6.11 Using a Response File to Automatically Create iFolder Accounts

Installing iFolder client and configuring an account on each desktop is a difficult task when the number of users is high. Without configuring an account, users cannot create iFolders or share iFolders on the system. For each user, you must provide a username and the server address with which they can configure an account using the iFolder Account Creation Wizard.To make these tasks simpler, it’s useful to automate the process of installing and configuring iFolder. You can use a deployment manager such as Novell ZENworks to automate the process of iFolder installation.To make the iFolder account creation simpler and automatic, with little or no user interaction, you can use the Auto-account creation feature.

iFolder Auto-account creation facility provides you a user-friendly XML-based response file that helps you create accounts for multiple enterprise users. The response file contains the necessary information in XML format such as default credentials and server information to configure an account.You can use any deployment manager to distribute the client RPMs along with the customized response file to the user desktops.

6.11.1 Response Files

The response file is a user-specific XML file named AutoAccount.xml that contains the basic information to automatically create and configure an iFolder user account. A sample AutoAccount.xml is available for downloading in the Software Download page of the OES 2015 SP1 Welcome page. You can also use a script to generate a user-specific XML file with default credentials or with only the server information so that users can enter their credentials when the Account Creation Wizard is displayed. See Sample Response File for more information. Use a deployment manager to push the response file to the following folders depending on the client platform.

Table 6-4 Location of the Response file

Platform

Location

Linux

$HOME/.local/share/simias

Windows XP

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\simias

Windows 7 and Windows 8

%LOCALAPPDATA%\simias

IMPORTANT:The name of the response file AutoAccount.xml cannot be changed.

The mandatory fields in the response file are Server and Username. If you specify only the server name without giving the username, then all the inputs to the response file except the server name is ignored. If this is the case, the Account Creation Wizard is displayed with the server name pre populated with the value from the response file. The user should give the rest of the information in the iFolder Account Creation Wizard.

IMPORTANT:Regardless of whether a field is classified as mandatory or optional, the corresponding tags should always be present in the XML file for validation. The terms mandatory or optional apply only to the value of the tags and not to the tags themselves.

To get the status and details of the auto-account creation, see the AutoAccount log file. The path to the log file is specified in the log configuration file UI.log4net. The UI.log4net file allows you specify output location of the AutoAccount log files and what events are recorded at run time.The editable parameters of UI.log4net are similar to that of Simias.log4net. For more information, see Section 10.4, Managing the Simias Log and Simias Access Log.

Depending on the platform, the log configuration file is present in the following directory.

Table 6-5 Location of the Configuration File

Platform

Location

Linux

$HOME/.local/share/simias

Windows XP

%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\simias

Windows 7 and Windows 8

%LOCALAPPDATA%\simias

Response File Parameters

The following table gives the list of all parameters of the response file. All the parameters except Server and Username are optional. For optional fields, the default value is used when no explicit value is specified.

Table 6-6 Response File Parameters

Parameter

Possible Values

Default Value

default user account

True/false

True for the first account and false for the remaining accounts.

server

IP address

Mandatory field; no default value

user-id

Any string

Mandatory field; no default value

remember password

True/False

False

default-ifolder

True/False

True

path

Path string

Linux: HOME Directory/domain-name/user-id/Default

Windows: %APPDATA%\..\domain-name\user-id

encrypted

True/False

False (If it is permitted by server)

securesync

True/False

False

force merge

True/False

False

prompt-to-accept-cert

True/False

False. This means that the certificate is accepted by default.

iFolder-creation-confirmation

True/False

True

iFolder-share-notify

True/False

True

conflict-notify

True/False

True

auto-sync enabled

True/False

True

auto-sync interval

Integer value

5

Sample Response File

Following is a typical example for the response file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<auto-account xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="AutoAccount.xsd">

<user-account default="true">

        <server></server>

        <user-id></user-id>

        <remember-password>false</remember-password>

        <prompt-to-accept-cert>true</prompt-to-accept-cert>

        <default-ifolder default="true">

                <path></path>

                <encrypted>false</encrypted>

                <securesync>false</securesync>
                 
                <forcemerge>false</forcemerge>

        </default-ifolder>

</user-account>

<general-preferences>

        <iFolder-creation-confirmation>true</iFolder-creation-confirmation>

        <iFolder-share-notify>true</iFolder-share-notify>

        <user-join-notify>true</user-join-notify>

        <conflict-notify>true</conflict-notify>

        <auto-sync interval="5">true</auto-sync>

</general-preferences>

</auto-account>

6.11.2 Using a Response File to Deploy the iFolder Client

NOTE:The procedure below shows one method of deployment. You can follow the method best suited to your needs.

  1. Use the ZENworks deployment manager to distribute and install the iFolder client.

  2. Depending on the platform used on the client machine that had the iFolder client auto-installed, push the AutoAccount.xml file to the path mentioned below:

    Table 6-7 Platform-specific locations of Response file

    Platform

    Location

    Linux

    $HOME/.local/share/simias

    Windows XP

    %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\simias

    Windows 7 and Windows 8

    %LOCALAPPDATA%\simias

    When the user starts the iFolder client for the first time, the account is created based on the information from the response file. If you have specified all the parameters for creating an account in the response file, then only password is requested from the user. Otherwise, the user must provide information for all the empty mandatory fields along with password when he or she logs in for the first time.

    The following sections describe the installation of iFolder using ZENworks on SLED and Windows.

Installation of iFolder on SLED using ZENworks Linux Management

Follow the steps given below to install and configure the iFolder client on SLED using ZENworks. Before you begin with the installation process, ensure the following:

  • ZENworks Linux Management (ZLM) agent is installed and running on the machines where you want to install iFolder using ZENworks.

  • Your system meets the iFolder requirements. For more information, see Section 5.0, Prerequisites and Guidelines.

Create a bundle

  1. Open the browser and login to ZLM Server web console.

  2. Click the Bundles tab.

  3. On the Bundles panel, select New > Bundle to launch the Create New Bundle Wizard.

  4. In the Select Bundle type page, select the File Bundle option and click Next.

  5. In the Name and Description page, enter a name, display name, location, and description for the bundle. Click Next.

  6. In the Files page, add the files that you want to include in the bundle. To do this, do the following:

    1. Select Add > Upload to display the File Upload dialog box.

    2. Specify the destination where the file needs to be copied in the Destination field. For example, specify /home in the Destination field.

    3. Specify the permissions in the Permissions field.

    4. Select the target platform from the Target Platforms list.

    5. Click the Browse button to browse to the location where folder3-linux.tar.gz is present and add the file.

    6. Click the OK button.

    NOTE:Ensure that the Unpack option in the Files page is not selected.

    Similarly, add the install-ifolder-script.sh and AutoAccount.xml file to the bundle.

    NOTE:While adding the file AutoAccount.xml to the bundle, you must specify the destination as $HOME/.local/share/simias.

  7. After adding all the three files to the bundle, click Next.

  8. In the Scriptable Actions page, click New to display the New Scriptable Action dialog box.

  9. Select Post-Installation from the Scriptable Action list.

  10. Select Define your own script from the Script to run list.

  11. In the Script content field, add the following script:

    cd /home

    sh install-ifolder-script.sh

  12. Click OK to close the New Scriptable Action dialog box and then click Next.

  13. In the Summary page, you can view information about the bundle that you are creating and then click Finish.

Assign a Bundle

  1. Click the Bundles tab on the ZLM Server web console.

  2. On the Bundles panel, click the bundle created by you.

  3. In the Assignments panel, click Add to launch the Assign Bundle Wizard.

  4. In the Devices to be Assigned page, click Add to display the Select Devices dialog box.

  5. Select the workstations that you want to assign the bundle to.

  6. Confirm the selected workstations under the Selected list and click OK to close the dialog box. Click Next.

  7. In the Bundle Options page, select the Deploy and install immediately (when this wizard completes) option and click Next.

  8. Click Finish.

Installation of iFolder on Windows using ZENworks Configuration Management

Follow the steps given below to install and configure the iFolder client on Windows using ZENworks. Before you begin with the installation process, you must ensure that ZENworks agent is installed and running on the Windows machines where you want to install iFolder using ZENworks.

Create a Bundle

  1. Open a browser and login to ZENworks Control Center

  2. Click the Bundles tab.

  3. On the Bundles panel, select New > Bundle to launch the Create New Bundle Wizard.

  4. In the Select Bundle type page, select the Windows Bundle option and click Next.

  5. Select Empty Bundle from the New Bundle Category and click Next.

  6. In the Define Details page, fill in the following fields and click Next:

    Bundle Name: Specify a bundle name

    Folder: Specify the name or browse to the folder where you want the bundle to reside.

    Icon: Browse and specify the icon that you want to use for installation of a bundle. This is not a mandatory field.

    Description: Provide a brief description about the bundle. This is not a mandatory field.

  7. Click Finish.

Specify the Windows Executable

  1. After a bundle is created, click the bundle and then click the Actions tab.

  2. In the Install tab, select Add > Launch Windows Executable to display the Add Action- Launch Windows Executable dialog box.

  3. Specify the network path of the iFolder executable in the Command field.

  4. Specify the command line parameters for a silent install in the Command Line Parameters field. The parameters for a silent install are:

    ifolder3-windows.exe /s /v"/qn INSTALLDIR=\"C:\Program Files\iFolder3\" ALLUSERS=1"

    Replace the location C:\Program Files\iFolder3 with the location you want to install iFolder.

    WARNING:The silent install command installs iFolder and reboots the workstations without any user intervention.

  5. Click OK to close the Add Action- Launch Windows Executable dialog box.

  6. Click Apply.

Add the AutoAccount.xml file to the Bundle

  1. Click the bundle and then click the Actions tab.

  2. In the Install tab, select Add > Install File(s) to display the Add Action- Install File(s) dialog box.

  3. Click Add to display the Select Files dialog box.

  4. Click Add to browse and specify the AutoAccount.xml file.

  5. Specify %USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\simias in the Destination Directory field.

  6. Select the appropriate option from the Copy Option list.

  7. Click OK to close the Add Action- Install File(s) dialog box.

  8. Click Apply.

Increment the Bundle Version

  1. Click the bundle that you have created.

  2. In the Summary tab, click Increment Version to change the version number of the bundle.

Assign Bundle

  1. Click the bundle and then click the Relationships tab.

  2. In the Device Assignments panel, click Add to display the Select Objects dialog box.

  3. Select the workstations that you want to assign the bundle to.

  4. Confirm the selected workstations under the Selected list and click OK to close the dialog box.

  5. Click Next.

  6. In the Schedules page, select the Distribution Schedule option and click Next.

  7. In the Bundle Distribution Schedule page, select Now from the Schedule Type list and click Next.

  8. Click Finish to assign the bundle.