FTP Extension - Numerous FTP tasks started on the host

[FALLAI-Denis]

Describe the bug

While "playing" with the "Zowe Explorer Extension for FTP" extension, I noticed that many tasks were started on the z / OS host, dependent on (childs of) the task of the z/OS FTPD daemon.

I assume that the extension starts a new FTP connection with each request at Zowe Explorer (USS) and does not reuse the connection already established.

I don't know how long these tasks remain active. They automatically ended when VS Code was closed.

To Reproduce

1. Install "Zowe Explorer" and "Zowe Explorer Extension for FTP"
2. Create a zFTP profile
3. Association zFTP profile to "Unix System Services (uss)" in "Zowe Explorer"
4. Navigate in folders and download files in "Unix System Services (uss)"
5. Check the hosts for the active tasks for the logged in user (Under SDSF: DA and PS).

Expected behavior

A single FTP connection on the z/OS host should be opened by the extension (or a pool of a few connections to possibly manage parallelism), and reused at each request, and not an FTP connection at each request.

Screenshots

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Windows 10 PRO 64
• Zowe Explorer Version: 1.12.0
• (Optional) Zowe CLI Version: 6.26.0, @zowe/zos-ftp-for-zowe-cli 1.4.0
• (Optional) Are you using Secure Credential Store? no

Additional context

None

[crawr]

@tiantn @std4lqi
Is this something that we can look at from the FTP CLI plugin?

[std4lqi]

@crawr In FTP CLI plugin, each command uses a standalone FTP connection. The shared FTP connection(s) makes more sense In Zowe Explorer FTP Extension, which could improve responsiveness as well.

@tiantn and I can think about the options to improve it.

[std4lqi]

@FALLAI-Denis It's fixed in Zowe Explorer Extension for FTP in v1.16.0, closing the connections at the end of each operation.

[crawr]

@FALLAI-Denis please let us know if the fix in v1.16.0 solved your issue and if we can close this now?

[FALLAI-Denis]

Hi @crawr, @std4lqi

Regarding the multiple FTP tasks left actives on the z/OS system, the problem has disappeared.

However, I detected another problem: the zFTP profile used must not have the same name as a z/OSMF profile already in use... In all cases, the profiles bear the name of the lpar z/OS accessed:

I suggest that in the Zowe Explorer views "DATA SETS", "UNIX SYSTEM SERVICES (USS)" and "JOBS", the name of the profile be prefixed or suffixed by the type of the profile, or else that a specific icon be associated with each type of profile.

For example, with a type:name format:

• zftp:TMVS
• zosmf:TMVS

This remark is also valid for the management of "sessions" properties for "Zowe-xxx-Persistent" objects in the settings.json file of VS Code. The name of the profile is not sufficient, you also need the type of the profile.

[jellypuno]

Create a new enhancement issue regarding the duplicate name

Tasks:

1. Add the profile type in the checking of duplicate name
2. Handle the persistence of the sessions. zosmf and zftp are merged.
3. Re-use of FTP sessions

[zFernand0]

Note: Check z/OSMF for similar behaviors