Jay Grossman
Jay Grossman
Published on:

Powershell Module for transferring files via SFTP

Powershell Module for transferring files via SFTP

I had the need for several automated jobs to be able to exchange files securely with partners via the Secure FTP (SFTP). I chose powershell because the jobs:

  1. get executed on windows nodes. It is less overhead than creating console apps in .NET
  2. required things like querying databases, transforming data, and archiving files

I spent a little bit of time looking into different options, and decided to utilize the latest version of the WinSCP library provided the required options - such as designating the transfer mode, deleting source files, and specifying file masks.

I created a generic powershell module that exposes upload and download functions. The module is available on github:

https://github.com/jaygrossman/SftpPowershellModule

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Function SFTPDownloadFiles {
  Param(

        [string] $Username, # Required. Username of SFTP account
        [string] $Password, # Required. Password of SFTP account
        [string] $HostName, # Required. HostName of SFTP server
        [string] $RemotePath, # Required. Starting path of SFTP server
        [string] $LocalPath, # Required. Starting path of local server
        [string] $SshHostKeyFingerprint, # Required. Host Key, 
        ssh-rsa 1024 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
        [string] $FileMask, # Optional. Filter string to limit files to download
        [bool]   $Remove=$false, # Optional. Whether to remove original file
        [string] $TransferMode="binary"# Optional. Transfer can be binary, ascii, or automatic
  ) 

Function SFTPUploadFiles {
    Param(
            [string] $Username, # Required. Username of SFTP account
            [string] $Password, # Required. Password of SFTP account
            [string] $HostName, # Required. HostName of SFTP server
            [string] $RemotePath, # Required. Starting path of SFTP server
            [string] $LocalPath, # Required. Starting path of local server
            [string] $SshHostKeyFingerprint, # Required. Host Key, 
            ssh-rsa 1024 xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
            [string] $FileMask, # Optional. Filter string to limit files to upload
            [bool]   $Remove=$false, # Optional. Whether to remove original file
            [string] $TransferMode="binary"# Optional. Transfer can be binary, ascii, or automatic
    )
}