Using Rsync with the Data Import, Storage & Collaboration (DISC) Service

Creating a Public Key

Windows Users

• Download PuTTYgen separately or as part of the PuTTY package.
  
  
• Click the Generate button in PuTTYgen and it will ask you to move your mouse for randomness.
  
  
• Specify a passphrase. Technically this is optional, but if you omit the passphrase, then anyone who happens to get ahold of your private key file can login as you.
  
  
• Press the Save Public Key button to save the public key.
  
  
• Press the Save Private Key button to save your private key. This saves the private key in “.ppk”
  
  
• To make the key compatible with clients other than PuTTY , click on “export your Openssh key” under the “Conversions”.
  

Linux/Mac Users

• Open the terminal and type the command “$ ssh-keygen -t rsa”. It will prompt for the filename for the key and the passphrase.
  

• The key will be stored in the file you specified.

Uploading the key

Note: We will provide a way for the users to upload their public keys soon.

After the key is uploaded and entered, the rsync command can be used. Below is an example,

$ rsync -avz -e "ssh -i /home/thisuser/cron/thishost-rsync-key" /this/dir/ remoteuser@remotehost:/remote/dir