TFTP FAQs...

Last week at Cisco's Networkers Live we answered a lot of questions about the SolarWinds TFTP Server and TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) in general so I thought I'd take a few moments to share some of the most common questions and answers.

q)  Does the SolarWinds TFTP Server still have a 32MB file size limitation?
a)  No. The SolarWinds TFTP Server now has a 4GB file size limit.

q)  Why did the 32MB file size limitation exist?
a)  The original RFC for TFTP used a fixed block size, which inherently limited the file size to 32MB. RFC2347 and RFC2348 introduced and allowed for block size negotiation which allow for file sizes up to 4GB or larger if the server and client support block size wraparound.

q)  Why is it that even though I'm using the latest SolarWinds TFTP Server I can't transfer files larger than 32MB?
a)  Remember, both the client and the server have to support block size negotiation. So, if you're running the SolarWinds TFTP Server on an XP Workstation and transferring a file to a Cisco router with resent IOS it'll work great. However, if you're running the TFTP Server on an XP Workstation and transferring the file to another XP Workstation using the standard XP TFTP client you'll be limited to 32MB as this is the maximum that the standard XP client supports.

q)  Can I run the SolarWinds TFTP Server on the same server with Orion NPM, Cirrus, or other SolarWinds products?
a)  Yes, no worries.

Anyhow, I use the TFTP server at least a few times per week so I wanted to be sure to pass this information along...

Flame on...
Josh

p.s. before he flames me, thanks to Greg Newman our Toolset lead developer and architect for providing some of the information above :)

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