It is common to have flat files (CSV and other delimited files) and XML files in a shared windows network drive or a linux/unix server with an SFTP access. ETL Validator has the following three options for creating Flat File / XML Connections to files located in a remote server or a shared network drive. 


Windows Share Drive

Consider a scenario when ETL Validator Server is running on a Windows Server and the Flat files / XML files are located on a Shared network drive. The shared network drive is usually accessible by the logged in user and not by the local system administrator. Follow the steps below to access these files : 

  • By default when ETL Validator server is installed as a Windows Service using ETL Validator Complete or by installing Apache Tomcat, the Windows Service runs as a local system administrator user. However this user may not be access the shared network drive. So we need to change the Windows Service setting for the ETL Validator Server to run as the logged in user instead of the local administrator user. This can be done by editing the Windows Service properties and providing the "Log On" details.


  • The next step is to create a Flat File Connection or an XML Connection. However, due to a known limitation with the Windows Services, ETL Validator Server is not able to access Mapped Network drives. Hence the connection needs to be created by typing in the Shared Drive path directly as shown in the below screenshot. 


Unix, Linux Server with an SFTP Access

If the Flat files / XML Files are located in a remote unix / linux server with SFTP access, ETL Validator provides an SFTP connection option that can be leveraged to access the files. 

  • An SFTP Connection can be created and directly used from Flat file components in the Component Test Case to validate Flat Files located in the SFTP server


  • The File Sync tool in ETL Validator Server can be used to bring in the Files files and XML files into a directory local to the ETL Validator Server and use them to test Flat files and XML files. 


Upload files to the ETL Validator Server

You can also upload files to a Flat FIle directory location that is accessible to the ETL Validator Server from the ETL Validator Reports. This feature is available from ETL Validator v3.4.8 or later.