To prepare the remote host for automated backups using SCP, perform the following steps from the remote server that the LoadMaster backups will be sent to:

  1. Run the ssh-keygen command to generate the public/private RSA key pair.
  2. Do not assign a passphrase (leave the value empty).
  3. By default, the following files are created in the /home/user/.ssh/ directory:
    • id_rsa (private key file) - this file will be uploaded to the LoadMaster.
    • id_rsa.pub (public key file) - this value must be copied into the appropriate files on the remote host.
  4. Run the ssh-copy-id command to copy the public key information into the authorized_keys and known_hosts files: ssh-copy-id user@server.
  5. The /home/user/.ssh directory now has the following files:
    • authorized_keys
    • id_rsa
    • id_rsa.pub
    • known_hosts
  6. Export the private key (id_rsa) from the server.
  7. Upload the private key (id_rsa) as the Private Key File in the LoadMaster.
  8. Ensure to create a backup directory on the server and enter this path as the Remote Pathname in the LoadMaster, for example, /home/user/LMbackups.