Setup SIS sync

  1. Provide ClassRanked with a SSH public key. This will be exchanged through a secure communication channel.
  2. Once ClassRanked has confirmed your key has been added, first connect to sftp.test.classranked.com. This will give you access to a secure test environment where we will validate your files.
    1. The username used to access this endpoint will be provided by ClassRanked once we receive your public key.
  3. There are 3 folders in the SFTP
    1. archive
      1. This folder retains previous results of SIS Flat File uploads; with a date and time
        1. ex: archive/20250314-183610
    2. result
      1. This folder contains the results of your last SIS Flat file CSV upload. Download these to see the results of your SIS flat file exchange upload.
    3. upload
      1. Place your SIS flat file CSVs in this folder.
  4. Once your files have been validated in test, we will ask you to point your files towards the production endpoint: s-e76023ae9c6b4a52a.server.transfer.us-east-1.amazonaws.com.
    1. You can access this endpoint with the same username as in test.
    2. The file structure in the production endpoint is the same as in test.
  5. The SIS Flat file task will run nightly.

Frequently Asked Questions

I am trying to validate that my files were uploaded to the correct location via an FTP solution like FileZilla - but I am getting this error "Unable to use key file "<path/to/private/key>" (OpenSSH SSH-2 private key (new format))"

Problem: Your key is in the newer OpenSSH private-key format, and FileZilla (on Windows especially) doesn’t use it directly.

Solution: It is likely your FTP client needs your private key to be a PuTTY .ppk key (or a legacy PEM for some builds).

  • In Windows UI:
    1. Open PuTTYgen → Load → change filter to All Files → find your key.
    2. If prompted for a passphrase, enter it.
    3. Save private key → mykey.ppk.

    4. In FileZilla: Edit → Settings → SFTP → Add key file… → select mykey.ppk.

      Or in Site Manager → your site → Transfer settings/SFTP tab → add the key.

  • In Mac/Linux/Windows terminal:
    • puttygen /path/to/private/key -o /path/to/private/key.ppk

When I try to upload the files, I am getting an error that I do not have permissions.

Problem: It is likely you are uploading the file to a directory in the SFTP endpoint you do not have access to.

Solution: Depending on your file transfer tool, you will be prompted to provide a relative or absolute path to the "upload" folder. The general format of where the upload folder is /classranked-sftp-s3-test/your_school_username /upload

  • If your file transfer tool uses an absolute path (i.e. it asks you to point to a director after the SFTP URI) then provide it the entire path starting at "/classranked-sftp-s3-test"
  • If your file transfer tool users a relative path for where your specific account starts at, you just need "/upload"

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