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How do I create an SFTP connection?

This article covers how to setup a secure file transfer protocol (SFTP) connection in SchoolInsight in order to schedule and submit automated export files to other platforms. In general, a complete SFTP connection setup consists of the following steps:

  1. Creating an SFTP Account
  2. Whitelisting an IP Address
  3. Testing the SFTP connection

 

1. Creating an SFTP Account

To create an SFTP account, a district admin must do the following:

  1. Go to School District Admin Main > Import/Export > CGS SFTP Accounts
  2. Click Create Account
  3. Choose a username
  4. Add a password and/or a public key file*
  5. Save

*Admins may choose to allow access through a password or a key file. If the admin enters both a password and a public key file, either the password or a private key file may be used to access the server.

 

2. Whitelisting IP Address

As part of our security measures, users can only view the data on the SFTP server from computers with an approved IP address. We call the process of adding an IP address to the approved list whitelisting.

To whitelist an IP address that belongs to a school computer or to a third party platform that receives the data, please email a request to support@common-goal.com with the name of your SFTP account and any IP addresses that need to be whitelisted.  Our staff will confirm once the IP addresses have been whitelisted.

 

3. Testing the SFTP Connection

Schools can verify the SFTP account is setup by connecting from a machine with the whitelisted IP address. They will log in using an SFTP client and the login credentials as setup in the first step of this process.

There are several free SFTP clients that can be found online, and the connection credentials are as follows:

  • Host: sftp.teacherease.com
  • Port: 22

Once logged in, the program will display all the files hosted in the SFTP server.

 

Further Reading