Feature request: TFTP

Question

Hello,

very often in our environment we manage multiple switches. Many of them are HP.

And in order to download or upload their config you have three options: connect to switch by serial, copy paste from the window or download to tftp server.

Serial cable many times is not an option, because you're normally far away from the switch.
Copy paste is not an option either, because config can be very long, and can't fit into one window so you end up in tiring multiple copy pastes.
And the third option, the TFTP server, is normally not in your environment...

So I thought, if CompleteFTP is so complete by name, why there's no TFTP server functionality in it, so we could make good use of our CompleteFTP Pro purchase to maintain switch configs.

Answer 1

No-one's expressed interest in TFTP until now, which explains why it is not in CompleteFTP. In fact I don't know any commercial server that implements TFTP - possibly because of its lack of security.

It's something we can consider though. I imagine your scenario is using a TFTP client on the switch, and sending the configuration to a TFTP server? Does the client run over UDP or TCP?

Answer 2

Yes, HP Procurve switches are running a client.

Yes, it's UDP. First it's UDP port 69, and then communication goes on some other negotiated port. Another example is PXE boot, which starts on UDP port 69, and then continues with UDP port 4011.

Answer 3

This link very nicely pictures the procedure: http://blu3yytech.blogspot.com/2009/07/ ... onfig.html

1. Start TFTP Server (in this case that'd be CompleteFTP running somewhere on company's local network)

2. SSH via Putty to the Switch

3. copy running-config tftp "InternalLANAddressOfCompleteFTPServer" filename.txt

4. The switch config will be copied to c:\tftp-root\filename.txt

Yes, security is very important here... What we would be doing, we'd be opening only two UDP ports (69 and some other) on a Windows Server firewall, that the CompleteFTP software resides on. Than go to LAN firewall, and open there only these ports to the IP addresses of the switches. So maybe it's possible to somehow have TFTP implemented on CompleteFTP with very many warnings about security, like Active FTP is implemented.

Answer 4

Thanks -we're considering TFTP support for a future release.