USING “SSH SECURE FILE TRANSFER”

A guide for the newbie AGL’er by Joel Famini

 

NOTE: This section details using Secure FTP to transfer files between a Pc and UNIX system, scroll below to learn how to transfer files between UNIX systems

 

SSH Secure Shell and SSH Secure File Transfer is a pair of Windows PC –based UNIX simulators.  The file client is a program you can use to do all functionalities of UNIX in a WINDOWS environment, EXCEPT for programs requiring an X-Window function, i.e. Geoframe, FOCUS, Grey, etc.  SSH Secure File Transfer is a WINDOWS ftp program designed to download/upload files from UNIX to Windows and vice-versa.

 

To install the program, go to “support.geosc.uh.edu” and go to download software.  Select the SSH file transfer client.

 

Once installed, you are now ready to download and upload files….

 

1)      Once you have started the program, this will be the splash page, as shown in figure 1.  The left side is usually your PC’s desktop display, and the right side, when activated, will be your Sun home directory.

 

 

Figure 1

 

2)      There are two ways to connect: a) by clicking the small computer icon in figure 2 the left side of the program, b) by clicking on “Quick Connect.”  Look at red arrows for guidance.  On both methods, a dialog box will appear (Figure 2) where you need to type in the host name of the server you are logging into, i.e. geossun1.geosc.uh.edu or sheriff.agl.uh.edu, and your login name. Press “Connect.”

 

 

Figure 2

 

3)      The first time you use this program, a dialog box will pop up telling you that the server doesn’t recognize the host key.  This is a safeguard against possible hackers into our system.  Just press “OK”.  If it asks you if you want to save the host key to the server, just press “YES”.  This will not harm your log-in.

 

 

4)      After all of that, a dialog box asking for your password will appear (Figure 3).  This password is the same as when you login to your Sun account in the computer room.

 

 

Figure 3

 

 

5)      After successfully logging in, the right side of the program is now active (Figure 4).  This usually defaults to your home directory, often /Home/home/users/agl/username.  On top of both columns, there are address boxes.  Use the left hand side (red arrow) for navigating within Windows. Use the right hand side (blue arrow) is for navigating within UNIX.

 

Figure 4

 

6)      To download a file from the UNIX world to the Windows PC world, type in the network path of the file in the right hand address box.  For example, “/fracture/agl/saljxf/scrgbs/” (Figure 5).  Once you are there, select all the files you want to down load, or if you want to download all files, click on a file, then press CTRL-A.  This will select all files in the specific folder.

 

Figure 5

 

7)      Once you have selected the files to download, click on the “ß” on the menu bar, referring to the arrow in figure 6.  See arrow for reference.  A dialog box asking for the folder in your WINDOWS PC where you want to save the file will appear.  Select a folder of your own choosing.  Once you have selected the folder, downloading will commence.   You can monitor the progress of the download by looking at the bottom part of the program (Figure 7).

 

 

Figure 6

 

 

Figure 7

 

1)      ALTERNATIVELY, you can work just like in Windows and do the time-tested “DRAG-N -DROP” method.  To do this type in the LEFT HAND address box up top to go to the specific WINDOWS folder.  On the RIGHT HAND address box, type in the network location in the UNIX world.  When you have set environments for both platforms, you can just literally drag the file from UNIX into WINDOWS, and vice-versa.  You can also drag to and from any PC folder that is opened on your PC.

 

2)      Uploading files from WINDOWS to UNIX is similar to downloading.  The only difference is that instead of pressing the “ß”, you now press “Ý”.   You go to the WINDOWS folder of your choice, then select the file, then just click “UPLOAD.”

 

How to use Secure FTP to transfer files between UNIX systems

- Jay Krishnan

 

You can also Use Secure Shell among UNIX systems to transfer data. For example, suppose you would like to transfer data from your home directory on the SUN systems to your home directory on the Cluster,

 

  1. You would use the command “sftp” (which stands for Secure File Transfer Protocol). Run the command in a UNIX terminal window on the SUNs as

 

sftp your-user-name-on-sheriff@sheriff.agl.uh.edu  (which in most cases is your username on the suns as well). The window looks something like below

 

 

If you are connecting for the first time, you are prompted whether you would like to save the host-key. This is OK; just say “yes” in full, the next step asks you for your password on sheriff

 

 

  1. Enter your password and hit enter, then if all goes well (you have an account on sheriff and you entered the password correctly) you will be logged on and you well see the “sftp>” prompt. This means you can now start transferring files. You can use most plain FTP commands, so type ‘ls -l’ to list the contents of your home directory on sheriff or “lls -l” to list the contents of your home directory on the local system (for example).

 

 

 

  1. Now, suppose I want to transfer the file “filter” or even the directory “Docs” YES, you can transfer the entire directory if you want to. You would use the command “put filename” or “put directoryname” (“put Docs”) in this case.

 

 

  1. As you can see the entire “Docs” directory has been transferred and it gives you an estimated time and speed it took to transfer. You can also get a file from sheriff, to do that simply use the command “get filename” or “get directoryname”
  2. After you are done, type the command quit to EXIT from secure FTP.