UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I have a program running on unix that creates a text file as part of a triggered event. the text files are written to the same directory everytime. There are 15+ users that could possibly be creating the files.

Once the file is created, I need to move the file to a third party system.
the only control/access for this system i have is a username, password and IP address. This server can be accessed by SFTP. I can SFTP the server and provide the password, and execute whatever commands are needed.

question 1 : the user name given to me by the third party is 15 characters long.
and as far as i can see, unix will only allow 8 characters.

when generating the keys (ssh-keygen) on our side, do the names have to match.

question 2: there seems to be a lot of different opinions on what the file permissions for the .ssa directories and files should be on both the host and client. any information in this area would be useful

1. I don't think 8 is the limit.

Code:

# id 1234567890123457890
uid=509(1234567890123457890) gid=509(1234567890123457890) groups=509(1234567890123457890)

Code:

# sftp 1234567890123457890@106.0.0.31
Connecting to 106.0.0.31...
1234567890123457890@106.0.0.31's password: 
sftp>

2. This is a working setup.

Code:

# ls -lrtd .ssh
drwx------ 2 root root 4096 2013-03-18 20:14 .ssh
# ls -lrt .ssh
total 24
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 236 2013-02-09 21:27 id_rsa.pub
-rw------- 1 root root 887 2013-02-09 21:27 id_rsa
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 381 2013-03-18 19:56 authorized_keys
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 381 2013-03-18 20:14 authorized_keys2
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 612 2013-04-01 21:26 known_hosts
#

Sometimes, have a permission of 600 for authorized_keys may help.
And NO, the username doesn't have to match while generating the ssh-keys.
If you are having trouble setting up the ssh connection, you can run the sshd in foreground with debug enabled. Mostly, that should help if there are any permission related issues.

HTH

--ahamed

thanks for the info.

i think i need to step back and get a better understanding of what is actually happening with the sftp setup

i have setup the following on 2 inhouse unix boxes:

1 client1 will be connecting to target@unix-2, to send files

on client1
created the user client1 (/usr/exec/usrdir/client1) (home)

mkdir .ssh at /usr/exec/usrdir/client1

keygen -t rsa <ENTER> for default directory (home)
<ENTER> <ENTER> at passphrase questions (this will be used from a
shell script to login and send the files to the other machine

on the unix-vm machine:
created the user target (/usr/exec/usrdir/target)
mkdir .ssh

copied the file id_rsa.pub from client1 to /usr/exec/usrdir/target/.ssh on the unix-vm machine

on the unix machine: cat id_rsa.pub >> authorized_keys

from the client1 machine: attempt the command: sftp target@unix-vm

but this still results in being prompted for the password

debug1: next auth method to try is publickey
debug1: try privkey: /usr/exec/usrdir/client1/.ssh/id_rsa
debug3: no such identity: /usr/exec/usrdir/client1/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: try privkey: /usr/exec/usrdir/client1/.ssh/id_dsa
debug3: no such identity: /usr/exec/usrdir/client1/.ssh/id_dsa
debug2: we did not send a packet, disable method
debug3: authmethod_lookup password
debug3: remaining preferred: ,password
debug3: authmethod_is_enabled password
debug1: next auth method to try is password
target@unix-2's password:


you mentioned using sshd to debug to find why this is failing. I am starting to play with this but am getting errors about not be able to load the host keys, these particular files under /etc/ssh have not been modified and are the original files from the OS installation, any suggestions......

Jeff