Create SFTP Connections

You can create connections to SFTP servers to upload your datasets to the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta® platform. 

• Linux- and Windows-based SFTP servers are supported. 

Limitations

• Ingest of over 500 files through SFTP at one time is not supported.
• You cannot run jobs using Avro or Parquet sources uploaded via SFTP.
• When you specify a parameterized output as part of your job execution, the specified output location may include additional unnecessary information about the SFTP connection identifier. None of this information is sensitive. This is a known issue.
• Jobs can be executed from SFTP sources on the following running environments:
  • Trifacta Photon
  • HDFS-based Spark, which includes Cloudera and Hortonworks

• You cannot publish TDE format to SFTP destinations.
• You cannot publish compressed Snappy files to SFTP destinations.

Pre-requisites

• Acquire user credentials to access the SFTP server. You can use username/password credentials or SSH keys. See below.

• Verify that the credentials can access the proper locations on the server where your data is stored. Initial directory of the user account must be accessible.

SSH Keys

If preferred, you can use SSH keys to for authentication to the SFTP server.

Enable

By default, this connection type is automatically enabled.

Configure file storage protocols and locations

The Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform must be provided the list of protocols and locations for accessing SFTP. 

Steps:

1. You can apply this change through the Admin Settings Page (recommended) or trifacta-conf.json. For more information, see Platform Configuration Methods.

2. Locate the following parameters and set their values according to the table below:
   
   

   "fileStorage.whitelist": ["sftp"],
   "fileStorage.defaultBaseUris": ["sftp:///"],

   Parameter	Description
   filestorage.whitelist	A comma-separated list of protocols that are permitted to access SFTP. NOTE: The protocol identifier "sftp" must be included in this list.
   filestorage.defaultBaseUris	For each supported protocol, this param must contain a top-level path to the location where Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform files can be stored. These files include uploads, samples, and temporary storage used during job execution. NOTE: A separate base URI is required for each supported protocol. You may only have one base URI for each protocol. NOTE: For SFTP, three slashes at the end are required, as the third one is the path value.

3. Save your changes and restart the platform.

Java VFS service

Use of SFTP connections requires the Java VFS service in the Designer Cloud Powered by Trifacta platform.

For more information on configuring this service, see Configure Java VFS Service.

Create Connection

Create through application

Any user can create a SFTP connection through the application.

Steps:

1. Login to the application.
2. In the menu, select Settings menu > Settings > Connections. See Connections Page.
3. In the Connections page, click Create Connection. See Create Connection Window.
4. In the Create Connection window, click the SFTP connection card.

5. Specify the properties for your SFTP server.

   Property	Description
   Host	The hostname of the FTP server to which you are connecting. Do not include any protocol identifier (sftp://).
   Port	The port number to use to connect to the server. Default port number is 22.
   Credential Type	Select one of the following: basic - authenticate via username and password SSH Key - authenticate via username and SSH key
   User Name	The username to use to connect.
   Password	(Basic credential type) The password associated with the username.
   SSH Key	(SSH Key credential type) The SSH key that applies to the username.
   Test Connection	Click this button to test the connection that you have specified.
   Default Directory	Absolute path on the SFTP server where users of the connection can begin browsing.
   Block Size (Bytes)	Fetch size in bytes for each read from the SFTP server. NOTE: Raising this value may increase speed of read operations. However, if it is raised too high, resources can become overwhelmed, and the read can fail.
   Connection Name	The name of the connection as you want it to appear in the application.
   Description	This description is displayed in the application.

   For more information, see Create Connection Window.

6. Click Save. 

Create through APIs

1. Acquire the vendor and type information. See Connection Types.
2. Create the connection through the APIs. See API Connections Create v4.