How to install and configure FTP server on Windows Cloud Servers

FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a network protocol used to transfer files between two computers through a private or public network. Below are three ways FTP is commonly accessed

1. Command-line FTP client.
2. Web browser.
3. Graphical FTP clients.

See the instructions for installing & configuring the FTP server on the Windows server below.

Start to install FTP server

1. Open the Server Manager on the server. To open the same, just click on the Windows key to open start and search server manager, and then click on the Server Manager which is shown in the below image.

   

2. From the server manager, click on Add roles and features under the Dashboard option.

   

3. Click on Next under Before you begin.

   

4. Now select Role-based or feature-based installation and click on Next.

   

5. Select the server and click on Next.

   

6. Now check the Web Server (IIS) role as shown in the below image.

   

7. Click Add features under Add Roles and Feature Wizard.

   

8. Once it is done, then click on Next. By default NET Framework 4.7 should be selected, you may not need to check any box in the feature option and only need to click on Next.

   

9. Click on Next under Web Server Role (IIS).

   

10. From Role Services page, select FTP server and then select FTP service & FTP Extensibility as shown in the below image and click Next.

    

11. Now confirm the installation selections and click on Install button once it is confirmed.

    

12. Once it is completed successfully, you will get the message installation succeeded on server name as mentioned in the below image.

    

13. The installation of the FTP server on Windows 2019 is completed and now click on the close button mentioned in the above image.

    
    

Adding FTP Site on Windows server

Once the FTP server has been installed, the FTP Site can be added to the server for the purpose of transferring files to the server through FTP.

Assuming that a local user account exists in the server, the FTP Site can be added to the server by following the below steps.

NOTE: The local user account that is used in the context of this guide is lsuser, which is a part of the default Users group.

Step One: Creating folder for FTP site

The default FTP root folder is located at C:\inetpub\ftproot. For the FTP Site, create a new folder under C:\inetpub\. In the context of this guide, the folder named LSFTPFolder has been created.

Once the folder has been created, the required permissions are to be assigned for the folder so that FTP can read from it.

1. Right-click on the folder and click on Properties.

   

2. Click on the Security tab and then select the group to which the permissions to access the folder are to be assigned to and then click on Edit.

   

   NOTE: Since the local user lsuser is a part of the Users group, it is selected in this step.

3. In the Permissions window, make sure that the Users group is highlighted and then select the Full control checkbox. Click on Apply.

   

Step Two: Creating the new FTP site

The new FTP Site needs to be created from Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. Please open this and refer to the following steps.

1. From the IIS Manager, expand the server name, right-click on Sites and then click on Add FTP Site….

   

2. In the Add FTP Site wizard, type in the preferred site name in the FTP site name: field and choose the folder created in Step One as the physical path of the Content directory. Click on Next once the folder is selected.

   

3. In the next window, the binding and SSL settings can be configured for the FTP Site.

   The IP Address field can be left as the default All Unassigned value or the specific IP address of the server can be typed in. The port is set as 21 by default. Since no SSL is being used for the FTP Site, select the radio button next to No SSL and then click on Next.

   

4. The next step involves setting up authentication and authorization settings for the FTP Site.

   Select Basic authentication and then from under Authorization drop-down, select Specified roles or user groups to which access to the FTP site needs to be allowed.

   Since the local user account is a part of the Users group, type in Users in the empty field, select the check-boxes next to Read and Write, and then click on Finish to complete the setup of FTP Site.

   

   
   

Step Three: Testing connection to FTP site

Once the FTP Site has been set up and configured, the connection to it can be tested using the FTP client such as FileZilla.

1. Open FileZilla and type in the server IP address in the Host: field, the FTP local user account name in the Username: field and the user’s password in the Password: field.

   Port can be left empty and the default FTP port will be considered. Click on Quickconnect.

   

2. Files/Folders can now be uploaded to the FTP site using the FTP client.

   

3. Once uploaded, the assigned folder of the FTP Site can be accessed to verify and confirm that the contents have been successfully uploaded.