Our FTP access via SFTP regularly locks. No clear reason why.

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Ramon Carroll
Ramon Carroll ✭
Second Anniversary Facilitator 1 Name Dropper June 2023 Monthly Challenge
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion

I have been battling this problem for months, and Blackbaud has told me that they can't help in any way, since it involves accessing their FTP server via third-party products.

Last year, I built a process in which the SFTP action in Power Automate (PA) watches for file changes on a specific FTP folder. On a nightly basis, an RE7 queue runs and exports a handful of files there. Once the PA flow detects the file updates, it runs a process which involves moving the relevant files to a SharePoint folder where other processes run against it.

This process worked for nearly a year before something changed. Now, the credentials in the PA flow no longer work. They always get locked, requiring me to rotate/reset the credentials, but then they immediately get locked again at the very moment that I copy the new password into the PA flow settings. I simply cannot use PA for this anymore.

I tried transitioning toward using Azure Logic Apps (ALA) instead. This worked, but only for a month; now the problem is the same as with PA (it locks immediately, causing all flows to fail).

What's also interesting is that while I can manually connect to the FTP server using an SFTP extension in my code editor (VS Code), and connect via a Python script, the credentials still eventually stop working within 12-24 hours, requiring me to reset the credentials.

Am I the only one dealing with this repeat-locking of FTP credentials?

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Comments

  • Alex Wong
    Alex Wong ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic

    @Ramon Carroll
    I used to do SFTP export of RE Queue file, and don't have trouble (our RE NXT is hosted on Azure, where are you hosted?) other than the every 90 days rotate of password, once re-authenticate the SFTP connector, everything will work fine.

    Since first EAP started with Query API, i have transitioned all my RE:Queue > sftp to Query API.

    Query API has recently become public generally available. Rather than troubleshoot sftp problem further, I strongly suggest you use Query API. There are a few post on Community on how to do Query API already, you can search and check it out. Not hard at all.

  • Ramon Carroll
    Ramon Carroll ✭
    Second Anniversary Facilitator 1 Name Dropper June 2023 Monthly Challenge

    @Alex Wong

    I've only recently come across info about this new addition to the API, but this might be the way to go, since I'm already comfortable with querying the API via Power Automate/Logic Apps or a Python script. Hopefully, it also includes exports built in RE7 and not just queries, but even if it's just the latter, it's certainly a step in the right direction.

    Thanks for the recommendation, I'll check it out.

    I believe that BB has our database hosted on Azure, by the way.

  • Alex Wong
    Alex Wong ✭✭✭✭✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic

    @Ramon Carroll
    Thought I saw some replies from you about query api and system record id, but seems like you deleted the post.

    I am not sure what query you are trying to run, most of the “not supported” situation has to do with running Adhoc query, some field cannot be used. However, if you saved a query in database view, you can run the query to get the results by the query record id, I have not encounter a situation where I cannot run a saved database view query, and I run a lot (all that cannot be easily obtain via normal SKY API):

    • gift query - get pledge reminder, attribute (custom fields), write off
    • constituent query - get solicit code, alias, no valid address, request no email, alias
    • campaign/fund/appeal query - get attributes (custom fields)

    Query API is different than Query in webview, so try to run some query api, and if you hit some error, let's post here and we can help you determine the issue.

  • Ramon Carroll
    Ramon Carroll ✭
    Second Anniversary Facilitator 1 Name Dropper June 2023 Monthly Challenge

    @Alex Wong
    Sorry for the confusion, friend. Yes, I did delete my posts, because I felt that they might be going too deep into the Query API subject and deserved a separate topic. I do, however, see that you found and responded to it, so I'll continue the discussion from there. Thank you!

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