SOFIns Vocabulary

• User is the individual who receives technical services and owns or controls the computer hardware, software or network where the technical procedures will be applied. SOFIns assumes that Users are non-technical and is designed to minimize the technical steps Users are expected to take: Users must know how to boot a computer with a CDROM, but are not expected to do anything else.
• Experts are technical individuals that deliver IT services to Users and create coded representations of manual IT procedures. Experts must know how to create scripts in Bash (Python, Perl and Expect will be supported in the next release) and use Subversion.
• Control Agents (or sometimes "Agent" or "CA") are SOFIns-developed applications that establish an encrypted communication channel between a remote computer control by a User and SOFIns. The Control Agent can be run directly on a Linux operating system (Windows and other systems will be supported in the future).
• SOFIns Boot Disk (or sometimes just "Boot Disk") is a customized Linux operating system that is designed to boot a User's computer, secure it, establish a network connection and run the Control Agent. The Boot Disk is currently in the form of a CDROM. USB Flash drives and, for corporate environments, network booting will be supported in the next release.
• Target is the remote computer owned and controlled by a User that was connected to SOFIns by running the Control Agent directly or through the Boot Disk. The Target must be an Intel-based computer and have, at minimum, a network interface and an Internet connection and at least 500MB of RAM. The Target does not require hard disk drives, video card, keyboard or mouse.
• Element is a collection of text files created by an Expert that define IT procedures. Elements are comprised of an "about.element" description file, property files and one or more scripts.
• Deployment is the running of an Element on a Target. The Element is run within a virtualized, restricted environment on SOFIns (not the Target). This allows the Element to use interpreters that may not exist on the Target.

Registration

• Required for Experts: It is necessary to register in order to post on the forum and edit the documentation wiki as well as access the SOFIns Control pages where Agents and Boot Disks are created and Targets and Deployments are managed.
• Not Required for Users: A User may obtain a SOFIns Boot Disk directly from the Expert (or another User) and may use it without registering on SOFIns.

Connecting a Target

1. Register and Sign In
2. Click the SOFIns Control button in the top navigation bar
3. Access the Agents Page
4. Create a Control Agent by pressing the "+A" icon located to the right of the "Unassigned" Group
   1. Optionally, create a new Group that can be used to organize Agents by client, location or purpose. Agents may be moved between Groups using click-and-drag.
   2. Agents can be renamed by double-clicking on the default name and using in-place edit
   3. Agent descriptions may be changed by double-clicking in the description field and using in-place edit
5. Access the Download Page
   1. To compile an executable Control Agent, click the +E icon.
   2. To generate an ISO boot disk, click the +BD icon
6. Run the Control Agent on the Target directly or boot it using the Boot Disk
   1. The Control Agent will show a "Heartbeat" when the connection is established
7. Access the Targets Page to see the remote computer
   1. Rename the Target by clicking the Info tab, double-clicking on the Target's default name and using in-place edit
   2. Enable remote access to the Target by clicking the Access tab and the "Enable" or "Disable" button

Collaboration and Sharing

1. Register and Sign In
2. Create one or more SOFIns Control Agents
3. Click the Agents checkbox
4. Click "Share"
5. Enter the email addresses of the recipients
6. Select "offer assistance" or "request assistance" message templates and press OK

SOFIns will send an invitation email to the recipients with the pre-selected message.

• Collaboration must be affirmed by the recipient. This is done the first time an invitation is sent. The Recipient will see an "Invitation" icon in the Control Pages navigation bar. Clicking this icon will display the collaboration and sharing panel.
  • If the recipient declines the Collaboration request, no further invitations will be allowed from that sender
  • If the recipient accepts Collaboration, then the recipient may also accept one or more Agents
• Sharing an Agent that is shared between two or more individuals will allow all individuals to see and access Targets that were connected with that Shared Agent.
  • The Owner of the Agent is the only individual allowed to enable or disable the agent.

Creating Elements

Upon registration, SOFIns will create an SVN Element Repository and populate it with example Elements.

Check Out

The SVN Element Repository may be checked out to a local workspace by using standard Subversion methods.

• URL for the SVN Element Repository are obtained by clicking the "Admin" button on the SOFIns Control Pages and then selecting the "Elements" button.
• Credentials are the email address and password used to access SOFIns

Create an Element

• about.element file is required. It contains key-value pairs that define the element, such as:
  • label = Name of Element that Appears on Deployment Page (required)
  • run = Path and name of script that will be run first (required)
  • profile - future functionality
  • deployment_method (optional). If not specified, 'io_redirection" will be selected. See Documentation for more information.

Check In Element

SOFIns SVN Element Repository has the following checkin restrictions:

• Text files only
• Size is greater than 0 and less than 200KB
• UTF-8 encoding

Deploying Elements

1. Connect a Target
2. Add an Element
3. Navigate to Deployments on the SOFIns Control pages
4. Click Begin Deployment button