Guide – How To Start – Secure SFTP Server for Windows 2022 DC Azure Edition OpenSSH

Set up complete protection for your files during transmission with our Secure SFTP Server on Windows 2022 Azure Edition

This is a quick deployment and ready-to-run image.
Simple and rapid installation. Easy to maintain.

Configuration and connection to Secure SFTP Server on Windows 2022 Azure Edition

For the connection to the server you should know the IP address of the VM. You can find it in the personal account of Azure. (You need to select the virtual machine from the list. By clicking the item “Overview”, your IP is displayed in the line of “Public IP Address”).

For the VM to work, you need to open TCP port 22 in the network properties of the Azure Firewall.

Connecting to the VM

1. To connect to the virtual machine, run the “Remote Desktop Connection” shortcut “Win + R”

In the window that appears, enter “mstsc” and click “OK”.

2. In the window that appears, enter the IP of the virtual machine and click “Connect”.

3. In the window that appears, enter your username and password and click “OK”.
   
4. Check the box and click “Yes”.

Configure SFTP server

1. Secure FTP server will be run automatically when the VM starts. Stop the SFTP server service by running the “stop ftp” shortcut on the desktop.

2. Press any key for continue

3. Create the necessary users in the server admin panel. To add a user to the server, you need to click the shortcut on the desktop “freeFTPd”. 

4. When main window opened, the following will displayed:

5. Go to the “Users” tab and click the “Add” button:

6. In the user registration window, enter “Login”.

Select “Password stored as SHA1 hash” in the drop-down list of the “Authorization” field. Next, in the “Password” field, enter any user-friendly password and confirm it in the “Password (again)” field.

Disable the use of “FTP server” and click Apply.

7. After creating the necessary users, you need to go to the SFTP tab and make sure that “Server status: Stopped!”

8. Start the service by clicking the “Start” button (“Server status” will become “Running…”)

FAQ:

Question: I get the error “The specified address is already in use”

Answer: This error occurs because of freeFTPd instance background running. To resolve this, you need to cancel all other instances of freeFTPd in the task manager, and then open it again. Also you can just stop freeFTPService and restart it.

9. Click the “Apply & Save” button

10. Click “Stop” (“Server status” will become “Stopped!”)

11. Close the application window by clicking on the cross (the application minimizes to tray)

12. Open the Windows tray, click the right mouse button on the freeFTPd icon and select “Quit”.

13. Start the SFTP server service using the “start ftp” shortcut on the desktop.

Connection to the SFTP server

It is recommended to use the “FileZilla Client” application (you can download it from the link: https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?platform=win64). 

1. When launched, the application looks like this:
   

In the “Host” field enter the IP address of your machine in the personal account in Azure. 

In the “Username” field enter the user’s login created in freeFTPd.

In the “Password” type the user’s password.

When the data is entered click on “Quickconnect”.

2. Then you will see the next window which asks if you can trust the host and its signatures, in this window you need to click “OK”:

3. SFTP user folder is automatically created in the “C:\Program Files (x86)\freeFTPd\sftproot\” folder, when a user connects to SFTP for the first time. You can transfer files in this folder, so a user can view them.

Now you can use Secure SFTP Server on Windows 2022 Azure Edition.