Description
This article will walk through the steps on how to create and configure a Slack connector within the Veritas Alta SaaS Protection Admin Portal.
The steps involved in creating a slack connector are:
- Configuring the Slack environment
- Authenticating the Slack connector
- Configuring Slack connector settings
Configuring The Slack Environment
The settings required depend on the type of Slack plan which are: Free, Standard, or Plus Plans
For Free, Standard, or Plus plans, the Veritas Alta SaaS Protection Slack connector will use Slack’s Export capability to extract data. This type of connectivity uses a Slack user account and requires specific Workspace settings.
User Account (Authentication)
If possible, create a specific Slack user account for the Veritas Alta SaaS Protection connector. This Slack user must have the 'Workspace Admin' account type assigned to it.
When using an existing user for authentication, note the following:
- The user may see messages from Slackbot detailing export activity while the Veritas Alta SaaS Protection connector is running.
- The Veritas Alta SaaS Protection connector will perform housekeeping activities (removing old exports and export tokens) for exports created by its assigned user. You should remove all old exports assigned to the user prior to configuring the user to be used with the Veritas Alta SaaS Protection connector.
Workspace Settings and Permissions
Slack Enterprise (Discovery API)
Slack Enterprise plans allow the use of the Discovery API. This uses an API token for connectivity and has some specific Workspace Settings and Permission requirements.
Workspace Settings and Permissions
The following requirements/recommendations come directly from Slack.
- Required: The Retain all messages and also retain edit and deletion logs for all messages preference must be switched on and locked at org level.
- Without this setting on, you will only be able to pull the TS of the original message for edits (not each edit separately), and deleted messages will be unavailable.
- These settings have to be requested through Enterprise Grid orgs, so please plan for additional time if you need these changed.
- Recommended: Block edits and deletions of files, posts, and snippets.
- Veritas Alta SaaS Protection Note: These are important since Slack does not provide notification of changes to these and once captured, the connector will not re-scan the data.
- Recommended: Limit edit window to 1-5 mins and lock this at org level.
- Veritas Alta SaaS Protection Note: A setting of at most 1 week is important. Slack only provides a limited window of eventing for edits and deletions. Edits to old messages may not be evented and we may not receive the update.
Authenticating the Slack Connector
For Slack Enterprise plans, an Org token is required. Below are the steps for obtaining the token.
1. Browse to the following URL: https://hubstor-hcp1.azurewebsites.net/api/authorizeSlackConnectorApp Ideally, run it in a browser that is already hooked up to the slack environment. Once logged into slack, the window below opens:
2. Then, once pressing 'Allow' button, screen below appears. Cut and paste the authentication key part into the connector. See the next section on where to input this in the Connector UI.
For Slack Free, Standard, and Plus plan, use the Slack Administration Utility tool to retrieve the authentication token.
Configuring the Veritas Alta SaaS Protection Slack Connector
Log into the Veritas Alta SaaS Protection Admin portal. On the homepage, click the Administration tile.
On the left side, choose the Connectors section, then click the 'New Connector' button.
Enter a Connector Name
Under 'Stor', choose the Slack stor in the drop-down.
The 'Machine' will be a server that has the connector service installed. For Veritas hosted customers, this setting will auto-populate.
The 'Enable email notification options' is optional. This allows for emails notifications to be sent when the connector crawls have completed. This will be configured later in this process.
Select the Settings as per the descriptions below.
For Slack Enterprise plans with Discovery API enabled, Select 'Discovery API'.
For Slack Free, Standard, and Plus plans, Select 'Auto Export'.
Slack Workspace URL -- Only used for the 'Auto Export' mode. Ignore for Slack Enterprise, otherwise set this to the Slack workspace web URL (e.g. “https://myworkspace.slack.com/”).
Regenerate All Content During Next Crawl -- Select this option to regenerate all HTML files (including ones beyond the normal capture period. This is useful if there is a new connector feature or fix available. The option will be automatically disabled after a successful crawl.
Enable Diagnostic Logging – This option is used to create a diagnostic file for Veritas Alta SaaS Protection support analysis
Export Capture During – This option controls the number of past days the connector will query Slack for data. This should be set to cover the permission period for message edit and deletions (See notes above on Configuring Your Slack Environment).
- For the first ingestion, set this value very high (e.g. 365 days) to capture the base set of Slack data.
- Once the initial crawl is complete, Veritas Alta SaaS Protection recommends a value of at most 7 days for efficient processing going forward.
- Note: Slack currently appears to have a roughly 2 week retention on message edits/deletion change events. Veritas Alta SaaS Protection does not recommend setting higher than 7 days as it is possible that message edit/deletion events (shown in blue or red background in HTML) may be overwritten in subsequent crawls.
Export Poll Frequency – Defines the waiting period between polling of the Slack UI interface to see if the export is ready after an export is triggered
Export Timeout – The amount of time that the connector will allow for Slack to produce an export package, before giving up and producing an error.
Disable Updates of Posts and Snippets -- A snippet is plain text whereas blog post provides rich text formatting capability. This setting is off by default, meaning the connector will update old snippets and posts. When turned on, the connector will redownload all snippets or blog posts that were previously captured, compare them to the current snapshot, and update if necessary.
Refresh Staging Area Only – This setting causes the connector to refresh the staging area only, stopping before updating any locations into the online Stor. This can be used if there is an issue with the staging area creation that needs to be addressed without any unwanted changes online. This setting should only be used if recommended by a Veritas support technician.
Click Next once all settings have been configured.
Next, enter the Auth token that was generated in the previous steps.
For Slack Free, Standard and Plus plans, paste the token retrieved using the Slack Administration Utility.
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