Use of SCP in automated scripts

[annay121]

I have a shell script using ksh which is supposed to transfer file from one Unix server to another using scp. The script is automated using Autosys. Have heard about some authentication public-private keys which would have to be used but am not clear on it.

Any help would be great.
Thanks

 

[comtec17]

All you need is to have the +rhosts file on each server refer to each other.

 

[Annihilannic]

To use public/private key pairs:

[ul]
[li]On source server: cd ~/.ssh ; ssh-keygen -t dsa -N "" (using DSA encryption as an example0, accept default filenames)[/li]
[li]scp id_dsa.pub destserver:.ssh/authorized_keys (where "destserver" is the name of the destination server, type password when prompted)[/li]
[/ul]

You should now be able to ssh and scp to the destination server without being prompted for a password.
If the .ssh directories don't exist, create them. Make sure they are owned by the user performing the scp, and that their mode/permissions are 700 (drwx------).

Annihilannic.

 

[columb]

Using .rhosts is not the best answer. You should set up public private key pairs using

Un-attended login
When batch scripts require secure access to remote hosts, i.e. no user to type in the password, an un-attended-login is required. This is achieved by copying the requesting user's authentication key from the source host to the target host into a file called .ssh/authorized_keys. E.g. to set up an un-attended login for 'user' on host2 when connecting from host1: - 

user@host1> cd; mkdir .ssh
user@host1> ssh-keygen -t rsa -N '' -f .ssh/id_rsa
user@host1> scp .ssh/id_rsa.pub user@host2:user_host1_key #requires password
user@host1> ssh -l user host2 'mkdir .ssh; cat user_host1_key >> .ssh/authorized_keys' #requires password
user@host1> ssh -l user host2 'ls -la' #Does NOT require password
…


The ssh-keygen command generates the user's key for host1. Thus, when added to the authorized-keys file on host2 allows user on host1 to login into user account on host2 without entering interactive mode to enter the password, i.e. un-attended login.

Columb Healy