Use secure copy (SCP) from the command line to transfer files to Google Distributed Cloud air-gapped virtual machine (VM) instances.
Before you begin
You need the following to use the SCP command-line tool to transfer files to VMs:- You must manually manage your SSH keys.
- You must enable ingress on port 22 for your VM. See the Enable IP addresses page for more information.
The SCP tool uses the same key files that you use to connect to your instances using standard SSH.
Request permissions and access
To perform the tasks listed in this page, you must have the Project
VirtualMachine Admin role. Follow the steps to
verify
that you have the Project VirtualMachine Admin (project-vm-admin) role in the namespace
of the project where the VM resides.
Transfer files to VMs
Locate the external IP address for the VM to which you want to send files using the instructions on the Enable IP addresses page.
Use the SCP tool to copy a file from your workstation to the home directory of
the target VM in the following example, which uses a private key at
~/.ssh/my-ssh-key:
scp -i ~/.ssh/my-ssh-key LOCAL_FILE_PATH USERNAME@IP_ADDRESS:~
Use the following definitions for your variables.
| Variable | Definition |
|---|---|
LOCAL_FILE_PATH | The name of the local file that you want to upload. |
USERNAME | Your username. |
IP_ADDRESS | The VM's external ingress IP address. |
Transfer files from a VM
To copy files from a VM to your local workstation, reverse the source and destination variables. The following example shows how to copy a file from your VM to a path on your workstation:
scp -i ~/.ssh/my-ssh-key USERNAME@IP_ADDRESS:REMOTE_FILE_PATH LOCAL_FILE_PATH
Use the following definitions for your variables.
| Variable | Definition |
|---|---|
USERNAME | Your username. |
IP_ADDRESS | The VM's external ingress IP address. |
REMOTE_FILE_PATH | The name of the remote file that you want to download. |
LOCAL_FILE_PATH | The location on your workstation to which you want to download the file. |