rule when the same file exists at the destination. By default, files on the destination are overwritten if different from the source.

File Attributes

Select Preserve Access Time to set the access time of the destination file to the same value as that of the source file.
Select Preserve Modification Timeto set the modification time of the destination file to the same value as that of the source file.
Select Preserve Source Access Time to keep the access time of the source file the same as its value before the transfer.

Note: Access, modification, and source access times cannot be preserved for node and Shares connections that are using cloud storage.

Source Handling

Select Automatically delete source files after transfer to delete files that transferred successfully from the source.

Push mode: Select Automatically move uploaded source files to a directory after transfer and specify the location on the source machine to which they should be moved. Only a path to an existing location on the client can be specified. Only files are moved, not the parent directory structure. To preserve the directory structure, enable the --src-base option after the Hot folder is created:

Quit Aspera.
Stop the Aspera Sync service by going to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services, selecting Aspera Sync, and clicking Stop.
Open C:\Program Files\Aspera\\etc\sync-conf.xml, locate the <EXTRAOPTS> entry, and edit it as follows:
```
<EXTRAOPTS>--src-base=ldir_path</EXTRAOPTS>
```
Where ldir_path is the source path for the Hot Folder and matches the setting for <LDIR>.
Save your changes and restart the Aspera Sync service.

Pull mode: Select Transfer source directory contents only to transfer only the contents of the directory and not the directory itself. If this option is enabled, for a source folder /folder1 containing file1 and file2 being pulled to the destination folder /destination, only file1 and file2 are transferred, not /folder1. If this option is not selected, the transfer produces /destination/folder1 (containing the two files) on the destination machine.

Select Delete empty source subdirectories to remove empty subdirectories from the source once the files that they contain transfer successfully. This option is usually used to clean up the Hot Folder when source files are moved or deleted after transfer.

Note: Empty folders in a Hot Folder are not pushed to the server. However, empty folders on the server are pulled to the local destination.