SFTP Gateway Support

3.0

Deploy SFTP Gateway as a container

Overview

In this article we'll walk through deploying SFTP Gateway as a containerized application. This involves downloading a zip file containing our backend & admin-ui docker images, and loading them into your local docker image list, which we then use to create a new SFTP Gateway deployment using a custom docker compose file.

Afterwards, you're able to access your deployment by navigating to your web browser and creating your initial Web Admin account.

These instructions were written working with Docker Desktop. Download and install Docker Desktop from the official Docker website: Docker Desktop Download

Create local docker image

The first step involves downloading our docker image zip files in the form of an S3 link.

SFTP Gateway backend image zip file: https://sftpgateway-container-beta.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sftpgw-docker-images-version-3.8.0-snapshot.202508300318/sftpgateway-backend.tar.gz

SFTP Gateway admin-ui image zip file: https://sftpgateway-container-beta.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sftpgw-docker-images-version-3.8.0-snapshot.202508300318/sftpgateway-admin-ui.tar.gz

Once you've downloaded the zip files, using the command line/terminal, load them into your docker image list using the following commands:

# Load backend image
gzip -dc sftpgateway-backend.tar.gz | docker load

# Load admin UI image  
gzip -dc sftpgateway-admin-ui.tar.gz | docker load

Verify that these images are pulled into your local docker:

docker image list

Create docker compose file

Now that the images are loaded into docker, the next step is to create the docker compose file to bring everything together.

create a YAML file named docker-compose.yml on your local machine:

version: '3.8'
services:
  db:
    container_name: sftpgw_container_db
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: sftpgw
      POSTGRES_USER: sftpgw
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: sftpgw
      PGDATA: /var/lib/postgresql/data/pgdata
      POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS: "--data-checksums"
      POSTGRES_LOGGING: "on"
    volumes:
      - postgres_data:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    ports:
      - "5455:5432"
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U sftpgw -d sftpgw"]
      interval: 5s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5
    restart: unless-stopped
    networks:
      - sftpgw-network

  backend:
    container_name: backend
    image: 115784076403.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sftpgateway/sftpgateway-backend:3.8.0-snapshot.202508300318.uncommitted-03104f4-20250830033445
    depends_on:
      db:
        condition: service_healthy
    environment:
      SPRING_PROFILES_ACTIVE: local
      LOGGING_LEVEL_ROOT: INFO
      SPRING_DATASOURCE_URL: jdbc:postgresql://db:5432/sftpgw
      SPRING_DATASOURCE_USERNAME: sftpgw
      SPRING_DATASOURCE_PASSWORD: sftpgw
      SECURITY_CLIENT_ID: 1234
      SECURITY_CLIENT_SECRET: 1234
      SECURITY_JWT_SECRET: b03c367c-a16c-4a43-9d47-8ff73462179e
      SERVER_PORT: 8080
      HOME: /home/sftpgw
      JAVA_OPTS: -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=*:5005

    volumes:
      - sftpgw_home:/home/sftpgw
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
      - "22:22"
      - "5005:5005"
    networks:
      - sftpgw-network
    user: "sftpgw"
    working_dir: /opt/sftpgw
    restart: unless-stopped

  ui:
    container_name: sftpgw-ui
    image: 115784076403.dkr.ecr.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/sftpgateway/sftpgateway-admin-ui:3.8.0-snapshot.202508300318.uncommitted-03104f4-20250830033445
    environment:
      BACKEND_URL: http://backend:8080/
      SECURITY_CLIENT_ID: 1234
      SECURITY_CLIENT_SECRET: 1234
      WEBSITE_BUNDLE_CRT: |
        -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
        MIID4zCCAsugAwIBAgIUd2Q6F9G4dGxIqLd8cS6ltLeDpk4wDQYJKoZIhvcNAQEL
        BQAwZDELMAkGA1UEBhMCVVMxEzARBgNVBAgMCkNhbGlmb3JuaWExFjAUBgNVBAcM
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        24Yi6PfMCT1WSNQ9OEIjsAaQIKJikH1xww46y0oEn/wc2BBCgcOO
        -----END CERTIFICATE-----
      WEBSITE_KEY: |
        -----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
        MIIEvAIBADANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAASCBKYwggSiAgEAAoIBAQC2OzVSg3Zho9BS
        1GP5gY8r5ykIhdtmzcaueh0yCmsIx8Ve9Fvggcz79ndsDSOHuLzqkwwijlGzyij1
        19bzbtrtZTHFUDcMUdsRuM7A4/Vs192e/Nheqph4voarFWxYFXTsY+MYzDk3qHcI
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        0Bz/2SdeU40IbTl/wrpY2g==
        -----END PRIVATE KEY-----
    ports:
      - "80:80"
      - "443:443"
    networks:
      - sftpgw-network
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  postgres_data:
    driver: local
  sftpgw_home:
    driver: local

networks:
  sftpgw-network:
    driver: bridge

Configure the following environment variables in the backend container (Add the properties below the JAVA_OPTS: -agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,suspend=n,address=*:5005 environment variable):

If you're on Azure you would configure the following variables:

FEATURES_FIRST_CONNECTION_CLOUD_PROVIDER: azure
FEATURES_FIRST_CONNECTION_NAME: "Blob Storage Cloud Connection"
FEATURES_FIRST_CONNECTION_BASE_PREFIX: "https://bryce.blob.core.windows.net/demo"

Note: In this example bryce is my Storage Account and demo is my container name.

Deploy docker container

Now that you've gotten the prerequisite docker images & docker compose file, we can deploy our docker container with the following command:

docker compose -f docker-compose.yml up -d

Docker Compose Start

Note: We don't need to add the postgresql database image as docker will pull the image in automatically during the deployment.

Access your deployment

Once your container has deployed successfully, access it by navigating to this URL on a web browser: https://localhost

Setting up SFTP Gateway

After accessing the Web UI, create your initial Web Admin account & Sign in:

Web Admin Creation

Even though the initial Cloud Connection is automatically configured with Blob container details, you'll need to specify valid credentials.

Azure Cloud Connection

Here is documentation going over how to obtain the credentials for your Azure Storage Account:

Azure Storage Account Credentials - Azure Documentation for the Connection String

Once your connection has been configured and returns 3 green check marks for the Test Connection, navigate to the Users tab and create your SFTP user (currently we've restricted the user count to 1 SFTP user):

Users Tab SFTP User Creation

Once created, connect with your SFTP user from an SFTP client such as FileZilla:

FileZilla

Upload a file to your Cloud Storage Location:

filezilla-demo-GIF.gif

That's it, you've now successfully deployed SFTP Gateway in a containerized version and are connected to Cloud Storage.

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