Step-by-step deployment guide
We no longer actively support the Windows File Shares import agent. New users should refer to the NTFS gateway instead.
1. Creating a source in Elimity Insights
Firstly create a new Windows File Shares source in Elimity Insights, but do not enable automatic imports. Instead, generate API credentials for this source and note down the resulting identifier and token.
2. Configuring the agent
To configure your import agent, mount a JSON configuration file at /app/config/config.json with the properties listed below. Refer to the following attachment for a starting point:
Edit the following properties in this file to configure the import agent to your needs:
insights_certificate
object
Configuration to set up an mTLS connection with your Elimity Insights server
insights_certificate.certificate_file
string
File path where the agent can find your mTLS certificate; only required if insights_certificate.type is "present"
insights_certificate.key_file
string
File path where the agent can find your mTLS key; only required if insights_certificate.type is "present"
insights_certificate.type
string
Use "absent" if you don't need mTLS, otherwise set to "present"
insights_source_id
number
Source identifier you noted down in step 1
insights_source_token
string
Source token you noted down in step 1
insights_url
string
URL of your Elimity Insights server
insights_verify_ssl
boolean
Set to false to disable TLS certificate verification; default is true
log_sink
object
Logging configuration
log_sink.file
string
File path where the agent should write logs to; only required if log_sink.type is "file"
log_sink.type
string
Use "std_err" if the agent should log to the standard error stream, or "file" to make a log file
max_depth
number
Global upper limit on the scanning depth; use 0 to indicate no upper limit
max_depth_overrides
record[number]
Record mapping file identifiers to depth limit overrides; if the agent encounters a directory which matches an entry in this record, then it resets the depth limit for scans starting from that point
only_dirs
boolean
Skip files that are not directories
schedule
object
Describes when the agent should run; omit to just trigger once immediately
schedule.day
string
Weekday when the agent should run (e.g. "monday"); omit to trigger every day of the week
schedule.time
string
Time-of-day when the agent should run (e.g. "19:30")
smb_password
string
Password for authenticating with the SMB server
smb_username
string
Username for authenticating with the SMB server
targets
list[object]
Determines which SMB servers the agent should import from
targets[].connection_pool_size
number
Maximum number of parallel SMB connections to use for importing from this target; default is 1
targets[].filter
object
Determines which items in the targeted SMB server the agent should import
targets[].filter.selections
list[object]
Determines which items and shares the agent should import from; only required if targets[].filter.type is "allow_list"
targets[].filter.selections.max_depth
number
Optional override for the global upper limit on scanning depth
targets[].filter.selections.path
string
File path within the targeted share to start scanning from
targets[].filter.selections.path_prefix
string
Extra path prefix to apply for file entities in Elimity Insights
targets[].filter.selections.share
string
Name of the SMB share to start scanning from
targets[].filter.type
string
Use "all" to import all items in all shares on the targeted SMB server; use "allow_list" to apply filtering
timeout
number
Maximum number of seconds to wait for SMB responses
3. Deploying the agent
Having configured the agent and having created a source in Elimity Insights, you can now deploy the agent to regularly import data from your SMB server and upload it to Elimity Insights. Since we distribute the agent as a Docker image, our recommendation for deployment is to use a CaaS solution like Google Cloud Run or Azure Container Apps. If that's not an option, you can also manually deploy the image on e.g. Windows Server. Refer to our documentation about gateways and import agents for additional details.
4. Following up on the import
The import agent outputs logs to indicate its progress, for a manual Windows Server deployment you can check these with docker-compose logs.
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