HOWTO: Running BulletProof FTP Server as a Windows System Service.

BulletProof FTP Server fully supports execution as a Windows System Service, allowing you to start the software as soon as the OS has been (re)started.

Table of Contents

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Overview

1.2 Requirements

2.0 Set Up

2.1 Install:System Service Support

2.2 Control Panel: Administrative Tools

2.3 Control Panel: Services

2.4 Service: Listing

2.5 Service: Properties

2.6 Service: Start

2.7 Finished

2.8 Note: Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

3.0 Optional: Network-Share Support

3.1 Stop Windows System-Service and Start GUI

3.2 Setup Virtual File System Support

3.3 Setup Network-Drive Mapping

3.3.1 Define and Create BIN directory

3.3.2 Create and Modify Batch-File

3.3.3 Connect Batch-File to EVENT

3.3.4 Test: Close/Open Server

3.3.5 Final: Remove PAUSE

3.4 Stop GUI and Start Windows System-Service

3.5 Test Connection

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Overview

BPFTP Server has full support for running as the executable as a Windows System Service. In this mode, BPFTP Server will begin execution whenever the system is restarted and/or rebooted.

1.2 Requirements

Windows System Services are supported by all modern versions of Windows (Windows NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003/2008, etc). System Services are not supported by Windows 95/98/ME.

2.0 Set Up

Setting up BPFTP Server to execute as a Windows System Service is simple and can be done by following the below steps.

2.1 Install: System Service Support

In order to run BPFTP Server as a Widows System Service, you'll need to first install the support into the system.

2.2 Control Panel: Administrative Tools

Open the Control Panel from the Windows Start button at the bottom-left of your desktop.

2.3 Control Panel: Services

Scroll-down the list of entries in your Control Panel and double-click on the one labeled Services.

2.4 Service: Listing

In the listing of Windows System Services, scroll-down until you see the entry labeled BPFTPServer, right-click it and select Properties. If you do not see this option, go back to Step 1 and install the support.

2.5 Service: Properties

In the properties page for the BPFTPServer service, click on the tab labeled Log On, toggle the Local System account option, check the Allow service to interact with Desktop and click OK. This will allow you to see the icon for BPFTP Server on your desktop and give you the ability to interact with it normally.

2.6 Service: Start

Make sure the entry labeled BPFTPServer is currently highlighted and click the "RUN" button to start execution of BPFTP Server.

2.7 Finished

As soon as BPFTP Server is up and running under a Windows System Service, you'll see the familiar icon pop-up in the TrayIcon and you are DONE!

2.8 Note: Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008

Starting in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, processes running as a Windows System-Service are now restricted by Microsoft's Session 0 Isolation.

This new feature makes it impossible for BPFTP Server to display the GUI on the desktop, while it is running as a Windows System-Service. In order to make changes to BPFTP Server, you will need to stop the service and execute the normal GUI to make changes (Instructions).

In order to combat this new restriction, we will be releasing a new version of BPFTP Server which moves all GUI functions to a web-based management console. To be informed when this is available, please add yourself to the newsletter mailing-list.

3.0 Optional: Network-Share Support

Using BPFTP Server, you can also provide access to Network-Shares while running BulletProof FTP Server as a Windows System Service.

In setting up BPFTP Server to run as a Windows System-Service, you'll need to understand that the bpftpserver.exe executable is running in a different user-space. These means that when you are logged into the computer and connect to a network-share on another computer, the instance of BPFTP Server running as a Windows System-Service does not get to see the network-share. This is done to protect the operating-system from rogue programs rummaging through the system, watching you enter passwords, looking for credit card numbers and causing other sorts of havok.

3.1 Stop Windows System-Service and Start GUI

In order to configure BPFTP Server, please stop any running instances of the software. If you are currently running BPFTP Server as a Windows System-Service, you'll need to stop the service.

Confirm that they are terminated by bringing up the Task-Manager, click on the Processes tab, sort the list by Image Name and look for bpftpserver.exe and bpftpserver-service.exe.

3.2 Setup Virtual File System Support

Setup a Virtual File-System/Directory and point it to your network-shares. For detailed instructions, please see HOWTO: Network Shares via FTP.

3.3 Setup Network-Drive Mapping

When BPFTP Server is running as a Windows System-Service, it does not have access to the drive-mappings or network authentications you've setup interactively in the Windows Desktop. For this reason, you'll need to setup a batch-file which BPFTP Server will executable at start-up to authenticate and map a drive to the network-share.

3.3.1 Define and Create BIN directory

Please define a location on your local hard-drive as a place to store batch-files for BPFTP Server to use. We recommend creating a directory called "bin" in the same directory and at the same peer-level of the individual ftp-user home-directories.

3.3.2 Create and Modify Batch-File

Using a text-editor, created a file called "connect_drives.cmd", copy/paste the text below into the file and then customize it for your environment.

Note:

3.3.3 Connect Batch-File to EVENT

In order for the batch-file to be executed, we need to assigned the script to be executed when the OnServerStarted event is triggered in the Event Manager. To start the Event Manager, please pull-down Setup -> Events Manager or press Ctrl-E.

3.3.4 Test: Close/Open Server

Now we need to test and make sure everything is working well. To test the activation of the batch-file, pull-down the Setup -> Go Online or press Ctrl-S. Performing this action will take BPFTP Server Online/Offline and you will see the batch-file execute. To make sure it worked, look for any relevant error messages and dbl-click My Computer to make sure the network-drive was correctly mapped.

3.3.5 Final: Remove PAUSE

Once you have confirmed that everything works, you are free to use your text-editor and remove the PAUSE line from the end of the batch-file you created.

3.4 Stop GUI and Start Windows System-Service

Close the BPFTP Server GUI that you have been using and then start the "BPFTPServer" Windows System-Service using the icon provided under Start -> BulletProof FTP Server v2.3 -> Tools -> Start BPFTP Service or the Windows Services control-panel

3.5 TEST CONNECT

As a test, we'll login to BPFTP Server and make sure we can see the Virtual File-System Directory, which was created to point to the Mapped Network-Drive and successfully change-directory into it and see the contents. This test was done using the built-in Windows FTP-client called ftp.exe, but we could have also used our BulletProof FTP Client or any other FTP-standard compliant client.