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Common Event Enabler (CEE) is a software package that runs on a Windows or Linux server. CEE consists of two parts:
CEE CAVA provides an anti-virus solution to SMB clients by using third-party anti-virus software to identify and eliminate known viruses before they infect files on the storage system. Windows clients require this to reduce the chance of storing infected files on the file system and protects them if they happen to open an infected file. This anti-virus solution consists of a combination of the Dell Unity system, CEE CAVA agent, and a third-party anti-virus engine. CEE CAVA is enabled on a per NAS server basis in the NAS server Properties à Security à Antivirus page.
The Dell Unity system monitors events and triggers the AV engine to initiate a scan when necessary. Some of the possible event triggers include file renames, modifications, and first reads. While a file is being scanned, access to the file from any SMB client is temporarily blocked. The CEE CAVA solution is for clients running the SMB protocol only. If clients use the NFS or FTP protocols to create, modify, or move files, the CEE CAVA solution does not scan these files for viruses.
CEE CAVA can be customized depending on your specific needs. It can scan specific file extensions, exclude specific file extensions, configure the maximum file size to be scanned, configure the wanted behavior if the AV server goes offline and more. To ensure that file scanning is maintained if an AV server goes offline or cannot be reached, you should configure at least two CAVA servers.
For a list of supported AV engines or for more information about how to configure CEE CAVA, reference the Dell Unity Simple Support Matrix and the Dell Unity Family: Configuring Hosts to Access SMB File Systems document on Dell Technologies Info Hub.
The CEE CEPA ecosystem consists of dozens of applications that are designed to process SMB and NFS file and directory event notifications. Starting with OE version 4.1, CEE CEPA also works on Dell Unity systems. Some of the common uses for CEE CEPA include file auditing, centralized quota management, search/indexing, and as an enabler for other use cases such as RabbitMQ. An example of file auditing is logging an event anytime a file or directory is created, renamed, or deleted. To configure CEE CEPA, CEE and a third-party file event software must be installed and configured in the environment.
There are three types of events that can be logged:
CEE CEPA must be enabled and an Event Publishing Pool must be created on the NAS server, which defines the CEPA servers and the specific events that trigger notifications. This can be found in the NAS server Properties à Protection & Events à Events Publishing page. You can create up to three CEPA Pools per NAS server, but only one of these can be configured for Pre Events.
CEE CEPA also has policy settings that can be configured to determine the wanted behavior if all the CEPA servers are unavailable:
Once the NAS server is configured, enable events publishing on the file systems that you want to receive events from. This can be done under the File System Properties à Advanced. Depending on the type of file system, you can enable NFS and/or SMB events publishing.
When a host generates an event on the file system over SMB or NFS, this information is forwarded to the CEPA server over an HTTP connection. The CEE CEPA software on the server receives and publishes this event, enabling it to be processed by the third-party software. This enables the CEPA server to provide many additional services with information being sent from multiple systems.
For more information about CEE CEPA, reference the Using the Common Event Enabler document on Dell Technologies Info Hub.