Warehouses and Lakes
Files

How to load data from SFTP to Redshift

Learn how to use Airbyte to synchronize your SFTP data into Redshift within minutes.

TL;DR

This can be done by building a data pipeline manually, usually a Python script (you can leverage a tool as Apache Airflow for this). This process can take more than a full week of development. Or it can be done in minutes on Airbyte in three easy steps:

  1. set up SFTP as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
  2. set up Redshift as a destination connector
  3. define which data you want to transfer and how frequently

You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.

This tutorial’s purpose is to show you how.

What is SFTP

SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) is a secure way to transfer files between two computers over the internet. It uses encryption to protect the data being transferred, making it more secure than traditional FTP (File Transfer Protocol). SFTP is commonly used by businesses and organizations to transfer sensitive data such as financial information, medical records, and personal data. It requires authentication using a username and password or public key authentication, ensuring that only authorized users can access the files. SFTP is also platform-independent, meaning it can be used on any operating system, making it a versatile and reliable option for secure file transfers.

What is Redshift

A fully managed data warehouse service in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud, Amazon Redshift is designed for storage and analysis of large-scale datasets. Redshift allows businesses to scale from a few hundred gigabytes to more than a petabyte (a million gigabytes), and utilizes ML techniques to analyze queries, offering businesses new insights from their data. Users can query and combine exabytes of data using standard SQL, and easily save their query results to their S3 data lake.

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Prerequisites

  1. A SFTP account to transfer your customer data automatically from.
  2. A Redshift account.
  3. An active Airbyte Cloud account, or you can also choose to use Airbyte Open Source locally. You can follow the instructions to set up Airbyte on your system using docker-compose.

Airbyte is an open-source data integration platform that consolidates and streamlines the process of extracting and loading data from multiple data sources to data warehouses. It offers pre-built connectors, including SFTP and Redshift, for seamless data migration.

When using Airbyte to move data from SFTP to Redshift, it extracts data from SFTP using the source connector, converts it into a format Redshift can ingest using the provided schema, and then loads it into Redshift via the destination connector. This allows businesses to leverage their SFTP data for advanced analytics and insights within Redshift, simplifying the ETL process and saving significant time and resources.

Step 1: Set up SFTP as a source connector

1. Open the Airbyte platform and navigate to the "Sources" tab on the left-hand side of the screen.
2. Click on the "Create a new connection" button and select "SFTP" as the source connector.
3. Enter a name for the connection and click "Next".
4. In the "Connection Configuration" section, enter the hostname or IP address of the SFTP server, as well as the port number (usually 22).
5. Enter the username and password for the SFTP server in the "Authentication" section.
6. If your SFTP server requires a private key for authentication, select the "Private Key" option and enter the path to the key file.
7. In the "Advanced" section, you can specify additional options such as the path to the remote directory and the file pattern to use for selecting files.
8. Click "Test" to verify that the connection is working correctly.
9. If the test is successful, click "Create" to save the connection and start syncing data from the SFTP server.

Step 2: Set up Redshift as a destination connector

1. First, log in to your Airbyte account and navigate to the "Destinations" tab on the left-hand side of the screen.
2. Click on the "Add Destination" button and select "Redshift" from the list of available connectors.
3. Enter your Redshift database credentials, including the host, port, database name, username, and password.
4. Choose the schema you want to use for your data in Redshift.
5. Select the tables you want to sync from your source connector to Redshift.
6. Map the fields from your source connector to the corresponding fields in Redshift.
7. Choose the sync mode you want to use, either "append" or "replace."
8. Set up any additional options or filters you want to use for your sync.
9. Test your connection to ensure that your data is syncing correctly.
10. Once you are satisfied with your settings, save your configuration and start your sync.

Step 3: Set up a connection to sync your SFTP data to Redshift

Once you've successfully connected SFTP as a data source and Redshift as a destination in Airbyte, you can set up a data pipeline between them with the following steps:

  1. Create a new connection: On the Airbyte dashboard, navigate to the 'Connections' tab and click the '+ New Connection' button.
  2. Choose your source: Select SFTP from the dropdown list of your configured sources.
  3. Select your destination: Choose Redshift from the dropdown list of your configured destinations.
  4. Configure your sync: Define the frequency of your data syncs based on your business needs. Airbyte allows both manual and automatic scheduling for your data refreshes.
  5. Select the data to sync: Choose the specific SFTP objects you want to import data from towards Redshift. You can sync all data or select specific tables and fields.
  6. Select the sync mode for your streams: Choose between full refreshes or incremental syncs (with deduplication if you want), and this for all streams or at the stream level. Incremental is only available for streams that have a primary cursor.
  7. Test your connection: Click the 'Test Connection' button to make sure that your setup works. If the connection test is successful, save your configuration.
  8. Start the sync: If the test passes, click 'Set Up Connection'. Airbyte will start moving data from SFTP to Redshift according to your settings.

Remember, Airbyte keeps your data in sync at the frequency you determine, ensuring your Redshift data warehouse is always up-to-date with your SFTP data.

Use Cases to transfer your SFTP data to Redshift

Integrating data from SFTP to Redshift provides several benefits. Here are a few use cases:

  1. Advanced Analytics: Redshift’s powerful data processing capabilities enable you to perform complex queries and data analysis on your SFTP data, extracting insights that wouldn't be possible within SFTP alone.
  2. Data Consolidation: If you're using multiple other sources along with SFTP, syncing to Redshift allows you to centralize your data for a holistic view of your operations, and to set up a change data capture process so you never have any discrepancies in your data again.
  3. Historical Data Analysis: SFTP has limits on historical data. Syncing data to Redshift allows for long-term data retention and analysis of historical trends over time.
  4. Data Security and Compliance: Redshift provides robust data security features. Syncing SFTP data to Redshift ensures your data is secured and allows for advanced data governance and compliance management.
  5. Scalability: Redshift can handle large volumes of data without affecting performance, providing an ideal solution for growing businesses with expanding SFTP data.
  6. Data Science and Machine Learning: By having SFTP data in Redshift, you can apply machine learning models to your data for predictive analytics, customer segmentation, and more.
  7. Reporting and Visualization: While SFTP provides reporting tools, data visualization tools like Tableau, PowerBI, Looker (Google Data Studio) can connect to Redshift, providing more advanced business intelligence options. If you have a SFTP table that needs to be converted to a Redshift table, Airbyte can do that automatically.

Wrapping Up

To summarize, this tutorial has shown you how to:

  1. Configure a SFTP account as an Airbyte data source connector.
  2. Configure Redshift as a data destination connector.
  3. Create an Airbyte data pipeline that will automatically be moving data directly from SFTP to Redshift after you set a schedule

With Airbyte, creating data pipelines take minutes, and the data integration possibilities are endless. Airbyte supports the largest catalog of API tools, databases, and files, among other sources. Airbyte's connectors are open-source, so you can add any custom objects to the connector, or even build a new connector from scratch without any local dev environment or any data engineer within 10 minutes with the no-code connector builder.

We look forward to seeing you make use of it! We invite you to join the conversation on our community Slack Channel, or sign up for our newsletter. You should also check out other Airbyte tutorials, and Airbyte’s content hub!

What should you do next?

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Here are the 3 ways we can help you in your data journey:

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Take the first step towards extensible data movement infrastructure that will give a ton of time back to your data team. 
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Talk to a data infrastructure expert
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Connectors Used

What should you do next?

Hope you enjoyed the reading. Here are the 3 ways we can help you in your data journey:

flag icon
Easily address your data movement needs with Airbyte Cloud
Take the first step towards extensible data movement infrastructure that will give a ton of time back to your data team. 
Get started with Airbyte for free
high five icon
Talk to a data infrastructure expert
Get a free consultation with an Airbyte expert to significantly improve your data movement infrastructure. 
Talk to sales
stars sparkling
Improve your data infrastructure knowledge
Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and get the community’s new enlightening content along with Airbyte’s progress in their mission to solve data integration once and for all.
Subscribe to newsletter

Connectors Used

Frequently Asked Questions

What data can you extract from SFTP?

SFTP provides access to various types of data that can be used for different purposes. Some of the categories of data that SFTP's API gives access to are:  

1. File data: SFTP's API allows users to access and transfer files securely over the internet. This includes uploading, downloading, and managing files.  
2. User data: SFTP's API provides access to user data such as usernames, passwords, and permissions. This allows users to manage and control access to their files and folders.  
3. Server data: SFTP's API gives access to server data such as server logs, server configurations, and server status. This allows users to monitor and manage their server resources.  
4. Security data: SFTP's API provides access to security data such as encryption keys, certificates, and security policies. This allows users to ensure that their data is secure and protected from unauthorized access.  
5. Network data: SFTP's API gives access to network data such as IP addresses, network configurations, and network traffic. This allows users to monitor and manage their network resources.

What data can you transfer to Redshift?

You can transfer a wide variety of data to Redshift. This usually includes structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data like transaction records, log files, JSON data, CSV files, and more, allowing robust, scalable data integration and analysis.

What are top ETL tools to transfer data from SFTP to Redshift?

The most prominent ETL tools to transfer data from SFTP to Redshift include:

  • Airbyte
  • Fivetran
  • Stitch
  • Matillion
  • Talend Data Integration

These tools help in extracting data from SFTP and various sources (APIs, databases, and more), transforming it efficiently, and loading it into Redshift and other databases, data warehouses and data lakes, enhancing data management capabilities.