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File System Endpoint

A File System Endpoint allows a folder or directory to be accessible from an Access Point server—a local file system, a mounted network file system, or on a Windows Access Point, a UNC path—to act as a source or destination for data transfer. See also What is an Access Point? The File System Endpoint has the following attributes.

Attribute Description
Access point

Select an Access Point for this Endpoint. If there are no Access Points available to you, you can create one. See Managing Access Points. 

After you select an Access Point, browse through the file system on that Access Point, and then select a root directory to act as a source or destination for a Data Flow. 
Note: By default, a File System Endpoint built on a given Access Point has recursive access to the files and folders under the Access Point's root directory. This has the following implications:

  • Any admin that has access to the Access Point can also browse files and folders under and including the Access Point's root directory.
  • All the files in all the folders under the selected directory are selected for transfer. You can restrict this behavior when you configure a Data Flow by selecting a subfolder as the Data Flow's Source and/or by specifying a filter pattern. See Managing Data Flows for more information.
Note: On Linux systems, the CIC Agent installation creates the user, cleoand the Agent service runs as this user. The cleo user must have write permissions to any directories and files you want this Access Point and Endpoint to have access to. Your Linux admin needs to grant access to this user as needed to open up access.
On Windows systems, by default, the service runs as System, which restricts access to local drives only. To use network mounted drives or UNC, change this service to run as a domain account. 
File System Type

Choose the type of file system on which you want the Endpoint source or destination directory to reside:

  • Local - Selects the local system where the Access Point is installed as the source or destination of the endpoint. 
  • Shared - Exposes fields in the UI where you can specify attributes for a shared file system such as Share Path, Domain, Username, and Password. 

After you choose a local or shared file system, you select a directory to act as the Endpoint source or destination. See Selecting a Source or Destination Directory for more information.
Share Path

The SMB root path. Valid patterns: [^smb://.*$, ^//:.*$, ^smb:\\.*$, ^\\:.*$]
Domain The Domain name.
Username Share account user username.
Password Share account user password.
Browse When you connect to a file system, this tab is populated with a directory listing from which you can choose a source or destination directory. See Selecting a Source or Destination Directory for more information.
Advanced This tab is displayed when you choose a Shared file system. It consists of two sections, each with SMB attributes to help you configure your Endpoint.
Section Description
Connection
Min SMB Version

The connector will attempt to use the highest dialect set by the Max SMB Version and will negotiate down to the Min SMB Version until a dialect is selected that both the client and the server support. The SMB Endpoint currently supports SMB 1 (NT LM 0.12), SMB2.02, SMB2.1, SMB3.0, SMB3.0.2, and SMB3.1.1.
Max SMB Version
Additional SMB Properties You can add a list of additional properties. Visit  https://jcifs.samba.org/src/docs/api/overview-summary.html#scp for more information about the properties. 
See Working with Additional SMB Properties 
Command Retries The number of times a command should be retried if an error or exception occurs during a command. Valid range: [0-5]
Command Retry Delay The amount of time (in seconds) before a retry should be attempted. Valid range: [0-120]
Logging
Enable Debug Select this check box to make debug logs available for this endpoint.

Selecting a Source or Destination Directory 

As part of creating a File System Endpoint, you select an Access Point and specify a directory on the Access Point to be a source or destination for a Data Flow. The file system where the directory resides can be the local system where the Access Point is installed or a shared system you have access to. See File System Endpoint for more detailed information about Access Points as they relate to File System Endpoints.

Follow these steps to select an Access Point and directory for a File System Endpoint.

  1. On the Endpoint screen, select an Access Point.
  2. Specify whether to use a Local or Shared file system.
  3. If you select Local, click Connect and, with no further intervention, CIC displays a list of available directories.
  4. If you select Shared, provide the required connection information (see File System Endpoint for details) and then click Connect to see the list of available directories. 
  5. To select a directory, do one of the following:
      • Click Select to choose the root directory of the Access Point.
      • Navigate to a sub-directory and then click Select.

        CIC displays the selected directory.
      • Finally, you can manually type in a path, click Go to display its contents, and then click Select to make it the selected directory.
  6. Click Save to save your File System Endpoint.

Working with Additional SMB Properties

To add SMB Properties:

  1. On the Advanced tab, click Edit near the Additional SMB Properties item.

    The Additional SMB Properties list displays.
  2. Enter a property name (see https://jcifs.samba.org/src/docs/api/overview-summary.html#scp) and a value, and click Add.
  3. The new property is added to the list.
  4. Click OK to close the list

To delete SMB Properties:

  1. On the Advanced tab, click Edit near the Additional SMB Properties item.
  2. On the Additional SMB Properties list, select the property to be deleted and then click the Delete button.
  3. Click OK to close the list.

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