Using an SFTP dropbox

Generate a Secure Shell (SSH) key pair for an SFTP dropbox

The features described in this article are available only to partners who use YouTube’s Content Manager to manage their copyrighted content.

YouTube requires that you connect to your YouTube dropbox using a Secure Shell (SSH) connection. SSH is a network protocol that ensures secure data transfer.

SSH authenticates you using public-key cryptography. You create a pair of keys: a private key that resides on your client computer and a public key that your dropbox server uses. Both keys have to be in place for your computer to connect to your dropbox.

You need to provide your partner representative with your public SSH key before he or she can create your dropbox. The public key is a string that starts with ssh-rsa, ends with your email address, and has a long generated string in the middle. For example:

ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQCXsM9ycbHV6E6t2L+B4p/uYHn9Q0jmu5gU XMYnFnnf4l39xrznfDo8KCASzRrqUkRnuzrno059CvZVzcljkbwWLzKKoE1EwbzH L3nYahMB4MdYNWhBbHbB+ybq6RNO7hkoKDBIQCfqQDY0FEB6sV3d3F1WYl0bAMjp 15yyZJzMKa/rRnZKWetHlcL1X+gFWmW2hQ93foPD463gb58/25GujjsS/tzjngw7 UJMVkm08U1QEY3z3DE/R++7ovJozTCzH0CTNDN0AH3/oSC3dmG+yDh3ZXFATjWjy PXJSOziNrp9TXgJhlqSmoHcPvpotMVjx21kIZ+T+SusQmnG+hK+L user@yourdomain.com

Be sure that the public key you send to your partner representative includes your email address at the end.

To generate an SSH key pair on a Windows machine:

Download PuTTYgen.exe and run it.
Select the SSH-2 RSA radio btn in the Parameters section near the bottom of the page.
Click the Generate btn.
Move the mouse around in the blank area as instructed, until PuTTYgen generates the key pair.
When PuTTYgen has generated the key, it replaces the blank area with a series of text boxes, including one that shows the public key.
In the Key comment text box, append the email address to which you want notifications sent.Add the address to the end of any text that already appears in the box. Leave the other text boxes unchanged.
Click the Save public key btn and save the public key with the name id-rsa in the folder C:Documents and Settingsusername.ssh, where username is your Windows user name.
Click the Save private key btn and save the private key with the name id-rsa.ppk in the same folder.
Copy to the clipboard the contents of the text box Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file.Make sure to copy the entire content, starting with ssh-rsa and ending with the email address you entered at step 5.
Close PuTTYgen.
Paste the public key into a text editor, remove the line breaks, and recopy the full text to the clipboard.
Paste the public key into an email and send it to your partner representative.If you are regenerating a key pair for an existing dropbox, you can paste the public key into the SSH Public Keysbox on the Dropbox configuration page.

To generate an SSH key pair on a Macintosh or Linux machine:

Open a terminal window.
Enter this command line:ssh-keygen -t rsa
Select the default values for all options.This command generates two SSH key files, id_dsa and id_dsa.pub, in the directoryhome/username/.ssh, where username is your user name.
Send the public key file id_dsa.pub to your partner representative.

Configure your dropbox

The features described in this article are available only to partners who use YouTube’s Content Manager to manage their copyrighted content.

After your partner representative creates your dropbox, you need to configure the defaults for your account.

To configure your dropbox:

Sign in to the Dashboard for your YouTube content owner.
Click Dropbox account in the Content Delivery box.
Record the name and address of the dropbox.You’ll need this information to connect to the dropbox.
The blue bar shows the name. For Aspera dropboxes, the name starts with asp-; for SFTP dropboxes, the name starts with yt-. The address for an Aspera dropbox is shown as the Dropbox Address; the address for an SFTP dropbox ispartnerupload.google.com.

Accounts with numerous content owners may have more than one dropbox. Make sure you record the information for your dropbox.
Confirm that the Default YouTube User and SSH Public Keys are correct.The default YouTube user identifies the account (channel) that will be designated as the owner of your uploaded videos if the content feed doesn’t specify a different owner.
The SSH Public Keys box should contain the SSH key you provided to your partner representative. Be sure that the key includes your email address at the end.
In the Upload Notification Emails text box, enter one or more email addresses where you want YouTube to send status reports.Separate multiple email addresses with a space.
Click Edit Dropbox Account to save your changes.

Please note that a dropbox is per content owner and not channel. In other words, you can upload to several different channels using just one dropbox.

Connect to your SFTP dropbox

The features described in this article are available only to partners who use YouTube’s Content Manager to manage their copyrighted content.

Once you’ve configured your dropbox, you need to create a reusable connection between your SFTP client and your dropbox server. This article explains how to create a connection using Filezilla, but you can use any client software that supports SFTP connections.

To create an SFTP connection:

Download and install Filezilla.
Run the Filezilla application.
Select File > Site Manager > New Site.
Name the new site with a descriptive name such as YT-Dropbox.
In the Host text box, enter partnerupload.google.com.
In the Port text box, enter 19321.
In the Servertype drop-down list, select SFTP.
Set the Logontype to Normal.
In the User text box, enter the name of your dropbox.The dropbox name begins with “yt-” and appears on the Dropbox settings page in the YouTube Content Manager.
Select Edit > Settings.
In the Select page box, choose Connection > SFTP.
Click the Add keyfile btn.
Select the SSH private key file that you previously generated.
Click OK to close the settings dialog box.
Click the Connect btn to test the connection.
Select the check box Always trust this host, add this key to the cache.

Upload content to your SFTP dropbox

The features described in this article are available only to partners who use YouTube’s Content Manager to manage their copyrighted content.

After validating the metadata for an upload batch, you’re ready to upload the files. You upload content by copying the necessary files into your dropbox, then letting us know that they are ready by creating a file named delivery.complete.

Which files you need to complete an upload depends on which asset type you’re uploading. Every upload job must include a metadata file in XML or CSV format and any new media files that the metadata file references by name.

We recommend uploading new assets one at a time, each with its own dropbox folder and metadata file. For example, if you’re uploading three episodes of a TV program, create three separate folders and three separate metadata files. This approach makes it easier to track the progress of the upload and limits the impact of any issues that occur, without any impact on the upload processing speed.

(Other recommended best practices)These instructions explain how to upload content using Filezilla, but you can use any client software that supports SFTP connections.

To upload content to your SFTP dropbox:

Run the Filezilla client application.
Select File > Site Manager and highlight the connection for your dropbox in the Select Entry box.If you haven’t set up a connection for your dropbox yet, see Connecting to your SFTP dropbox.
Click the Connect btn.The client connects to your dropbox and displays the top-level folders.
Create a new folder for the new upload job.To create a folder, right-click on the parent folder in the Remote site box and select New > Folder. To avoid possible conflicts, we recommend that you create a new directory each time you post content for YouTube and that you include a timestamp or incremental ID in each directory’s name.
Copy all of the files for the upload package into the new folder.To copy files into a folder, make sure the intended folder is highlighted in the Remote site box on the right, right-click the files to upload in the Local site box on the left, and select Upload from the pop-up menu.
When all files are copied, upload the delivery.complete file to the same folder.When YouTube begins processing the batch, it replaces the files you uploaded with a continuously updated status file named delivery.processing.

You must not add any new files to the directory or any of its subdirectories after posting the delivery.complete file. Depending on the size of the batch, it can take a few seconds or minutes before you notice the files being processed. Do not upload more than one delivery.complete file per batch.

After processing each upload batch, the upload engine posts a status report detailing the actions taken for each item in the batch. The report is named status-xml-filename, where xml-filename is the filename of your metadata file. The status report is placed in your dropbox in the same directory as the upload batch.

The time needed to process an upload batch and generate a status report varies depending on system load and the actions requested. For example, the system requires much less time to process updates to an asset’s metadata than to process new reference files. The upload engine will also spend additional processing time on batches that generate failed actions, because the system retries certain failed actions to ensure that failures were not caused by transient conditions such as system downtime. In some cases, we may require more than one day to process an upload batch.

SFTP dropbox upload best practices

The features described in this article are available only to partners who use YouTube’s Content Manager to manage their copyrighted content.

Please follow these guidelines for uploading content (metadata and reference files) to Google.

Create a unique folder for each upload batch

All files that you post to your dropbox must be in a folder. Google ignores files in the root folder of the dropbox, including any delivery.complete files.

To avoid possible naming conflicts, we recommend that you create a new folder each time you post content and that you include a timestamp or incremental ID in each folder’s name. The timestamp or ID provides a good way to track the upload batches.

Use smaller batches

Create multiple smaller batches rather than a single larger batch. We generally recommend uploading the files for one asset at a time. If you’re using a dropbox, create a separate directory — and separate delivery.complete file — for each asset.

It doesn’t take any longer to process 10 batches containing one asset each than one batch containing 10 assets. The processing of each individual batch is faster, though, and any failed uploads affect only the problematic asset.

The recommended maximum size for an upload batch is 100 assets. The metadata file (CSV or XML) cannot exceed 10MB.

Include all referenced files

Make sure that the file names referenced in the metadata CSV or XML file match the actual files you’re uploading, including their file extensions. The upload will fail if the names don’t match or if a referenced file is missing.

Remove the folders for successfully uploaded batches from your dropbox

Your dropbox is a temporary staging area for uploading content. It is not intended for long-term storage. We automatically remove files that have been in your dropbox for more than 45 days. We recommend deleting the folders and status files for successfully uploaded batches.

The failed_packages subdirectory of the dropbox account contains files that we were unable to upload successfully. Review the files to correct the issues that prevented proper uploading, then move them to the folder for a new upload batch. We will process the files again when you add the delivery.complete file to the folder.

Review upload status

The features described in this article are available only to partners who use YouTube’s Content Manager to manage their copyrighted content.

Use the Upload Status – List View page to monitor the status of jobs in progress or to confirm that a job has finished processing.

To review the status of an upload batch:

Sign in to the YouTube Dashboard.
Select Upload Status > List View from the Content Delivery box.
Select All in the Job Status drop-down box.
Click Show Jobs.
Select the Job ID of the upload batch whose status you want to review.
Click Status File.
Search for “fail” to locate status updates reporting problems.

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