AIX

Hi,

I have a task requested by my boss to create a script to enable a server to connect to a vpn network and then to connect to another server to upload some data...

How can I connect to a vpn network from AIX server? via telnet? ssh?

I have tried to google but mostly the answers are found on how to create a VPN within AIX..

I am a totally new to AIX and currently totally bumped..


Please advice..

Conceptually, VPN is a few layers down from telnet and ssh, telnet is a client app, because it connects to an already running server on tcp port 23 as I recall, tcp runs over IP. VPN is the creation of an IP device that routing rules can send packets down, and the local IP stack can accept packets from, similar to a NIC card for Ethernet, but the media is software. PacKets that go in are IPSEC encrypted and sent back to the IP stack to be routed out over other networks. VPN occupies the IPSEC protocol, a child of the IP protocol, a brother to TCP, UDP and ICMP. When IP packets arrive that are IPSEC protocol, they go into the VPN driver; it decrypts them and sends them back through the IP stack. So, you can run anything on VPN, but it is a much bigger deal than running scp.

Perhaps the boss needs some education, as you can achieve file transfer just fine with scp (ssh2 or at least ssh). I am on VPN right now, so I can do all protocols from home as if I was on the office LAN. (My bits are worn down by the time they arrive. :-) That is a lot of exposure if it is not a same company secure site. The encryption and compression of scp is about the same as VPN, but is it a trivial client install not a huge issue with routing and all. Routing? Yes, both hosts have to have network routes that get their packets into the VPN pipe end near them. The VPN pipe might be on the same host, like here on my laptop, or it may be on a firewall of DMZ host or intra-net border router (to get on a lan segment where there is routing to the other host).

Setting up the VPN used to be a proprietary process, even though the end product is standard. A VPN might be permanently set up by admins on routers, or it may be dynamically set us like on my laptop this AM, and probably my CISCO VPN setup client, achieves this differently than other brands, or even other CISCO VPNs at other companies. I suspect they use a ssh tcp server to authenticate and negotiate dynamic client VPN setup. There might be standards now, as I have not been in the firewall biz for quite a while.