Copying an EFT Configuration to Several Computers

It is very important that you read all of the information below before you begin. Not following the instructions, including the "Installation and Deployment Considerations" below, could cause you to lose your configuration, users, and permissions. If you do not have a complex configuration or do not have users and permissions configured, you do not need to use this procedure. Simply install EFT on the new computer and ask Globalscape Customer Support to move your serial number to the new computer on the registration server.

Copying or migrating EFT configuration might be necessary for several reasons, such as:

  • Moving a Proof of Concept (PoC) in your staging environment without wanting to recreate all the settings and configuration data.

  • Creating a standard configuration for installation on multiple computers.

  • Updating EFT software with a fresh install rather than patching.

In EFT Enterprise, you can use the Migration wizard to backup and restore configuration (from EFT Enterprise to EFT Enterprise). Refer to Backing Up or Restoring Server Configuration for details. If you are not using EFT Enterprise, you must use the manual procedure below.

Installation and Deployment Considerations

Consider the following before moving a configuration from the source to the target system:

  • Set the source Site's Home IP to All Incoming. It must not be bound to a specific IP address unless the system you are deploying to is bound to the same IP address.

  • Copy the entire folder structure from the old computer (source) to the new computer (target). If the same folder structure does not exist on the target computer, an error appears that says "Failed to get permission settings." Make sure the target system's installation paths are the same as the installation path on the source computer. For example, if you installed EFT on drive C, then install it on drive C on the target, too. If the drive letters are different, change the drive letter on the target before installing the software.

  • EFT looks for ftp.cfg in three locations: registry, app data, and installation folder. So, even if you put ftp.cfg in the installation folder, EFT will save it in app data (or the folder specified in the registry, if it is set).

  • Use the same administrator username and password when installing on the source and target systems.

  • If you have made changes to the registry for EFT, be sure to make them on the new computer also. (e.g., You can export the entire HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\GlobalSCAPE, Inc.\ node, or just the nodes that you've customized. Importing it as a .reg file on the new computer will overwrite existing settings.)

To copy configuration

  1. This procedure assumes you have installed and activated the product on the source system, and configured the Sites, Users, Groups, file and folder permissions, Event Rules, users, and so on.

  2. Exit the administration interface.

  3. Stop the Server service (Start > Run, type services.msc).

  4. Copy the following files to the target computer at the same path as they were on the source computer. (Refer to the note above and File Location Changes for details about file locations.)

    • FTP.cfg

    • All .bak and .update files

    • All OpenPGP key files (*.skr, *.pkr)

    • All SSL certificate files (*.cer, *crt)

    • All SSH key files (*.pvk, *.pub)

    • Any scripts or .bat files that are started as part of a custom command

    • Any custom reports

    • All registry overrides (for special settings)

    • Web Transfer Client folders (to capture any customization)

    • PCI folder (PCI DSS Compliance report)

    • Ad Hoc folder (to capture any customization)

    • All *.db files

  5. If you are copying from a production system, you can now restart the EFT service and continue to manage file transfers. After the new system is configured, you can switch over to the new system and uninstall EFT from the old system.

  6. On the target system, create the same physical folder structure as the folder structure on the source computer.

    7. The easiest way to duplicate the physical folder structure is to copy the folder structure from the source to the target, which avoids introducing typos in folder names.

  7. Install and activate the product on the target system.

  8. Cancel the automatic setup wizard that appears the first time you run the administration interface.

  9. Close the administration interface and stop the Server service in the Services dialog box (in the Windows control panel).

  10. Paste the files gathered from the source system into EFT installation folder on the target system. Only the FTP.cfg is overwritten, because you have not yet created any Sites, etc. on the target system.

  11. Create the necessary account(s) for the EFT service and assign the appropriate permissions.

  12. Restart the Server service and login using the administration interface. You will be prompted to activate your serial number. Be sure to contact the Globalscape customer service team or your account manager so that we can adjust your account on our activation and registration server; otherwise, the registration server will think that the serial number is being used by the other computer.

  13. Double-check Server and Site configuration. The target system setup is now complete.