I need software to manage a large number of groups for a FTP server. Ideally this software should also allow managing the associated NTFS rights for the folders on FTP (if they still match the definition for example, or propagate rights changes to the disk). I do not need a complex and very expensive IT management suite, just a solution for the described problem. Prices up to about 5000$ are ok.
After having searched for some hours on the web, I could neither find an interesting tool to evaluate nor a comparison of existing tools. Given this situation, what are some of the best candidates I can start evaluating?
Ummm, seems Active Directory would be exactly what you need. Assuming you already own licenses for Windows Server, the cost will be a whopping $0.
Update
After hearing you describe your needs further, what you really need is a filesystem permissions auditing and management system, not really user and group management. It's quite unlikely that you'll find a canned solution that does everything you need. It sounds, though, that you could get the desired functionality with a small set of powershell scripts, possibly called by a simple web front end.