SFTP Client Mode
In SFTP client mode, MFT Gateway acts as an SFTP client on your behalf. Instead of your trading partner connecting to MFT Gateway, MFT Gateway connects to your trading partner’s SFTP server. It uploads the files you send to a directory on that server, and retrieves the files your partner places for you, either on a schedule (automatic polling) or on demand (manual retrieval).
Use client mode when your trading partner already hosts an SFTP server and expects you to connect to it. If your partner does not have an SFTP server, use SFTP Server Mode instead.
1 Client Mode vs Server Mode
| Server Mode | Client Mode | |
|---|---|---|
| SFTP server hosted by | MFT Gateway (sftp.mftgateway.com) | Your trading partner |
| Who connects | Your partner connects to the MFT Gateway SFTP server with any SFTP client, such as FileZilla, WinSCP or OpenSSH | MFT Gateway connects to your partner’s SFTP server |
| Authentication | SSH key pair issued to or provided by your partner | Password, SSH private key, or SSH private key + password given by your partner |
| Sending files to your partner | Your partner downloads the files from the MFT Gateway SFTP server | MFT Gateway uploads the files to a directory on your partner’s SFTP server |
| Receiving files from your partner | Your partner uploads the files to the MFT Gateway SFTP server | MFT Gateway retrieves the files from a directory on your partner’s SFTP server, on a schedule or on demand |
| Automatic retries | Not applicable | Configurable for both sending and retrieving |
2 Before You Begin
Collect the following details from your trading partner before you create a client mode partner:
- Host name of their SFTP server. This must be a DNS host name such as
sftp.example.com. IP addresses are not accepted. - Port of their SFTP server, if it is not the default port
22. - Username and the credentials for that user: a password, an SSH private key, or both. If the private key is protected with a password, you need that password too.
- Trusted host key of their SFTP server: the server’s public host key line, for example
ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAAB...(ssh-rsa,ssh-dss,ecdsa-sha2-nistp256andssh-ed25519keys are supported). MFT Gateway uses it to verify that it is connecting to the right server. You can obtain it with the commandssh-keyscan <host-name>. - The remote directories to upload files to and to retrieve files from.
MFT Gateway connects to your partner’s server from a fixed set of outbound static IP addresses. If your partner’s server is behind a firewall, ask them to allow these addresses. You can find them on the partner’s manage view after you create the partner, as described in Updating a Client Mode Partner.
3 Limitations
Be aware of the following limitations of SFTP client mode.
3.1 Features Not Supported
The following features are currently not supported for client mode partners:
- REST API – client mode partners can’t be created or managed through the REST API. Create and manage them from the web console.
- Webhook integration – messages sent to or received from client mode partners don’t trigger webhook notifications. Use the partner’s email notifications instead.
- EDI Generator integration – messages sent to or received from client mode partners are not exchanged with EDI Generator.
3.2 Other Limitations
- Up to 10 files per outgoing message. A message you send to a client mode partner can carry at most 10 files. The web console enforces this limit when you compose a message. Outgoing messages with more than 10 files submitted through the S3 integration or SFTP integration are not supported. This limit doesn’t apply to files retrieved from your partner.
- Retrieval failures are reported by email only. If MFT Gateway fails to retrieve a file from your partner’s server, no message entry is created for it. Turn on the inbound failure notification to be informed of these failures.
