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Data Managers Console

Available from: Resilio Active Everywhere 5.0.1

Data Managers Console is a dedicated web interface allowing a specific user group to run pre-configured Distribution jobs or monitor Synchronization jobs. This enables facilitating on-demand data transfers between Resilio Agents without having to involve the Resilio administrator. 

Supported capabilities

Data Managers Console supports the following Resilio Active Everywhere capabilities: 

Limitations

The feature comes with the following limitations:

  • The number of files/folders listed on a single level in file browser is limited to 10k.
  • Sorting file system items in the files picker may work incorrectly and reset what's been already selected.
  • There's a limit to how many files can be selected, and it also depends on the length of the paths. The limit regulated by jsonLimit and urlencodedLimit parameters in the resilio-connect-server.conf configuration file.
    For example, the default limit is capable of indexing approximately 975 files with paths similar in length to  D:\2\1K\975\KESLaOkauY_0
  • No option to pause a job run.
  • No option to select multiple, separate, source paths.
  • No option for the partner to specify destination location.
  • No API available for creating and managing partner groups.
  • URLs in email and webhook notifications, set up for partner group users, redirect to the Management Console (https://mc.com:8443), which isn't accessible to those users.
  • Only one user can browse an Agent's file system at the same time.
  • For storage connectors, we recommend limiting access to a single bucket and including a base path to limit browsing locations for the partner group users.
  • Distribution jobs source agents must be running Resilio Agent 5.0.2 or newer. Older Agents are supported on the destination side.
  • Some job run statistics aren't updated in real time and require refreshing the page.
  • We recommend using different hostnames for the Management Console and the Data Managers Console. If both use the same hostname, a user cannot log in to both web interfaces at the same time.
  • A new user added to a partner group can see job run's history.
  • If a partner is logged in and the Resilio administrator makes a change in the job access, the partner user will be logged out and will have to log in again.
  • Support for deployments that use Resilio proxy hasn't been verified.

Known issues

  • Users can be logged in to both the Management Console and the Data Managers Console interfaces at the same time, when both are set up to use the same hostname.

Prerequisites

  • Update your firewall rules and port forwarding policies to allow connections to the system that's running the Management Console on the port number 9443.

Enable Data Managers Console and login options

To enable the Data Managers Console:

  1. Locate and open the resilio-connect-server.conf configuration file. 
    Tip: The default configuration file locations are:
    • Linux: ${resilio_connect_server_dir}/var/resilio-connect-server.conf
    • Window: C:\ProgramData\Resilio\Connect Server\resilio-connect-server.conf

  2. For MC, updated from previous versions, add new section on top level, for clean installations, set option "enabled" as true. Adjust the authentication user options accordingly. Be sure to preserve json format.

    "dataManagerApp": {
           "enabled": true,
           "port": 9443,
           "host": "0.0.0.0",
           "jsonLimit": "64kb",
           "urlencodedLimit": "64kb",
           "auth": {
               "ldap": false,
               "local": true,
               "okta": true,
               "entraId": true
           }
       },
  3. Save your changes, then restart the Management Console.

Create a job

Log in to the Management Console and configure a Distribution or a Synchronization job.

For Distribution Job, to optimize the pre-seeded destination folder scenario, add the following custom parameters to the Job Profile:

folder_rescan_interval: 0
overwrite_changes: true

Note: Pre-seeded files in the destination folder will be moved to archive or deleted according to the current Agent profile settings. For more information, see Understanding the Archive folder.

  • Allow partner group users select source files (applicable to Distribution jobs)
    Enable the Choose on start option to allow users select the source files and folders when they start a job run. This parameter is available only if you choose the Direct path and Storage connector option. If you enable Choose on start, the Path that you provide will be the root directory when browsing the file system to select files. Users won't be allowed outside the specified path.

  • File picker limits
    There's a limit to how many files users can select using the file picker. The limit depends on the length of the paths and it's regulated by jsonLimit and urlencodedLimit parameters in the resilio-connect-server.conf configuration file.
    For example, the default limit is capable of indexing approximately 975 files with paths similar in length to D:\2\1K\975\KESLaOkauY_0.
  • Limited user mode
    Agents participating in the job can have the restricted mode enabled. This limits the file system browsing capabilities and disables scripts execution. For details, see Limiting admin’s access to the Agent.
  • Multiple job runs
    To enable multiple job runs, add the transfer_job_prefs_folder_name custom parameter and use %JOBID% or %JOBRUNID% macros to initialize it. For example, .sync.%JOBRUNID% or .sync/%JOBRUNID%. When defining the transfer_job_prefs_folder_name parameter, you can use a Unix path delimiter / and it will be converted to a Windows native \ if needed.
  • Partner groups separation
    To prevent users in different partner groups from viewing each other's job runs, set up dedicated jobs for each group.

Create a partner user group and assign users

Partner groups are dedicated user groups allowed to access the Data Managers Console.

To create a partner user group:

  1. Log in to the Management Console, and navigate to Settings, then click Users.
  2. In the User groups section, click + CREATE NEW PARTNER GROUP.
  3. Enter the name.
  4. (Optional) Provide a description that will help you and other administrators understand the purpose of this group.
  5. Click + ADD ACCESS TO JOB, then select jobs and click Add.
  6. Adjust permissions for each job selected.
  7. Click Save.

To assign a user to a group:

  1. Select a user, then click EDIT.
  2. In the User groups section, select a previously created partner group, then click Save.

Start a job run

To start a Distribution job run:

  1. Log in to the Data Managers Console. 
    Tip: The Data Managers Console runs along the Management Console, but on a different port (default: 9443).
  2. Click START JOB.
  3. Select a Distribution job you want to start, then click Start Job.

Note: The remaining steps in this procedure apply to jobs with the Choose on start option enabled.

  1. Enter a name for the job run. It can be any name that will help you distinguish this job run from others.

  2. Click Choose, select files and folders you want to distribute, then click Select.

    • You can browse the file system within the limits defined for the job by the Resilio administrator.
    • Currently, the number of files/folders listed on a single level is limited to 10k.
    • The number of files and folders you can select is limited. For example, you can select approximately 975 files with path similar in length to D:\2\1K\975\KESLaOkauY_0. Exceeding this limit will result in the 413 Content Too Large error. If you're unable to stay within the limit, contact the Resilio administrator.
  3. Click Start.

Monitor a job run

To monitor your distribution or synchronization job run, locate it on the JOB RUNS list, then click it to see its status and transfer statistics. Here you can monitor the currently running or previously completed job runs, start or stop a job run.

Additional Considerations

Management Console and Data Managers Console permissions dependencies

A user assigned only to a Partner Admin group can only access the Data Managers Console web interface on the port number 9443 and has no access to the Management Console web interface on the port 8443.

A user assigned to both the Partner Admin group and the Super Admin group, has access to both the Management Console web interface and the Data Managers Console web interface. When logged into the Data Managers Console, they can see all of the job runs, including those their Partner Admin group hasn't been explicitly assigned to. This is because the Super Administrator users are automatically granted the Full Access permission to newly created jobs. 

SSL Certificates for Management Console and Data Managers Console

The Management Console and the Data Managers Console web interfaces use the same SSL certificate, configured in the https section of the configuration file. This results with a warning in a web browser concerning an untrusted certificate. Use WAF or any reverse proxy with SSL termination, to mitigate this issue.

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