Chapter 10 Configuring NetFile

This chapter describes how to configure NetFile from the Sun Java™ System Identity Server administration console.



Note	Click Help at the top right corner of the Identity Server administration console, and click SRA Help for a quick reference on all the SRA attributes.

To Configure NetFile Attributes

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

From here, click the appropriate tab.

The Hosts Tab

Using the Hosts Tab, in the NetFile service, you can perform the following tasks:

Specify the OS Character Set

Specify Host Detection Order

Configure a Common Hosts List

Specify the Default Domain

Specify the Windows Domain/Workgroup

Specify the Default WINS/DNS Server

Specify Access to Different Types of Hosts

Configure the Allowed Hosts List

Configure the Denied Hosts List

Specify the OS Character Set

You can specify the character set used as the default encoding for communicating with hosts. The default value is UTF-8.

To Specify the OS Character Set


Caution	If the character set is not specified correctly, the behavior of the machine and error messages that appear cannot be predicted.

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Hosts tab, subsection Config.

Scroll to the OS Character Set field and select the character set code.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Specify Host Detection Order

To Specify the Host Detection Order

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Hosts tab, subsection Config.

Scroll to the Hosts Detection Order field and select a host type.

Use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to change the host detection order.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Configure a Common Hosts List

You can configure a list of hosts to be available through NetFile to all remote NetFile users. You need to specify the following information for each host that you add:

Host Name—You can type either the simple host name, or the fully qualified name. If the host name that you have provided matches the host name configured by the user, the two sets of information are merged and the user-specified values override the values that you specified.

For example, suppose you have configured 4 common hosts - sesta, siroe, florizon, and abc. A user configures 3 hosts out of which 2 are sesta and siroe. User-specified values override administrator-specified values in such conflict situations. florizon and abc are also listed in the user’s NetFile, and the user can carry out various operations on those hosts. In case you have listed florizon in the Denied Hosts List, florizon is listed in the user’s NetFile, but no operation can be carried out on florizon.

Host Type—If the user has already added a host that is listed in the Common Hosts list, the user setting takes precedence. If there is a conflict in the type, the shares added by the administrator are not added for that user. If the user and the administrator add the same share, the share is added, but the password set by the user takes precedence.

Encoding—If there is a conflict between the value specified here and the user setting, the user setting takes precedence. If you have specified a blank or invalid setting, the character set of the client OS (user’s machine) is used.



Note	The user can edit any of these values in the NetFile client application. But the edited values are valid only for the current session. If the user logs out and logs in again, the edited values are not retained.

To Configure the Common Hosts List

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Hosts tab, subsection Config.

The NetFile > AddNetFile Host page is displayed.

To add a common host:

Enter the required information in the following fields:

Host Name

Host Type

Encoding

Windows Domain/Workgroup

User Name

Password

For each share you want to add, enter the required information in the following fields and click Add to List:

Share List

Share Name

Share Password

Click OK.

Repeat this information set for each common host that you want to add or delete.

To delete a common host from the Common Hosts list:

Click Delete and select the Host Name in the Share List. Then click Remove.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Specify the Default Domain

You can specify the default domain that NetFile needs to use to contact allowed hosts.

This default domain value is applicable only if the user does not specify a fully qualified host name while adding a host using NetFile.

To Specify the Default Domain


Caution	Ensure that the Default Domain field is not blank, and that it contains a valid domain name.

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Hosts tab, subsection Config.

Scroll to the Default Domain field and type the default domain name.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Specify the Windows Domain/Workgroup

This is the default Windows domain or workgroup which the users choose to access a Windows host.

A user can override this value by specifying a different value while adding a machine.

To Specify the Default Windows Domain or Workgroup

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Hosts tab, subsection Config.

Scroll to the Default Windows Domain/Workgroup field and type the default domain or workgroup name.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Specify the Default WINS/DNS Server

To Specify the Default WINS/DNS Server

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Hosts tab, subsection Config.

Scroll to the Default WINS/DNS Server field and type the default Windows or DNS server name.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Specify Access to Different Types of Hosts

You can specify whether users can access specific hosts such as Windows, FTP, NFS or Netware hosts. You can set the option to allow or deny access to each type of host. All these options are enabled by default.

To Specify Access to Different Types of Hosts

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Hosts tab, subsection Access.

Click the host type to which access is enabled.You can choose to enable:

Allow Access to Windows Hosts

Allow Access to FTP Hosts

Allow Access to NFS Hosts

Allow Access to Netware Hosts

Selecting the option enables users to access that particular type of host. Clearing the checkbox prevents users from accessing that type of host.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the page to record the change.

Configure the Allowed Hosts List

By default, users are allowed to access all the hosts through NetFile because of the * entry in this list. If you want to change that, remove the * entry and specify only those hosts to which users need to have access through NetFile, in this list. Alternatively, you can keep the * entry here, and specify the hosts to which you want to deny access in the Denied Hosts list. In that case, all the hosts except the ones specified in the Denied Hosts list are allowed access.

To Create the Allowed Hosts List


Note	If both the Allowed Hosts and Denied Hosts lists are blank, access is not allowed to any host.

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Hosts tab, subsection Access.

Scroll to the Allowed Hosts field. Type the names of the hosts to which you want to allow access in the edit field and click Add.

The host name is added to the Allowed Hosts list box.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the page to record the changes.

Configure the Denied Hosts List

After specifying the list of commonly available hosts under Configure a Common Hosts List, you can also specify a list of hosts to which users are denied access through NetFile.



Note	If you deny access to a host, and a user has already added this host in the NetFile window, the denied host will continue to be displayed in the NetFile window of the user. But the user will not be able to carry out any operations on the host. In NetFile Java2, denied hosts, if displayed in the application, are marked with a red cross to indicate that they are inaccessible.

To Create a Denied Hosts List


Note	If both the Allowed Hosts and Denied Hosts lists are blank, access is not allowed to any host.

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Hosts tab, subsection Access.

Scroll to the Denied Hosts field. Type the names of the hosts to which you want to deny access in the edit field.

Click Add.

The host name is added to the Denied Hosts list box.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the page to record the changes.

The Permissions Tab

Using the Permissions tab, in the NetFile service, you can allow or deny permission for users to perform the following tasks from remote hosts:

Rename files

Delete files and folders

Upload files

Download files and folders

Search for a file

Mail files

Compress files

Change User Id

This option lets you specify whether a user can use different IDs to connect to hosts using NetFile. In a large organization, users may have multiple user IDs. You may want to restrict users to use a single user ID. In that case, you can disable the Allow Changing User ID option. This prevents all the users in the specific organization from changing their user ID, and limits them to using a single ID (the desktop login ID) to connect to hosts using NetFile. In another situation, a user may have different login IDs on different machines, in which case, you may want to allow the user to change the ID as required.

Change Windows Domains

This option is applicable to NT domains.

If the user specifies an invalid domain name in the User NT Domain name field while adding a system, an error message displays. If the user edits the host information later, and specifies an invalid domain name, an error message does not appear.

If the user specifies a domain name, the username and password for that domain also needs to be specified. If the username and password for the host needs to be used, the user needs to remove the domain from the User NT Domain name field.

To Enable/Disable Permissions

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Permissions tab.

Scroll to the required Allow field and click the checkbox to allow permission.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.



Note	If you disable these options after the user has started using NetFile, the change takes effect only if the user logs out of NetFile and logs in again.

The View Tab

Using the View tab, in the NetFile service, you can perform the following tasks:

Specify the NetFile Window Size

Specify the NetFile Window Location

Specify the NetFile Window Size

You can specify the size of the NetFile window in pixels on the user’s desktop. The default value is 700|400 in pixels. If you enter an invalid value, NetFile uses the default value.



Note	The user can also edit this value in the limited administration console that is available to the user. The value that you specify is replaced with the new values if the user resizes the NetFile window on the desktop.

To Specify the Size of the NetFile Window

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the View tab.

Scroll to the Window Size field and type the required window size in pixels.

Type the value in the format 700|400 without any spaces. The coordinates are in the form x|y. No other character should be used as a separator.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Specify the NetFile Window Location

You can specify the location where the NetFile window displays on the user’s desktop. The default value is 100|50 in pixels. If you enter an invalid value, NetFile uses the default value.



Note	The user can also edit this value in the limited administration console that is available to the user. The value that you specify is replaced with the new values if the user relocates the NetFile window on the desktop.

To Specify the Location of the NetFile Window

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the View tab.

Scroll to the Window Location field and type the required window location coordinates.

Type the value in the format 100|50 without any spaces. The coordinates are in the form x|y. No other character should be used as a separator.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

The Operations Tab

Using the Operations tab, in the NetFile service, you can perform the following tasks:

Specify the Temporary Files Directory

Set the File Upload Size Limit

Specify the Search Directories Limit

Specify Compression

Specify the Temporary Files Directory

NetFile needs a temporary directory for some file operations such as mailing files. The default temporary directory is /tmp. The temporary files are deleted after the required operation has been carried out.

The specified temporary directory is created if it does not exist on the server.

Ensure that the ID with which the web server is running (such as nobody or noaccess) has rwx permissions for the specified directory. Also ensure that the ID has rx permissions for the entire path to the required temporary directory.



Tip	You may want to create a separate temporary directory for NetFile. If you specify a temporary directory that is common to all modules of the Portal Server, the disk may quickly run out of space. A few operations in NetFile, such as mailing files, will not work if the temporary directory has no space.

To Specify a Temporary Directory

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Operations tab, Traffic subsection.

Scroll to the Temporary Directory Location field and type the required temporary directory location.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Set the File Upload Size Limit

You can specify the maximum size of the files that can be uploaded in this field. If the size of the file being uploaded exceeds the limit specified here, an error message is displayed and the file is not uploaded. The default value is 5 MB. If you enter an invalid value, NetFile resets the value to the default.

To Set the File Upload Size Limit


Note	Specify the maximum file size for upload in megabytes. Ensure that you type an integer value.

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Operations tab, Traffic subsection.

Scroll to the File Upload Limit (in MB) field. Type the required size limit in mega bytes.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Specify the Search Directories Limit

You can configure the maximum number of directories that will be searched in a single search operation. This limit helps reduce network clogging and increases the speed of access if a number of users are logged in simultaneously. The default value is 100. If you type an invalid value, NetFile resets the value to the default.

Suppose a user has a directory called A. Assume that A has 100 subdirectories. If you specify the maximum directories to be searched as 100, the search operation will go through directory A and stop. The search will not proceed through the other directories in the user’s machine since the limit of 100 was reached with directory A. The search results accumulated until the search limit is reached are displayed to the user along with an error message stating that the search exceeded its limit. To continue the search, the user must manually restart the search at the next directory.

The search operation is carried out in a depth-first manner. This means that the search operation is carried out in all the subdirectories of the directory that the user selected, before moving on to the next directory.

To Specify the Search Directories Limit

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Operations tab, Search subsection.

Scroll to the Search Directories Limit field and type the required number.



Note	Ensure that you type an integer value in this field.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Specify Compression

To Specify the Default Compression Type

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the Operations tab, Compression subsection.

Scroll to the Default Compression Type field.

Choose Zip or GZip

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

The General Tab

Using the General tab, in the NetFile service, you can specify the MIME-types configuration file location.

Specify the MIME-types Configuration File Location

This information is required to determine the response content type to send to the client browser. The browser needs this information to determine the application that a file needs to be associated with during a NetFile open or download operation. This is configured during installation.

If the MIME-types file of the Portal Server’s web server needs to be used, specify the location:

portal-server-install-root/SUNWam/servers/instance-name-of-web-server- machine/config

To Specify the Location of the MIME-types Configuration File


Note	MIME-types Configuration File Location attribute can be set only at the organization level.

Select the Identity Management tab.

Select Organizations from the View drop-down list.

Click the required organization name. The selected organization name is reflected as the location in the top left corner of the administration console.

Select Services from the View list box.

Click the arrow next to NetFile under SRA Configuration.

The NetFile page displays.

Click the General tab.

Scroll to the MIME-types Configuration File Location field and type the full path to where the MIME-types configuration file is located.

Click Save at the top or bottom of the NetFile page to record the change.

Enable Debugging for NetFile

The location of the debug information depends on the setting of the com.iplanet.services.debug.directory attribute in the AMConfig-instance-name.properties file on the Portal Server node.

For example, if the value of the com.iplanet.services.debug.directory attribute is:

Then the debug information for NetFile will be available in the srapNetFile file in the /var/opt/SUNWam/debug directory.

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Sun Java System Portal Server 6 2004Q2 Secure Remote Access Administration Guide