Getting Started with Couchdrop Cloud SFTP – Couchdrop

Couchdrop can be used for multiple scenarios, it can also be seen as a universal adapter to interact and access your backend cloud storage, whether this is through SFTP, FTP, S3, Web Portal or Couchdrop's API. The most common use case for Couchdrop is its use as a Cloud SFTP or Managed File Transfer platform.

Getting started with Couchdrop is simple and takes only a few minutes to get going. This guide will walk you through getting a basic SFTP solution up and running, as well point out any tips that may be of use.

Steps:

Step 1. Configure your backend SFTP storage
Step 2. Configure SFTP users
Step 3. Connect via SFTP

Step 1. Configure your backend SFTP storage

So you have created an account with Couchdrop, what next? Couchdrop has provisioned you by default with hosted storage. If you wish to bring your own, you can connect your own third party storage such as SharePoint, Azure, Amazon S3, Google Drive, etc. Guides on how to connect third party storage can be located here.

At the Couchdrop main dashboard simply click Add Storage Integration and select your chosen storage endpoint (if you wish to use Couchdrop's Hosted Storage, simply select "Other").
You will be taken to a new screen to configure your storage endpoint
Once you've configured your storage, simply Save Storage

An example of a SharePoint site configuration:

Step 2. Configure SFTP users

To access the backend storage to upload, download or interact with the files you will need to create user accounts to login via SFTP. These users can be restricted to certain IP addresses, folders and file operations. Additionally you can disable insecure protocols and access to the Couchdrop platform.

Go to the user management tab under Admin within the Couchdrop product interface
On the right of the screen click add user

You are taken to a window where you configure your SFTP user, provide your SFTP user the following:

Username	The username to be used when logging into Couchdrop via SFTP
Password or RSA Key	Credentials to be used along with the above username.
Root Permissions	This is where you can control the default file operations for a SFTP user. These can be made more granular when using advanced permissions. We've configured this user to have full permissions.
Root Directory	This is the default directory that the user logs directly into, basically "jails" the user into this location. For this user we have isolated them to the earlier created folder.

As you scroll down further user configuration is available:

Allow SFTP/SCP/Rsync

As we are using this user as an SFTP user we want to enable this but disable everything else to ensure the incorrect protocol is not used.

When you've configured your user as above, then save settings. You will be returned to your user dashboard where you can see your newly created user and some details.

Step 3. Connect via SFTP

You have now configured the backend storage where data will rest, and a user who will upload, download and interact with the files at rest. Next step is for the user to connect. To connect use your organisations primary Couchdrop subdomain, or create a CNAME record and point it to this. You can find your organisations sub-domain under the global settings.

Example configuration using Cyberduck:

Uploading a file via Cyberduck

The file has arrived in Couchdrop under the /couchdrop/test folder as expected (for more information you can look at Couchdrop's audit log for more information)

What's next?

Go to Couchdrop to start your free 14-day trial (no credit card required) or jump back in.