BackupService

Windows service for scheduled FTP/FTPS backups. It mirrors a remote FTP folder to a local drive path on a daily schedule, keeps timestamped snapshots, and produces daily zip archives.

Requirements

• .NET SDK 10.0+
• Windows machine with access to the remote FTP server
• Local destination on a drive letter path (for example: D:\Backups\SiteA)

Installation

1. Build and publish the service:

dotnet publish .\BackupService.csproj -c Release -o C:\Services\BackupService

2. Create the Windows service:

sc.exe create BackupService binPath= "C:\Services\BackupService\BackupService.exe"

3. (Optional) Set the service account if needed:

sc.exe config BackupService obj= ".\ServiceUser" password= "YourPassword"

4. Start the service:

sc.exe start BackupService

Configuration

Edit appsettings.json (development) or provide a matching appsettings.json alongside the published executable. The important sections are BackupOptions, FileLogging, and ServiceSettings.

Key settings:

• BackupOptions:RunAt: local time for daily run (default 02:00).
• BackupOptions:DefaultTimeoutMinutes: per-job timeout (default 60).
• BackupOptions:HistoryCopies: number of snapshots kept (default 5).
• BackupOptions:Backups: list of backup jobs.
• ServiceSettings:StartHour / ServiceSettings:StartMinute: currently used by a startup timer that logs when the service would start; actual scheduling uses BackupOptions:RunAt.

Each backup job supports:

• Name: friendly name for logs.
• Host, Port, Username, Password: FTP server credentials.
• RemotePath: remote folder to mirror.
• LocalPath: local drive folder to store the mirror, snapshots, and archives.
• Encryption: Explicit or Implicit (default Explicit).
• Passive: true for passive mode (default true).
• AllowInvalidCertificate: set true to skip TLS validation.
• TimeoutMinutes: overrides the default timeout.
• HistoryCopies: overrides the default retention count.
• RetentionDays: days to keep zip archives (default 7).
• OperationTimeoutMinutes: timeout for the final post-archive FTP download (default 10).
• CompletionTimeoutMinutes: overall per-job timeout for copy/archive work (default 180).

Example:

{
  "FileLogging": {
    "Path": "logs\\backup.log",
    "MinimumLevel": "Information"
  },
  "BackupOptions": {
    "RunAt": "02:00",
    "HistoryCopies": 5,
    "DefaultTimeoutMinutes": 60,
    "CurrentSubdirectoryName": "current",
    "HistorySubdirectoryName": "_history",
    "Backups": [
      {
        "Name": "SiteA",
        "Host": "ftp.example.com",
        "Port": 21,
        "Username": "user",
        "Password": "password",
        "RemotePath": "/",
        "LocalPath": "D:\\Backups\\SiteA",
        "Encryption": "Explicit",
        "Passive": true,
        "AllowInvalidCertificate": false,
        "TimeoutMinutes": 60,
        "HistoryCopies": 5,
        "RetentionDays": 7,
        "OperationTimeoutMinutes": 10,
        "CompletionTimeoutMinutes": 180
      }
    ]
  },
  "ServiceSettings": {
    "StartHour": 2,
    "StartMinute": 0
  }
}

Sensitive values

Passwords are stored in clear text in appsettings.json. For production use, consider setting credentials in environment variables and leaving the file values blank:

$env:BackupOptions__Backups__0__Username = "user"
$env:BackupOptions__Backups__0__Password = "password"

Running behavior

• On startup, the service performs a one-off FTP test run using the first configured backup job and writes progress to the console.
• The service runs once per day at the configured time.
• Backups execute sequentially; a failure does not block the next job.
• Each job is cancelled if it exceeds its timeout.
• The remote path is mirrored into LocalPath\current.
• Snapshot copies are stored in LocalPath\_history\yyyyMMdd_HHmmss.
• A daily zip archive is created at LocalPath\archives\<JobName>\yyyy-MM-dd.zip, and archives older than RetentionDays are deleted.
• Logs are written to the Windows Event Log and to the file path in FileLogging:Path.

Note: LocalPath must be a local drive path (for example D:\Backups\SiteA); UNC paths are rejected by the runner.

Running locally (console mode)

You can run the worker as a console app for quick testing:

dotnet run --project .\BackupService.csproj

Press Ctrl+C to stop it.

Uninstall

sc.exe stop BackupService
sc.exe delete BackupService

Troubleshooting

• If the service cannot write logs, ensure the service account has write access to the log directory and backup destination.
• If TLS validation fails, set AllowInvalidCertificate to true for the specific backup or install a trusted certificate on the machine.
• If Event Log entries do not appear, run the service once with elevated permissions or pre-create the event source.