Indexing in Intella Connect 1.9

[Andrej]

Hello all,

 

We would like to ask for your feedback on major features coming to the 1.9 release of Intella Connect: the ability to create new cases, add sources, perform indexing and re-indexing of cases directly from inside Intella Connect.

 

The new features allow for case creation and indexing to be performed directly from within the Intella Connect web admin page. This means that unlike previous versions, where you had to RDP or physically access the computer to use a copy of Intella to create a case, you now only need to have access to the Connect web interface to create a case.   

 

Coupled with the ability to use the Connect web interface to create cases, we have added a new companion product to Connect called Intella Processor. Connect can now delegate indexing of a case to any computer running Intella Processor. A possible scenario is that you have your Connect server on machine A and Intella Processor installed on machine B, C and D. From the Intella Connect web interface you can be sharing cases while indexing different cases on machine B, C and D. When those cases complete indexing they will be available to share on the Connect server.

 

The ability for Connect to remotely start and index new cases on the Processor machines expands the productivity available to Connect. It makes it possible to index multiple cases concurrently while sharing and reducing the work load on the Connect server. This also simplifies management of both Connect and the Processor computers as you no longer need to grant system access to each system to users. 

 

Below are a couple of screenshots from the current iteration of the user interface:

 

1. creating a case - the case location can be either a folder on disk on Intella Connect or a UNC path to a folder on the network.

 

2. sources management - the user can choose to add a new source, view details of a source, edit source details or re-index the case.

 

3. adding new source - this wizard is similar to the one in the Intella desktop edition.

 

4. indexing statistics - shows indexing progress and gives the user the option to cancel indexing.

 

5. Intella Processors configuration.

 

Intella Connect will have all of the indexing functionality that is available in the desktop edition: all file formats, indexing tasks and analysis features are available in this version of Connect. This includes recent improvements that will be part of the next desktop release, such as indexing of MS Exchange EDB files, Skype and SQLite databases and support for setting custodians.

 

What are your thoughts on this feature? Is the UI self-explanatory and easy to use? What features would you like to see added here?

 

[AdamS]

You have been busy!

 

Looks fantastic, can't wait to get my hands on this and see how it all works. Will definitely have some thoughts once I've had a chance to use/test but at the moment can't think of anything.

 

Edit: any clues on how far away the release is?

[jcovey]

So the questions I have all revolve around the Remote Processors concept and how exactly they will function and where the data will reside.  I get the concept of centralized control of your Intella machines via the expanded web interface.  However, with all processing performed locally on processing machines, where does the data reside for access by Connect once processing is completed?  I'm specifically envisioning my high end workstation, which is dedicated to processing, after which I manually move the data to centralized storage for access via VMs.  Will that still be the case?

 

A major new issues emerged for me in that, despite my new machine, when I inevitably have to add add'l data, I'm having to manually move a 200 GB database BACK to that machine, process, then manually move it AGAIN to the centralized storage (SAN-based in my case).  

 

Could you perhaps clarify how these new capabilities will work from that perspective?  Thanks!

 

Jason   

[ŁukaszBachman]

@Adam, we are in late stages of development (feature freeze) and testing, so it shouldn't take very long.

 

@Jason, basically there will be two ways of working with data, both based on the premise that Processors and Connect will have access to the same shared resource (disk). 

 

Option 1: use drive mapping built into Windows

 

This essentially allows for Connect and Processor to see the same folder mapped as a drive. For instance, you can map some folder so that it appears as a "Z" drive. If this is done consistently on Processor and Connect then "Z:/cases/case-a" will be accessible for both machines (same with the evidence data). 

 

Option 2: use network names

 

This option relies on the fact that you can safely access resources on other machines (within the same network) using their network paths. So you could tell Connect to share a case from folder "\\Processor-One\cases\case-a". Our goal is to wrap this up with a feature called "shared folders" that will allow to define those in the admin UI as well. Such shared folders will then be rendered in the folder trees under a dedicated branch.

[jcoyne]

Hi - is this now available in the released 1.9 ?

 

I can see the connect end of it but I cant see how to configure the processor end.

 

Is it part of team?

[ŁukaszBachman]

Hi jcoyne,

 

yes this is available in Intella Connect 1.9. To summarize the steps that are required to index cases remotely with Intella Connect:

1. Install and start Intella Connect on machine 1 (it must have Connect license dongle).
2. Install and start Intella Connect Process on machine 2 (this is the same installer, but you select "Processor" in the installation wizard; this machine must have Processor, Professional or TEAM license).
3. Make sure that both machines have access to the same drive (it can be mapped drive or any drive accessible with UNC path).
4. Make sure that firewalls do not prevent communication between both machines.
5. From this point onwards you are working with machine 1 only. Log in to Connect as admin, add a Processor & Shared folders in Remote Indexing section and you can index your cases remotely!