Question

transfer files between droplets? Permission denied (publickey)

Hi I am trying to transfer files from 1 droplet to another (they are in the same region). I found some articles about doing it using the VPC private IP.

I’ve tried a few things and I haven’t been able to get it working yet.

Please can someone give some guidance?

This is what I’ve tried on the droplet with the files:

  • Logged in using Putty to SSH and entered this cmd
  • scp -r /html/wp-content/testingthis root@12.134.5.6:/html/wp-content/

Result:

scp -r /html/wp-content/testingthis root@12.134.5.6:/html/wp-content/
The authenticity of host '12.134.5.6 (12.134.5.6)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:FingerPrintStringHere.
This key is not known by any other names
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? FingerPrintStringHere
Warning: Permanently added '12.134.5.6' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
root@12.134.5.6: Permission denied (publickey).
lost connection

I then tried

  • ssh-keygen
  • Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa): vpcfile

I then copied the contents of the vpcfile.pub and pasted it into the remote destination droplet:

  • nano .ssh/authorized_keys

And then did this on both droplets:

  • sudo service sshd restart

I then tried this cmd again:

  • scp -r /html/wp-content/testingthis root@12.134.5.6:/html/wp-content/

And got this result:

root@12.134.5.6: Permission denied (publickey).
lost connection

I’ve tried following the instructions from these sites:

Please can someone advise on how to get this working?

Thank you


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Bobby Iliev
Site Moderator
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April 27, 2023
Accepted Answer

Hi there,

As you’ve generated your SSH key with a non-standard name, the scp command is failing to find it. You need to specify the correct private key file when using scp:

  1. Make sure you have the correct private key file (in this case, vpcfile) on the source droplet.

  2. Use the -i option with scp to specify the private key file. Run the following command on the source droplet:

scp -i /root/.ssh/vpcfile -r /html/wp-content/testingthis root@12.134.5.6:/html/wp-content/

Replace /root/.ssh/vpcfile with the actual path to your vpcfile private key if this is not the one.

This command should now work without any permission issues.

Let me know how it goes!

Best,

Bobby

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