Automate SFTP Download with PowerShell: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

In today’s digital landscape, securely transferring files over a network is a common requirement. For Windows users, PowerShell provides a robust platform for automating such tasks. In this tutorial, we will walk through connecting to an SFTP server, automating file downloads, and archiving them using PowerShell and WinSCP.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, ensure you have the following prerequisites in place:

WinSCP installed on your system
Access credentials for the SFTP server

Connecting to the SFTP Server

To establish a connection to the SFTP server, we can utilize the WinSCP .NET assembly within PowerShell.

The WinSCP .NET assembly is a powerful tool that enables PowerShell scripts to interact with the WinSCP application programmatically. By loading the WinSCP .NET assembly into a PowerShell script, users can automate tasks such as connecting to SFTP servers, transferring files, and managing remote directories. This seamless integration enhances PowerShell’s capabilities for securely handling file transfers over SFTP protocol.

The following script demonstrates how to achieve this:

# Load WinSCP .NET assembly
Add-Type -Path "C:\Path\To\WinSCPnet.dll"

# Set up session options
$sessionOptions = New-Object WinSCP.SessionOptions -Property @{
    Protocol = [WinSCP.Protocol]::Sftp
    HostName = "your_sftp_server"
    UserName = "your_username"
    Password = "your_password"
    SshHostKeyFingerprint = "your_ssh_host_key"
}

# Connect to the SFTP server
$session = New-Object WinSCP.Session
$session.Open($sessionOptions)

Downloading and Archiving Files

Once the connection is established, we can download files from a specific folder on the SFTP server.

After successful downloading, the next step involves moving the files on the SFTP server to an archive folder.

The script below illustrates how this can be accomplished:

# Remote directory containing the files
$remotePath = "/remote/path/to/files"

# Local directory for storing the downloaded files
$localPath = "C:\local\path\for\downloads"

# Remote directory for archiving files
$archivePath = "/remote/path/to/archive/folder"

# Get all the files in the remote directory
$files = $session.EnumerateRemoteFiles($remotePath, $mask, [WinSCP.EnumerationOptions]::AllDirectories)

# Download all the files
foreach ($file in $files)
{
    Write-Host "Downloading $($file.FullName) ..."
    $filePath = [WinSCP.RemotePath]::EscapeFileMask($file.FullName)
    $session.GetFiles($filePath, $localPath + "\*").Check()
    $session.MoveFile($filePath, $archivePath + "/").Check()
}

Conclusion

This tutorial explored how PowerShell can be used with WinSCP to automate connecting to an SFTP server and downloading and archiving files. By leveraging these tools’ capabilities, users can streamline file transfer and management, enhancing workflow efficiency and productivity.

Feel free to adapt and modify these scripts to suit your requirements and explore further automation possibilities in PowerShell and SFTP file transfers.

Now, you have the power to handle secure file transfers seamlessly using PowerShell and WinSCP!

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