# Prepare Your Flare Connection

Before you create a Flare connection, complete these prerequisites.
The Flare connector uses a Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) staging area to transfer your content to Data 360 and requires Secure Shell (SSH) key authentication. Create a staging area, generate an SSH key pair, and gather your connection details.
For instructions, see [Working with a Staging Area](/docs/data/data-cloud-int/guide/c360-a-staging-area.md)

## Find Your Username and Hostname

After you create a [staging area](/docs/data/data-cloud-int/guide/c360-a-staging-area.md), Data 360 provides a username and hostname. Madcap Flare requires this information when you create your Flare Destination.

1. In Data 360, click **Setup**, and select **Data Cloud Setup**.
2. From the left navigation menu, click **Staging Area**.
3. From the staging area details page, locate the **Username** and **Host Name**.
4. Copy and save these values in a secure location. You need them when configuring your Flare destination.

## Configure Your Flare Target

Decide what content you want to upload to Data 360. Prepare the Flare content and note:

- You will be publishing from an HTML5 target. Other target types are currently not supported.
- Any topic not in the TOC associated with the HTML5 target is not included.
- Any content not saved prior to publishing the target is not included.
- Data 360 expects to receive a ZIP file containing the output of your HTML5 target. As Flare doesn't create this ZIP file as part of the target transformation, you need to add a Post Build Event to the HTML5 Target definition to create this ZIP file. Refer to MadCap's documentation for details.

## Configure Your Flare Destination

In Flare, configure a destination to publish content to the Data 360 staging area.

1. In Flare, open the **Project Organizer** and create a destination.
2. Set the **Type** to **SFTP**.
3. Enter the **Host Name** that you copied from the staging area.
4. Set the **Port** to **22**.
5. Set the **Connection Mode** to **Active**.
6. For **Directory**, enter **public_html**.
7. Set **Server Validation** to **No**.
8. For **Authentication**, select **Private Key File** and provide the path to the SSH Private Key file on your computer. See [Generate an SSH Key Pair](/docs/data/data-cloud-int/guide/c360-a-staging-area.md#prerequisite-generate-an-ssh-key-pair).
9. In the **Login Credentials** section:
   - For **Server**, enter the **Host Name** from your [Staging Area](/docs/data/data-cloud-int/guide/c360-a-prepare-your-flare-connection.md#find-your-username-and-hostname).
   - For **Username**, enter the **Username** from your [Staging Area](/docs/data/data-cloud-int/guide/c360-a-prepare-your-flare-connection.md#find-your-username-and-hostname).
   - You can add a password. There is no requirement for it.

## Next Steps

[Set Up a Flare Connection](/docs/data/data-cloud-int/guide/c360-a-set-up-flare-connection.md)
[Create a Flare Unstructured Data Lake Object](/docs/data/data-cloud-int/guide/c360-a-create-a-flare-udlo.md)
[Flare Connector Limitations](/docs/data/data-cloud-int/guide/c360-a-flare-connector-limitations.md)