NFS or FTP transport protocol

[Former Member]

what is the difference between NFS and FTP transport protocol? and when do we use them?

Regards,

Ashish Goyal

[Former Member]

Ashish,

You could refer the Bible of protocols for more information.

NFS : http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1094.txt

FTP : http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc959

As far as a decision wrt XI which out of these is to be used, it would be driven by many factors.

1. Your source / target system's way of exposing its data. e.g. Shared / mountable folders , then go for NFS.

2. Performance -> Note that FTP involvs a mix of two protocols i.e. Network protocol + FTP commands whereas NFS makes it available as if the files are on your local machine though.

[Former Member]

NFS stands for File System.

Both of NFS and FTP should make the following specifications for file:

<b>File name schema</b>:

Name of the file

<b>File Construction Mode</b>:

Create file, append to existing file, or specify additional parameters for the file name

<b>File Type</b>:

Binary or text file (in the case of the latter also specify the file encoding as a code page)

<b>Operating System Command</b>:

To be executed after successful processing (you can use placeholders for the file name)

Additionally,If you specify NFS as the transport protocol, the only other specification you need to make is the <b>Target Directory</b> in which the file is to be generated.

But if you want use FTP, following specifications should be made:

<b>Server</b>

Host name or IP address of the FTP server

<b>Port</b>

Port number of the FTP server (default: 21)

<b>Connect Mode</b>

The connection can be permanently open, or it can be established for each file transfer

<b>Transfer Mode</b>

Text or binary data transfer

<b>Put File</b>

Direct or temporary file (collected before final transfer)

<b>Folder</b>

Target folder for the file

<b>Logon Data</b>

User/password, or anonymous (anonymous/anonymous)

Check this one

Message was edited by: YiNing Mao

[Former Member]

Hi Ashish,

We mostly use NFS when we required to poll the files from local machines..

Or in other words, any machine that is mounted on your SAP XI server can use the NFS protocol.

We use FTP when we required to poll the data from the FTP servers which are in the remote side or outside of the firewall..

also go through these links...

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/e3/94007075cae04f930cc4c034e411e1/content.htm

Regards,

Abhy

[bhavesh_kantilal]

Ashish,

Updating this thread because of wrong info provided earlier.

As my colleague Amol rightly pointed out ,

" Decision of NFS / FTP has nothing to do with firewall. You can have two machines connected over a VPN and obviously having a firewall in between and still they can use NFS if the shared / mountable folders are available"

Thanks guys,

Regards,

Bhavesh

Message was edited by: Bhavesh Kantilal

[bhavesh_kantilal]

Hi,

Also take a look at this blog,

/people/shabarish.vijayakumar/blog/2006/08/01/along-came-a-file-adapter-mr-ftp-and-rest-of-the-gang

Regards,

Bhavesh