Transferring Snapshots Through FTP

By default, snapshots are stored in folders defined as Universal Naming Convention (UNC) shares. Replication also allows you to specify a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) share instead of a UNC share. To use FTP, you must configure an FTP server and then configure a publication and one or more subscriptions to use FTP. If you specify FTP information for a publication, subscriptions to that publication use FTP by default. FTP is only used with Web synchronization when the computer that is running IIS is separated from the Distributor by a firewall. For information on configuring an FTP server, see the Internet Information Services (IIS) documentation.

Security Note:

It is recommended to use Microsoft Windows Authentication and a UNC share rather than an FTP share because FTP passwords must be stored, and the password is sent from the Subscriber or the computer that is running IIS when it uses Web synchronization to the FTP server in plain text. Additionally, because a single account controls access to the snapshot share, it is not possible to ensure that a Subscriber to a filtered merge publication only has access to the snapshot files from their data partition.

To deliver a snapshot through FTP

• Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio: How to: Deliver a Snapshot Through FTP (SQL Server Management Studio)
• Replication Transact-SQL programming: How to: Deliver a Snapshot Through FTP (Replication Transact-SQL Programming)

See Also

Concepts

Web Synchronization for Merge Replication
Initializing a Subscription with a Snapshot
Snapshot Options

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance

Change History

Release	History
12 December 2006	New content: Added information about FTP and Web synchronization.