File Director

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Link Based Sharing

Link Based Sharing provides File Director users with a fast and efficient way to share content. Once sharing has been configured in the admin console, it can be enabled for the required map points and the type of receivers that are able to access the files can be defined. File Director classifies receivers into two groups:

• Internal - Any employee of the organization as defined by membership of the company’s Active Directory.
• External - Anyone not in the above group.

File Director saves a version of the shared files and automatically creates links which are emailed to listed recipients. For external receivers, File Director automatically enrolls them and sends access details to the shared content.

Preparation

Sharing files using File Director requires the Server Administrator to create dedicated staging areas for the two types of receivers. These dedicated areas can be on any AD joined file server, NAS, or SAN.

Steps required for Internal Link Based Sharing

1. Create an Server Message Block (SMB) share. This can be any name you choose.

2. Provide all domain users with modify access.

   Users require Modify access to delete expired shares.

Steps required for External Link Based Sharing

1. Create an SMB share. This can be any name you choose.
2. Provide all domain users with modify access.

3. Create a new domain user with modify access to the external share.

   Users require Modify access to contribute to a share.

To prevent users viewing content out of band, you can locate the staging file server in a segregated network to which only the File Director appliance has SMB access.

Admin Console

You must configure SMTP to send the emails containing the links, create new Staging Map Points to hold the shared files, enable sharing on your map points and set the expiration time for the shares before using the Link Based Sharing feature.

Related topics

Set up the SMTP server

Create staging map points

Enable link based sharing on map points

Set the automatic expiration for link based sharing

Map Point Policy