System and Firewall Requirements

Set up your computer's application and firewall for Console.

Prepare your system for Aspera Console:

Operating System

  • Red Hat Linux 6 or 7
  • CentOS 6 or 7
Minimum Hardware Requirement
  • 2 GHz duo-core CPU or better
  • 4 GB of RAM
  • 2 GB of disk space
Data Storage Requirement

In terms of planning for the size growth of the database, the per file records generate 1-2KB per file transfer, and the session records generate 8-12KB per session. For some size estimates, here are a few examples:

  • 100 sessions per day of 1000 files each, all external transfers between managed and unmanaged nodes = approx 2 MB per day db growth, 60 MB per month, 700 MB per year.
  • 1000 sessions per day of 1 file each, all internal between managed nodes = approx 14 MB per day, 420 MB per month, 5 GB per year.
  • 1000 sessions per day, 10,000 files each, 50% internal between managed nodes, 50% external with unmanaged node = approx 15 GB per day, 450 GB per month, 5.4 TB per year.
Application
  • If your computer has an existing MySQL database installed, make sure that it is not running during the installation.
  • If your computer has an existing Apache HTTP server installed, make sure that it is not running during the installation.
  • Aspera Common Components v1.2.11 (installation instructions provided in the following topics).
Node machine

In order to work with Console, node machines must have Aspera Enterprise Server or Aspera Point-to-Point, version 2.2.1 or higher, installed.
Firewall (on the Console machine)

Open the following ports on the Console machine:

  • For the Web UI, allow inbound connections for HTTP and/or HTTPS Web access (e.g. TCP/80, TCP/443).
  • Allow outbound connections for SSH (to be used for node administration) on a non-default, configurable TCP port (e.g. TCP/33001).
  • Allow an outbound connection for Aspera Central (e.g. TCP/40001).
  • Allow an inbound connection for MySQL (e.g. TCP/4406).
Firewall (on the Node Machines)

Open the following ports on the Node Machines (Aspera Enterprise, Connect or Faspex Servers, or Aspera Point-to-Point):

  • An Aspera server runs one SSH server on a configurable TCP port (22 by default). To ensure that your server is secure, Aspera strongly recommends allowing inbound connections for SSH on TCP/33001 (or on another non-default, configurable TCP port), and disallowing inbound connections on TCP/22. If you have a legacy customer base utilizing TCP/22, then you can allow inbound connections on both ports. For details on securing your individual Aspera transfer server product(s), please review their corresponding user manuals.
  • Allow inbound connections for fasp transfers, which use UDP/33001 by default, although the server may also choose to run fasp transfers on another port.
  • Allow an inbound connection for Aspera Central (e.g. TCP/40001).
  • Allow an outbound connection for logging to Console on TCP/4406.

The firewall on the server side must allow the open TCP port to reach the Aspera server. Note that no servers are listening on UDP ports. When a transfer is initiated by an Aspera client, the client opens an SSH session to the SSH server on the designated TCP port and negotiates the UDP port over which the data transfer will occur.