Chapter 1 Introduction

Sun™ Secure File Transport (Sun SFT) is a Sun Services tool that supports data transfer between customer environments and Sun. It is used to periodically deliver Explorer data collector files for proactive reporting and for sending on-demand Explorer, core, log, or other files for support services diagnostics. Sun SFT is designed to support customer network environments where Explorer clients do not have Internet access and to provide a central point to manage Explorer telemetry.

The Sun SFT software is a daemon process that runs in the background, periodically scanning a specified directory for new files and forwarding that data to the configured destination, Sun Microsystems, Inc. You launch the Sun SFT software through a command line interface. The software is a separate download that runs on versions 9 and 10 of the Solaris Operating System (OS) running Java 1.5.0 or higher. All transfers between your system and Sun use industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, which ensures the security of the transfer of your data. The /usr/bin/gzip and /usr/bin/tar commands are required for transfer of Explorer files and should have been included with your Solaris OS . Sun SFT runs as a software bundle within Sun Automated Service Manager (SASM). you must be a superuser to launch the SASM process or use any of the Sun SFT or SASM command line options.

Sun SFT Software

The Sun SFT software is meant to be an aggregation and transfer point for telemetry data from other hosts. It detects and validates configured file types and then invokes a transfer process to send the data to the configured destination.

The Sun SFT software is distributed as a Solaris SUNWsftransport package that is installed under a standard location, /opt/SUNWsftransport. A Sun Online Account is required to install and run Sun SFT. Refer to the sftransport(1m) man page for information about command line options, and the sftransport(4) man page for a detailed description of the configuration file.

The following architecture diagram shows the configuration and communication routes of a typical Sun SFT network.