I noticed multiple posting talking about SFTP and FTPS but couldn’t quite get the answer I was looking for.

We were pushing the files to vendor’s external SFTP (using SSH) site using the webMethods flow services acting as SFTP client. Our requirements have reversed and now the vendor is asking us to host a SFTP site at our end and they will retrieve the files from there. So my questions are

1. Can webMethods 6.5 IS act as a SFTP server also? If so, what are the pros and cons? Is there a document I can refer to?

2. Are there any other mechanisms that could be used? Can a SFTP site be created on IIS6 W2k3 box? Would it be easier this way?

3. Has someone used any external SFTP server?

Just trying to explore the options. ANy help will be appreicated.

SFTP is not directly supported in IS (as far as I know). You can check this out:
[url]http://www.customware.net/repository/display/WMFAQ/How+do+I+make+an+SFTP+or+SSH+outgoing+connection+from+webMethods[/url]

There is a package OpenSSH which provides SSH and SFTP services.

Pros - code sits on IS, so relatively easy to manage rather than an RMI server.
Can use key based login rather than password authentication
Adding new clients is easy, you need to do some customization for this.

Cons - forks a new java process to do the file transfer
can cause the unix host to run out of memory
doing parallel file transfers is not a good idea, as it will result in multiple forked processes, so need to do serial transfers

As far as i know and used… yes we can expose wM IS as FTP/SFTP server. However i am not sure how to setup this because i have no experience in coinfiguring this. only experience is i have used it

As I stated in another thread, a few customers have been using Solid Reason’s file managed transfer solution SDX. They are a partner I often work with and I know they have also demoed this solution in last year’s Sag events.

From their documentation: "SDX extends the webMethods integration server to provide inbound SFTP (SSH FTP), FTPS (FTP over SSL), WebDAV, and WebDAV SSL support. Outbound support is provided for SFTP from IS Services and as a Trading network delivery service.

The added features are fully integrated with the integration server, avoiding the need for file polling and providing for real time transfer over these protocols.

SDX is used in highly demanding environments, transferring files of multiple gigabytes at transfer rates only limited by communication infrastructure. It also optimised for the transfer of a massive amount of smaller files."

Of course, it is not a opensource or free, but neither is wM.

If this is something you would be interested in, I can put you in contact with them.