Remote access and file transfer

Getting files on and off Bio-Linux

Overview

Remote logins to Bio-Linux

Getting data from remote machines

Pushing data from Bio-Linux

Networked file systems and file-sharing

Logging in remotely

There is only 1 way to access a Bio-Linux machine remotely.

Bio-Linux runs sshd, which supports Secure Shell connections. Secure Shell (SSH) is a safe version of something like “telnet”.

How you access Bio-Linux remotely using SSH depends on what system you are logging in from.

SSH clients by platform

Windows: We recommend PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/). It is a free, lightweight and capable SSH client.

Mac Classic: MacSSH (http://pro.wanadoo.fr/chombier/)

Mac OSX: Built in ssh at the command line

Linux/Unix: OpenSSH (http://http://openssh.org/) is the Open Source ssh suite. It is installed on Bio-Linux by default.

Working via SSH

Configuring a graphical SSH client is very easy

You will need a username

The IP address and/or hostname of the machine

Some clients make you specify the SSH port (22 by default)

If you want to use graphical applications over the ssh “tunnel” you will need to enable “X11 forwarding”

Why use X11 forwarding?

It means you can log in and run your favourite graphical Bio-Linux applications on your Windows/Mac/Unix desktop.

But... I want a full Bio-Linux desktop to work with remotely!

Simple: Just log in via SSH with X11 forwarding turned on and type the following command:

gnome-session &

You will get a full interactive Gnome desktop on your machine! It will be just like being on the Bio-Linux machine (but slightly slower!)

Command line SSH basics

Logging into a machine using a non-graphical SSH client is easy:

ssh username@your.bio.linux.machi.ne

To make sure X forwading is turned on with OpenSSH

ssh -x username@your.bio.linux.machi.ne

Getting data from remote machines

Most likely you are familiar with FTP. Most people are familiar with graphical FTP clients.

Bio-Linux has a command line FTP client.

At a terminal just type:

ftp <hostname>

You will be prompted for a username and password.

FTP basics

ls

bin

ascii

get

mget

put

mput

sFTP

If the server supports it you should use sftp instead of FTP.

sFTP = secure FTP

sftp <username>@<hostname>

The rest of the commands are just like FTP

Relies on sshd.

SCP

scp is the hard way of doing sftp ;)

scp <filename> <username>@<host>:

Can take wildcards.

Great for shunting single files around between Linux machines.

Relies on sshd.

WinSCP

For getting files from Windows to Bio-Linux there is a great (free!) program called WinSCP

It looks just like a regular windows file manager.

You can “drag and drop” files to and from your Bio-Linux machine.

Handles SCP and SFTP transparently

http://winscp.sourceforge.net/eng/

Using networked resources

You may have shared drives at your place of work.

These may be NOVELL shares – A novell client is available for Linux so you can access these.

smbclient : allows you to access Windows Shares

NFS : Bio-Linux can be easily set up to receive NFS exports.

Ask us for advice on all of these!