Documentation Experience Platform Source Connectors Guide

Create an SFTP source connection in the UI

Last update: Mon Oct 30 2023 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

Topics:
Sources

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User
Admin
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This tutorial provides steps to create an SFTP source connection using the Adobe Experience Platform UI.

Getting started

This tutorial requires a working understanding of the following components of Platform:

Experience Data Model (XDM) System: The standardized framework by which Experience Platform organizes customer experience data.
- Basics of schema composition: Learn about the basic building blocks of XDM schemas, including key principles and best practices in schema composition.
- Schema Editor tutorial: Learn how to create custom schemas using the Schema Editor UI.
Real-Time Customer Profile: Provides a unified, real-time consumer profile based on aggregated data from multiple sources.

IMPORTANT

It is recommended to avoid newlines or carriage returns when ingesting JSON objects with an SFTP source connection. To work around the limitation, use a single JSON object per line and use multi-lines for ensuing files.

If you already have a valid SFTP connection, you may skip the remainder of this document and proceed to the tutorial on configuring a dataflow.

Gather required credentials

In order to connect to SFTP, you must provide values for the following connection properties:

Credential

Description

host

The name or IP address associated with your SFTP server.

port

The SFTP server port you’re connecting to. If unprovided, the value defaults to 22.

username

The username with access to your SFTP server.

password

The password for your SFTP server.

privateKeyContent

The Base64 encoded SSH private key content. The type of OpenSSH key must be classified as either RSA or DSA.

passPhrase

The pass phrase or password to decrypt the private key if the key file or the key content is protected by a pass phrase. If PrivateKeyContent is password protected, this parameter needs to be used with the PrivateKeyContent’s passphrase as value.

maxConcurrentConnections

This parameter allows you to specify a maximum limit for the number of concurrent connections Platform will create when connecting to your SFTP server. You must set this value to be less than the limit set by SFTP. Note: When this setting is enabled for an existing SFTP account, it will only affect future dataflows and not existing dataflows.

Folder path

The path to the folder that you want to provide access to. SFTP source, you can provide the folder path to specify user access to the sub folder of your choice.

Once you have gathered your required credentials, you can follow the steps below to create a new SFTP account to connect to Platform.

Connect to your SFTP server

In the Platform UI, select Sources from the left navigation bar to access the Sources workspace. The Catalog screen displays a variety of sources with which you can create an account.

You can select the appropriate category from the catalog on the left-hand side of your screen. Alternatively, you can find the specific source you wish to work with using the search option.

Under the Cloud storage category, select SFTP and then select Add data.

The Experience Platform sources catalog with the SFTP source selected.

The Connect to SFTP page appears. On this page, you can either use new credentials or existing credentials.

Existing account

To connect an existing account, select the FTP or SFTP account you want to connect with, then select Next to proceed.

A list of existing SFTP accounts on the Experience Platform UI.

New account

TIP

Once created, you cannot change the authentication type of an SFTP base connection. To change the authentication type, you must create a new base connection.
SFTP supports an RSA or DSA type OpenSSH key. Ensure that your key file content starts with "-----BEGIN [RSA/DSA] PRIVATE KEY-----" and ends with "-----END [RSA/DSA] PRIVATE KEY-----". If the private key file is a PPK-format file, use the PuTTY tool to convert from PPK to OpenSSH format.

If you are creating a new account, select New account, and then provide a name and an optional description for your new SFTP account.

The new account screen for SFTP

The SFTP source supports both basic authentication and authentication via SSH public key.

Basic authentication

To use basic authentication, select Password and then provide the host and port values to connect to, alongside your username and password. During this step, you can also designate the path to the sub folder that you want to provide access to. When finished, select Connect to source.

The new account screen for the SFTP source using basic authentication

SSH public key authentication

To use SSH public key-based credentials, select SSH public key and then provide your host and port values, as well as your private key content and passphrase combination. During this step, you can also designate the path to the sub folder that you want to provide access to. When finished, select Connect to source.

The new account screen for the SFTP source using SSH public key.

Next steps

By following this tutorial, you have established a connection to your SFTP account. You can now continue on to the next tutorial and configure a dataflow to bring data from your cloud storage into Platform.

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