Distribution job is designed to distribute data from a server to selected agents and it's perfect, for example, for delivering software updates or important documents to remote workstations.
It's a one-time file transfer job that has a specific moment of start and finish (when all files are delivered and post download scripts executed).
This job looks at the the files in a selected source folder and syncs them to remote agents. It's reusable, so new files can be later added to the source folder. To re-use the job, just manually launch it with "Start" button or restart any of the previous Job Runs.
At this point source agent will rescan the folder and re-hash the files. These files will be compared against files on destination agents and merged into their folder tree. If a file's hash matches, it won't be re-synced. If a destination agent has a file that is missing from source, it will remain intact unless option "Delete files absent on Read-Write peer" in enabled in Agent Profile.
Destination server gets Read-Only access to the share. It means that it will not be able to upload updated files back to source agents.
It's a one-time file transfer job that has a specific moment of start and finish (when all files are delivered and post download scripts executed).
Here's how Distribution job gets created and configured through a step-by-step wizard:
1) Go to JOBS tab -> Configure jobs -> Create new job, pick Distribution, click Next.
2) Give the job a name and description. This is optional and defaults can be used. Check option to use SHA2 hashing if preferred. Note that with SHA2 Agents running Connect version 2.0 and older will not be able to participate in this job. Click next.
3) Pick the source agent - the agent that will be uploading data to others. Only one agent can be picked.
Select the path from where this agent will upload files. This directory must already exist and files shall be there before you start the job.
4) Select group of destination agents. If you don't have any, you can create it here and add agents to it. Also, you can separately select some agents for that job, provided the agents do not produce Conflicts. Note, these ones won't be automatically added to any group!
Select the path for these to store files from source agent.
See here for more details about creating and using groups.
5) Distribution job supports post commands which make it possible to run a command once transfer is complete. Triggers indicate the moment when the script will be executed. This step can be skipped.
Before file-indexing begins: right after job is created, the agent will start indexing files in the specified directory. A script, triggered at this moment can "cook the files before serving", for example, re-arrange the them, add/remove new and do things alike, so that the folder is indexed and distributed in a proper manner the way you need.
After an agent completes downloading: the script will run on each destination agent after it finishes download. Other agents may be still downloading the files, thus it's recommended not to remove or update the distributed files with this trigger. Otherwise the file will be re-downloaded from source again. It's possible to schedule the script for the agent's local time.
After all agents complete downloading: as opposed to the trigger above, in this case script will run only after all destination agents finish downloading all the files. This script will also be executed on the source agent.
6) Job scheduler defines when the job will be launched:
Run at - at the preferred date/time (local agents' time);
Repeat manually - job won't start until manually launched with "Start" button;
Repeat hourly - job will run every N hours. Scale is 1 hour, integer.
Repeat daily - job will run on a daily basis at the selected time. Scale is 1 day, integer.
Repeat weekly - job will run on selected days on the week, additionally you can set the exact time of the day.
In all those periodic schedules (hourly, daily and weekly) it's possible to select the starting and ending points for the job.
7) Settings. Select Job's priority and Job's profile.
8) Review the job details and save.
Right after that source agents will index the specified source share and upload data to destination agents. A specified script/command will be executed at the picked trigger.