SFTP

The SFTP integration allows Plakar Control Plane to back up and restore files on any remote machine reachable over SSH. Plakar connects to the remote machine over SSH and reads or writes files directly under the configured root path using SFTP.

Currently no managed inventory has the capability of discovering SFTP resources. You need to set up a self-managed inventory before adding an SFTP resource.

When using a self-managed inventory, you must register your resources manually or import them from a CSV file.

To add an SFTP machine as a resource, use Compute as the class. SFTP resources do not require a subclass. For the endpoint, use the IP address or hostname of the target machine. See resources documentation for more information on how to set up resources on a self-managed inventory.

flowchart TD
  subgraph Remote["Remote Machine"]
    Files["Filesystem
Root path"]
  end

  subgraph Plakar["Plakar Control Plane"]
    Source["SFTP
Source app"]
    Backup["Backup process
Encrypt & deduplicate"]
  end

  Store["Kloset Store"]

  Source -->|"SSH/SFTP connection"| Files
  Files -->|"read files"| Backup
  Backup --> Store

flowchart TD
  Store["Kloset Store"]

  subgraph Plakar["Plakar Control Plane"]
    Destination["SFTP
Destination app"]
    Restore["Restore process"]
  end

  subgraph Remote["Remote Machine"]
    Files["Filesystem
Root path"]
  end

  Store --> Restore
  Destination --> Restore
  Restore -->|"SSH/SFTP connection"| Files

The following settings are available when configuring a source, store, or destination app.

• Port: The TCP/UDP port number the SSH service is listening on. Defaults to 22.

• Root: The absolute filesystem path to use as the root for backup operations. Defaults to /.

• Ssh Private Key: SSH private key material (PEM/OpenSSH) to load into ssh-agent via ssh-add (not supported on Windows). Generate a dedicated SSH keypair for PCP and add the public key to the remote machine’s authorized keys before configuring this field, then copy the private key in full, including the header and footer lines, into this field:

  -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----
  ...
  -----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----

• Username: The SFTP username to authenticate as on the remote machine. This field cannot be used if the hostname already includes a user@host format.

The following extra settings are available when configuring a store app.

• Kloset Passphrase: The passphrase Plakar Control Plane uses to encrypt the store. This passphrase is required to access the store and must be kept safe.

The following extra settings are available when configuring a destination app.

• Set Owner: Sets the owner and group of restored files to match the original snapshot. Requires the SSH user configured for PCP to have superuser permissions on the remote machine.

The SSH user configured for PCP must have read access to the paths being backed up. For store or destination use, write access is also required. It is recommended to create a dedicated user and keypair for Plakar Control Plane rather than reusing personal credentials.