powershell and FTP, script not waiting for transfer to complete - powershell

Question

I have a script that, in a nutshell, does the following:
copies required files to a temporary folder
compresses the files in the temporary folder to a .zip file
FTPs the .zip file to our FTP server
tidies up and deletes the temporary folder and .zip file
I have pinched the FTP code from a previous post:
Upload files with FTP using PowerShell
and modified it where necessary (keeping the basics in tact - I think).
The issue I have is that while the .zip file is being FTP'd the script doesn't wait until it is complete. It gets part way through, anywhere from 20Mb to 60Mb before it continues executing, tidies up and deletes the file it is transferring.
The temporary folder is always the same but the .zip filename varies depending on the date so I can't really reverse the order of operations.
Can anyone suggest how I might get the script to wait until the FTP process has completed, success or fail, before it moves on?
Cheers,
Andrew.
Edit: For those that asked....
function FTPtoServer ()
{
<#
What this function has to/should do:
- accept the right number of parameters,
minimum/mandatory: username, password, file
optional: proxy server address/port, proxy username and password
- check that the source file exists, then extract the filename.
- if a proxy is specified, set the appropriate parameters
- transmit the file
- if any errors occur, throw and return
#>
param(
[string]$sourcefile=$(throw 'A sourcefile is required, -sourcefile'), <#fully qualified zip file name#>
[string]$FTPUser =$(throw 'An FTP username is required, -ftpuser'),
[string]$FTPPass =$(throw 'An FTP password is required, -ftppass'),
#
[string]$proxyServer, #proxySocket?? it is an address and port
[string]$proxyUser,
[string]$proxyPass
)
#local variables
$FTPserver = "ftp://ftp.servername.com.au"
#check if the sourcefile exists, if not return/throw an error
# The sourcefile should contain the full path to the file.
if (-not (test-path $sourcefile)){
throw "the source file could not be located: $sourcefile"
}
# extract the filename from the sourcefile.
$filename = split-path -path $sourcefile -leaf
# create the FtpWebRequest and configure it
$ftp = [System.Net.FtpWebRequest]::Create("$FTPserver/$filename")
$ftp = [System.Net.FtpWebRequest]$ftp
$ftp.Method = [System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::UploadFile
$ftp.Credentials = new-object System.Net.NetworkCredential($FTPUser,$FTPPass)
$ftp.UseBinary = $true
$ftp.UsePassive = $false
#proxy info
# ******** DANGER Will Robinson - this proxy config has not been
# tested and may not work.
if ($proxyServer){
$proxy = New-Object System.Net.WebProxy $proxyServer
if ($proxyUser -and $proxyPass){
$proxy.Credentials = new-object System.Net.NetworkCredential($proxyUser,$proxyPass)
}
$ftp.Proxy = $proxy
$ftp.UsePassive = $true #apparently, must usePassive if using proxy
}
#now we have checked and prepared everything, lets try and send the file.
# read in the file to upload as a byte array
try{
#work out how much we are sending
$content = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("$sourceFile")
$ftp.ContentLength = $content.Length
try {
# get the request stream, and write the bytes into it
$rs = $ftp.GetRequestStream()
$rs.Write($content, 0, $content.Length)
# be sure to clean up after ourselves
$rs.Close()
$rs.Dispose()
}
catch {
$errorMessage = "FTP failed. " + $_.exception.message
throw $errormessage
}
}
catch {
$errorMessage = "Unable to transmit file " + $sourceFile + "`r`n" + $_.exception.message
throw $errormessage
}
}
The above is in a separate file, but is called by the following:
try {
FTPtoServer -sourcefile $sourcefile -ftpuser $FTPUser -ftppass $FTPPass
}
catch {
$errorMessage = "FTPtoServer function failed with error: $_"
finishFail -failmessage $errorMessage
}
Cheers.

Answer 1

Found it.
I executed the FTP code above in isolation using a large file (~140Mb) and it threw the error; "The underlying connection was closed: An unexpected error occured on a receive."
I rebooted the FTP server, checked the user account etc etc.
I also tested the M$ FTP client with the same file and it transferred completely and correctly.
Anyway, I found this article: https://www.codeproject.com/Questions/597175/FileplusUploadplustoplusFTPplusserver which also has the error I received.
As it turns out, the Timeout value of FTPWebRequest is NOT -1 as in the doco but 100 seconds.
I checked my FTP logs and sure enough, time between logon and logoff was about 100 seconds.
I added the line: $ftp.Timeout = -1 to my code and first attempt transferred the entire file completely without error.
Previous transfers had worked as they fell below the 100 second timeout.
Many thanks for the posts and help.

Answer 2

I use an alternative oldschool method myself, it should work for you, and doesn't need any extra components on the server.
$ftp_user = "username"
$ftp_password = "password"
$ftp_address = "ftp.someserver.com"
$ftp_commands = #"
open $ftp_address
$ftp_user
$ftp_password
lcd c:\jobs\output
put estate_data_current.xml
bye
"#
set-content -encoding "ASCII" -path ftp_commands.txt -value $ftp_commands
ftp -s:ftp_commands.txt