GDE is a solution that allows indexing of data on endpoints and/or fileservers without defining a share. It runs on Windows, Linux, macOS, and Pardus environments.
The GDE agent indexes/discovers many PCs or FileServers w/o defining a share. The GDE agent runs on Windows, Linux, or MacOS.
GEODI may discover FileServers if there is a share. Then, GDE is not required.
GDE crawls the EndPoint or FileServer and sends selected files to a GEODI Server. This way, you can discover and search local files w/o sharing any folder. GDE continuously crawls every 3 hours to find changed files.
With the GEODI Classifier, it is possible to classify the local files remotely.
After discovery, it is possible to remediate the local files remotely.
When a file is deleted from GDE, running "delete deleted contents" will remove the file from the GEODI index.
Installation and Configuration
A configuration file on the GEODI server determines which local folders and file types to include. This configuration may be customized by client IP, ClientUser, or ClientMachine name. So, you may target a different area for each FileServer or client.
The Agents can be manually installed on FileServers or EndPoints. But if you have many EndPoints, using a tool like ManageEngine or SCCM for deployment is suggested.
GDE agent software updates are auto. It may be set to update from a local source.
GEODI Server has a monitor panel to watch EndPoints. GEODI Agent Management Panel
Installation Checklist
Subject | Description |
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Create a new project or choose an existing project to index files. | A separate project is OK for discovery purposes, but adding PCs to an existing project is better if you have Enterprise Search. This project URL must be accessible from the EndPoints. The GDE recognizer(from discovery IT group), must be used in the project. |
Create a token | Follow the procedure on this page to get the Token. As a best practice, we suggest you create a separate user for the Token. And token users' passwords should not be changed. |
Follow the procedures for different OSs | These pages will lead you to each OS. |
GDE Configuration Settings | The settings determine which local folders and file types to discover. There may be a single setting for all, or you may customize it by clients. |
Client Monitoring | Activate GEODI Agent Management Panel |
Troubleshooting
FAQ
GDE configuration settings
Settings should be GEODI server <GEODI_APP>/Settings/Geodi.DesktopExplorer folder named default.json. Installed GDEs will automatically retrieve this setting in about an hour.
Any changes will be effective in about an hour. You may change the settings while GEODI is running.
To define different rules for each machine, you may use additional files named
<ClientIP>.json
<ClientUserName>.json
<ClientMachineName>.json.
{ "FolderList": ["%UserProfile%"],// "*" scan all directory // "ExplorerPort": 1982, "IgnoreFiles":["*.MP4","*.MOV","*.MP3"], "MetaData": { "LDAPDN":"=d.CurrentUser!=null?d.CurrentUser.DistinguishedName:null", "IP":"=d.ClientIP", "ComputerName":"=d.ClientMachineName", "UserName":"=d.ClientUserName" } }
Setting Name | Type | Description |
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FolderList | string[]* | Used to specify the folders to be scanned. Folders can be identified by separating them with ",".Windows, MacOS, and Linux client folders can be used interchangeably. The default directory is Values are case-sensitive. Subdirectories can also be defined as You can use ["*"] to scan all disks. |
ExplorerPort | int | The default is 1982. Alternatively, you may set the port value to 0. Discovery and search will be fine, but GEODI can not open the local files in this case. |
EnableLDAP | bool | If a true value is given, LDAP authorizations of the files are also indexed. Default value: false |
IgnoreFolders | string[] | List of folders to ignore. * is accepted. Used in combination with the settings under Geodi Settings/IgnoreFolders. Example: Default value: null GEODI central file/folder ignore rules always take precedence. The restrictions specified within the settings are applied additionally. By default, to safeguard the network resource, only the name and date of files larger than 100MB are indexed. This limit is set to 500MB for compressed file contents. These values can be modified on the GEODI server. |
IgnoreFiles | string[] | List of folders to ignore. * is accepted and used with the settings under Geodi Settings/IgnoreFileTypes. Default value: GEODI central file/folder ignore rules always take precedence. The restrictions specified within the settings are applied additionally. By default, to safeguard the network resource, only the name and date of files larger than 100MB are indexed. This limit is set to 500MB for compressed file contents. These values can be modified on the GEODI server. |
Metadata | You can define metadata for parsing files from clients. These metadata are specified in the settings file. The values used in the default settings can be seen in the example file. Searching with metadata is done with <metaname>:<value> Example The defined metadata and values will be visible in the GEODI search interface. |
GDE API
You may use a browser to make these calls.
<ClientIP>:<1982>/DEW?op=GetStatus | Gets the status of GDE Agent
Default port = 1982, may be different |
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<ClientIP>:<1982>/DEW?op=GetLastError | Gets the GDE agent errors. If no error, retuns null. Else
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Token Creation
Log in with a user accessing the Source that GDEs will feed.
Open the page: <GEODI_URL>>/API/GeodiTokenApi.html?loginWithGuest=1
Select the Source's name using the AllowList.
Now you are ready to create the Token.
This page may be used to check if a token is valid: <GEODI_URL>/API/token_parser.html