Installation & Setup

Prerequisites

Before beginning your installation of the FileHub appliance, ensure that you will be able to provision a virtual appliance that meets our System Requirements and that you will be able to comply with our required Firewall Configuration.

Networking

You will need to know the internal IP Address the appliance will be using (E.g. 10.11.12.13) as well as the public IP Address to be used for Network Address Translation (NAT).

Domain Name

FileHub requires a that the server receive Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) to be used for the server address.

We recommend not using the word ftp in this domain. We suggest using files.yourdomain.com (E.g. files.example.com)

You will also need to obtain an SSL certificate for this domain from a trusted vendor. It will be used to secure HTTPS and FTPS connections.

Download & Import The FileHub Image

The download instructions for FileHub are sent to you as part of your onboarding package. Please contact our support for help locating download instructions.

Use your hypervisor system to import the FileHub image and launch the VM. Make sure to add the secondary drive for data storage and attach it to the VM as part of this step.

Mounting the Data Drive

In your VM console or via SSH, you first need to mount the data drive.

On the console, run the following command:

sudo verimount --operation mount --destination /data --source /dev/sdb --type xfs

If your drive resides at a different location that /dev/sdb then you should substitute that here.

More details about verimount can be found by running its help command:

sudo verimount --help

After the data drive is mounted, reboot the VM. Then log back in and run the following:

sudo veridocker -o start

This will download and start the FileHub application.

Login to the FileHub Appliance Manager

Once the VM is running, you first need to log into it and perform initial configuration.

The FileHub Appliance Manager is accessed at https://<your-appliance-ip-or-hostname>:9002/

If you don't know the username and password, please Contact Support and we'll assist you.

After you've signed in, you'll need to configure a few sections.

License Tab

Visit the License tab and make note of your Device ID that is displayed. This Device ID is a unique fingerprint of the device that this FileHub appliance is installed on. This is how we prevent customers from using licenses on multiple appliances (which used to happen a surprising amount).

This will need to be provided to the SmartFile FileHub billing team to receive your license key. Send this Device ID to your Account Executive or Account Manager and they will initiate the process of issuing your license key.

HTTP SSL Tab

Visit the HTTP SSL Section of the Appliance Manager and upload your SSL Certificate.

You will only need to fill out one of the following sections

  • Domain Cert

  • Self Signed Cert

  • Certificate Authority

The Domain Cert Tab is for certificates that are pre-generated; this may include but is not limited to wildcard certificates. The Self Signed Tab will generate a self-signed cert, this is typically the least preferred route. The Cert Authority tab will help you work with your internal or external certificate authority by generating a CSR that you can then use to secure your appliance.

Here you also have the ability to have the FileHub appliance trust a CA Certificate under the Trusted CA Cert tab. Organizations with their own Certificate Authority should add their CA.crt to this section.

Configuration Tab

On the Configuration tab, you'll need to enter information about your network environment.

  • Hostname: This is the hostname (URL) the application will use. It should be set to the URL you have chosen for your appliance.

  • IP Address: This is the IP address matching the DNS record used in the Hostname field of the appliance. It is used for FTP/SFTP to ensure NAT is handled properly.

  • External FTP IP Address: This is typically the same as IP Address; however, it can be different if the appliance has an internal IP and ports are being forwarded from an external IP address via a router.

The settings under the System tab should not need to be changed unless SmartFile Support has directed you to update them.

Restart the Appliance

At this point, you've done everything you need to do at this time.

Restart the appliance by typing:

sudo veridocker -o restart

Continuing Setup

Once you have received your license key back from our Billing team, continue with the Installing Your License Key step.

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