This guide describes how to implement a failover solution for WS_FTP Server using Microsoft Cluster Services (MSCS) software. This solution is designed to provide continuous service to your file transfer users in the event of a service or node failure.
Microsoft Cluster Services can only provide failover with WS_FTP Server Professional or WS_FTP Server Premium. It cannot be used with WS_FTP Server Basic, the Web Transfer Module, or the Ad Hoc Transfer module.
This failover solution provides one active and one passive node, each running identical configurations of WS_FTP Server. If a server (FTP or SSH) is unavailable on the primary node, or the primary node itself is unavailable, processing switches over to the secondary node. This two-node configuration uses shared resources for the user database, configuration data, and the file system for user directories and log data.
Carefully follow all directions in this document for configuring a failover cluster. Failure to do so maybe result in a nonfunctional or malfunctioning high availability environment. Ipswitch cannot support alternate MSCS configurations.
If you are upgrading from a non-failover WS_FTP Server installation to a failover solution, we recommend that you configure your failover environment with fresh WS_FTP Server installations, then migrate your user and configuration data and file system over to the failover configuration.