Relays act as agents to relay data between on-premise systems and Synatic. An overview can be found at the Relays overview.
There are several steps to creating, configuring, and using a Relay:
Watch the video below to learn how to create Synatic Relays.
Step 1: Create a Relay
To create a Relay, open the Global solution sidebar menu, then click on ⨁ adjacent to the Relays option:
📝 It's suggested that Relays are created in the Global Solutions to be available across all Flows.
Capture the basic Relay information with a Name and a meaningful description.
The Operating Mode is defaulted to Async and only runs on the Windows platform.
📝 If you require any other Operating System, please contact Synatic.
Add the required endpoints and connection types.
Click Add EndPoint.
A single endpoint is bound to a connection type. In the example above, it is a File System connection. You can add additional endpoints to the Relay in the same manner.
Once completed, save the Relay and copy the generated Relay Key to a safe place.
Step 2: Download and configure the Relay
The Relay will also create a certificate license key file and build an Example Config file for the on-premise installation. These files can be downloaded from the Downloads group in the Info tab.
Download files
When you create and save a Relay solution, several supporting Relay files are created and are available to download in the Downloads group of the Info tab.
Click the Download Relay Certificate option to download the following file:
RelayCertificate_<Synatic-Acct-Name>_<Relay-Solution-and-Name>.srcClick the Download Example Config File option to download the following file:
<Synatic-Acct-Name>_<Relay-Solution-and-Name>_config_example.jsonClick the Download Relay Installer option to download the following file:
SynaticRelayManagerSetup.msi
Relay Config File
Open the Example Config file <Synatic-Acct-Name>_<Relay-Solution-and-Name>_config_example.json in a text editor, such as Notepad.exe, to edit the connection information for each endpoint.
{
"Country Code Local File": {
"basePath": "C:\\RelayFiles"
}
}
The Relay Manager
The Relay Manager is required to be installed and running, either in memory or as a Service for the Relay to operate:
The Relay Manager can be downloaded from the Downloads group in the Info tab of the Relay.
Click on the downloaded SynaticRelayManagerSetup.msi and follow the prompts to install.
To set up and use the Relay Manager, you require Administrator permissions and must run the Relay Manager as an Administrator.
Installing the Relay Manager
In the download folder, double-click on SynaticRelayManagerSetup.msi.
Select your installation folder and start the install.
After you have completed the installation, you can access the Relay Manager from the Start Menu. You can now set up your first Relay.
Setting up the Relay Manager
Launch the Relay Manager as an Administrator.
Select File > New
Give it a name
Click OK to create the new Relay and open the dialog.
Copy and Paste the generated Relay Key that you previously saved to a safe place into the License field.
For the Relay Certificate, click Browse ... then go to the download folder and select the RelayCertificate_<Synatic-Acct-Name>_<Relay-Solution-and-Name>.src file.
Copy the contents of the Example Sample file, <Synatic-Acct-Name>_<Relay-Solution-and-Name>_config_example.json, and paste into the Endpoints block and edit it to define the correct endpoints.
Installing the Relay Manager as a Service on Windows
The Relay can be installed as a service using the Synatic Relay manager.
Click Relay > Install Service to install and start the service.
The Relay Manager dialog displays the status of the Process, the Service, and the completed Relay details.
To initialize the relay, you can test the relay.
The test will install the required packages, report any errors, and save a log file.
If all tests are successful, you can run the Relay as a full Test Run.
📝 The user running the Relay must have permission to read and write files in the Relay folder.
📝 The Relay Manager service must be installed and running for the Relay processes to execute successfully from the Synatic Flow.
Step 3: Use the Relay
Using the Relay is seamless. Instead of choosing a connection when defining a supported Step, you can instead select a Relay Endpoint, and the Flow will process as normal.
Monitoring
Monitoring is available on the Info tab of the Relay.
The following options are available on the Info tab:
Relays send a Heartbeat every 5 minutes to check if they're still alive.
You can also Test a Relay to see if it's running and if there are any errors.
📝 Testing a Relay may take several minutes.You can also restart the Relay using the Restart Relay option.
If the Relay requires a new key to be assigned, you can use the Re-Key Relay option.
Important note when Re-Keying the Relay
To generate a new key for the Relay, you must do the following:
Copy and paste the new key to a safe place.
Paste the new key into the License Key field of the Relay Manager.
Restart the Relay service if it was installed.
Re-test the Relay to ensure all is well.
Creating a Synatic Relay Source step in a Synatic Flow
The request for data from an on-premise system usually starts from a Synatic Flow executed via a Relay step inserted into a Flow.
You create a new Flow as usual, and it should look as shown below.
The Relay-based Filesystem step is detailed below.
File System Config
Select the Relay option.
Click the Relay field, then select the Relay you created earlier.
Path
Enter the name of the file you want to access.
Options
The following functions provide you with several options for managing the remote files that are accessed and processed by the Relay.
Delete After Completion
Select this option if you want the Relay to delete the file when the required process is completed.
Watch
This Watch group defines a set of options to check for the existence of specific files, which would then be processed. Select this option the enable the Watch functionality.
Watch Path
Enter the path where the Relay monitors for files.Interval
Enter the period interval in minutes to trigger a check for new files.Watch Pattern
Enter a Regex (Regular expression) pattern that the Relay will use to match to a file.
📝 Regex is useful in extracting information from any text by searching for one or more matches of a specific search pattern.Date Sort
It lets you process multiple files in the Watch path according to the date, in one of the following orders:
LIFO - which means the Last file in will be the first file out.
FIFO - which means the First file in will be the first file out.
Move
The Move group lets you move the files on completion of the Relay run.
Overwrite
Select this option to overwrite the file in the Move path if it has the same name.Success Path
Enter the path to move the file after successful completion of the Relay run.Failure Path
Enter the path to move the file after a failed completion of the Relay run.
Advanced Options
Record I/O
Record the actual I/O value received.
Useful Tutorials
Revisit the Getting Started page for a refresher.
Read the Relays overview.
Read more about Relays.