Agents Overview

Signiant Agent software enables accelerated file transfers between distributed systems coordinated by a Manager. As part of installation, the Manager generates a sigsetup.inf file to link the Agent and Manager using the Certificate Authority, ensuring secure transfers between systems or object storage.

Note: The Manager includes Agent software as part of its installation and can also be used as an Agent.

Architecture

The Manager can communicate with distributed Agents across a network. Each Agent is listed with their hostname and any aliases assigned to an Agent as part of a multi-Manager deployment.

Installing and Upgrading Agents

Agent software is provided directly from the Manager on the Administration > Agents > Install page. Once an Agent bundle is added, the installer becomes available for download.

All Agent installations require a sigsetup.inf file in a directory that can be accessed by the installer.

For detailed installation and upgrade procedures, see Installing Agents.

Agents List

Navigate to Administration > Agents > List to access the Agents List.

The Agent List displays all of the Agents associated with the Manager, including the Agent versions, associated organizations, platforms, and other details.

The Agents List allows you to:

• Add Agents from a trusted external Manager
• Edit Agent configuration
• Delete Agents
• Reconnect disconnected Agents
• View and query Agent transfers, file systems, and properties

Editing Agent Configuration

Edit an Agent's configuration by selecting it on the Agents list and clicking Edit.

To edit more than one Agent at a time, select the Agents, and click Edit Multiple, or click Edit Multiple and use the prompts to select Agents by platform, organization, or group.

General

• Identification
  Specify the Agent name and an optional description. Select the platform and organizations if required. The tab also displays the CA address used by the Manager, and its version and build number.
• Address
  Specify the Agent's physical address.
• Location
  The Location tab displays a world map that is used to populate the Agent Status dashboard widget. To set the location of the Agent, click on the map, or click Clear Location to remove the Agent from the map. For additional information about the Agent Status map, see Manager Interface Dashboard.
• Contact
  Specify the contact information associated with the Agent.
• Environment
  Define the default transfer directory, administrators responsible for the Agent, default user, and the log retention period. If set to zero, logs are not deleted. The Environment tab also displays the Install and Log Directories.

Note: Retaining logs indefinitely impacts Manager performance.

Groups

Add or remove an Agent from an Agent Group.

Permissions

Control user and group access to management options. For information on enabling permissions, see Understanding Users.

Remote Access

Access rights enable communication between the Manager and the primary Agent, and between the primary Agent and secondary Agents. See Enabling Remote Access.

Network

On the Network tab, you can define preferences such as protocol relays, source/destination port ranges, and tunnels to assist with firewall traversal. See Configuring Agent Network Settings.

Replication

When the Replicating Agent license is installed, the Replication tab is displayed. This tab allows you to specify a load balanced group of Agents to which transfers from the selected Agent will be replicated.

Note: All Agents in the replication group must have the same operating system.

To configure replication, select Enable Replication and move the Agent into the Load Balanced Replication Targets column.

You can configure replication for multiple Agents in the Agents List. Select Add Relays, Tunnels and Replication Targets and the Relays tab.

Trusted CA

You can add or remove CA certificates associated with the trusted Manager. You cannot remove the trust from the primary Manager.

Add or delete a Manager's trust by selecting the appropriate Manager and clicking Add or Delete.

Object Storage

Object storage allows the Agent to work with Object Mover jobs, allowing transfers to an object storage provider.

Enabling Flight Gateway allows you to perform accelerated transfers to and from cloud object storage using Flight Gateway. Flight Gateway can be installed on the Agent itself, or another system that is accessible by fully qualified domain name or IP.

Note: By default, Flight Gateway runs on port 8443.

Enabling S3 Compatible Storage allows you to create object mover jobs with on-premises or cloud based S3 storage providers.

Trace

The Trace tab allows advanced debugging of the Signiant Process Controller, which is responsible for connection authentication, authorization, data integrity, encryption, and launching Agents to perform the data transfers.

The Process Controller listens for connections and instructions, and must be running for data transfers between Agents to occur. Turning on Process Controller Trace provides debugging for each process started by the process controller.

Note: Turn on tracing under the direction of Signiant Support.

To configure trace specifications:

1. On the Trace tab, enable Enable Process Controller Trace.
2. Select the transfer components for which you want to produce trace logs. Choose from:
   • File Transfers
   • Object Transfers
   • Remote Commands
   • Process Transfers
   • Streaming Transfers
   • HTTPServer
   • SSL Interface
3. Select the type of trace information you want to see. Choose from:
   • WAN Acceleration
   • SSL I/O* Sockets
   • Locking
4. Click Apply.

Web Transfer API

Note: Web Transfer API is no longer supported in the Manager and Agent software. For information on upgrading from a Web Transfer API deployment, contact Signiant Support.

If you are licensed to use the Web Transfer API and running Manager and Agent software version 14.1 or earlier, you can configure the Agent as a TAPI-enabled server. This allows the Agent to send and receive data to and from Web Transfer API clients.

Note: A Web Transfer API license is not required to use the REST API.

To configure an Agent as a Web Transfer API enabled server:

1. Select Enable Web Transfer API.

2. Set the number of Concurrent Transfers the Agent can perform.

   • This value can be the number of remaining licenses up to a maximum of 10 per Web Transfer API enabled Agent.

3. Set the Authentication method:

   • Local authentication uses a local server to check credentials, and provides file access according to the local user's local file access rights. All uploads are owned by the local user.
   • Signiant authentication uses Signiant's web service to authorize any transfer requests that include a user ID and password for the Manager application. The web service adds Web Transfer API statistics to the database. You must choose this value in order to be able to view job information on the activity screen.
   • SOAP authentication uses a custom web service to authenticate transfers.

   Note: Transfers authenticated by Signiant or SOAP are performed as the Agent default user and restricted to the Agent default directory under a specific sub-directory for that user.

4. Set the URLs and Namespace for your Web Transfer API servers.

5. Set the Agent's Process Event permissions:

   • Begin File: Whether the file be uploaded or downloaded by the Agent.
   • Rename File: Whether the Agent renames files on the server.
   • End File: Whether the Agent able to determine if an individual file is transferred.
   • Disconnect: Tells the Agent the transfer is complete.