Accessing a CTERA Edge Filer

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CTERA Edge Filers are managed via a web-based user interface.

To connect to a CTERA Edge Filer:

  1. Open a web browser. You can use any of the latest two releases of Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Mozilla Firefox.
  2. Enter the CTERA Edge Filer's IP address to navigate to the CTERA Edge Filer.

Logging in

Each time you connect to the interface the browser displays the LogIn page:
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  1. Enter your user name and password for accessing the CTERA Edge Filer.
    The administrator user is defined as part of the initial setup immediately after installation. All other users are added by the administrator, as described in Adding and Editing Users.
    Note

    When the CTERA Edge Filer is connected to Active Directory, the user name to log in can be the user name or the Active Directory UPN (User Principal Name).

  2. Click Login.
    As a member of the Administrators or Read Only Administrators user groups, the Configuration view Main > Dashboard page is displayed.
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    Note

    If an Edge Filer Health warning is displayed that automatic crash reporting is not enabled, you can enable automatic crash reporting as described in Automatically Sending Crash Reports to Support.


    If you have not set up Active Directory, a security alert is displayed in the dashboard. You can set Active Directory by rerunning the setup wizard: Select Main > Dashboard and click Setup Wizard.


    If the edge filer is not connected to a CTERA Portal, the edge filer is unlicensed and the Cloud Drive is not available. To connect, see Connecting to a CTERA Portal.

Details of the last login is displayed on each login.
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To use the CTERA Edge Filer, it must be connected to a CTERA Portal. You connect the CTERA Edge Filer to the CTERA Portal using an administrator account. During the initial CTERA Edge Filer setup you connect the CTERA Edge Filer to the CTERA Portal. If the connection between the CTERA Edge Filer and Portal is down, reconnect using the procedure described in Connecting to a CTERA Portal.

Check the status of the connection, as described in Viewing the Status of the Connection to a CTERA Portal.

Connecting to a CTERA Portal

During the initial setup of the CTERA Edge Filer, described in the installation guide, you connect to the CTERA Portal. This section describes how to connect to the CTERA Portal if it is not connected.

Note

If access using CAC, Common Access Card, has been enabled for the CTERA Portal, the CTERA Edge Filer connects to the CTERA Portal using an activation code instead of the user and password credentials. For details, contact CTERA support.

To connect the CTERA Edge Filer to a CTERA Portal:

  1. In the Configuration view, select Cloud Services > Status in the navigation pane.
    The CTERA Portal page is displayed.
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  2. Click Connect to Services.
    The Account Details window is displayed.
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  3. Enter the address of the CTERA Portal, and then click Next.
    Note

    If the CTERA Portal does not have a valid certificate installed, a warning is displayed to the end user when logging a device into the portal, offering the option to proceed anyway. This warning is presented every time a user connects a device to the portal, until a valid certificate is installed.

    The Sign In window is displayed.
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    Note

    If single sign-on has been set up to the portal, the following window is displayed.
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    In this case, click Sign In and then Allow in a separate window when prompted, and then the Select License window is displayed. For CTERA Edge Filers except the HC100, skip the next step. For an HC100, skip the next 2 steps.

  4. Enter the CTERA Portal designated user username and password to access the CTERA Portal.
    Note

    The designated user is the owner of the cloud folders and data to manage the CTERA Edge Filer connection to the CTERA Portal for all users and not just the current user. This designated user has CTERA Portal read/write administrator permissions.

  5. Click Next.
    The Select License window is displayed.
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    You are prompted to select the license from those available on the CTERA Portal.
    Note

    If only one license is available, this license is selected automatically.

  6. Select the license and click Next.
    The CTERA Edge Filer connects to the CTERA Portal and is added to the CTERA Portal account.
    A success window is displayed.
  7. Click Finish.

The CTERA Portal page is displayed, showing that the CTERA Edge Filer is connected to the CTERA Portal.
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Viewing the Status of the Connection to a CTERA Portal

The CTERA Portal page displays information about the CTERA Edge Filer connection to a CTERA Portal account.
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After connecting to a CTERA Portal the CTERA Edge Filer status panel shows the following:

  • The status of the connection to the CTERA Portal can be one of the following:
    Resolving the portal address – The CTERA Edge Filer is resolving the CTERA Portal address.
    Connected to portal – The CTERA Edge Filer is connected to the CTERA Portal named portal or with the IP address portal, and the connection is currently in use.
    Connecting – The CTERA Edge Filer is connecting to the CTERA Portal.
    Disconnected – The CTERA Edge Filer is disconnected from the CTERA Portal. You can reconnect as described in Reconnecting and Disconnecting to a CTERA Portal.
    Authenticating – The CTERA Edge Filer is authenticating to the CTERA Portal.
    Connection Failed – The connection to the CTERA Portal failed.
  • The amount of time that the CTERA Edge Filer has been connected to the CTERA Portal.
  • The IP address of the CTERA Portal.
  • The edge filer identifier used by the portal.

Reconnecting and Disconnecting to a CTERA Portal

If the connection to the CTERA Portal is lost due to a connectivity failure, the CTERA Edge Filer automatically reconnects when it detects that the CTERA Portal is available. To force the CTERA Edge Filer to immediately try to reconnect, click Reconnect. The connection status displays whether the reconnection attempt is successful or not.

To disconnect from a CTERA Portal:

  1. In the Configuration view, select Cloud Services > Status in the navigation pane.
    The CTERA Portal page is displayed.
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  2. Click Sign out and Yes when the confirmation message is displayed.

Accessing the Connection to a CTERA Portal

After connecting a CTERA Edge Filer to a CTERA Portal, you can access the CTERA Portal account.

To access the CTERA Portal account:

  1. In the Configuration view, select Cloud Services > Status in the navigation pane.
    The CTERA Portal page is displayed.
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  2. Click Access My Portal Account.

The CTERA Portal sign in page is displayed in a new window, and you can sign in and access the account. For details about using the CTERA Portal account, refer to CTERA Portal documentation.