Secure FTP (SFTP)

You can automate your user imports with our SFTP feature. This allows you to keep your user data up to date at a cadence which suits your business, while making use of all the functionality of a user import via the admin dashboard, including:

• Creating users
• Updating existing users
• Managing group membership
• Automatically activating or suspending users

By automating user imports with SFTP, you can combine data stored in systems other than your main user directory to enrich your users’ profiles.

Prerequisites

To ensure a successful import of the user file, you must make sure that the file only contains columns which can be mapped to the profile fields, groups, and locations. Furthermore, it is important that the column headers have the exact spelling required by Beekeeper. The best way to ensure that the column headers are correct, is to download the template:

1. From the Dashboard, select the “Users & Groups”
2. Select the "Users"
3. Click on "Export" to download the user template"
4. Delete any columns with blue headers as these will not be used for the import

You can find more information about a direct upload of Excel/CSV files to Beekeeper in this article.

Setting up

The diagram below gives an overview of how user synchronisation with SFTP works.

To set it up:

1. Export the user data from your HRMS (e.g. Active Directory, SAP)
2. Transform the user file according to Beekeeper’s requirements (the format is identical to a CSV user import, as described here)
3. (Optional) Encrypt the file with PGP for additional security. Download our PGP public key here (at the moment PGP-encrypted files can't be transferred with FileZilla)
4. Send the file to Beekeeper’s servers using an FTP client. We officially support FileZilla, WinSCP, CoreFTP, and Cyberduck. Our users have found success with other FTP clients, but we cannot guarantee support outside of the listed applications. (Please note, if you are using FileZilla, the Excel sheet should not have any special characters within the sheet or in the filename.)

You can automate your user imports by scheduling reports, if provided by your HRMS, or by using workflow automation tools, such as the Windows Task Scheduler or CRON jobs for OSX and Linux.

FTP client configuration

Your FTP client should be configured according to the settings below:

For step-by-step instructions for each application, please see the following pages:

• FileZilla
• WinSCP
• CoreFTP
• Cyberduck

Please note:

For the Gender drop-down menu field in the Excel/CSV file there are limitations for the allowed values (regardless of what you can see in the downloaded Excel/CSV template):

a) for female: 'female', 'f', 'w', 1, '1'

b) for male:'male', 'm', 0, '0'.

Troubleshooting

Imports do not appear in the dashboard: Check your file structure. It should follow the requirements outlined in this article.

Some profile fields did not map during the import: Check your placeholders. You can find these in the admin dashboard under Settings > Profile fields.

What format should be used for the CSV file? UTF-8, comma or semicolon separated. Do not use tabs as the delimiter. ASCII quotes (") around fields are not required.

Are there any constraints regarding the length of fields? This depends on the profile field type, e.g. usernames are limited to 32 characters but user IDs can be any length.

Will users who are not listed in the import file be deleted? No, users that are not listed will not be changed.

How can I suspend users? Include a column titled 'suspended' in your file, and use the values '0' for active and '1' for suspended users.

Do users created via SFTP automatically get sent login instructions? No, but you can still send them login instructions through the admin dashboard, under Engagement > Login Instructions. (See this article for more information on how to send login instructions.)

My configuration is correct, but I can't connect to the Beekeeper FTP server: Verify that the Beekeeper domain (beekeeper.io) is whitelisted in your firewall.

I'm getting an SSH error: Bad packet length: Check your connection configuration. This is usually happens when you are connecting over FTP instead of SFTP, and the server tries to decrypt the first block of data being sent through, only to find that it is in the incorrect format.

Do you support SSH2?: Yes