Pull from any SFTP site

SFTP is a common way to make data sources available to Amperity. For example: files are made available from a SFTP site and are frequently refreshed. Use a courier to connect to the SFTP site and pull the refreshed files to Amperity on a regular basis.

Note

When using SFTP as a data source, a sample file is often required to set up the initial feed and courier processes.

This topic describes the steps that are required to pull files in any supported format to Amperity from SFTP:

1. Get details

2. Add data source

Get details

The SFTP data source requires the following configuration details:

	The hostname and port for the SFTP site from which data will be pulled. For example, “sftp.acme.com” and “20”.
	The username and passphrase.
	The host public key (if encryption is configured).
	A private key when the “private-key” credential type is selected.
	The public key to use for PGP encryption.
	The remote folder from which Amperity will pull data. Important A “/” (forward slash) must be used as the first character for this value. For example: “/folder/name”. The location must contain the list of files (by filename and file type, e.g. “accounts.csv”, “customers.ndjson”, “email-list.tsv”, and so on) that are to be pulled to Amperity. A sample of each file is used during feed creation.

Included SFTP site

Every Amperity tenant includes an SFTP site with a hostname of <tenant>.sftp.amperity.com. For example, if your company name is ACME, then your tenant’s SFTP hostname is acme.sftp.amperity.com. (The hostname is always all lowercase.)

Note

The SFTP site is provisioned by an Amperity administrator after the initial tenant creation. As such, the SFTP site is not immediately available, but this is not a long process. When the SFTP site is ready, Amperity will use SnapPass to send you the connection details. If you wish to use RSA key-based authentication, please provide the public key to your Amperity administrator when requesting SFTP access.

Once this site is provisioned, you may configure the SFTP site as an SFTP source or an SFTP destination to support any desired workflow. External customer processes can be configured to connect to the site using SFTP, after which they can add data to or pick up data from the site to support any external workflow.

Caution

The SFTP server has a 30-day limit on data and after 30 days, data may be moved automatically to an archive location. This location is still accessible to Amperity in case it becomes necessary to reuse it.

Important

The hostname for the SFTP site is always <tenant-name>.sftp.amperity.com. Some older tenants may still be using the legacy address sftp.amperity.com, if so, please contact your Amperity administrator about migrating.

Filedrop recommendations

You may reference the following sections while configuring this data source:

• Using credentials that allow Amperity to access, and then read data from this location

• Adding an optional RSA key for public key credentials

• Ensuring files are provided in a supported file format

• Ensuring files are provided with the correct date format

• Supporting the desired file compression and/or archive method

• Encrypting files before they are added to the location using PGP encryption; an encryption key must be configured so that files can be decrypted by Amperity prior to loading them

  Tip

  Use SnapPass to securely share your organization’s credentials and encryption keys with your Amperity representative.

Add data source and feed

Add a data source that pulls data from an SFTP bucket for each file that you want to pull to Amperity.

Browse the SFTP bucket to select a file, and then review the settings for that file. Define the feed schema, and then activate the feed. Run the courier manually, and then review the data that is added to the domain table that is associated with the feed.

To add a data source for any SFTP site

	Open the Sources page to configure SFTP. Click the Add courier button to open the Add courier dialog box. Select SFTP. Do one of the following: Click the row in which SFTP is located. Sources are listed alphabetically. Search for SFTP. Start typing “sftp”. The list will filter to show only matching sources.
	Credentials allow Amperity to connect to SFTP and must exist before a courier can be configured to pull data from SFTP. Select an existing credential from the Credential drop-down, and then click Continue. Tip A courier that has credentials that are configured correctly will show a “Connection successful” status, similar to:
	Select the file that will be pulled to Amperity, either directly (by going into the SFTP site and selecting it) or by providing a filename pattern. Click Browse to open the File browser. Select the file that will be pulled to Amperity, and then click Accept. Use a filename pattern to define files that will be loaded on a recurring basis, but will have small changes to the filename over time, such as having a datestamp appended to the filename. Note For a new feed, this file is also used as the sample file that is used to define the schema. For an existing feed, this file must match the schema that has already been defined. Use the PGP credential setting to specify the credentials to use for an encrypted file.
	Review the file. The contents of the file may be previewed as a table and in a raw format. Switch between these views using the Table and Raw buttons, and then click Refresh to view the file in that format. Note PGP encrypted files can be previewed. Apache Parquet PGP encrypted files must be less than 500 MB to be previewed. Amperity will infer formatting details, and then adds these details to a series of settings located along the left side of the file view. File settings include: Delimiter Compression Escape character Quote character Header row Review the file, and then update these settings, if necessary. Note Amperity supports the following file types: Apache Avro, Apache Parquet, CSV, DSV, JSON, NDJSON, PSV, TSV, and XML. Refer to those reference pages for details about each of the individual file formats. Files that contain nested JSON (or “complex JSON”) or XML may require using the legacy courier configuration.
	A feed defines the schema for a file that is loaded to Amperity, after which that data is loaded into a domain table and ready for use with workflows within Amperity. There are two options for feeds: use a new feed or use an existing feed. Use a new feed To use a new feed, choose the Create new feed option, select an existing source from the Source drop-down or type the name of a new data source, and then enter the name of the feed. After you choose a load type and save the courier configuration, you will configure the feed using the data within the sample file. Use an existing feed To use an existing feed, choose the Use existing feed option to use an existing schema. This option requires this file to match all of the feed-specific settings, such as incoming field names, field types, and primary keys. The data within the file may be different. Load types The load type defines how data in the file will be loaded to the associated domain table. Use the Truncate and load option to delete all rows in the associated domain table prior to loading data. Use the Load option to load data from the selected file to the associated domain table. Note When a file is loaded to a domain table using an existing file, the file that is loaded must have the same schema as the existing feed. The data in the file may be new.
	Use the feed editor to do all of the following: Set the primary key Choose the field that best presents when the data in the table was last updated; if there is not an obvious choice, use the “Generate an updated field” option. For each field in the incoming data, validate the field name and semantic tag columns in the feed. Make any necessary adjustments. For tables that contain customer records, enable the “Make available to Stitch” to ensure the values in this data source are used for identity resolution. When finished, click Activate.
	Find the courier related to the feed that was just activated, and then run it manually. On the Sources page, under Couriers, find the courier you want to run and then select Run from the actions menu. Select a date from the calendar picker that is before today, but after the date on which the file was added to the SFTP bucket. Leave the load options in the Run courier dialog box unselected, and then click Run. After the courier has run successfully, inspect the domain table that contains the data that was loaded to Amperity. After you have verified that the data is correct, you may do any of the following: If the data contains customer records, edit the feed and make that data available to Stitch. If the data should be loaded to Amperity on a regular basis, add the courier to a courier group that runs on the desired schedule. If the data will be a foundation for custom domain tables, use Spark SQL to build out that customization.

Workflow actions

A workflow will occasionally show an error that describes what prevented a workflow from completing successfully. These first appear as alerts in the notifications pane. The alert describes the error, and then links to the Workflows tab.

Open the Workflows page to review a list of workflow actions, choose an action to resolve the workflow error, and then follow the steps that are shown.

	You may receive a notifications error for a configured SFTP data source. This appears as an alert in the notifications pane on the Destinations tab. If you receive a notification error, review the details, and then click the View Workflow link to open this notification error in the Workflows page.
	On the Workflows page, review the individual steps to determine which step(s) have errors that require your attention, and then click Show Resolutions to review the list of workflow actions that were generated for this error.
	A list of individual workflow actions are shown. Review the list to identify which action you should take. Some workflow actions are common across workflows and will often be available, such as retrying a specific task within a workflow or restarting a workflow. These types of actions can often resolve an error. In certain cases, actions are specific and are shown when certain conditions exist in your tenant. These types of actions typically must be resolved and may require steps that must be done upstream or downstream from your Amperity workflow. Amperity provides a series of workflow actions that can help resolve specific issues that may arise with SFTP, including: Bad archive Invalid credentials Missing file SFTP site unavailable PGP error Unable to decompress archive
	Select a workflow action from the list of actions, and then review the steps for resolving that error. After you have completed the steps in the workflow action, click Continue to rerun the workflow.

Bad archive

Sometimes the contents of an archive are corrupted and cannot be loaded to Amperity.

To resolve this error, do the following.

1. Upload a new file to Amperity.

2. After the file to the workflow action, and then click Resolve to retry this workflow.

Invalid credentials

The credentials that are defined in Amperity are invalid.

To resolve this error, verify that the credentials required by this workflow are valid.

1. Open the Credentials page.

2. Review the details for the credentials used with this workflow. Update the credentials for SFTP if required.

3. Return to the workflow action, and then click Resolve to retry this workflow.

Missing file

An archive that does not contain a file that is expected to be within an archive will return a workflow error; Amperity will be unable to complete the workflow until the issue is resolved.

To resolve this error, do the following.

1. Add the required file to the archive.

   or

   Update the configuration for the courier that is attempting to load the missing file to not require that file.

2. After the file is added to the archive or removed from the courier configuration, click Resolve to retry this workflow.

PGP error

A workflow action is created when a file cannot be decrypted using the provided PGP key.

To resolve this error, verify the PGP key.

1. Open the Sources page.

2. Review the details for the PGP key.

   If the PGP key is correct, verify that the file that is associated with this workflow error was encrypted using the correct PGP key. If necessary, upload a new file.

3. Return to the workflow action, and then click Resolve to retry this workflow.

SFTP site unavailable

The SFTP site at sftp.[domain-name].com is unavailable. This may be due to any of the following issues:

• A configuration error within Amperity.

• The SFTP server is unavailable or unresponsive.

• The SFTP server does not have enough storage space.

• Too many connection attempts were made to the SFTP server.

Note

Amperity will make multiple attempts to connect to an SFTP server before showing this workflow error.

To resolve this error, do any of the following.

1. Verify the configuration for sftp.[domain-name].com.

2. Verify that the SFTP server is available and responsive.

3. Verify the amount of storage space that is available on the SFTP server.

4. Decrease the number of couriers in Amperity that are configured to connect to sftp.[domain-name].com.

5. Return to the workflow action, and then click Resolve to retry this workflow.

Unable to decompress archive

An archive that cannot be decompressed will return a workflow error; Amperity will be unable to complete the workflow until the issue is resolved.

This issue may be shown when the name of the archive doesn’t match the name of the configured archive or when Amperity is attempting to decompress a file (and not an archive). In some cases, the contents of the archive file may be the reason why Amperity is unable to decompress the archive.

To resolve this error, do the following.

1. Verify the configuration for the archive, and then verify the contents of the archive.

   Update the configuration, if neccessary. For example, when Amperity is attempting to decompress a file, update the configuration to specify a file and not an archive.

   In some cases, re-loading the archive to the location from which Amperity is attempting to pull the archive is necessary.

2. Return to the workflow action, and then click Resolve to retry this workflow.