Configuring for Aspera for SharePoint

IBM Aspera Enterprise Server must be configured to work as a transfer server for IBM Aspera for Microsoft SharePoint. These instructions assume that you have already set up your Microsoft SharePoint environment and configured (provisioned) it for SharePoint apps.

Note: In order to use IBM Aspera Enterprise Server as the transfer server for Aspera for SharePoint, you must run Enterprise Server on Windows 2012 or 2012 R2; or on Linux. Aspera recommends you run Enterprise/Connect Server on a Linux host.

The basic steps are:

Install the transfer server.
Create a system user on the transfer server host.
Create a directory to be the transfer user's docroot.
Create the SSH key for the system user.
Add the new system user as a transfer user to Enterprise/Connect Server.
Specify a docroot for the new transfer user.
Modify aspera.conf.
Ensure that the firewall is set up correctly on your transfer server host.
Verify your transfer server license.
Set up a node user.
Configure the Aspera for SharePoint application.

These steps are described in detail below. All steps must be performed as root.

Install the transfer server.
If you haven't already, follow the steps in Installation and Upgrades to install Enterprise Server.
The transfer server that you use with Aspera for SharePoint must be installed on a host separate from your Microsoft SharePoint environment hosts.
Create a system user on the transfer server.
The system user authenticates the actual ascp transfer and must be an operating system account.
Run the following command to (1) create the system user sharepoint; (2) configure it to use the Aspera secure shell, aspshell; and (3) create the group sharepoint and assign the new system user to it.
```
# /usr/sbin/useradd -r sharepoint -s /bin/aspshell-r -g sharepoint
```
Create a directory to be the system user's docroot.
This must be a location owned by the system user.
You will use this location later in the configuration process, at Step 6.
Create the .ssh directory and public key file for the system user.
The standard location for the public key is in the user's home directory:/home/sharepoint/.ssh/authorized_keys.
The Aspera-provided key file is located in:
/opt/aspera/var/aspera_tokenauth_id_rsa.pub
- On the command line, run the following to create the user's public key directory (if it does not already exist):
```
# mkdir /home/aspera_user_1/.ssh
```
- Run the following commands to create the file 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/sharepoint/.ssh/authorized_keys
```
- Run the following commands to change the directory and file's ownership to system user sharepoint, to allow access by the sharepoint group, and to set permission bits:
```
# chown -R sharepoint:sharepoint /home/sharepoint/.ssh/authorized_keys
# chmod 600 /home/sharepoint/.ssh/authorized_keys
# chmod 700 /home/sharepoint
# chmod 700 /home/sharepoint/.ssh 
```
Add the sharepoint system user as a transfer user to Enterprise/Connect Server.
Note: This step can also done by modifying aspera.conf. For details, see Setting Up Transfer Users (Terminal).
- Launch the Enterprise Server desktop application as administrator, and click Configuration.
- In the Server Configuration dialog, select the Users tab. Then click the button.
- In the Add User dialog that appears, type sharepoint and click OK. The system user sharepoint is then added to the user list.

Specify a docroot for the new transfer user sharepoint.

Still in the Server Configuration dialog, select the Users tab and do the following:

Make sure sharepoint is selected in the user list.
Open the Docroot tab in the right-hand panel.

Set the following on the Docroot tab:

Row	Override Setting	Effective Value Setting
Absolute Path	selected (checked)	/Users/sharepoint/ or whatever location you created in Step 3
ad Allowed	selected (checked)	true
Write Allowed	selected (checked)	true
Browse Allowed	selected (checked)	true

Configure the server.

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), ensure the transfer user has browse privileges, and enable token authorization for the transfer user, and enable HTTP and HTTPS:

# 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,username;dir_allowed,true"
# asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;user_name,username;authorization_transfer_in_value,token"
# asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;user_name,username;authorization_transfer_in_value,token"
# asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;user_name,username;token_encryption_key,encryption_key"

Restart the Aspera Central, Aspera NodeD, and Aspera HTTPD services to activate your configuration changes.
Run the following command in a Terminal window to restart asperacentral:
```
# systemctl restart asperacentral
```
or for Linux systems that use init.d:
```
# service asperacentral restart
```
Run the following commands to restart asperanoded:
```
# systemctl restart asperanoded
```
or for Linux systems that use init.d:
```
# service asperanoded restart
```
Run the following commands to restart asperahttpd:
```
# systemctl restart asperahttpd
```
or for Linux systems that use init.d:
```
# service asperahttpd restart
```
Ensure that the firewall is set up correctly on your transfer server host.
For details, see Configuring the Firewall.
Verify your transfer server license is Connect-enabled.
- 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, you have a Connect-enabled server license.
- In the Enterprise Server GUI: Click Tools > License and if Connect Clients Enabled is set to Yes, then you have a Connect-enabled license.
When you update your Enterprise Server license (see Updating the Product License), you must reload the asperanoded service afterwards by running the following command:
```
# /opt/aspera/bin/asnodeadmin --reload
```

Configure the transfer user with a Node API username and password.

Run the asnodeadmin command to create the node_sharepoint node user, assign it a password, and associate it with the sharepoint transfer user:
```
# /opt/aspera/bin/asnodeadmin -a -u node_sharepoint -p s3cur3_p433 -x sharepoint
```
Reload the asperanoded service:
```
# /opt/aspera/bin/asnodeadmin --reload 
```

Verify the node user. Run the following command:

# /opt/aspera/bin/asnodeadmin -l

The output for this command should resemble the following:

List of node user(s):
                user       system/transfer user                    acls
====================    =======================    ====================
      sharepointnode                 sharepoint    []
              spnode              aspera_user_1    []

Configure the transfer server in the Aspera for SharePoint application.
Add the transfer server to your Aspera for SharePoint installation, mapping it to a document library. For details, see the IBM Aspera for Microsoft SharePoint Administrator's Guide.
Note: The transfer server must be installed, configured, and running before you configure it in Aspera for SharePoint.