upload files to a different server

Question

My web applications are on Server D. So I created a web application that has an fileupload control. I can easily upload any file to a folder (FILES) inside the web app.

My question now: How can I upload the same file (from code behind) to a folder (UPLOADS) on a different server (SERVER T) that I have? I also need to read,write and modify that file on the SERVER T. Remember that I use Web Forms and not Windows Forms!!!

Someone told me something about creating a Network Service account on server T for the web app on server D to use and give that account permissions or something like that but he doesn’t know the details either.

Is there a tutorial, guide since I'm sure there is a way to do this…

Also, all I can find on Google is using ftp but for windows forms only…

Kinda stuck around here…

Does the target server has shared folder which can be accessed by original server? — Yahya, Mar 20 '13 at 16:12
@DavidStratton That assumes the servers 'know' about each other, and I would always say this article demonstrates the way _not_ to do it; create an intermediary vector for communication, such as a service. — Grant Thomas, Mar 20 '13 at 16:13
@Yahya, yes to you question. The 2 servers are in the same network and they can access eachother //ServerT //ServerD — Nathan, Mar 20 '13 at 16:18
@Grant Thomas, the servers do "know" each other... how would i create a service like the one you suggested. do you have a link ? — Nathan, Mar 20 '13 at 16:19
@Nathan Try this then: http://growingtech.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/copy-network-shared-folder-file-using-c.html — Yahya, Mar 20 '13 at 16:20
I have edited your title. Please see, "[Should questions include “tags” in their titles?](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/19190/)", where the consensus is "no, they should not". — John Saunders, Mar 20 '13 at 16:33
@GrantThomas, While creating service to deal with manipulating files is useful suggestion at the end last server in the chain of services will have the same exact problem - file storage on one server, service talking to that is on another (if you do proper isolation). So I think [article](http://2leggedspider.wordpress.com/2007/05/28/upload-files-to-unc-share-using-asp-net/) that David Stratton linked to would give good starting point for that last segment. — Alexei Levenkov, Mar 20 '13 at 16:33
@yahya thanks man that was it: the blog you gave me with the impersonation did the trick... — Nathan, Mar 21 '13 at 14:22
@AlexeiLevenkov thanks Alex...your link had a second solution similar to yahya's article and it totally worked. thanks again... — Nathan, Mar 21 '13 at 14:24
@Nathan my pleasure, I will post it as an answer so it can help others in future! — Yahya, Mar 21 '13 at 14:29

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 20 '13 at 16:24

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If you need to read/write/change files in a network folder, you can try this:

Open IIS > Application Pools 
            > Select Application pool of the site
              > Advanced Options
                > Process Model > Select Identity

Now you should know the Application Pool Account. Finally make sure that account does have the required privileges to SERVER T\UPLOADS folder.

answered Mar 20 '13 at 16:24

Kaf

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Note: It is not going to work if site is using impersonation. – Alexei Levenkov Mar 20 '13 at 16:27
? I'm sorry if my comment looked like "your answer is wrong" - all I wanted to is remind future readers that this approach may not immediately work for sites. Impersonation/"NTLM one-hop-hell" is very hard already, so being aware when some solution don't apply could be useful. – Alexei Levenkov Mar 20 '13 at 16:38
@AlexeiLevenkov, ah,.. that is okay. Extra information always welcome ! – Kaf Mar 20 '13 at 16:39
2

+1 - actually this is vary safe approach to have credentials to talk to other Windows servers (assuming one need just one set of credentials - i.e. talking to single DB/file share). As I've noted - if site uses impersonation more work would be needed to revert impersoantion to run as process' account. – Alexei Levenkov Mar 20 '13 at 16:41
@Kaf In the select Identity drop down there were only 3 options: Network Service, Local Service and Local System. I chose Network Service and then i made sure that the folder has NETWORK SERVICE group/user in the security tab with full permissions. But i still get the same error in my err.Message: Access to the path '\\ServerT\Uploads\file.dbf is denied'. WHen i run this on my localhost, everything works fine though... – Nathan Mar 20 '13 at 18:20
You can access `Uploads` folder like that only if you have shared it. Otherwise you have to access like `\\ServerT\c$\Uploads\..` where `c` is the local drive. I am not a security expert but I think you may need to share it and give full control to the network services. If not working try to use a custom user. – Kaf Mar 21 '13 at 09:07
@Kaf Uploads is shared...as i said Everything works fine when i compile my project locally...the problem shows up when i go live with it. Also, when i copy //serverT/Uploads/Files/file.dbf in the URL it automatically downloads it. WHen i copy //serverT/Uploads/Files/ i can see all the files listed as well... – Nathan Mar 21 '13 at 12:33
That means `virtual path` is working and you have allowed `directory browsing`. Can you try this using a custom account: Create a new account (or even existing one) and make a member of `IIS_IUSRS` user group in IIS running machine. Then select that user for the `Application Pool`. Next give him permission to above shared folder. – Kaf Mar 21 '13 at 13:02

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 21 '13 at 14:30

2

Taken from this blog post

We can do following-

Login to a user account using c#

Impersonate as the logged in user

Copy the file using System.IO.File.Copy

answered Mar 21 '13 at 14:30

Yahya

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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

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A very simple solution would be to simply ftp the file to the new server, here is an example

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/343913/Simple-FTP-library-in-Csharp

or doing an http post to the other server here is a SO question with a decent answer for doing that

FileUpload to FileStream

once the file is on the other server push the work of update/modify/etc to the other server

edited May 23 '17 at 11:58

Community

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answered Mar 20 '13 at 16:22

Bob The Janitor

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upload files to a different server

3 Answers3

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