| title | description | services | ms.service | ms.suite | author | ms.author | ms.reviewer | ms.assetid | ms.topic | tags | ms.date |
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Connect to SFTP account - Azure Logic Apps | Microsoft Docs |
Automate tasks and processes that monitor, create, manage, send, and receive files for an SFTP server through SSH by using Azure Logic Apps |
logic-apps |
logic-apps |
integration |
ecfan |
estfan |
divswa, klam, LADocs |
697eb8b0-4a66-40c7-be7b-6aa6b131c7ad |
article |
connectors |
10/26/2018 |
To automate tasks that monitor, create, send, and receive files on a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) server, you can build and automate integration workflows by using Azure Logic Apps and the SFTP connector. SFTP is a network protocol that provides file access, file transfer, and file management over any reliable data stream. Here are some example tasks you can automate:
- Monitor when files are added or changed.
- Get, create, copy, update, list, and delete files.
- Get file content and metadata.
- Extract archives to folders.
Compared to the SFTP-SSH connector, the SFTP connector can read or write files up to 50 MB in size unless you use chunking for handling large messages. For files up to 1 GB in size, use the SFTP-SSH connector. For files larger than 1 GB, you can use the SFTP-SSH connector plus chunking for large messages.
You can use triggers that monitor events on your SFTP server and make output available to other actions. You can use actions that perform various tasks on your SFTP server. You can also have other actions in your logic app use the output from SFTP actions. For example, if you regularly retrieve files from your SFTP server, you can send email alerts about those files and their content by using the Office 365 Outlook connector or Outlook.com connector. If you're new to logic apps, review What is Azure Logic Apps?
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An Azure subscription. If you don't have an Azure subscription, sign up for a free Azure account.
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Your SFTP server address and account credentials, which let your logic app access your SFTP account. To use the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol, you also need access to an SSH private key and the SSH private key password.
[!NOTE]
The SFTP connector supports these private key formats: OpenSSH, ssh.com, and PuTTY
When you're creating your logic app, after you add the SFTP trigger or action you want, you'll need to provide connection information for your SFTP server. If you're using an SSH private key, make sure you copy the key from your SSH private key file, and paste that key into the connection details, Don't manually enter or edit the key, which might cause the connection to fail. For more information, see the later steps in this article.
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Basic knowledge about how to create logic apps
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The logic app where you want to access your SFTP account. To start with an SFTP trigger, create a blank logic app. To use an SFTP action, start your logic app with another trigger, for example, the Recurrence trigger.
[!INCLUDE Create connection general intro]
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Sign in to the Azure portal, and open your logic app in Logic App Designer, if not open already.
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For blank logic apps, in the search box, enter "sftp" as your filter. Under the triggers list, select the trigger you want.
-or-
For existing logic apps, under the last step where you want to add an action, choose New step. In the search box, enter "sftp" as your filter. Under the actions list, select the action you want.
To add an action between steps, move your pointer over the arrow between steps. Choose the plus sign (+) that appears, and then select Add an action.
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Provide the necessary details for your connection.
[!IMPORTANT]
When you enter your SSH private key in the SSH private key property, follow these additional steps, which help make sure you provide the complete and correct value for this property. An invalid key causes the connection to fail.
Although you can use any text editor, here are sample steps that show how to correctly copy and paste your key by using Notepad.exe as an example.
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Open your SSH private key file in a text editor. These steps use Notepad as the example.
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On Notepad's Edit menu, select Select All.
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Select Edit > Copy.
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In the SFTP trigger or action you added, paste the complete key you copied into the SSH private key property, which supports multiple lines. Make sure you paste the key. Don't manually enter or edit the key.
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When you're done entering the connection details, choose Create.
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Provide the necessary details for your selected trigger or action and continue building your logic app's workflow.
The SFTP triggers work by polling the SFTP file system and looking for any file that was changed since the last poll. Some tools let you preserve the timestamp when the files change. In these cases, you have to disable this feature so your trigger can work. Here are some common settings:
| SFTP client | Action |
|---|---|
| Winscp | Go to Options > Preferences > Transfer > Edit > Preserve timestamp > Disable |
| FileZilla | Go to Transfer > Preserve timestamps of transferred files > Disable |
When a trigger finds a new file, the trigger checks that the new file is complete, and not partially written. For example, a file might have changes in progress when the trigger checks the file server. To avoid returning a partially written file, the trigger notes the timestamp for the file that has recent changes, but doesn't immediately return that file. The trigger returns the file only when polling the server again. Sometimes, this behavior might cause a delay that is up to twice the trigger's polling interval.
This trigger starts a logic app workflow when a file is added or changed on an SFTP server. For example, you can add a condition that checks the file's content and gets the content based on whether the content meets a specified condition. You can then add an action that gets the file's content, and puts that content in a folder on the SFTP server.
Enterprise example: You can use this trigger to monitor an SFTP folder for new files that represent customer orders. You can then use an SFTP action such as Get file content so you get the order's contents for further processing and store that order in an orders database.
This action gets the content from a file on an SFTP server. So for example, you can add the trigger from the previous example and a condition that the file's content must meet. If the condition is true, the action that gets the content can run.
For technical details about triggers, actions, and limits, which are described by the connector's OpenAPI (formerly Swagger) description, review the connector's reference page.
- For questions, visit the Azure Logic Apps forum.
- To submit or vote on feature ideas, visit the Logic Apps user feedback site.
- Learn about other Logic Apps connectors