Chapter 11: FTP Jobs

Chapter 11: FTP Jobs 

FTP Jobs :

Using your agent, you can automate File Transfer Protocol (FTP) transfers with an FTP 

job. The FTP job can upload data to or download data from an existing FTP server or 

another agent running as an FTP server. The FTP job always acts as an FTP client. 

Note: To run these jobs, your system requires CA WA Agent for UNIX, Linux, Windows, 

or i5/OS. 

You can use an FTP job to automate the following: 

■ Download ASCII, binary, or EBCDIC (i5/OS only) files from a remote FTP server to 

your agent computer. 

■ Upload ASCII, binary, or EBCDIC (i5/OS only) files from your agent computer to a 

remote FTP server. 

Your agent administrator can set up the agent to run as an FTP client, FTP server, or 

both. 

EBCDIC File Transfers 

The EBCDIC transfer type applies to CA WA Agent for i5/OS only. 

For the QSYS file system on i5/OS systems, you can only transfer members of FILE 

objects. 

Note: For more information about FTP restrictions on i5/OS systems, see the IBM 

documentation. 

 FTP Jobs 

Wildcard Characters in File Names 

You can use wildcards in file names for ASCII, binary, and EBCDIC transfers. The asterisk 

(*) is a wildcard for zero or more characters and the question mark (?) is a wildcard for a 

single character. 

Running the Agent as an FTP Client 

If the agent runs as an FTP client, the agent can log in to remote FTP servers and 

download files from and upload files to those servers. 

The following diagram shows the relationship between an agent running as an FTP 

client, the scheduling manager, and an FTP server: 

Note: The FTP user ID used to connect to the FTP server must be defined on the 

scheduling manager. 

When the agent runs as an FTP client only, other FTP clients (such as other agents) 

cannot log in to the agent to transfer files. To let other FTP clients log in and transfer 

files, the agent administrator needs to set up the agent to run as an FTP server. 

 FTP Jobs 

Chapter 11: FTP Jobs 303 

Running the Agent as an FTP Server 

The agent supports a built-in FTP server capability. The agent administrator can enable 

the agent to act as a generic FTP server in addition to its other roles. This server adheres 

to the security rules established for the agent. 

If the agent runs as an FTP server, clients can log in to the agent and transfer files. 

The following diagram shows the relationship between an agent running as an FTP 

server, the scheduling manager, and another agent running as an FTP client: 

Note: The FTP user ID used to connect to the agent running as an FTP server must be 

defined on that agent and the scheduling manager. 

If the agent is configured as an FTP server, the agent can handle ASCII, binary, and 

EBCDIC file transfers, wildcard requests, simple GET and PUT requests for single files, 

and MGET and MPUT requests for multiple files. 

The agent has a secure store of FTP server user IDs and associated passwords. The 

ftpusers.txt file, located in the directory where the agent is installed, stores these user 

IDs and their corresponding hashed passwords. 

The agent running as an FTP server does not support anonymous FTP requests. For audit 

purposes, the agent provides a detailed log of all FTP requests. 

Note: For more information about enabling the agent to act as a generic FTP server, 

contact your agent administrator and see the CA Workload Automation Agent for UNIX, 

Linux, or Windows Implementation Guide. 

 Define an FTP Job 

304 User Guide 

FTP User IDs and Passwords 

All FTP user IDs and passwords must be defined on CA Workload Automation AE by 

using the autosys_secure command. When you define an FTP job, you must specify an 

FTP user ID using the owner attribute, or use the default owner value. This user ID is 

used to connect to the FTP server for the file transfer. 

If an agent runs as an FTP server, the FTP user ID and password must also be defined on 

that agent. 

Note: For more information about the autosys_secure command, see the Reference 

Guide. For more information about defining user IDs on the agent, see the CA Workload 

Automation Agent for UNIX, Linux, or Windows Implementation Guide. 

Define an FTP Job 

You can define an FTP job to automate FTP transfers. The output is directed to the spool 

file through an FTP server. 

Note: To run these jobs, your system requires CA WA Agent for UNIX, Linux, Windows, 

or i5/OS. 

Follow these steps: 

1. Insert a job and specify the following attributes in the definition: 

job_type: FTP 

Specifies that the job type is FTP. 

machine 

Specifies the name of the machine on which the job runs. 

ftp_local_name 

Specifies the destination of the file (if downloading) or the source location of 

the file (if uploading). 

ftp_remote_name 

Specifies the source location of the file (if downloading) or the destination of 

the file (if uploading). 

ftp_server_name 

Specifies the DNS name or IP address of a remote server. 

 Define an FTP Job 

Chapter 11: FTP Jobs 305 

2. (Optional) Specify optional FTP attributes: 

■ ftp_command 

■ ftp_compression 

■ ftp_local_user 

■ ftp_server_port 

■ ftp_transfer_direction 

■ ftp_transfer_type 

■ ftp_use_SSL 

■ ftp_user_type 

■ job_class 

3. (Optional) Specify the following attribute: 

owner 

Specifies the user ID with the authority to download the file from the remote 

FTP server or upload the file to the remote FTP server. 

Note: The job runs under the owner of the job. The password associated with 

the owner must be defined using autosys_secure. 

4. (Optional) Specify common attributes that apply to all job types. 

The FTP job is defined. 

Notes: 

■ Attributes that have a default value automatically apply to the job definitions; 

therefore, they are optional. For example, jobs with no specified job type are 

defined as command jobs by default. Other optional attributes specify information 

that is not required but affects how or when a job runs, such as attributes that 

specify scheduling conditions. 

■ Some optional attributes are common to all job types but others apply to certain 

jobs types only. Optional attributes that apply to all job types are known as 

common optional attributes. For more information about common optional 

attributes and the values that you can specify for them (including their default 

values when applicable), see the Reference Guide. 

■ For information about required attributes and job type specific optional attributes, 

see the procedure topics that provide instructions for defining jobs. 

■ This guide provides instructions for defining jobs interactively. You also create job 

definitions in script files and then import them using the jil command or use CA 

WCC to define them. For more information about the JIL command and JIL syntax, 

see the Reference Guide. For more information about using CA WCC to define the 

job, see the CA Workload Control Center Workload Scheduling Guide. 

 Define an FTP Job 

306 User Guide 

Example: Download a File from a UNIX Computer to a Windows Computer 

The FTP job in this example downloads a file from a UNIX server with IP address 

172.16.0.0 and port 21 to a Windows computer. 

insert_job: FTPT1A 

job_type: FTP 

machine: ftpagent 

ftp_server_name: 172.16.0.0 

ftp_server_port: 21 

ftp_transfer_direction: DOWNLOAD 

ftp_transfer_type: A 

ftp_remote_name: /u1/ftpdata/textfile 

ftp_local_name: "c:\ftpfiles" 

owner: ftpuser@172.16.0.0 

Example: Download a Binary File on UNIX 

The FTP job in this example uses a binary transfer. 

insert_job: FTPBINARY 

job_type: FTP 

machine: unixagent 

ftp_server_name: hpunix 

ftp_server_port: 5222 

ftp_transfer_direction: DOWNLOAD 

ftp_transfer_type: B 

ftp_remote_name: /u1/qatest/ftpdata/binaryfile 

ftp_local_name: /export/home/qatest/ftpdata/transf.bin 

owner: test@hpunix 

Example: Download a QSYS EBCDIC-encoded File 

This example downloads an EBCDIC-encoded file named DATAFILE in the QSYS file 

system from an i5/OS system to another i5/OS system. The file names are specified in 

the path format. 

insert_job: EBCDIC_FILE 

job_type: FTP 

machine: I5AGENT 

ftp_server_name: i5agent 

ftp_server_port: 5222 

ftp_transfer_direction: DOWNLOAD 

ftp_transfer_type: E 

ftp_remote_name: /QSYS.LIB/DATALIB.LIB/DATAFILE.FILE/DATA.MBR 

ftp_local_name: /QSYS.LIB/ESPLIB.LIB/DOWNLOAD.FILE/DATA.MBR 

owner: test@i5agent Attributes with Default Values 

Chapter 11: FTP Jobs 307 

More information: 

Insert a Job Definition (see page 88) 

Attributes with Default Values 

Attributes that have a default value automatically apply to the job definition. Therefore, 

you do not have to specify those attributes in the definition. Your agent administrator 

can define some default values on the agent in the agentparm.txt file. 

If you specify the attribute in a job definition, it overrides the default. 

The following FTP job attributes have default values: 

ftp_compression 

Specifies the data compression level (0-9). 

Default: 

■ 0 (The data is not compressed.) 

■ ftp.data.compression agent parameter. This parameter overrides the default 0 

setting. 

ftp_transfer_direction 

Specifies the file transfer direction. 

Default: DOWNLOAD (The job transfers files from the remote server to the agent 

computer.) 

ftp_transfer_type 

Specifies the type of data involved in an FTP transfer (B for binary, A for ASCII, or E 

for EBCDIC). 

Default: B (The job performs a binary data transfer.) 

ftp_use_ssl 

Specifies whether to transfer the data with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 

communication or regular communication. 

Default: 

■ FALSE (The job uses regular communication.) 

■ ftp.client.ssl agent parameter. This parameter overrides the default FALSE 

setting. 

 Attributes with Default Values 

308 User Guide 

ftp_user_type 

Specifies how the value of the owner attribute is passed to the FTP server for 

authentication. 

Default: Simple (The job passes only the user part of the owner attribute value to 

the FTP server for authentication.) 

owner 

Specifies the FTP user ID that the job runs under. 

Default: The user defining the job (The FTP transfer runs under the owner of the 

job.) 

Note: For more information about JIL job types and other job definition attributes, the 

values that you can specify for those attributes, and JIL syntax, see the Reference Guide. 

Example: Perform an ASCII Data Transfer 

The ftp_transfer_type and owner attributes in the following job definition override the 

default values. The job transfers an ASCII file under the testuser account. 

The FTP job in this example downloads an ASCII file named textfile from the remote 

UNIX server to the /export/home/ftpfiles/ftpdata/textfile_dn directory on the agent 

computer. 

insert_job: DOWNLOAD_SINGLE 

job_type: FTP 

machine: RAGENT 

ftp_server_name: hprsupp 

ftp_server_port: 5222 

ftp_transfer_direction: DOWNLOAD 

ftp_transfer_type: A 

ftp_remote_name: /u1/files/ftpdata/textfile 

ftp_local_name: /export/home/ftpfiles/ftpdata/textfile_dn/textfile 

owner: testuser@hprsupp Transfer Files Using SSL FTP 

Chapter 11: FTP Jobs 309 

Transfer Files Using SSL FTP 

If the agent FTP server supports SSL FTP and the agent FTP client has SSL FTP configured, 

you can securely transfer data using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) communication. 

Follow these steps: 

1. Define an FTP job (see page 304). 

2. Add the following attribute to the job definition: 

ftp_use_ssl 

Specifies whether to transfer the data with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 

communication or regular communication. 

3. Run the job. 

The files are transferred using the specified communication setting. 

Notes: 

■ To transfer data using SSL, the FTP server must have SSL FTP enabled and the FTP 

client must have SSL configured (SSL FTP can be enabled or disabled). 

■ If you do not specify the ftp_use_ssl attribute, the data is transferred using the 

default FTP setting (regular FTP or SSL FTP) set on the agent FTP client as follows: 

– If the agent FTP client has SSL FTP enabled, all FTP jobs on that agent 

automatically use SSL FTP. 

Note: If the FTP server does not support SSL FTP, you must set the ftp_use_ssl 

attribute to FALSE. Otherwise, the job will fail. 

– If the agent FTP client has SSL FTP disabled, all FTP jobs on that agent 

automatically use regular FTP. 

 Transfer Files Using SSL FTP 

310 User Guide 

Example: Upload a File from a Local Computer to a Remote Windows Server Using SSL 

FTP 

This example defines a job named FTP_UPLOAD to upload the filename.txt file from the 

agent FTP client to the c:\uploaded_files directory on the remote Windows server 

named winserver using SSL FTP. 

Note: 

insert_job:FTP_UPLOAD 

job_type: FTP 

machine: winagent 

owner: user1@winserver 

ftp_server_name: winserver 

ftp_server_port: 21 

ftp_transfer_direction: UPLOAD 

ftp_use_SSL: TRUE 

ftp_remote_name: "c:\uploaded_files\filename.txt" 

ftp_local_name: "d:\files_to_upload\filename.txt" Transfer Files Using SSL FTP 

Chapter 11: FTP Jobs 311 

Example: Download a File from a Remote UNIX Server That Does Not Support SSL FTP 

to a Local Computer That Supports SSL FTP 

In this example, the agent runs on a local computer as an FTP client and has SSL FTP 

enabled (all FTP jobs on the agent computer run using SSL FTP by default). The remote 

UNIX server does not support SSL FTP. 

The following FTP job downloads the filename.txt file from the remote UNIX server to 

the d:\downloaded_files directory on the local computer. Because the FTP server does 

not support SSL FTP, the ftp_use_SSL attribute is set to FALSE so the job does not fail. 

insert_job: FTP_DOWNLOAD 

job_type: FTP 

machine: winagent 

owner: user1@hpunix 

ftp_server_name: hpunix 

ftp_server_port: 5222 

ftp_transfer_direction: DOWNLOAD 

ftp_use_SSL: FALSE 

ftp_remote_name: /files_to_download/filename.txt 

ftp_local_name: "d:\downloaded_files\filename.txt" Compress Data for FTP 

312 User Guide 

Compress Data for FTP 

When running FTP workload between an FTP client and FTP server that are both run on 

the agent software, you can compress the data for the transfer by specifying the 

compression level in the job definition. 

Note: If the compression level is specified and the FTP server or the FTP client does not 

run on the agent, the data will be transferred without compression. 

Follow these steps: 

1. Define an FTP job (see page 304). 

2. Add the following attribute to the job definition: 

ftp_compression 

Specifies the data compression level. The compression level is a one-digit value 

from 0 to 9, where 0 is no data compression and 9 is the best data 

compression. 

Note: The effectiveness of the compression is dependent upon the data. 

Compressing the data may not result in faster transfer times. The overhead of 

compressing and uncompressing the data may exceed the time saved from 

sending smaller amount of data. 

3. Run the job. 

The files are transferred using SSL FTP. 

Example: Compress a File 

The local computer in this example has an agent running as an FTP client. The remote 

server has an agent running as an FTP server. Both computers operate on a low 

bandwidth network. 

The following FTP job downloads a large file named largefile.txt from the remote server 

to the FTP client. The computers are on a low bandwidth network, so the data is 

compressed at compression level 3. 

insert_job: FTPJOB 

job_type: FTP 

machine: ftpagent 

ftp_server_name: aixunix 

ftp_server_port: 5222 

ftp_transfer_direction: DOWNLOAD 

ftp_compression: 3 

ftp_remote_name: /files_to_download/largefile.txt 

ftp_local_name: "c:\downloaded_files\largefile.txt" 

owner: ftpuser@aixunix Send Site-Specific FTP Commands to FTP Servers

Chapter 11: FTP Jobs 313 

Send Site-Specific FTP Commands to FTP Servers 

When you define an FTP job, you can specify one or more commands to execute prior to 

file transfer. You can use this feature to send site-specific FTP commands to FTP servers. 

Follow these steps: 

1. Define an FTP job (see page 304). 

2. Add the following attribute to the job definition: 

ftp_command 

Defines a command that is to be executed prior to file transfer. 

Note: This value includes commands such as locsite but does not include 

commands such as cd or lcd. 

3. (Optional) Specify additional ftp_command attributes for each command that you 

want to run. 

4. Run the job. 

The site-specific FTP command is sent to the FTP server. 

Note: For more information about JIL job types and other job definition attributes, the 

values that you can specify for those attributes, and JIL syntax, see the Reference Guide. 

E 

Example: Send FTP Commands to an FTP Server 

This example sends two FTP commands to the FTP server prior to transferring a file. 

insert_job: CYBJK.FTP 

job_type: FTP 

machine: ftpagent 

ftp_server_name: ftp.ca.com 

ftp_server_port: 21 

ftp_transfer_direction: DOWNLOAD 

ftp_transfer_type: B 

ftp_compression: 8 

ftp_remote_name: /pub/cazip.exe 

ftp_local_name: /tmp/bla 

ftp_command: locsite blksize=FB 

ftp_command: locsite automount 

owner: user1@ftp.ca.com Verify the FTP Job Status 

314 User Guide 

Verify the FTP Job Status 

You can verify that the transfer completed successfully without file corruption. 

To verify that the transfer completed successfully, check the job's spool file for the 

following responses: 

■ If the data was transferred using SSL FTP, the spool file contains the following 

response: 

AUTH TLS 

234 AUTH command OK. Initializing SSL connection. 

■ If the data was compressed and transferred without file corruption, the spool file 

contains a response as follows: 

Downloaded 81920/26119 bytes (original/compressed) in 0.161 seconds, 496.89 

Kbytes/sec. 

■ If the file was downloaded successfully, the spool file contains the following 

response: 

Download successful