Set Up an MFT Connection

An MFT agent allows you to receive and send data. The agent receives the required information from the MFT server and after activation, automatically creates the structure of folders in your file system based on the connectivity agreements you created.

To set up the data transfer, you have to install an agent. The agent is a small application that you install on your computer and the application creates a folder structure in your file system. The agent is available for all the major operating systems: Windows, Linux, and MacOS. You can use the agent both on your server and on your desktop.

Note Java 11 is mandatory for the agent. You must download and install JDK 11 prior to using the agent. For Windows, Linux, and MacOS, OpenJDK 11 (11.0.2 or later) is certified Edifecs compatible. Edifecs supports the use of JDKs from OpenJDK, if they are binary compatible. However, Edifecs does not endorse any of these options, and the use of these options is at your organization's own risk. Please seek legal counsel in selecting the JDK option that best suits your organization's needs and license requirements.

Before you start exchanging data, you should download, install, and activate your agent using an activation code.

To download and install an agent:

  1. Open the MFT service web portal in your browser.
  2. Go to the Connections section ( on the toolbar), on the My Connection tab, click Setup Agent.
  3. In the Setup Agent Connection dialog, in Step 1, click Download Agent, and then from the drop-down list, select the required operating system, on which you want to install your agent.
  4. In the Save As dialog, navigate to the location where you want to save the installation file, and then click Save.
  5. Navigate to the location where you have saved the installation file, and then run the installer to install the agent. When your agent has been launched, the agent icon is displayed in the notification area of your operating system.
  6. Follow the installer instructions.

When your agent has been installed, the XES Cloud MFT agent shortcut is displayed in the notification area. The XESCloudMFT and XESCloudMFTData directories are automatically created in your file system at the location you specified during installation.

After you have installed the agent, you must activate the agent.

To activate the agent:

  1. Open the XES Cloud MFT Agent client.
  2. On the XES Cloud MFT Agent page, under Enter your code here, click a link to get the activation code.

-And/Or-

In the MFT service web portal, in the Connections section ( on the toolbar), on the My Connection tab, click Setup Agent.

  1. In the Setup Agent Connection dialog, in Step 2, click Get Activation Code.
  2. In Activation Code, click Copy to get the activation code.
  3. On the XES Cloud MFT Agent page of your agent's client, paste the activation code to Enter your code here, and then click Activate.

After you have activated your agent, the collablynk.key file that contains the explicit key appears in the XESCloudMFTData folder. By using this key, the agent encrypts data. If you deactivate an agent, then the key becomes invalid. To continue using the same agent, you have to reactivate the agent. When you reactivate the agent, a new explicit key is generated.

To deactivate agents and stop data transfer, in the MFT service web portal in a browser, in the Connections section, on the Organization tab, in the table with all the connections, select a connection the agent of which you want to deactivate, and then on the toolbar that becomes available, click Deactivate.

You can copy agents to different computers to be able to receive data on each computer concurrently.

You can use an application user to set up an automated data exchange. For this, the agent should be activated for an application user.

You can also run several MFT agents on the same computer, for example, your agent and the agent for your application user. To do this, change a default agent port number (localhost:44331) each time you want to start a new agent. An explicit key (collablynk.key) defines the account that was used to activate an agent.

To download and install an agent for the application user:

  1. Open the MFT service web portal in your browser.
  2. Go to the Connections section ( on the toolbar), on the Organization Connections tab, click Setup Agent or click New Connection, and then from the drop-down list, select Agent.
  3. In the Setup Agent Connection dialog, in Step 1, in Application User ID, specify the intended Application user of this connection.
  4. In Step 2, click Download Agent, and then from the drop-down list, select the required operating system, on which you want to install your agent.
  5. In the Save As dialog, navigate to the location where you want to save the installation file, and then click Save.
  6. Navigate to the location where you have saved the installation file, and then run the installer to install the agent. When your agent has been launched, the agent icon is displayed in the notification area of your operating system.
  7. Follow the installer instructions.

To activate the agent for the application user:

  1. Open the XES Cloud MFT Agent client.
  2. On the XES Cloud MFT Agent page, under Enter your code here, click a link to get the activation code.

-And/Or-

In the MFT service web portal, in the Connections section ( on the toolbar), on the Organization Connections tab, click Setup Agent or click New Connection, and then from the drop-down list, select Agent.

  1. In the Setup Agent Connection dialog, in Step 1, in Application User ID, from the drop-down list, select an application user or enter the name of the application user for which you want to activate the agent.
  2. In the Setup Agent Connection dialog, in Step 3, click Get Activation Code.
  3. In Activation Code, click Copy to get the activation code.
  4. On the XES Cloud MFT Agent page of your MFT agent's client, paste the activation code to Enter your code here, and then click Activate.

Note As an account administrator, you can also manage and deactivate agents of the users of your organization account, and applications' agents, and activate applications' agents.