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  3. Relationship Awareness Setup

Getting Started with the RA Hashing and Upload Tools

In this Article:

 

Purpose of RA Hashing and Upload Tool

The RA Hashing and Upload Tool processes and hashes core system relationship data and uploads it to the PrecisionLender environment. To facilitate this process, flat files from your core system need to be exported and accessible to the RA Hashing and Upload tool.  This article will guide you through the administrator and system requirements necessary to set up RA Tools in your environment.

 

System Requirements for Installation of RA Tools

  • Identify the server and directory for the installation of the RA Hashing and Upload Tool
    • Server must allow access to the core system file exports
    • Server must allow access to the external PrecisionLender URLS (*.precisionlender.com) through any proxies or firewalls that exist.
    • If IP addresses are whitelisted in PrecisionLender, then the server's IP address must be whitelisted for the server running the executable.

For whitelisting information, please see: Connecting to PrecisionLender.

For clients choosing MD5 Hashing algorithm only:

  • Local Policy Setting below must be disabled due to the use of hashing in the PrecisionLender upload processing.
    • Local Security Policy, expand Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > Use FIPS compliant algorithms for encryption, hashing and signing

 

Administrator Requirements for Installation of RA Tools

  • An administrator must have the proper credentials to:
    • Install RA Tools into a folder on the server**
    • Access the core data exported flat files
    • Automate a task using Windows Task Scheduler

**The administrator must have a PrecisionLender admin user account with “Manage API Access” administration rights in the security profile. This is needed to download the RA Hashing and Uploading Tool.

Download and Install the RA Hashing and Upload Tool

  • The first step is to download the RA Tools package. To do this, log on to the machine where the RA Hashing and Upload tool will be installed. Open a web browser and click on the download link that was provided by our implementation team.
  • Remember, only a PrecisionLender admin with the “Manage API Access” administrative right in their security role will be able to download the zipped file.
  • Once the ra_tools.zip file is downloaded, extract the file into the location for installation.
  • The extracted ra_tools.zip file contains two folders: Automation and Implementation.
    • The Implementation folder contains the executable (RAIHT.exe) which is used during the implementation and configuration phase.
    • The Automation folder is where the RA Hashing and Upload tool is located. This folder contains:
      • exe - The RA Hashing and Upload program
      • json - stores configuration information for the uploader tool
      • Supplemental files - required for RAHaUT.exe to function
  • Copy the exported flat files from your core system into the Automation folder. It is recommended that the export of flat files out of the core system be automated to directly export the flat files into the Automation folder.

Warning

Do not run RAHaUT.exe unless you are ready to push data to PrecisionLender. Please follow these instructions before executing RAHaUT.exe.

 

Test the installation of RAHaUT

Run the RA Hashing and Upload tool in test mode first to verify that RAHaUT.exe can successfully communicate through your network to the PrecisionLender servers. RAHaUT.exe will create and save the hashed files into the Uploads folder, but no files will be sent to PrecisionLender.

  • Open a command prompt window from the Automation folder (tip: If you go to the Automation folder in File Explorer => Shift + Right click anywhere in that folder => click on "Open command window here" => command prompt automatically opens in that directory)
  • In the command prompt, type exe -t and press enter.
    • The -t argument sets the RA Hashing and Upload Tool into Test Mode. Files are hashed and zipped but NOT uploaded to PrecisionLender.
  • As RaHaUt.exe processes the files, it logs each step into the console window.
  • A message appears in the console window when the test run is completed.
  • Even though files aren’t sent to PrecisionLender in test mode, the flat files are hashed and zipped up and placed in the newly created Uploads The name of the test zip file appears in the console window.
  • After running RAHaUT.exe for the first time, the following folders are created in the Automation folder:
    • Logs folder – Activity logs are generated and stored here
    • Uploads folder – Contains the zipped and hashed files.

Run RAHaUT.exe and Upload Files to PrecisionLender

  • To execute RAHaUT.exe and upload files to PrecisionLender, open the command prompt and type exe and press enter.
  • The output to the console will be similar to running in test mode, but the processing and logging will continue pass the hashing of the files and proceed to upload and commit the files.
  • Committing the Session is the final step of the RAHaUT.exe process. When this has been successfully completed, then the console can be closed.

Setting up a scheduled task to run the data upload tool

  • Automation (Windows Task Scheduler) settings (Note: File paths below are example only)
    • Program/script:D:\Data\PrecisionLender\Automation\rahaut.exe
    • Start in (optional):D:\Data\PrecisionLender\Automation
    • Make sure your task uses valid credentials that have permissions to run the tool and send the data.
    • You may need to use the option "Run with highest privileges" within the Windows Task Scheduler to avoid UAC issues with the scheduled task. This option forces the schedule task to run with the highest permissions that are available to the user account assigned to the task.  

 

How Frequently Should I Refresh the Data for my Customer Relationship Module?

  • We recommend that you create fresh data extracts and run RAHaUT.exe weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.

 

Command Line Options

:D:\Data\PrecisionLender\Automation\rahaut.exe -h
Usage: RAHaUT [OPTIONS]+
Parses inbound PrecisionLender integration files and uploads to PrecisionLender.com.

Options:

-s, --sourcedir=VALUE

the source directory for the import files (see advanced options)

-t, --testmode

run this program in test mode (no files are uploaded).

-w, --wait  

Execute and wait for the user to hit enter at the end

-l, --lookup=VALUE

the name of the reverse lookup file that will be saved on the local system (see advanced options)

-h, --help

show this message and exit

                                              

Troubleshooting / Error Codes

Error calling https://xxxx Unauthorized.

Verify that the IP address is whitelisted for the server running the executable.

 

Verify that the PrecisionLender Service Username and Password are valid in the Automation/appsettings.json folder. These credentials are found in the Administration section of the PrecisionLender application.

We detected a problem with the data in “xx.csv”

Verify that the files haven’t recently changed. If they have changed, they may no longer match the configuration expected in PrecisionLender. Please reach out to the Implementation team.

Check for:

  • Delimiter changes
  • Files formatted or named improperly
  • A special field in your data file(s) contains a blank entry.  This can also occur due to a blank line at the beginning or end of a data file
  • One of the required data files is open or in use by another process

Schedule task completes, but does not send data to PrecisionLender

Check to make sure that your Windows Task Scheduler has the proper credentials and the proper "Start In" folder (should be the same folder as the one containing RAHaUT.exe and your data files).

 

Advanced Options

Access files in a different location

    • If you need to access your relationship flat files in a different location, you can use the command line option "sourcedir" to specify that other location (such as a network file server).

Reverse lookup files with the Data Library

    • For example, if you need to match up Active Loan Accounts to internal reporting, complete the following steps to create the lookup file:
    • Navigate to a command prompt and enter the following command:
      • exe -l lookup.csv
    • This creates a new file in your PrecisionLender folder that provides the hash values and their original values for all accounts in one place, allowing you the ability to perform a vlookup or similar function for report comparison with the Active Loan Accounts data feed.
    • An upload will also be sent to PrecisionLender, which is fine even if it’s in addition to your normal upload schedule.

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