Setting Up SFTP Data Transfers

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: Jul 05, 2023 by Malissa Olofernes
3 min read

Overview

As a site administrator, you can set up a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) account with Deem for uploading user profiles. Deem provides assistance for uploading user profiles to ensure that all data is populated to the user database successfully.

Note: You must install on your computer a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client program that supports SFTP. Examples include:

Tip: Many FTP clients are free. Simply download and install.

You use the FTP client on your computer to log into the SFTP account in the Deem "vault". Deem provides credentials for logging in. After uploading files, enter a support case to let us know that the file has been uploaded to the vault so that we can check it for accuracy. See Entering a Support Case for instructions.

Note: For privacy reasons, you can't submit user data to Deem as a support case. You must send user data securely to an SFTP account in the vault.

Setting Up Your Vault SFTP Account

Contact your Deem Customer Success representative to create the vault SFTP account. You need to provide the following:

  • Your organization's IT contact name, email, and phone number.
    Note: After creating the account, Deem sends the password for the account directly to this contact.
  • Frequency of file uploading (daily, weekly, etc.)
  • The time of file transmission
  • Whether you are uploading CSV (comma-separated values) or XML files
  • Whether or not to send account activation emails to new users
  • Whether or not to allow "password-less" login to the account
    Note: If you need a "password-less" login, provide the Deem representative with an SSH public key.

The following is the SFTP account setup form that you are required to fill out:  Download form: Deem SFTP Request Form_01APR2022.pdf

Deem creates the account and sends an email with the vault account information and password to your organization's IT contact name.

Establishing and Testing the Vault Connection

Use the FTP client to log into the SFTP account using the Deem-provided credentials. Enter the following information:

  • Site Name: Your company-specific Deem Travel Site Name
  • Server: newvault.deem.com 
  • Username: Created and Provided by Deem
  • Password: Created and Provided by Deem
  • Protocol: SFTP or SSH
  • Port: 22
  • Subdirectory: data (issue a "cd data" command after connecting and before uploading file)
  • Timeout: Best Practice is 60
  • Retries: Best Practice is 2

Once you are authenticated, you can test file transfer with the vault account. Follow these steps:

  1. Prepare a test file using the following file naming convention:
    domainname_yyyymmdd.csv.pgp or domainname_yyyymmdd.xml.pgp
    • Domainname: The name portion of the site’s URL (such as acme).
    • yyyymmdd: The date in yyyy (year), mm (month), and dd (date) format.
    • ".csv" or ".xml": The file format — CSV (comma-separated values) or XML (extensible markup language).
    • Examples: acme_20210915.csv or acme_20210915.xml
  2. Prepare an encrypted copy of the test file using Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption with a Deem public key, and add ".pgp" to the existing file name (for example, acme_20210915.csv.pgp or acme_20210915.xml.pgp).
  3. Log into the vault account and access your data folder.
  4. Upload the unencrypted test file (acme_20210915.csv or acme_20210915.xml).
  5. Upload the encrypted test file (acme_20210915.csv.pgp or acme_20210915.xml.pgp).
  6. Notify Deem that both uploads have occurred. Deem performs tests that include decrypting the PGP file and checking for file corruption.
  7. If the test is successful, Deem sets up a permanent schedule to pick up the file from the vault and move it to the internal directory.

Note: Each time you upload a file, the file is picked up from the vault and moved to an internal directory, where Deem performs a check, decrypts and uploads the file/data into the Deem user profile database.

Your Deem Configuration Manager will set up the SFTP server account for your site in the Dashboard. If you want to know where this resides, you can follow the instructions in FTP Servers. You can then use the server to upload user profiles as a one time upload or set up the Scheduler as described in Uploading User Profiles.