FTK Central is a one-stop, web-based solution assisting you with eDiscovery and Digital Forensic challenges. Right from identifying and collecting data from various data sources to reviewing and evaluating the evidentiary value of data. FTK Central provides an integrated approach to aid law enforcement officials, corporate security, and IT professionals.

The FTK Central User Guide helps the users of FTK Central to do the following:

• Create and Manage Case
• Evidence Processing Options
• Create and Manage Custodians
• Reviewing Cases
• Create and Manage Users
• Configure System Settings, Site Servers and Agents
• Configure data sources and Active Directories
• Create and Manage Custodians
• Create and Manage LitHolds
• Create and Manage Collections
• Automate Jobs using FTK Connect

For information about new features, fixed issues, and known issues, see the Exterro FTK Central Release Notes.

For information about software and hardware requirements, refer to the Exterro FTK Central Overview and System Specification Guide.

To log into FTK Central:

1. Enter the FTK Central URL on the address bar and press Enter.
   • The FTK Central sign-in screen is displayed.
2. Enter the Username and Password.
3. Click Sign In.
   • The FTK Central Home Screen is displayed.

Your home screen may look different from the image seen here. The contents of the home screen is dependent on the FTK Central modules/add-ons that are licensed for your company.

User Information

The logged in username with their title will be displayed on the top-right corner of the home screen. 

Quick Links

The recently viewed entities will be listed in the home page as displayed below. 

You can click on it to navigate to that particular file or click Remove  against the file to be removed from the quick link.

Mandatory Fields

Some of the fields in the application are mandatory and you cannot skip providing a value to it. Such mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk * against it. 

User Interface Icon Dictionary

Component	Description
	The Home button lets you navigate to FTK Centrals home page at any stage of the application.
	The Cases tab lets you manage cases. The cases that are displayed will depend on the permissions that you have been assigned by the administrator.
	The Data Sources tab lets you manage custodians, computers, active directory groups network shares, evidence, Gmail, Google Drive, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Slack, SharePoint and Exchange. This tab allows you to manage these sources throughout the application, not just by case.
	The LitHolds tab lets you create and manage litigation holds.
	The Collections tab allows you to manage all collections.
	The FTK Connect tab allows you to create automated jobs.
	The Search Bar lets you search for cases efficiently without having to look through the Grid view.
	The Job Queue page lets users track both active and completed jobs and can be accessed from all pages.
	The Management page lets administrators perform global management tasks and can be accessed from all pages.
	The Live Preview status allows users to see the last 5 connected agents. If an agent has been offline and the user has chosen to get notified about the agent regaining connection to the site server, the IP/Hostname will be listed here.
	Actions specific to the logged-in user that affects the user’s account. Allows you to logout of the application. The user’s first, last name and the username of the user will appear.
	The Information tab will open a prompt with version information of the application.

Sorting Columns

All the lists in FTK Central can be sorted as required. You can click on the column header by which you want to sort and an arrow mark will be displayed. You can toggle the arrow to   or  to sort in Ascending or Descending order.

Applying Filters

When there are multiple records, you can always use a filter to display the required records. The filter criteria may depend upon the type of records you intend to filter, however, you follow the steps below to filter any records. 

For example, when looking at the Cases list, there could be hundreds of items. You may want to view only the items that pertain (not limited to) to a certain creation date or case name. To view only the items that include specific creation date ranges, you can filter the records by using Creation Date filter. 

To apply filters:

1. Click the More options  against the column header.
2. Click Filter.
   • The available filter criteria for the column is displayed.

3. Configure the required filter.

4. Click Filter.

Note: You can click Clear to reset the filters.

Show/hide Columns

Based on the need, you can choose to either show or hide a column while viewing a list of entities. However, some columns are mandatory for identification and hence cannot be hidden. You can show/hide the remaining columns.

To show/hide columns:

1. Click More options  against any column header in the list.
2. Click Columns.
   • The optional (non-mandatory) columns will be displayed.

3. Select the columns to be displayed. 

4. Click Apply.

Navigating between pages during a process

While performing a task involving multiple pages, you are provided with navigation buttons to go back to the previous page, to the next page, or to discard the whole process.

• You can click Back to navigate to the previous page.
• You can click Save and Next to save the provided information and move to the next page.
• You can click Discard to cancel the creation/update.

Pagination

FTK Central allows you to choose the number of records to be displayed in a page as per your convenience. You can select 10, 25, 50, 75, or 100 items per page.

Also, you can navigate between the pages by either clicking Previous or Next  to navigate to previous or next page respectively.

Logging Out of FTK Central

You can log-out or terminate your session by clicking on drop-down icon against your user name from any page and select Logout.

• Your ability to perform actions in the FTK Central software is controlled by permission(s). If you are unable to perform the actions as described in this documentation, please contact Support team. 
• Some of the features discussed in the document are add-on features. If you are unable to view or use it fully, please contact the Administrator to verify the features licensed for your organization.

The application displays the Exterro web-based console that you can open from any computer connected to the network.

All users are required to enter a username and password to open FTK Central.

What you can see and do in the application depends on your product license and the rights and permissions granted to you by the administrator. You may have limited privileges based on the work you do.

See About User Accounts section.

Software Requirements

The following are required for using the features available in FTK Central:

• HTML-5 Supported browsers such as (but not limited to):
  • Google Chrome
  • Mozilla Firefox
  • Microsoft Edge

Hardware Requirements

Each user that uses FTK Central must log in with a user account. Each account has a username and password. Administrators configure the user accounts.

User accounts are granted permissions based on the tasks those users perform. For example, one account may have permissions to create and manage cases while another account has permissions only to review files in a case.

Your permissions determine which items you see and the actions you can perform in FTK Central.

There is a Application administrator account.

You can use FTK Central to perform many application tasks.

You can launch the application from an approved web browser on any computer that is connected to the application server on the network. 

There are multiple methods to open FTK Central:

• If you know the IP address/Host Name of the application server, the address will look like: <Hostname>:<Port – 4443 is the default>.
• Alternatively, you can open FTK Central by using the application icon located on the desktop if the application has been installed locally on the machine you are accessing.  

Whenever you access FTK Central you will be prompted to log in. Your administrator will provide you with your username and password.

To open FTK Central in a browser

To open FTK Central in a browser:

1. Open a supported browser.
2. Google Chrome
3. Microsoft Edge
4. Mozilla Firefox
5. Enter the following URL in the browser’s address field:
   
   • <Hostname>:<Port – 4443 is the default>
   • Where <HostName>is the hostname or the IP address of the application server.
   • This opens the login page.
   • You can save this webpage as a bookmark.
6. The login page will display the product name as well as the form fields required for your username and password.
7. On the login page, enter the username and password for your account.
8. Click Sign In.
9. If you have entered account details that are not yet active or incorrect you will be notified with an incorrect username or password prompt. 
10. Successful logins will open FTK Central in its entirety.