As I’ve discussed previously, connecting the RES HyperDrive appliance via SSH is more involved than is typical for other Linux appliances. My assumption is that, as SSH is used by OS X clients and is exposed to the big bad world, it needs be secured. And tightly!
I have come across numerous times that I’ve needed to transfer files to or from the virtual appliance. This normally involves copying SSL certificates and keys and grabbing log files etc. Various people have asked me how they can achieve this so I thought I’d document the process. It’s fairly straight forward and assuming you have have your SSH private key and have downloaded WinSCP (or your SCP client of choice) you’re all set. WinSCP will transfer files over SSH and therefore, the process is almost identical to the earlier Remotely Administering RES HyperDrive post.
Note: If you have RES Automation Manager 2012 deployed then you can always transfer files to the appliance with the built-in Linux/Unix Resource Download task. If you don’t or want to know how to do this manually, feel free to continue..
After launching WinSCP you need to enter the connection information. Enter the hostname/FQDN, port number, username and private key as highlighted below (replace the hostname accordingly!). Make sure that you enter the username as hyperdrive and leave the password blank!:
When you connect by clicking the Login button you’ll be asked whether you trust the server’s key, so go ahead and do so. Once connected you should be able to transfer and drag ‘n drop files from left to right.
As we’re connecting as the hyperdrive user account we can only really copy files into the hyperdrive user’s home directory (/home/hyperdrive). After you’ve copied the files into the home directory you’ll need to move the files via the command line, i.e. via the console/SSH (don’t forget to change the owner and permissions as required!). Reading files is generally less of an issue, but you might need to relocate them into the /home/hyperdrive directory before you can copy them out; diagnostic or log files for example.
Good luck! Iain
