e-satisfaction SFTP server
A data bridge reads a file from a server — usually one your own team runs. If you don't have one, e-satisfaction can host an SFTP server for your organization. Your systems (or your team) upload the export there, and your bridges pick it up on schedule, exactly as they would from your own server.
Each organization gets one account on the server, with its own private folder. Nobody else can see your files, and you can't see anyone else's.
Getting an SFTP server
Ask for one from Survey Manager — the request is pre-filled with your organization's details:
Open the request
In a bridge's Server settings, click Request an SFTP server — it's offered whenever your organization doesn't have a server yet. Organization administrators can also go to Survey Manager → Data Bridges → SFTP Server Account and click Request an SFTP server there.
Send it
The e-satisfaction service desk opens with your organization already filled in. Add anything useful — for example, when you'd like to start — and submit.
Wait for the account
Once the account is set up, it appears under SFTP Server Account, and every bridge in your organization can use it.
Your account details
Organization administrators can open Data Bridges → SFTP Server Account at any time to see the account:
| Detail | What it is |
|---|---|
| Host | The server's address — sftp.e-satisfaction.com |
| Port | 2222 |
| Username | Your organization's login, unique on the server |
| Password | Hidden until you click the eye icon; copy it with one click at any time |
| Folder | /upload — where your files go |
Copy connection details copies all of them at once, ready to paste into a message to whoever sets up your exports.
Keep the password private
Anyone with these details can upload to — and read from — your folder. Share them only with the people or systems that need them, and reset the password if you think it has leaked.
Is it working?
Every time you open the panel, the account is checked against the server — including a real sign-in with its password. A green Working banner means everything is in order. If something doesn't match, the panel explains what it found; contact your e-satisfaction team and they'll put it right.
How your account is protected
The e-satisfaction SFTP server is built so that each organization's files stay its own, and so that the server is a poor target for the automated attacks every internet-facing server receives:
- Your folder, and nothing else. Each account is locked into its own folder. It can't see other organizations' files, or anything else on the server.
- File transfer only. An account can upload and download files over SFTP — nothing more. It can't run commands, open a shell on the server, or pass traffic through it.
- Guessing gets blocked. A handful of failed sign-ins from the same address in a short time blocks that address automatically for an hour, so passwords can't be guessed by trial and error.
- Strong passwords, kept safe. Each password is generated for you — 20 random characters — and stored encrypted. It's never shown inside a bridge; bridges receive it behind the scenes.
- No port 22. The server is used on port 2222. We block port 22 because it's the most attacked port on the internet — see why we block port 22.
- We check we're talking to the real server. When Survey Manager signs in to manage or check your account, it first verifies the server's identity — so a server pretending to be ours would never be sent those credentials.
- Managed in one place. Accounts are created, changed and removed only through Survey Manager, and every change is recorded.
Uploading files
Use any SFTP client — for example FileZilla, WinSCP or Cyberduck — or the export job in your own system:
Choose SFTP
Pick SFTP as the protocol — not FTP or FTPS.
Sign in
Enter the host, the port — 2222, not the usual 22 — and the username and password from SFTP Server Account.
Upload into /upload
You arrive in your /upload folder. Put your files there (or in folders inside it), named the way your bridge expects — for example export-2026-09-25.csv.
Browsing your files
Below the account details, click View files on the server to list what has been uploaded, starting at /upload: each file's name, size and when it was last changed. Click a folder to open it, use the arrow to go back up, and hover a long name to see it in full.
It's the quickest way to answer "did the file arrive?" when a bridge finds nothing. The list is read-only — nothing here uploads, renames or deletes files. It's read with the account's own login, so it's only available while the account is working and enabled.
Modified, not created
SFTP servers don't record when a file was created. For a file that was uploaded and not changed since, the modified time is when it arrived.
Resetting the password
Organization administrators can choose Reset password from the ⋯ menu on the account. A new password is generated and shown straight away, so you can copy it.
The old password stops working immediately for anyone uploading with it, so give the new one to whoever uploads your files. Your bridges switch to the new password automatically — the panel tells you how many were updated, and nobody needs to type it into a bridge.
Using it in a data bridge
In a bridge's Server settings, click Use managed SFTP server. The host, port and username are filled in for you, and the password is added automatically when you save — nobody has to know it, and it's never shown in the bridge.
A bridge on the server shows a Managed SFTP Server panel instead of the connection fields. Remember that its file path starts with /upload/ — for example /upload/export-%Y-%m-%d.csv. See Data bridges for the details.