LSDF Online Storage: Secure Shell

Secure Shell or SSH refers to both a cryptographic network protocol as well a number of applications that can be used to establish a secure connect with a service provider like the LSDF Online Storage. SSH is typically used to login interactively to a remote machine and execute commands, but it can also be used to transfer file using the protocols SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) or Secure Copy (SCP). The SSH Filesystem (SSHFS) is a file system client based on the SSH protocol which allows to locally mount and interact with directories and files located on a remote server.

SSH access to the LSDF Online Storage is provided via a cluster of login servers reachable at the address os-login.lsdf.kit.edu.

Using SSH with a Linux Client

To interactively login to the LSDF Online Storage login cluster enter the following command in a linux shell

$ ssh <USERNAME>@os-login.lsdf.kit.edu

where <USERNAME> needs to be replaced with your actual user name, e.g. xy1234. The command above will ask for a password to grant access to the login server.

To avoid being asked for a password on every login, password-less access can be configured by distributing a public key to the login server. To create a new set of keys issue the following command:

$ ssh-keygen

The newly generated key should be password protected.

To copy the public part of your key pair to the login server issue the following command:

$ ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub <USERNAME>@os-login.lsdf.kit.edu

Subsequent logins will use the key instead of a password to authenticate to the login server.

Attention: Posix style file commands (for instance chmod) must not be applied on files on a CIFS share. This may revoke sharing and Access Lists (ACLs), steering the access to the files.

Using SSH with Windows

Please find below a list of Secure Shell clients for Windows and MacOS (without any claim to completeness):

MobaXterm	https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/
PuTTY	https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html
WinSCP	http://winscp.net/eng/download.php
FileZilla	http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla/
WebDrive	https://southrivertech.com/products/webdrive/download/
ExpanDrive	http://www.expandrive.com/expandrive
NetDrive	https://www.eldos.com/sftp-net-drive/comparison.php
Cygwin	http://cygwin.com/install.html
Windows 10 subsystem for Linux	https://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/commandline/wsl/install_guide

External Links

Secure Shell