Configuring a MacOS 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 IBM Aspera High-Speed Transfer Server Admin Guide: Installing HSTS.

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 admin account on the node.
1. Go to System Preferences Users & Groups.
2. Click the lock button and enter your admin credentials to make changes.
3. Click the add button.
4. Name the user faspex.
5. Select Administrator from the New Account drop-down menu.
6. Name the account.
7. Enter and verify a password for the account.
8. Click Create User.
9. Click Login Options in the users panel.
10. Click the Join button next to Network Account Server.
11. Click Open Directory Utility.
12. In the Directory Utility window, click the lock button and enter an administrator account and password to make changes.
13. From the menu bar, select Edit Enable Root User.
14. Enter and verify the password.
15. Click OK.

The asconfigurator utility modifies the aspera.conf configuration file, located at: /Library/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,/project1"
```
Set up token authorization for the user in aspera.conf.
1. Configure dynamic key generation:
```
sudo asconfigurator -x "set_node_data;token_dynamic_key,true"
```
2. 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
```
3. Initialize the transfer user's keystore:
```
sudo askmscli -i -u username
```
4. 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. 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 by running the following commands:
```
sudo launchctl stop com.aspera.asperahttpd
sudo launchctl start com.aspera.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:
```
sudo launchctl stop com.aspera.asperanoded
sudo launchctl start com.aspera.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:
```
/Library/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:
```
/Library/Aspera/bin/asnodeadmin -a -u node_user -p node_user -p XF324cd28 -x faspex
```
2. Run the following command to check the system user was successfully added to asnodeadmin:
```
/Library/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.
1. If the .ssh folder does not already exist in the system user's home directory, run the following commands to create the folder:
```
mkdir "/Users/username/.ssh"
```
  For example:
```
mkdir "/Users/faspex/.ssh"
```
2. If the authorized_keys file does not already exist, use a text editor to create or edit the following file: /Users/username/.ssh/authorized_keys.
3. Copy the contents of the aspera_tokenauth_id_rsa.pub (/Library/Aspera/Enterprise Server/var/aspera_tokenauth_id_rsa.pub) public key to the file.
  The file must be named authorized_keys without file extensions. Some text editors add a .txt extension to the filename automatically. Be sure to remove the extension if it was added to the filename.

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