[dba-Tech] How to mount a secure file system over the internet

[Jim Lawrence]

There are many ways to connect remotely from a client to a host system. Most (all) Windows users are familiar with Windows built in application called Remote Desktop using the RDP protocol. While it is an easy app to use it only works with Windows products, is limited by the type of OS (desktop) or server, does not support Cloud connection (maybe in the future) and is far from stable or secure.

Enter the SSH protocol. It is a very secure VPN type pipe between computers but until recently was not available on all platforms. It comes as default on Apple and Linux OS and now is installable on Windows OS product line:

http://winscp.net/eng/docs/guide_install

...and will soon also be default on newer Windows platforms:

https://stribika.github.io/2015/01/04/secure-secure-shell.html

Though an SSH connection can be established with most computers much of it setup and design needed to be done at the command prompt level. There has of course always been proprietary applications out there but there is now a new protocol called SSHFS that will allow a full GUI interface between all platforms. As described:

"In computing, SSHFS (SSH Filesystem) is a filesystem client to mount and interact with directories and files located on a remote server or workstation over a normal ssh connection." Note; that the SSH protocol must be installed on platforms on which SSH is not pre-installed by default...but that is simple to rectify (see link above. I have even installed SSH on XP and MS server 2003 without issue).  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSHFS

To install and setup SSHFS for your computers check out the following article. Note; that article is written from the perspective of setting up and connection to a Cloud but the setup is similar for all platforms:

https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-sshfs-to-mount-remote-file-systems-over-ssh

Jim