How to SSH into a server and then SFTP from there to another server?

Question

Here's the situation:

I have SSH access to ServerA

I have SFTP access to ServerB, but only from ServerA

I want to use Ruby to SSH into ServerA, then SFTP files from ServerB to ServerA.

I can connect to ServerA using the documentation from Net::SSH:

require 'net/ssh/gateway'

gateway = Net::SSH::Gateway.new('server_a', 'user')

gateway.ssh("server_a", "user") do |ssh|
  # how to SFTP into server_b here and run SFTP commands?
end

gateway.shutdown!

What I can't figure out is how to SFTP into ServerB from the context of ServerA?

I don't think you can do this using only code running on the local machine -- I think you're going to need to initiate the A->B connection with code running on A. — Ernest Friedman-Hill, Apr 29 '11 at 02:21

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 23 '13 at 16:56

You can declare scp method in Net::SSH::Gateway class.

I have copied similar ssh method and it works fine.

    class Gateway < Net::SSH::Gateway
      def scp(host, user, options={}, &block)
        local_port = open(host, options[:port] || 22)

        begin
          Net::SCP.start("127.0.0.1", user, options.merge(:port => local_port), &block)
        ensure
          close(local_port) if block || $!
        end
      end
    end

jodell · Answer 2 · 2013-05-22T02:34:09.143

1

Extending the gateway library directly to net/sftp worked well for me:


class Net::SSH::Gateway
  def sftp(host, user, options={}, &block)
    local_port = open(host, options[:port] || 22)
    begin
      Net::SFTP.start("127.0.0.1", user, options.merge(:port => local_port), &block)
    ensure
      close(local_port) if block || $!
    end
  end
end

edited May 22 '13 at 02:34

answered May 19 '13 at 03:30

jodell

1,057
9
20

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 29 '11 at 06:05

1

Assuming you have your private keys setup, run:

$ ssh-add

And write something like this:

require 'net/ssh'

# Set :forward_agent => true so that it will automatically authenticate with server_b
Net::SSH.start('server_a', 'user', :forward_agent => true) do |ssh|
  puts ssh.exec!("scp -r server_b:dir_i_want_to_copy dir_to_copy_to/")
end

answered Apr 29 '11 at 06:05

Luke Chadwick

1,648
14
24

Not sure if scp will work, as I only have (S)FTP access to server_b – jemminger May 02 '11 at 23:26

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 29 '11 at 05:04

from a command line, you can specify a command to be executed on the server after SSH'ing into it

First google result: http://bashcurescancer.com/run_remote_commands_with_ssh.html

So you can imagine placing the ssh command in backticks in the Ruby code, then executing the SFTP command

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

`ssh myserver 'sftp another-server'`

Something to look into

How to SSH into a server and then SFTP from there to another server?

4 Answers4