Lab 5.2: Copy, sync and reboot safely

Goal

Move files between the two servers with scp, sftp and rsync, and plan a reboot with a warning to users.

Before you start

Finish lab 5.1 first (key login from server1 to server2), or type the password when asked.

Tasks

Copy /etc/hosts from server1 to /tmp/hosts-from-server1 on server2 with scp.
Download /etc/os-release from server2 to your home folder on server1 with sftp.
On server1, create the folder ~/site with three files. Synchronize it to /home/student/site-backup/ on server2 with rsync.
Delete one file in ~/site and run the sync again so that the file is also removed on server2. First show what would happen without changing anything.
Plan a reboot of server2 in 10 minutes with the message "Kernel update". Then cancel it.

Check your work

$ssh student@server2 'ls -l /tmp/hosts-from-server1 ~/site-backup/'
$ls -l ~/os-release

The removed file from task 4 is gone in ~/site-backup on server2.
After task 5, ssh root@server2 'systemctl list-jobs' shows no pending reboot (or check the cancel message).

Hints

Show the hints

The remote part of an scp path is user@host:path.
In sftp, get downloads.
rsync: a slash at the end of the source copies the content; -n = dry run; --delete removes extra files.
shutdown -r +10 "message" and shutdown -c.

Solution

Show the solution

scp to server2.

$scp /etc/hosts student@server2:/tmp/hosts-from-server1

sftp download.

$sftp student@server2
sftp> get /etc/os-release
sftp> exit

Make the files and sync them.

$mkdir -p ~/site && touch ~/site/{index,about,contact}.html
$rsync -av ~/site/ student@server2:/home/student/site-backup/

Remove a file, dry run, then sync with delete.

$rm ~/site/about.html
$rsync -avn --delete ~/site/ student@server2:/home/student/site-backup/
$rsync -av --delete ~/site/ student@server2:/home/student/site-backup/

Plan and cancel the reboot (as root on server2).
```
#shutdown -r +10 "Kernel update"
#shutdown -c
```

Copy, sync and reboot safely

Goal

Before you start

Tasks

Check your work

Hints

Solution

My notes

Lessons for this lab

Commands in this lab