Infocenter

File transfer overview

Host File Transfer
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
SSH File Transfer Protocol (sftp)

Host On-Demand provides three ways to transfer files between a client and a host:

Host File Transfer

Definition and host requirements

With Host File Transfer you can transfer files between your workstation and a zSeries or iSeries host.

The zSeries host must be running MVS/TSO, VM/CMS, or MVS/CICS. File transfer uses the IND$FILE (SBCS) or APVUFILE (DBCS) program.

The iSeries host must be running the Integrated File System (IFS) on OS/400 V3R7 or later. No additional software is required.

File transfer will work only if the host system screen has a command line available. Please refer to Planning, Installing, and Configuring Host On-Demand for details.

User interface

You can transfer a single file or a list of files and you can save the list for repeated use. You can also modify and delete lists. The same interface is used in all cases except that, for OS/400, there is a button that lets you browse the IFS.

iSeries

For 5250 file transfer on Netscape 4.x, you cannot connect to a V5R1 iSeries host that has long password support enabled. The Netscape 4.x JVM does not implement the APIs required to encrypt long passwords. You can use a different browser or install the Netscape 4.x Java 2 plug-in.

In order to make iSeries file browsing more efficient when browsing files under the QSYS library, Host On-Demand only lists the files that can be transferred under the QSYS library file system. This may change your file list when you browse the QSYS file system. Host On-Demand lists:

  1. only *.LIB objects as directories under the QSYS library.
  2. objects under *.FILE as files under the QSYS library.
  3. only *.FILE objects as directories under any other library.

Security

Because Host File Transfer shares the display session's TCP/IP socket, file transfer has the same level of security as the display session itself. Therefore in order to provide security for Host File Transfer you should configure the display session for TLS or SSL.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

Definition and host requirements

With FTP you can transfer, delete, or rename a single file or directory or multiple files or directories from either the local file system or the remote file system.

You can transfer files or directories between your workstation and any host system running an FTP server. Host On-Demand implements the client functionality specified by File Transfer Protocol (FTP, IETF RFC0949), which is the standard protocol for transferring files to and from remote machines running FTP servers.

User interface

You can configure 3270, 5250 and VT sessions to use the FTP client as the default file transfer type, instead of Host File Transfer. The FTP session starts in a separate browser window from the host session. The FTP client interface is the same in all cases.

Security

FTP uses a different TCP/IP socket than the display session. Therefore in order to provide security for FTP you should configure the FTP session to use TLS or SSL.


SSH File Transfer Protocol (sftp)

Definition and host requirements

You can transfer files or directories between your workstation and a host system running an sftp server. Many SSH servers also contain sftp server function.

Only the binary transfer mode is supported.

User interface

You can configure VT Display sessions to use the sftp client as the default file transfer type, instead of FTP. The sftp session starts in a separate browser window from the host session.

You can transfer, delete, or rename a single file or directory or multiple files or directories from either the local file system or the remote file system.

Security

Sftp uses a different TCP/IP socket than the display session. However, the socket that is used for sftp is not a secure socket (a secure socket would be, for example, a socket that is configured to use SSL or TLS). Instead, the SSH File Transfer Protocol provides security over a non-secure socket.

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