Staging Explorer

The Staging Explorer option enables you to rapidly transfer large amounts of data to jump-start and sustain the data pipeline for critical projects. Use this option to upload files to a staging area for RelativityOne or to download files from your RelativityOne storage location to a local computer.

The Staging Explorer uses Aspera to facilitate transfer speeds that can be ten times faster than a traditional FTP. Combined with proprietary software, all transfers are fast, secure, and defensible.

You can see data for a new matter, quickly load newly discovered data, or quickly download produced documents. This makes accessing data in the cloud as quick and as seamless as if it was contained within your own environment.

This page contains the following information:

System requirements

The following minimum system requirements are required to use the Staging Explorer.

Required item	Requirement
Operating system	Windows 8.1 or above
Windows Server operating system	Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, or Windows Server 2019
System memory	4 GB RAM
Software	.NET version 4.7.2
Transport Layer Security	TLS 1.2

Recommended browser settings

Ensure the Relativity instance is considered as a trusted site and the following settings are enabled or allowed in the browser on the machine running Staging Explorer. Refer to your browser’s help documentation or contact your IT department for the specific location of these settings if they differ from these steps:

1. Open the browser's Control Panel.
2. Go to Network and Internet > Internet Options.
3. For Security settings:

   • Enable File Download

   • Enable JavaScript

   • Add *.relativity.com as a Trusted site

4. For Privacy settings:

   • Allow First party Cookies

   • Allow Third party Cookies

Port requirements

Windows does not support multiple active connections on the same UDP port. Therefore, your firewall must allow a range of UDP ports to reach the Aspera server. Incoming client connections automatically increment to use the next available port in the range. Open these ports on any user machine that stages any data to RelativityOne. This includes ports on your network, as well as local machine firewalls.

To ensure that concurrent transfers can occur, you must make firewall changes to allow outbound connections to the server on the following ports:

• TCP port 443—required to be opened to the [customerinstance].relativity.one endpoint for login.
• TCP port 33001—required to connect the local machine to the Aspera server (asp-[region].relativity.one).

• UDP ports 33001 - 33050—required to send and receive data from local machine to the Aspera server (asp-[region].relativity.one).

• RelativityOne Staging Explorer does not support proxy servers.

Note: You can use the nslookup command in a Command Prompt to find the IP addresses associated with the endpoints listed above.

The opening of the required ports for the Windows firewall are typically handled on the end-user's machine. However, if you use any third party firewalls, you must manually open the ports referenced above. Improperly configured ports or a lack of UDP port ranges result in transfer failures.

For more information, contact Relativity Support.

You can test the TCP port connection by running the following commands in Windows Powershell:

• Test-NetConnection -ComputerName [FQDN] -Port 33001

Refer to RelativityOne network access in the RelativityOne technical overview for detailed information about all of the network considerations for data transfer in RelativityOne, including firewall privacy considerations and a list of FQDN.

Permissions

The following minimum security permissions are required to use the Staging Explorer.

Object security	Tab visibility	Admin operations
Not applicable	Data Transfer Staging Explorer	Access RelativityOne Staging Explorer View Admin Repository* Send Email Notification**

Notes:
• All permissions are set in Instance security.
• The * indicates permissions needed for non-admin users only.

• The ** indicates permission is not required to run Staging Explorer, but is required to send and receive an email notification when a transfer finishes or fails. For more information, see Updating Transfer Settings.

• To view the fileshares, the user must be in a group, other than the System Administrator group, that is added to at least one workspace built on the resource pool with the associated fileshares.

Best practices and limitations

The following are some good practices and limitations to consider when using Staging Explorer.

Best practices

The following are some good practices to consider when using Staging Explorer:

• Use a stable internet connection. Wifi is not recommended.

• Due to bandwidth sharing, avoid performing large and highly fragmented transfers in parallel.

• Depending on your system and network connection, it may be beneficial to separate substantially large data sets into smaller batches for transmission in order to improve speed and processing workflow.

• When downloading huge data sets, be sure to use a local drive as the destination. External drives are not recommended.

• When transferring huge data sets, we recommend using a local drive where the Staging Explorer is installed as the transfer source and destination to avoid additional transfer steps. Transferring to and from a mapped network drive is not recommended as it introduces an extra connection between it, Staging Explorer, and RelativityOne that may cause slowness and connection issues.

• Relativity does not store any information about file paths due to privacy concerns.

Limitations

The following are some limitations to consider when using Staging Explorer:

• Only one Windows user can run an instance of Staging Explorer on a machine at a time.
• By default, System Admins are able to view all files and folders.
• The Client Domain Admin group does not have Staging Explorer access by default. A System Admin needs to add the correct permissions.
• The Client Domain Admin group will only be able to view files and folders in fileshares that are linked to the resource pool associated with their own client domain if:
  • Given the correct permission.
  • Instance setting StagingPaneOnlyPerClientDomain is set to TRUE, Section set to Relativity.DataTransfer, and Value Type is set to True/False.

    Note: The default Relativity set up does not contain the Instance setting StagingPaneOnlyPerClientDomain, therefore, the application will respond as though it is set to FALSE. Be sure to add the Instance setting StagingPaneOnlyPerClientDomain and configure it as indicated.

  

• Only the same type of user can see mapped disks which have mapped them. For example, if a regular user mapped a disk a regular user needs to be logged into Staging Explorer to view them. And if an admin user mapped a disk an admin user needs to be logged into Staging Explorer to view them.
• Staging Explorer does not support transferring files with the .aspx extension, as this is an Aspera extension being used for temporary files.
• Staging Explorer does not support file paths longer than 470 characters.
• Both the Local and Staging panes display only 1000 items. When a directory consists of more than 1000 items the Top 1000 items displayed message appears in the bottom right corner of the Local or Staging panes. In such a case do not use CTRL+A to select all of the items, as only 1000 items will be selected. To select all the items within the folder, select the main folder instead of sub-folders or files within the main folder.
• The maximum number of active transfers for one instance of the Staging Explorer is 3.
• Enforced FIPS Policy may block some encryption algorithms which may cause errors in applications. We recommend using validated cryptographic algorithms approved by Windows Platform FIPS.
• Transfers from mounted disk images are not supported.
• Aspera has a limit on byte size of the path:
  • the whole path cannot be bigger than 515 bytes, and
  • the file name cannot be bigger than 255 bytes.