Upgrading from an ancient FileZilla server version

[pelsdyret]

A customer has an ancient FileZilla server installation, version 0.9.34 beta.
Obviously, it needs to be updated for security reasons. The problem is that the conversion tool really doesn't do anything. It runs and returns and nothing has changed. No users are added and other configuration information also stays the same. I guess the config xml file is simply too outdated.

This is what I've tried to do so far:
- Installed the new version in the same directory as the existing one
- Run the filezilla-server-config-converter.exe "d:\[...]\filezilla server\filezilla server.xml" filezilla-server
- Considered download an older but sligher newer version of FileZilla Server which might be able to convert the xml file.

I can't export the old configuration because there is no way to do so. The old config file is totally different from the current ones; e.g., it begins with the following:

Code: Select all

<FileZillaServer>
    <Settings>
        <Item name="Serverports" type="string">21 80 443</Item>
        <Item name="Number of Threads" type="numeric">8</Item>
        <Item name="Maximum user count" type="numeric">0</Item>
        <Item name="Timeout" type="numeric">120</Item>
        <Item name="No Transfer Timeout" type="numeric">600</Item>
        <Item name="Allow Incoming FXP" type="numeric">1</Item>
    

... and then continues with 6000+ more lines of XML stuff.

It's a daunting task to add 100+ users manually, so I really would like to avoid that.

I presume I could create a script that would take the old xml file's usernames and convert them to the format accepted by the FileZilla config import function. The users are stored in filezilla server.xml the following way:

Code: Select all

        <User Name="someusername">
            <Option Name="Pass">2ff69ad57814d***********</Option>
            <Option Name="Group"></Option>
            <Option Name="Bypass server userlimit">0</Option>
            <Option Name="User Limit">0</Option>
            <Option Name="IP Limit">0</Option>
            <Option Name="Enabled">1</Option>
            <Option Name="Comments"></Option>
            <Option Name="ForceSsl">0</Option>
            <IpFilter>
                <Disallowed />
                <Allowed />
            </IpFilter>
            <Permissions>
                <Permission Dir="D:\[some folder]\12345678\temp">
                    <Option Name="FileRead">1</Option>
                    <Option Name="FileWrite">1</Option>
                    <Option Name="FileDelete">1</Option>
                    <Option Name="FileAppend">0</Option>
                    <Option Name="DirCreate">0</Option>
                    <Option Name="DirDelete">0</Option>
                    <Option Name="DirList">1</Option>
                    <Option Name="DirSubdirs">1</Option>
                    <Option Name="IsHome">1</Option>
                    <Option Name="AutoCreate">0</Option>
                </Permission>
            </Permissions>
            <SpeedLimits DlType="0" DlLimit="10" ServerDlLimitBypass="0" UlType="0" UlLimit="10" ServerUlLimitBypass="0">
                <Download />
                <Upload />
            </SpeedLimits>
        </User>

The old password is an MD5 hash value, which I presume is not the case with the new config file. However, I'm able to extract the passwords in clear text from another source.

I've considered upgrading gradually, that is, finding a slightly never version of FileZilla Server to see if it can convert the archaic config file, but I wouldn't know which one to go for or where to download it from.

Does anyone have a suggestion? Or is the answer simply to spend a day adding users manually?

[oibaf]

The config converter is very likely running just fine, but the way you invoked it makes it produce the configuration files under %LOCALAPPDATA%\filezilla-server. The config converter is automatically run by the installation script, under the account that the server's service is set to run under, if it finds that a previous "ancient" installation was already installed. Did you install that one manually, or did you erase the install info from the registry?

As a second parameter to filezilla-server-config-converter, if instead of a relative path, which filezilla-server is, you give it an absolute path, then the config files will be output in the directory pointed to by that path.

Then you ought to copy those files where the FileZilla Server's service expects them to be, which is %PROGRAMDATA%\filezilla-server if the service is running under the SYSTEM account, and %LOCALAPPDATA%\filezilla-server for all the other accounts.

___

There's another way: filezilla-server-config-converter.exe can be installed as a service, to run under the same account as the FileZilla Server's service, and started with the same parameters you used already. Once completed its job it will stop automatically by itself and then you will find the config files at their right place.

___

As for the passwords: the old ones are just fine; when users first log in their password will be converted to the new, more secure type.

[pelsdyret]

Thank you, olbaf, for your prompt and precise answer. Indeed, the conversion tool had created some files under %LOCALAPPDATA%.

I'll copy these to %ProgramData%\filezilla-server when I'm able to stop the running service.