Agent Version 1 (Deprecated)

The latest version of the Files.com Agent is version 2. Version 1 of the Files.com Agent is deprecated but this document provides information for customers who have not yet upgraded to the latest version.

The Files.com Agent is supported on Windows (64bit), Linux, and MacOS (64bit).

The Files.com platform will connect to the Agent using a secure encrypted connection. You will need to open an inbound port from the Internet to the server that is hosting the Agent. The system account running the Agent should have privileges to open a network port. On locked down systems, this may require Administrator privileges.

First, create a Remote Server for the Agent in your Files.com site. Download and install the Agent (Files.com CLI App) to the system that you want the Agent to run on. Download, review, and update the Agent configuration file to meet your needs.

Before attempting to run the Agent, open an inbound port on your firewall from the Internet to the server that is hosting the Agent.

After you've installed the Agent, configured it, and made sure that your firewall isn't blocking any connections to the Agent from Files.com, run the Agent using the configuration file.

Once the Agent is running, you can use its Remote Server on Files.com to access local folders and integrate them with other Files.com features and capabilities. Use a Remote Mount to access local folders interactively through Files.com or use a Remote Sync to push files to, and pull files from, folders on the system that is hosting the Agent.

Type "Remote servers" in the search box at the top of every page, and then click on the matching result. Click the Add new remote server button and select Files.com Agent.

Enter a name for this connection. This internal name is only used to reference this connection to this Agent.

Select the permissions for the Agent. These permissions will restrict Files.com to only be able to perform those actions.

Click the Save button.

Use the Download configuration file button to download the configuration file.

Once saved, the new Remote Server will be re-opened for further configuration. You can also use the Edit button to re-open the Remote Server for further configuration.

In addition to the instructions for downloading, configuring, and running the Agent, there will be configuration options for selecting your preferences for the Dedicated IPs and Data Regional Routing settings for this Agent.

The options for specifying Dedicated IPs and Data Regional Routing will only appear if your site is configured to allow those options. Dedicated IPs are only available when a Custom Domain has been configured. Data Regional Routing is only available if your top-level, or root, folder is set to a non-USA geographic region.

The Files.com Agent is built into version 2.1 of the cross-platform Files.com Command Line Interface (CLI) App.

On the download page, choose the version that matches your operating system.

No installation is necessary. The CLI app is a self contained app which can be stored anywhere on your computer. We recommend placing it in a directory that is contained in the PATH environment variable of your Operating System.

The Files.com Agent uses a single inbound network port, by default port 58550. The Agent also sends a "heartbeat" back to Files.com using port 443.

The Agent will send its heartbeat to Files.com using the general pool of Files.com IP addresses. Make sure that outbound connections to these IP addresses using port 443 are allowed through your firewall.

Files.com will establish an inbound encrypted and authenticated connection, across the Internet, to the Agent.

Configure your firewall and router to forward incoming connections to the Agent using the port specified in the configuration file. The Agent will only accept connections from Files.com. If required, you can configure your firewall for a list of allowed IP addresses from Files.com.

If your site has Dedicated IPs enabled, then Files.com will establish the connection to the Agent from the dedicated IP addresses. The Agent cannot send its "heartbeat" to the dedicated IPs as the Agent is unaware of the dedicated IPs until it receives the response to the heartbeat.

The Files.com Agent is run from the command line. You can use a command line terminal, start it from a script, or configure your system to run it as a system service.

You should first run the Agent manually to test connectivity and functionality. Only after successfully running the Agent manually should you attempt to install it as a system service or start it from a script.

The Agent will only run on the system that it has been installed on. However, it can access network folders that have been mounted on the local system.

Once the Files.com CLI App is installed, and the configuration file is saved onto your system, use the following command to start the Agent:

files-cli agent --config files_agent_config.json

The Agent will connect back to Files.com to register its current status. To confirm the status of the Agent, type "Remote servers" in the search box at the top of every page, and then click on the matching result. Selecting the Edit button for the Agent Remote Server. The following fields will show the Agent status information:

Remote Server Mounts are created by mounting them onto an empty folder in Files.com. This folder should ideally not be the Root of your site, although that is supported if you need it.

From the Files icon on the left, navigate to the location where you want the mounted folder to be and create a new folder. Navigate into the newly created folder and click the Storage Location (Flag icon) button on the top right.

Select Remote Server Mount from the list and select the Agent remote server.

Choose the Remote folder, which is the portion of the remote file system that will be mounted into this folder on Files.com. You can either by leave the default "/" (i.e., the remote server's root directory) or click on Choose a different folder link and navigate to the remote folder you want to this folder to connect to.

Click the Save button. The folder will reload and immediately list the remote folders/files from the selected remote path.

If you instead prefer to do a Sync with the remote, follow these directions.

From Files, navigate into the folder where you would like to add the remote server sync and click Folder settings > Sync to/from remote server.

Click the Add new remote server sync button to reveal the form.

Select the server you would like to transfer to or from by clicking on the Remote server menu.

Next choose your Sync direction. You have three choices:

You have the option to delete files on the source server after a push or pull. Use the After copying menu to select whether you would like files that are successfully transferred to be deleted from or kept on the source server.

Enter the remote path to or from which you would like files and folders transferred, starting after the folder/directory your remote user lands in upon authentication.

For example: if the remote server has a folder structure folderA/folderB/folderC, and the user credentials that you have configured your sync server to log in with automatically land that user inside folderA, then to properly configure your sync folder behavior to transfer files to or from folderC, you would enter the path as folderB/folderC.

A single Agent can be used to securely access multiple folders of a system.

The root option in the Agent configuration file specifies the top-most folder that the Agent itself is allowed to access.

However, each Remote Mount and Remote Sync can target specific lower-level folders. You can configure as many Remote Mounts and Remotes Syncs as you want using only a single Agent.

For example, let's say you want to provide secure access to 3 specific folders on your local Windows Server. In this example we'll say there are 2 folders for trading partners and 1 folder for an internal team: C:\Partners\Acme, C:\Partners\BinaryBros, C:\Internal\Teams\VendorRelations

All of the above folders share the common top-level folder of C:\ so that is what we'll specify in the Agent configuration file for the root setting.

Now we can set up 3 different Remote Mounts, each targeting one of the above lower-level folders. A Remote Mount for Acme will be configured to point to the C:\Partners\Acme folder via the Agent. Another Remote Mount, for BinaryBros, will be configured to point to the C:\Partners\BinaryBros folder. A final Remote Mount, for the internal Vendor Relations team, will be configured to point to the C:\Internal\Teams\VendorRelations folder.

Each Remote Mount is limited to accessing only its corresponding lower-level folder. The Acme users will only be able to access the C:\Partners\Acme folder, the BinaryBros users will only be able to access the C:\Partners\BinaryBros folder, and the internal Vendor Relations users will only be able to access the C:\Internal\Teams\VendorRelations folder.

Installing the Files.com Agent as a system service allows the Agent to automatically start when the system is started or rebooted.

System services allow programs and applications, such as the Agent, to automatically start without requiring a user login. When the Agent is installed as a system service, it will automatically start when the system is powered on and online.

For Windows based systems, the Files.com Agent can be installed as a Windows Service using this command:

files-cli agent install --config files_agent_config.json

To start the service, use this command:

files-cli agent start

You can also open the Windows Services app, select the files-cli entry, right-click on it, and select Start.

To check the status of the service, use this command:

files-cli agent status

To stop the service, use this command:

files-cli agent stop

You can also open the Windows Services app, select the files-cli entry, right-click on it, and select Stop.

To uninstall the service, use this command:

files-cli agent uninstall

Refer to the Systemd documentation of your Linux system for instructions on how to configure the Files.com Agent to start automatically at system startup.

• Systemd documentation for Red Hat based Linux systems.
• Systemd documentation for Debian based Linux systems.

Refer to the Launchd documentation for instructions on how to configure the Files.com Agent to start automatically at system startup.

All actions performed within Agent folders are stored in the corresponding logs in exactly the same way as all other types of Remote Server and History actions are logged.

If you need to enable local logging by the Agent, such as for troubleshooting purposes, then you can specify a log file to save logs to using the --log-file-path flag:

files-cli agent --config files_agent_config.json --log-file-path outputfile.log

Rather than upgrading version 1 of the Agent, we recommend migrating to the latest version of the Agent.

To upgrade version 1 of the Agent, download the latest version of the Files.com Command Line Interface (CLI) App and replace the previous files-cli executable with the newer downloaded version.

Download the CLI App.

Stop and restart the Agent. No changes to the configuration file are required for an upgrade.

If the Agent has been installed as a system service, stop and restart the system service.

If you are running the Agent manually, stop the Agent and then delete the files-cli executable.

For Windows based systems, where the Files.com Agent has been installed as a Windows Service, stop the service, using this command:

files-cli agent stop

You can also open the Windows Services app, select the files-cli entry, right-click on it, and select Stop.

Then uninstall the service, using this command:

files-cli agent uninstall

Refer to the Systemd documentation of your Linux system for instructions on how to remove the Files.com Agent service.

• Systemd documentation for Red Hat based Linux systems.
• Systemd documentation for Debian based Linux systems.

Refer to the Launchd documentation for instructions on how to remove the Files.com Agent service.