Connectors → SFTP

About Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP)

Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) is a file transfer protocol that leverages a set of utilities that provide secure access to a remote computer to deliver secure communications. It is considered by many to be the optimal method for secure file transfer. It leverages SSH Secure Socket Shell or Secure Shell (SSH) and is frequently also referred to as “Secure Shell File Transfer Protocol”.

About the SFTP connector

The SFTP connector allows you to connect to a remote computer or server where the files you need to load are stored. Incorta is able to load the following file types from an SFTP server:

Text (.csv, .tsv, .tab, .txt)
Excel (.xlsx)

The SFTP connector supports the following Incorta specific functionality:

Feature	Supported
Chunking
Data Agent
Encryption at Ingest
Incremental Load	✔
Multi-Source	✔
OAuth
Performance Optimized	✔
Remote	✔
Single-Source	✔
Spark Extraction
Webhook Callbacks	✔

Steps to use the SFTP connector

Here are the high level steps to use the SFTP connector:

Create an external data source
Create a physical schema with the Schema Wizard
or, Create a physical schema table with the Schema Designer
Load the physical schema
Explore the physical schema

Create an external data source

Here are the steps to create an external data source with the SFTP connector:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Data.
In the Action bar, select + New → Add Data Source.
In the Choose a Data Source dialog, in Data lake, select Data Lake - SFTP.
In the New Data Source dialog, specify the applicable connector properties.
To test, select Test Connection.
Select Ok to save your changes.

SFTP connector properties

Here are the properties for the SFTP connector:

Property	Control	Description
Name Your Data Source	text box	Enter a name for your data source
Username	text box	Enter the username for the SFTP account used to access the data source.
Host Name	text box	Enter the address of your SFTP server.
Port	text box	Enter the port number of the SFTP server. The default port number is: 22.
Pasword	text box	Enter the password for the SFTP account used to access the data source.
Directory	text box	Enter the SFTP server path of the files you want to load. For example: `sftp://root/folder/subfolder/data`

Create a physical schema with the Schema Wizard

Here are the steps to create a SFTP physical schema with the Schema Wizard:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Action bar, select + New → Schema Wizard
In (1) Choose a Source, specify the following:
- For Enter a name, enter the physical schema name.
- For Select a Datasource, select the SFTP external data source.
- Optionally enter a description.
Select Next.
In (2) Manage Tables, in the Data Panel, navigate the directory tree as necessary to select the SFTP files. You can either check the Select All checkbox or select individual sheets.
Select Next.
In (3) Finalize, select Create Schema.

Create a physical schema with the Schema Designer

Here are the steps to create a SFTP physical schema using the Schema Designer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Action bar, select + New → Create Schema.
In Name, specify the physical schema name, and select Save.
In Start adding tables to your schema, select Data Lake.
In the Data Source dialog, specify the SFTP table data source properties.
Select Add.
In the Table Editor, in the Table Summary section, enter the table name.
To save your changes, select Done in the Action bar.

SFTP table data source properties

For a physical schema table in Incorta, you can define the SFTP specific data source properties as follows:

Property	Control	Description
Type	drop down list	Default is Data Lake.
Data Source	drop down list	Select the SFTP external data source.
Remote	toggle	Enable this option to remotely access file data, which means no data is loaded to Incorta. See the Summary of Data Access Methods table for details on how setting this and the Performance Optimized property affects data accessibility.
File Type	drop down list	Select a file type option: ● Text (`.csv`, `.tsv`, `.tab`, `.txt`) ● Excel (`.xlsx`).
Incremental	toggle	Enables incremental loading for the physical schema table.
Has Header?	toggle	This property appears when Remote is disabled and the File Type is Text. Enable this property to indicate the data source has a header row.
Rows to Skip	text box	This property appears when Remote is disabled and the File Type is Text. Enter the number of rows to skip from the top of the file.
Wildcard Union	toggle	Enable this property to get incremental data file updates from an existing directory.
File Path	text box	This property appears when Wildcard Union is disabled. Enter the path to the data file, relative to the root directory configured in the data source.
Worksheet	text box	This property appears when Wildcard Union is disabled and the File Type is Excel. Select the data file worksheet of interest.
Update File	text box	This property appears when Incremental is enabled and Wildcard Union is disabled. Enter the path to the update file, relative to the root directory configured in the data source.
Update Worksheet	text box	This property appears when the File Type is Excel, Incremental is enabled, and Wildcard Union is disabled. Select the update file worksheet of interest.
Incremental Extract Using	drop down list	This property appears when Incremental and Wildcard Union are enabled. Select an incremental load method.
Timestamp format in file name	drop down list	This property appears when the Timestamp in File Name option is selected for the Incremental Extract Using property. Select the timestamp format that appears in the file name.
Directory Path	text box	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. Enter the path to the directory, relative to the root directory configured in the data source. To use the root directory, enter `./` or `.`
Apply Include Pattern on	drop down list	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. Select one of the following: ● Filename - apply pattern on all file names in the selected directory path ● File Relative Path - apply pattern on relative path in the selected directory path
Include	text box	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. So that only those files matching the prefix are loaded, enter a prefix to compare against: ● The names of the files in a directory if Apply Include Pattern has a value of File Name. For example, entering `sales* .csv` will load only those files that start with the word sales and end with `.csv`. ● The relative path in a directory if Apply Include Pattern has a value of File Relative Path. For example, entering sales will load those files in the sales directory.
Exclude	toggle	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. To exclude files from the load process, enter a prefix to compare against. Files that match the prefix will not be loaded.
Include Sub-Directories	toggle	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. Enable this property to load files within all subdirectories of the directory path hierarchy. If an Include Prefix is specified, only files or relative paths in the subdirectories matching the prefix will be loaded.
Include Filename as a Column	toggle	This property appears when Wildcard Union is enabled. Enable this property to add the file name as the first column in the physical schema table.
Date Format	drop down list	This property appears when the File Type is Text. Select the text file date format.
Timestamp Format	drop down list	This property appears when the File Type is Text. Select the text file timestamp format.
Character Set	drop down list	This property appears when the File Type is Text. Select the text file character set.
Separator	drop down list	This property appears when the File Type is Text. Select the text file separator.
Callback	toggle	Enable this property on to expose the Callback URL field
Callback URL	text box	This property appears when the Callback toggle is enabled. Specify the URL.

Summary of Data Access Methods Based on Remote and Performance Optimized Settings

Table Properties	Data Source Properties	Parquet	DDM	Memory	SQLi	Materialized View	Analytics
Performance Optimized = Off	Remote = On	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
Performance Optimized = Off	Remote = Off	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No, unless created by a materialized view or Notebook
Performance Optimized = On	Remote = Off	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Incremental Extract Methods

There are two extract methods, Last Successful Extract Time and Timestamp in File Name.

Last Successful Extract Time

The Last Successful Extract Time option instructs the Loader Service to extract data from the table source using the time of the previous successful extraction as the starting time for next extraction. Here is an example use case for the Last Successful Extract Time option:

/path/to/sales is a directory that contains the following files:
- /path/to/sales/sales_california.csv
- /path/to/sales/sales_newyork.csv
- /path/to/sales/sales_illinois.csv

When you perform an initial full load, the Loader Service extracts all the files from the directory. After the successful load, a new file is added to the directory: sales_ohio.csv. As the new file has a last modified timestamp that is more recent than the timestamp of the previous successful extraction, the next incremental load will only extract the sales_ohio.csv file.

Timestamp in File Name

The Timestamp in File Name option instructs the Loader Service to extract data using the file name. The file name must contain a specific timestamp format. Here is an example use case for the Timestamp in File Name option:

/path/to/sales is a directory that contains the following files:
- /path/to/sales/sales_2021-04-01.csv
- /path/to/sales/sales_2021-04-02.csv
- /path/to/sales/sales_2021-04-03.csv

When you perform an initial full load, the Loader Service extracts all the files from the directory. After the successful load, a new file is added to the directory: sales_2021-04-04.csv. As the new file has a timestamp name value that is greater than the already extracted timestamp name values, the next incremental load will only extract the sales_2021-04-04.csv file.

Timestamp Formats in File Name

yyyy-MM-dd
dd.MM.yyyy
dd-MMM-yy
dd-MMM-yyyy
yyyy-MM-dd HH.mm.ss
Unix Epoch (seconds)
Unix Epoch (milliseconds)

Text File Date Format

yyyy-MM-dd
dd/MM/yyyy
dd.MM.yyyy
dd/MMM/yyyy
dd-MMM-yy
dd-MMM-yyyy
MM/dd/yyyy
yyyy/MM/dd
Unix Epoch (seconds
Unix Epoch (milliseconds)
Other

Text File Timestamp Format

yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss
yyyy-MM-dd HH.mm.ss
yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss.SSS
dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss
dd/MM/yyyy HH.mm.ss
dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss.SSS
Unix Epoch (seconds
Unix Epoch (milliseconds)
Other

Text File Character Set

US-ASCII
ISO-8859-1
UTF-8
UTF-16BE
UTF-16LE
UTF-16

Text File Separator

Comma
Tab
Other

View the physical schema diagram with the Schema Diagram Viewer

Here are the steps to view the schema diagram using the Schema Diagram Viewer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the list of physical schemas, select the SFTP physical schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Diagram.

Load the physical schema

Here are the steps to perform a Full Load of the SFTP physical schema using the Schema Designer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the list of physical schemas, select the SFTP physical schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Load → Load Now → Full.
To review the load status, in Last Load Status, select the date.

Explore the physical schema

With the full load of the SFTP physical schema completed, you can use the Analyzer to explore the physical schema, create your first insight, and save the insight to a new dashboard.

To open the Analyzer from the physical schema, follow these steps:

In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Schema Manager, in the List view, select the SFTP physical schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Explore Data.