Product Configuration

This topic provides instructions for configuring various product features in the UI.

  1. Enable plugins and portlets.
    All Aspera transfer plugins, as well as some commonly used plugins from third-party providers, are enabled by default. You will need to enable other plugins you plan to use.
    1. To enable other plugins you plan to use, click Engine > Plugins > Reload Plugins, then click Engine > Processes > Force maintenance.
    2. To enable browsing of the list of plugins, click Engine > Plugins > Enable all plugins, then click Yes.
    3. To emable the use of portlets in the Dashboard, click Engine > Portlets > Enable all.
  2. If you plan to send email notifications within the workflows, configure the SMTP servers.
    Click Engine > Mailer Configuration > New mail server. To test the configuration, click Send test email.
  3. If you plan to use the Journaling feature of Orchestrator, click Engine > Journaling Configurations; click Activate in the default Saved Configurations.
  4. Define users and permissions.
    1. Click Accounts > Users > New User, enter the information, then click Save user information..
    2. To edit user accounts, click Accounts > Users; under the Listing Users pane click the dropdown next to the user name and select Edit Profile/Permissions.
      The Role / Group Memberships and Dashboards panes now appear below the User Information pane.
    3. In the Role / Group Memberships pane, select groups for the user, such as Administrator, Operator, and so on), then click Add to group.
      The user can below to more than one group, but groups must be added one at a time; they disappear from the dropdown list as they are added. Groups are defined in the Listing Groups pane (Accounts > Groups).
    4. Set a stronger admin password by clicking Accounts > Users; under the Listing Users pane, click the dropdown next to the admin user name and click Change Password.
      Click Enter and confirm the new password then click New Password.
    5. Add the scheduler and contributor groups to the admin acount by clicking Account > Modify Role / Group Memberships.
      This allows the admin user to monitor queues and tasks as admin.
  5. Define an Active Directory (AD) server by clicking Accounts > Active Directory Setup. (Optional)
    Administrators set permissions for AD users in the same way they set permissions for regular users. The first time a user logs in with AD user credentials, those credentials are checked against the directory server, and a user entry is created in Accounts. Each time the AD user attempts to log in to Orchestrator, the user's credentials are checked against the directory server.
  6. If you plan to use remote access capability with remote file operation and remote file watcher plugins, install IBM Aspera Point-to-Point on the remote node.
    It is necessary to install Point-to-Point because the Aspera ascmd executable is required.
  7. To add the remote nodes entries, click Workflows > Remote Nodes > New Remote Node.
    A remote node may be an Aspera FASP node (for example. a remote file watcher, remote file operation, or FASP transfer-controlled node), an SSH node (for example, an ffmpeg transcoding or remote execution), or an IP node (for example, Vantage transcoding from a SOAP API).
  8. If you plan to use the Aspera FASP transfer capability, install Point-to-Point and a standard Point-to-Point license on the controlled node (the one which initiates the file transfers).
    The controlled node may be Orchestrator itself.
    1. On the controlled node, open the following file: 
      C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspera\Point-to-Point\etc\aspera.conf
    2. Check to see if the file contains persistent-store lines such as the following: 
      <central_server>
    <port>40001</port>
    <address>127.0.0.1</address>
    <persistent_store>enable</persistent_store>
    <persistent_store_max_age>259200</persistent_store_max_age>
    <persistent_store_on_error>ignore</persistent_store_on_error>
</central_server>
      If they do not already exist, add them.
    3. If aspera.conf has been changed in the above steps, restart Aspera Central.
    4. Add a remote node in the UI in Workflows > Remote Nodes for the controlled node with these elements: Node type = Aspera FASP; ssh port = 33001; and your root login information.
  9. Edit the global configuration parameters.
    Orchestrator stores global configuration parameters in a file on a disk. Details about each parameter can be found in the User Guide.

    You can customize your environment by changing a configuration parameter in orchestrator.yml.

    Orchestrator.yml is located in the following locations after installation of the product:
    Orchestrator Version Installation Location
    Prior to v2.3 C:\Program files (x86)\Aspera\ Orchestrator\config\orchestrator.yml
    v2.3+ C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspera\Orchestrator\www\config\orchestrator.yml
    However, you do not want to change the parameters in the files above. Since the files in the installed location will be overwritten with default values during future upgrades, Orchestrator is programmed to look in another directory (which is "upgrade-proof") to find the file.
    Open the following file:
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Aspera\Orchestrator\www\var\config\\orchestrator.yml

    If the file is missing in the upgrade-proof location, copy it from the installed location into the upgrade-proof location and edit the file. The parameters in the upgrade-proof location always take precedence over the parameters in the install location.