Use of sftp in a script

Question

Hi,
I have a requirement wherein the client is asking us to take an export backup of a schema (database running on HPUX Itanium 64 bit) and then copy the dump file to a Windows box (Windows 2003 server).
This has to be done every Monday at 1AM. I want to automate it so that we dont do this activity manually every week.
Since the dump files needs to be copied across different platform, I believe we need to use sftp.
Could someone please help me as to how do I put it in a script?
Thanks!

Answer 1

user9104898 wrote:
Since the dump files needs to be copied across different platform, I believe we need to use sftp.No. The reason for using sftp would be using trusted RSA or DSA authentication (Windows account trusting the public certificate of the HPUX account), and encrypting the data transferred so deep packet inspection of the wire data will not reveal the actual contents.
Could someone please help me as to how do I put it in a script? Not the correct forum for dealing with bash scripts for HPUX. But here's the basic approach using scp instead. It serves the exact same purpose than sftp, but provides an easier single-command-line-wit-parameters interface. sftp provides a traditional ftp client interface - which in your case is totally superfluous.
#!/bin/sh
scp /local-dir/local-file.dmp accountname@windows-server:remote-file.dmpYou did not mention the ssh server software use on Windows - and what the remote directory would be. As Windows uses a different format for paths than Unix, you may need to specify the remote directory as follows:
scp /local-dir/local-file.dmp accountname@windows-server:"c:\remote-dir\remote-file.dmp"
To make trusted authentication work, copy the id_rsa.pub or id_dsa.pub files from the +$HOME/.ssh+ directory on HPUX and "tell" the Windows ssh server to trust these - on Unix that entails adding the file contents to +$HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys+. But as Windows lacks an OpenSSH implementation, who knows what it expects in this regard. It is IMO not a great choice as server o/s in the first place due to its total lack of open standards and protocols support.
This all said - keep Sybrand's comments in mind. Your assumption about having to use sftp is erroneous. If you however want to have this as an external o/s moving part using trusted and encrypted communication, then consider using scp instead (the sftp approach will be very similar, the only difference will be the command syntax).