Configuring a Linux node for Faspex

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A node is any server running IBM Aspera High-Speed Transfer Server (HSTS). Aspera web applications, such as Faspex, communicate with a node through the IBM Aspera Node API.

The instructions below assume you have already installed HSTS 4.3+ on your server. For instructions on installing HSTS see the IBM Aspera High-Speed Transfer Server Admin Guide: Installing HSTS section.

You need root level access to configure HSTS. If you do not have root access use the sudo command to make changes to the operating system and the aspera.conf file
Change ownership of the aspera.conf file to the current system user:
```
chown system_user:root /opt/aspera/etc/aspera.conf
```
Verify that the node is running HSTS with a valid Connect Server license on your transfer server:
Run the following command:
```
ascp -A
```
In the resulting output, look for the following phrase:
```
Connect Server License max rate
```
If you need to update your transfer server license, follow the instructions in IBM Aspera High-Speed Transfer Server Admin Guide: Updating Product License.
Create the faspex system user account on the node.
Run the following commands to create the system user faspex.
```
groupadd -r faspex
useradd -r faspex -g faspex
```
Set up aspshell as the default shell for the transfer user.
```
usermod -s /bin/aspshell faspex
```
Create and configure the faspex_packages directory.
Run the following commands to create the faspex_packages directories and configure the faspex user directories:
```
mkdir -p /home/faspex/faspex_packages
chown faspex:faspex /home/faspex/
chown faspex:faspex /home/faspex/faspex_packages
```

The asconfigurator utility modifies the aspera.conf configuration file, located at: /opt/aspera/etc/aspera.conf.

Add the user to aspera.conf and set the docroot.
The directory you choose for the docroot is the absolute path for the transfer user. When this node is added to Faspex, users cannot access files or folders outside of the docroot.
CAUTION:
Do not use spaces in your docroot. If your docroot contains spaces, you may not receive all email notifications relating to transfer activity.
Run the following asconfigurator command with the transfer username and the docroot path:
```
asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;user_name,username;absolute,/docroot/path"
```
For example:
```
asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;user_name,faspex;absolute,/home/faspex/faspex_packages"
```
Set up token authorization for the user in aspera.conf.
1. Run the following asconfigurator commands to set the encryption key for the user:
```
# 
asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;user_name,username;authorization_transfer_in_value,token"

# 
asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;user_name,username;authorization_transfer_out_value,token"
```
  For example:
```
# 
asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;user_name,faspex;authorization_transfer_in_value,token"

# 
asconfigurator -x "set_user_data;user_name,faspex;authorization_transfer_out_value,token"
```
2. Configure dynamic key generation:
```
sudo asconfigurator -x "set_node_data;token_dynamic_key,true"
```
3. Set a Redis primary key using askmscli. The master key must be a unique random 256-bit key. The example below uses openssl to generate the key. This Redis primary key will be used to encrypt the dynamic token encryption key.
```
echo -n "$(openssl rand -base64 32)" | sudo askmscli -s redis-primary-key
```
4. Initialize the transfer user's keystore:
```
sudo askmscli -i -u username
```
5. Set the store for the asperadaemon user that runs asperanoded:
```
sudo askmscli -i -u asperadaemon
```
For more information, see the IBM Aspera High-Speed Transfer Server:Secrets Management with askmscli section.

Set the IP address or hostname for the node in the aspera.conf file with the following asconfigurator command:

asconfigurator -x "set_server_data;server_name,ip_or_hostname"

For example:

asconfigurator -x "set_server_data;server_name,aspera.example.com"

Configure the node for HTTP and HTTPS fallback.
HTTP fallback serves as a backup transfer method when Aspera FASP transfers (UDP port 33001, by default) is unavailable. When HTTP fallback is enabled and UDP connectivity is lost or cannot be established, the transfer continues over HTTP or HTTPS. By default, Faspex requires you to enable HTTP and HTTPS and use the ports 8080 and 8443, respectively:
```
asconfigurator -x "set_http_server_data;enable_http,true"
asconfigurator -x "set_http_server_data;http_port,8080"
asconfigurator -x "set_http_server_data;enable_https,true"
asconfigurator -x "set_http_server_data;https_port,8443"
```
Restart the asperahttpd service.
```
service asperahttpd restart
```
Or on an OS running systemd:
```
systemctl restart asperahttpd
```
Enable activity logging on the node:
```
asconfigurator -x "set_server_data;activity_logging,true"
```
If you do not enable activity logging, Faspex cannot retrieve package information and your users cannot download packages.
You must restart the asperanoded service for changes made using the asconfigurator utility (which modifies the aspera.conf configuration file) to take effect:
```
service asperanoded restart
```
Or on an OS running systemd:
```
systemctl restart asperanoded
```
Configure a HSTS transfer user account with a Node API username and password.

Faspex communicates to the HSTS transfer user account through the Node API to start transfers on the node.

For instructions on adding users to HSTS, see the IBM Aspera High-Speed Transfer Server Admin Guide: Setting Up Users.
1. Set up the Node API user:
```
/opt/aspera/bin/asnodeadmin -a -u node_api_username -p node_api_passwd -x system_username
```
  Note: Use different names for the system user account and transfer user account in order to minimize confusion when tracing transactions and events.
  For example:
```
/opt/aspera/bin/asnodeadmin -a -u node_user -p XF324cd28 -x faspex
```
2. Run the following command to check the system user was successfully added to asnodeadmin:
```
/opt/aspera/bin/asnodeadmin -l
```
  Given a node user named node_user and a system user named faspex, the output should be:
```
                user       system/transfer user                    acls
====================    =======================    ====================
           node_user                  faspex    []              
```

Copy the IBM Aspera Connect public key to authorized_keys to allow Connect to connect to Faspex.

If the .ssh folder does not already exist in the faspex system user's home directory, run the following command to create the folder:
```
mkdir -p /home/username/.ssh
```
For example:
```
mkdir -p /home/faspex/.ssh
```

If the authorized_keys file does not already exist, add the aspera_tokenauth_id_rsa.pub public key to the file by running:

cat /opt/aspera/var/aspera_tokenauth_id_rsa.pub >> /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys

For example:

cat /opt/aspera/var/aspera_tokenauth_id_rsa.pub >> /home/faspex/.ssh/authorized_keys

Transfer the .ssh folder and authorized_keys file ownership to the system user by running the following commands:

chown -R username:username /home/username/.ssh
chmod 600 /home/username/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 700 /home/username
chmod 700 /home/username/.ssh

For example:

chown -R faspex:faspex /home/faspex/.ssh
chmod 600 /home/faspex/.ssh/authorized_keys
chmod 700 /home/faspex
chmod 700 /home/faspex/.ssh

You can now add this server to Faspex as a node.