Configure PTAs in Gateway Administrator

A Post Transfer Action (PTA) is a program that is invoked on the file storage server after a file has been successfully uploaded to the server. For example, you might configure a PTA in Gateway Administrator that renames or moves successfully uploaded files. Because these PTAs are assigned to individual transfer sites, you can configure site-specific actions.

Characteristics of Post Transfer Actions configured on Gateway Administrator:

• PTAs run on the file storage server. Review Supported File Storage Configurations below to ensure that your actions will have sufficient permissions to run on this server.
• PTAs are assigned to transfer sites. A PTA will run only after uploads to a site to which it has been added.
• You can assign multiple Post Transfer Actions to a transfer site, but the order of actions in the transfer site definition does not control the order of execution for these actions. To ensure that a series of actions takes place in a predictable sequence, include the actions in a single script, then create a PTA that runs that script.
• Outputs from one PTA cannot be used as inputs to another PTA.
• Failed execution of a PTA does not prevent other PTAs from executing.
• PTAs are executed only after successful transfers. They do not run after unsuccessful or canceled transfers.
• PTAs are not supported for downloads or other file transfer events, such as renaming or deleting a file on the server.
• By default, up to 10 actions can execute simultaneously. Additional actions are added to a queue and executed as other actions are completed. You can modify this default in the Gateway Administrator properties file using the configservice.event.threads setting.
• If the Gateway Administrator service or computer shuts down for any reason, unprocessed actions are processed when the service resumes.

Supported File Storage Configurations

Gateway Administrator PTAs run on the configured file storage server. Review the following to ensure that your Post Transfer Actions will have sufficient permissions to run.

The following configuration is recommended for running PTAs:

• Any configuration in which File Storage has been configured to use an SFTP server.

  In this configuration, the PTA runs as a remote SSH command executed using the user account specified in the File Storage configuration.

  Note: This is the only supported configuration for PTAs if you use a Gateway Administrator cluster.

The following configuration is supported with a modification to the FileXpress Gateway Administrator service:

• All FileXpress Gateway services are installed on the same computer and File Storage is set to FileXpress proxy.

  In this configuration, the PTA runs as a local process and runs with the same privileges as the Gateway Administrator service. To run actions with this configuration, you need to modify the default privileges of the Gateway Administrator service.

The following configuration is likely to lead to permission and access problems and is not recommended:

• The FileXpress Proxy services and Gateway Administrator are installed on different systems and File Storage is set to FileXpress proxy.

  To support this configuration, the FileXpress base path on the FileXpress Secure Shell Proxy must be configured with a UNC path. The UNC path can be to the same computer or a network share. PTAs are executed by Gateway Administrator, so the UNC path must be accessible by processes on the Gateway Administrator computer, and the Gateway Administrator service account must have privileges to run post transfer actions on the proxy.

Logging for Gateway Administrator PTAs

The log file for Gateway Administrator PTAs is the Gateway Administrator console log file. Output from the configured program or command is directed to this log. The log also includes Gateway Administrator error messages to help troubleshoot PTAs. The default location is:

C:\Program Files\Attachmate\FileXpress\Gateway\GatewayAdministrator\logs\console.yyyymmdd.log