SFTP Setup and Cutover

Last updated: August 28, 2026

Everything to stand up the SFTP connection and take it live. Pairs with the CSV Schema articles (field specs) and Testing & Go-Live Readiness.

How It Works

Housing.Cloud hosts a secure SFTP repository for your tenant on AWS. Your account has two folders:

  • ingress — files from you (profiles, charge codes, meal plans), for a Housing.Cloud process to ingest.
  • egress — files from Housing.Cloud (occupancy, transactions, meal-plan assignments, applications), for your process to ingest.

Your campus initiates every transfer — you push to ingress and pull from egress. Housing.Cloud never pushes onto your servers. Every export is a full file, not a delta.

Connection Details

Setting Value
Access endpoint Your Integrations Specialist provides the exact endpoint to allow-list.
Load-balancer IP (allow-list) Your Integrations Specialist provides the exact IP to allow-list.
Username your tenant subdomain (e.g. sftp-demo)
Auth 4096-bit RSA public key (no password)
File type CSV only

Multiple campuses each get their own tenant/subdomain, user, and folders. If your institution separates non-production and production keys, provide both and we set up two accounts.

Filenames

Format: {short}_yyyy_mm_dd_{uuid}.csv. The prefix is required — the backend picks files up by it. Names are case-sensitive.

Prefix Data Direction
sis Profiles Ingress
cc Charge Codes Ingress
mealplans Meal Plans (definitions) Ingress
furniture Furniture Ingress
occupancy Occupancies Egress
transactions Transactions Egress
mealplanassignments Meal Plan Assignments Egress

Optional configs (Integration Config → Data Mappings): useStaticFileName = TRUE drops the timestamp (e.g. occupancy.csv) — use it if your loader can't parse a timestamp; omitHeaderRow = TRUE produces the file without a header.

Sandbox vs. Production

In the sandbox, syncs are manual — you trigger Import/Export Sync. In production, they run on a cron (typically ~30 minutes after your nightly push; mind UTC/DST). The sandbox persists for ongoing testing.

Connection Test (Per Campus)

  1. Your Specialist places a test file in your egress folder.
  2. You pull it → confirm success and that you see the file.
  3. You push a test file to ingress → your Specialist confirms receipt.

Production Cutover Checklist

Run as a scheduled joint session, after UAT sign-off (see Testing & Go-Live Readiness).

  1. Confirm UAT signed off; latest profile + occupancy (+ meal-plan) files ready.
  2. Housing.Cloud switches the integration from sandbox to production (the stage → broad path repoint; host + key unchanged).
  3. Update your client/scheduler to the production user (per campus).
  4. Test file each direction, each campus → confirm success.
  5. Stop the sandbox automated jobs.
  6. Housing.Cloud sets up the production jobs/schedule.
  7. Re-point your automated jobs; confirm first live run.
  8. Verify a real record round-trips correctly in your SIS.
  9. Monitor first-week runs for silent failures (no file = investigate).

Common pitfalls: wrong filename prefix or case → the file is silently not picked up; not flagging two keys (non-prod/prod) at setup → rework later; firewall lead time (open the ticket in week one and allow-list 52.55.181.1); and "no new file" is a failure signal — monitor for absence, not just errors.