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Version: 5.2.0.0

FTP Server

Description​

Environment entries of type FTP connection define the parameters to access an FTP server. They define a connection between Orchestra and a Server using a FTP protocol.

Purpose of object​

This environment entry is used by the channels FTP Listener and FTP operations adapter to specify the server to connect to.

Configuration​

Protocol (SFTP/FTPS)​

Select a Protocol to use for connecting:

  • FTP: Unencrypted protocol for data transfer. Uses separate TCP connections for commands and data.
  • SFTP: Protocol enables encryption, it exchanges commands using a SSH (Secure Shell) connection. A lot of parallel logical connections can run through one TCP channel.
  • FTPS: Encryption protocol, uses FTP routing its commands and data through a secure connection using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Layer Security). Like FTP it uses separate TCP connections for commands and data.

Authentication type (only for SFTP and FTPS)​

In case of SFTP or FTPS you select the Authentication type (Password or Certificate). In case of SFTP this user credential must have a SSH certificate in case of FTPS it is a X509 Certificate.

Security protocol (only for FTPS)​

In case of FTPS, you need to provide the security protocol, because FTPS is using a secure SSL or TLS connection.

Security mode (only for FTPS)​

Also, FTP requires a Security Mode, which can be set to explicit or implicit:

  • explicit: Client has to explicitly request security from server. Server can allow or refuse insecure connection.
  • implicit: Encryption by SSL/TLS is required from server.

Reuse session (only for FTPS)​

Select Reuse session, if the FTPS server requires that the TLS/SSL session is reused for the data connection. This is a security measure.

In Java 8 it may be necessary to set the system property - Djdk.tls.useExtendedMasterSecret=false additionally to enable this feature.

Active mode (only for SFTP and FTPS)​

In case of FTP or FTPS you must select whether to use active mode, where the server opens a data connection to the client.

If the box is not checked, passive mode is used, where the client opens a data connection to the server.

The original FTP specification defined Active mode. But with the introduction of firewalls this caused problems because in this case the server has to connect to a random client port which nowadays in most cases is blocked by the firewall. Therefore, today the Passive mode is commonly used as a default.

Keep connection​

If you select Keep connection, the network connection (TCP, TLS/SSL or SSH) is kept open for the same user. Otherwise, every channel invocation opens a new connection.

Proxy server (only for SFTP)​

In case of SFTP you can select a HTTP Proxy server through which the SSH connection is tunneled.

Host/IP​

Enter Host or IP of the server e.g. ftp.google.com or 127.0.0.1.

Autodetect UTF8​

In some cases FTP-Server are causing trouble with UTF8-Encoding if this is the case try deactivating UTF8-Autodetection.

Port​

The default FTP port is 21, but it can be changed.

Initial directory​

Optionally enter Initial Directory in servers file system, normally this is an absolute path starting with a /

Connection timeout​

Connection Timeout For FTP this value is passed to the Socket object's connect() method.

Data timeout​

Data Timeout used when reading from the data connection; in case of SSH this is the only value which actually is used.

Command timeout​

Command Timeout used for the FTP command connection.