ssh and scp

Using scp to a remote computer is a really good idea too and my backup program does that every night as well. Here is how to set up unattended ssh/scp. In this case, the root account on machine 1 (M1) will be able to scp files to the guest1 account on machine 2 (M2). I do it this way because I always disable root access of ssh/scp for security reasons on all my machines.

1. First make sure ssh has been run at least once on each machine. This will set up some needed directories and files.

2. On M1, under root, run the ssh-keygen -t rsa command. This will create the file id_rsa.pub in the /root/.ssh directory.

3. Use scp to copy that file to M2 to the /tmp directory (or some other suitable location).

4. On M2 go to the /home/guest1/.ssh directory.

5. If there is already an authorized_keys file edit it, otherwise create it.

6. Copy the line in the /tmp/id_rsa.pub file into the authorized_keys file and save it.

Test this by using scp to copy a file from M1 to M2. It should work without prompting for a password...