Documentation

FTP Check

About FTP Check

File Transport Protocol (FTP) is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another over a TCP-based network. Our FTP check not only alerts you when your FTP service stops functioning properly but will also optionally alert you to the absence or presence of any particular file on the service.

When to use FTP Checks

You should use FTP checks anytime you need to monitor the availability of an FTP service.

If you need to verify that a particular file is available on the FTP server, you can specify the path to that file as an optional parameter in your FTP check and receive notifications when the file is found missing. Inversely, you can verify the absence of a file and have the FTP check send you a notification if that file is ever found available on the service.

Using FTP Checks

To set up an FTP check,

Select FTP from the Check type drop down.
Give it a friendly label to identify this check in lists and notifications.
Enable Automated Diagnostics if you'd like detailed technical info about the failure that may help you troubleshoot a failure.
Set how often (in minutes) you want the check to run in the Check Frequency field.
Enter the host you'd like to monitor. The fully qualified domain name or the ip address of the FTP service is required.
Optionally enter the port number the FTP service is running on. This defaults to 21.
If you leave the 'Username' or 'Password' fields blank, the check will attempt an anonymous login. If you use these fields, please keep our Terms of Service in mind and limit the access provided by the credentials you use. If you'd like to simply test if an FTP service is running, you may leave these fields blank and the check will succeed even though the anonymous login may fail. The check will fail if it is unable to connect to an FTP service, as expected.
Optionally select the 'File exists' or 'File does not exist' from the drop down and type the full path to the file you wish to monitor. The file's presence is verified with a protocol standard FTP 'SIZE' call.
Set a time out threshold. The default 5 seconds works fine for most. You may wish to increase this if the FTP service is slower to respond.
Set the Sensitivity. The default 'High' is usually appropriate as it provides two immediate rechecks (three checks total) before declaring the check up or down. If your FTP service often fails, you may want to lower the 'Sensitivity' to receive fewer notifications.
Set the notifications for this check. More information about notifications.

Other considerations

SFTP is not FTP - it's SSH File Transfer Protocol or Secure File Transfer Protocol and doesn't use FTP syntax and thus cannot be monitored using our FTP checks. You may want to check availability of SFTP services using our SSH check.