Manual Chapter : Adding Hosted Content to Access Policy Manager

Applies To:

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BIG-IP APM

  • 12.1.6, 12.1.5, 12.1.4, 12.1.3, 12.1.2, 12.1.1, 12.1.0
Manual Chapter

Adding Hosted Content to Access Policy Manager

About uploading custom files to Access Policy Manager

You can upload custom files to BIG-IP® Access Policy Manager®(APM®) to provide resources directly to users.

For example, you can upload BIG-IP Edge Client® installers, antivirus or firewall update packages, or Citrix receiver files for your users to download. You can upload custom images, web pages, Java archives, JavaScript files, CSS files, archive files, and many other types of files as well.

Optionally, you can compress and upload multiple files as a single ZIP archive file. When you upload an archive file, you can choose to either upload the compressed file, or upload and extract the compressed file.

Upload Only
Select this option to upload an archived file that must remain in archive format. For example, you can upload a ZIP file for a user to download, containing a package of documents, or an application and related files. Some applications also use archived files; for example, you will upload a JAR file without extracting it.
Upload and Extract
Select this option to upload an archived file and extract it to the specified location. The folder hierarchy of the extracted file is preserved when you use this action. Select this option when you are uploading a collection of files that must be separated on the server for use by the end user; for example, to upload a web application that includes top-level HTML files, and subdirectories containing scripts, images, CSS, and other files.

Understanding hosted content

Hosted content is any type of file you would like to serve from Access Policy Manager® (APM®) to access policy users. Hosted content can include executable files, scripts, text, HTML, CSS files, and image files. You can serve hosted content from a webtop link, or from a portal access link.

About accessing hosted content

To access hosted content, a user must belong to an access profile that is associated with the hosted content. After content is uploaded to Access Policy Manager® (APM®), the entire hosted content library must be associated with one or more access profiles. These access profiles alone can view the content.

In addition, each file uploaded to the hosted content repository is assigned a permission level that determines the users who can access that content.

Permissions for hosted content

A permission level is assigned to each file in the hosted content repository, as described here.

Permission level Description
policy The file is available only to users who have successfully completed an access policy, with an Allow ending result, and an access profile associated with the hosted content repository. You can assign this to display an HTML file that only a verified user can see.
public The file is available to anyone with an access profile associated with the hosted content repository. You can assign this to allow access to an installation package that a user needs to start an access session.
session The file is available only to users with an active access policy session and an access profile associated with the hosted content repository. You can assign this to allow a user with an active session access to a required logon component.

Task summary

To add hosted content to Access Policy Manager® (APM®), complete these tasks.

Task list

Uploading files to Access Policy Manager

Before you upload multiple files to Access Policy Manager®, you can compress and combine the files into a ZIP archive file. Then, you can upload and extract the files in one step.
You can upload files to Access Policy Manager to provide content for public viewing, to provide pages and content to Portal Access connections, or to provide customized webtop links.
  1. On the Main tab, click Access Policy > Hosted Content > Manage Files .
    The Manage Files screen opens.
  2. Click the Upload button.
    The Create New File popup screen opens.
  3. For the Select File setting, click the Browse button and select the file to upload.
    • To upload each file separately, select the first file, then repeat this step for all remaining files.
    • To upload all files at once from a compressed file, select the compressed file.
    The Select File and File Name fields are populated with the file name.
  4. If you are uploading a compressed file that you want to extract, from the File Action list, select Upload and Extract.
  5. Click OK.
    The file appears in the hosted content list.
You must associate any access profiles that will access hosted content with the hosted content repository.

Associating hosted content with access profiles

A user can access hosted content that is associated with that user's access profile. Each access profile that requires hosted content access must be associated with the entire hosted content repository.
  1. On the Main tab, click Access Policy > Hosted Content > Manage Files .
    The Manage Files screen opens.
  2. On the Upload button, click the right-side arrow to select Manage Access from the list.
    The Access Settings popup screen opens.
  3. Select the access profiles to associate with hosted content, then click OK.
    A user must belong to an associated access profile to access hosted content.
View the hosted content list, and verify that the access policy association was successful.

Implementation result

As a result of these implementation tasks, you have edited files and deleted hosted files on Access Policy Manager® as necessary.