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Guided Exercise: Transfer Files Between Systems Securely

Copy files from a remote system to a local directory with sftp.

Outcomes

  • Copy files from a remote host to a directory on the local machine.

As the student user on the workstation machine, use the lab command to prepare your system for this exercise.

This command prepares your environment and ensures that all required resources are available.

[student@workstation ~]$ lab start archive-transfer

Instructions

  1. Use the ssh command to log in to servera as the student user.

    [student@workstation ~]$ ssh student@servera
    ...output omitted...
    [student@servera ~]$
  2. Use the sftp command to copy the /etc/ssh directory from the serverb machine to the /home/student/serverbackup directory on the servera machine.

    1. On the servera machine, create a /home/student/serverbackup directory.

      [student@servera ~]$ mkdir ~/serverbackup
    2. Use the sftp command to open a session to the serverb machine. Only the root user can read all the content in the /etc/ssh directory. When prompted, enter redhat as the password.

      [student@servera ~]$ sftp root@serverb
      root@serverb's password: redhat
      Connected to serverb.
      sftp>
    3. Change the local current directory to the newly created /home/student/serverbackup directory.

      sftp> lcd /home/student/serverbackup/
      sftp> lpwd
      Local working directory: /home/student/serverbackup
    4. Recursively copy the /etc/ssh directory from the serverb machine to the /home/student/serverbackup directory on the servera machine.

      sftp> get -r /etc/ssh
      Fetching /etc/ssh/ to ssh
      Retrieving /etc/ssh
      Retrieving /etc/ssh/sshd_config.d
      50-redhat.conf                                    100%  719   881.5KB/s   00:00
      Retrieving /etc/ssh/ssh_config.d
      50-redhat.conf                                    100%  581   347.4KB/s   00:00
      01-training.conf                                  100%   36    25.8KB/s   00:00
      moduli                                            100%  565KB  71.9MB/s   00:00
      ssh_config                                        100% 1921     1.1MB/s   00:00
      ssh_host_rsa_key                                  100% 2602     7.2MB/s   00:00
      ssh_host_rsa_key.pub                              100%  565     1.6MB/s   00:00
      ssh_host_ecdsa_key                                100%  505     1.6MB/s   00:00
      ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub                            100%  173   528.6KB/s   00:00
      ssh_host_ed25519_key                              100%  399     1.0MB/s   00:00
      ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub                          100%   93   275.8KB/s   00:00
      sshd_config                                       100% 3730    10.3MB/s   00:00
    5. Exit from the sftp session. Verify that the /etc/ssh directory from the serverb machine is copied to the /home/student/serverbackup directory on the servera machine.

      sftp> exit
      [student@servera ~]$ ls -lR ~/serverbackup
      /home/student/serverbackup:
      total 4
      drwxr-xr-x. 4 student student 4096 Mar 21 12:01 ssh
      
      /home/student/serverbackup/ssh:
      total 600
      -rw-r--r--. 1 student student 578094 Mar 21 12:01 moduli
      -rw-r--r--. 1 student student   1921 Mar 21 12:01 ssh_config
      drwxr-xr-x. 2 student student     52 Mar 21 12:01 ssh_config.d
      -rw-------. 1 student student   3730 Mar 21 12:01 sshd_config
      drwx------. 2 student student     28 Mar 21 12:01 sshd_config.d
      -rw-r-----. 1 student student    505 Mar 21 12:01 ssh_host_ecdsa_key
      -rw-r--r--. 1 student student    173 Mar 21 12:01 ssh_host_ecdsa_key.pub
      -rw-r-----. 1 student student    399 Mar 21 12:01 ssh_host_ed25519_key
      -rw-r--r--. 1 student student     93 Mar 21 12:01 ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub
      -rw-r-----. 1 student student   2602 Mar 21 12:01 ssh_host_rsa_key
      -rw-r--r--. 1 student student    565 Mar 21 12:01 ssh_host_rsa_key.pub
      
      /home/student/serverbackup/ssh/ssh_config.d:
      total 8
      -rw-r--r--. 1 student student  36 Mar 21 12:01 01-training.conf
      -rw-r--r--. 1 student student 581 Mar 21 12:01 50-redhat.conf
      
      /home/student/serverbackup/ssh/sshd_config.d:
      total 4
      -rw-------. 1 student student 719 Mar 21 12:01 50-redhat.conf
  3. Return to the workstation system as the student user.

    [student@servera ~]$ exit
    logout
    Connection to servera closed.
    [student@workstation]$

Finish

On the workstation machine, change to the student user home directory and use the lab command to complete this exercise. This step is important to ensure that resources from previous exercises do not impact upcoming exercises.

[student@workstation ~]$ lab finish archive-transfer

Revision: rh134-9.3-5fd2368