KB-1114 SFTP smart service fails to connect to the destination server despite having the correct credentials

Symptoms

The SFTP plug-in fails to connect to the server despite having the right credentials. You can connect to the file server from outside Appian using the same credentials. The following messages are seen in the logs

ERROR [stderr] (Appian Work Item : UnattendedJavaActivityRequest) java.net.UnknownHostException: ###Incorrect connection string#

INFO  [stdout] (Appian Work Item : UnattendedJavaActivityRequest) com.appiancorp.suiteapi.process.exceptions.SmartServiceException: userMsg[error.sftp_conn=Error establishing SFTP connection. Confirm your hostname, username and password. See application server log for more details.]

Cause

If the connection string in the java.net.UnknownHostException part of the log message is not correct, this is likely caused by at least one '@' character in the password of the credentials.

Action

Reset the password of the account on the file server to exclude the '@' character. Update the credentials on the Appian side and attempt to connect again.

Affected Versions

This article applies to all versions of Appian.