File transfer via FTP fails on the agent machine.

Products

• Workload Automation Agent
• DSERIES- SERVER
• CA Workload Automation DE - System Agent (dSeries)

Issue/Introduction

FTP fails on the agent machine. The spool file on the agent records the below error at the end:

200 Data protection level set to "private"

PASV

227 Entering Passive Mode (###,##,##,###,238,221)

Upload failed: openDataChannel failed

Environment

CA Workload Automation Agent for Microsoft Windows 64-bit
Version R11.3, Service Pack 4, Maintenance Level 1, Build 738

Applicable to WAAE and WADE

Cause

The problem is caused in a passive FTP mode as there are random ports involved in transfer of files. Thus, to support this mode, not only should your server have to have multiple ports available, your firewall should also allow connections to all those ports to pass through.

Resolution

1. Go to IIS manager on the FTP server.
2. Open FTP Firewall support under Server Home.
3. Based on the port calculation made, modify the port range to accommodate the passive FTP mode’s port.

Additional Information

A passive command and FTP Server's response look similar to the following:

C: PASV
S: 227 Entering Passive Mode (###,##,##,###,243,120).

First, the client (C:) requests a port on the server to connect to by sending the PASV command. WS_FTP Server (S:) then responds with the IP and port to which the client should connect.

where, ###,##,##,### is a representation of the WS_FTP Server's IP address.

and 243,120 is a mathematical representation of the TCP port to which WS_FTP Server is telling the client to connect.

The client is being asked to open the data channel on port 62328 (=243*256+120), way out of the range that would be configured on IIS. So a check on Data Channel Port Range defined on the FTP server will help in this case.