Using scp to copy a file to Amazon EC2 instance? [closed]

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I am trying to use my Mac Terminal to scp a file from Downloads (phpMyAdmin I downloaded online) to my Amazon EC2 instance.

The command I used was:

scp -i myAmazonKey.pem phpMyAdmin-3.4.5-all-languages.tar.gz  [email protected]:~/.

The error I got:

Warning: Identity file myAmazonKey.pem not accessible: No such file or directory.
Permission denied (publickey).
lost connection

Both my myAmazonkey.pem and phpMyAdmin-3.4.5-all-languages.tar.gz are in Downloads, so then I tried

scp -i /Users/Hello_Kitty22/Downloads/myAmazonKey.pem /Users/Hello_Kitty22/Downloads/phpMyAdmin-3.4.5-all-languages.tar.gz  [email protected]:~/.

and the error I got:

Warning: Identity file /User/Hello_Kitty22/Downloads/myAmazonkey.pem not accessible: No such file or directory.
Permission denied (publickey).
lost connection

Can anyone please tell me how to fix my problem?

p.s. there is a similar post: scp (secure copy) to ec2 instance without password but it doesn't answer my question.

I feel like when I start my Amazon instance online, I cannot access my local files in Downloads any more — HoKy22
– HoKy22, Commented Jul 9, 2012 at 1:13

W.P. McNeill · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-18 03:21:32Z

561

Try specifying the user to be ec2-user, e.g.

scp -i myAmazonKey.pem phpMyAdmin-3.4.5-all-languages.tar.gz [email protected]:~/.

See Connecting to Linux/UNIX Instances Using SSH.

answered Dec 18, 2012 at 3:21

W.P. McNeill

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8 Comments

RussellStewart Over a year ago

works great. Note that your user default user may be "ubuntu" if you are running a ubuntu instance.

dnuske Over a year ago

of course copying to / may not work. Thanks for enlightening!

Dobz Over a year ago

@DanielDropik I don't know if you're joking or not... but :/ would try copy the folder to the root of the system, which would give permission errors on all machines without running sudo (or as root).

Arjun Over a year ago

why it saying Please login as the user "ubuntu" rather than the user "root". what i need to do for copy

shareef Over a year ago

in my case i was using the user but , the difference i add the public dns mec2-50-17-16-67.compute-1.amazonaws.com instead of a domain name

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Syed Priom · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-10 10:21:27Z

69

second directory is your target destination, don't use server name there. In other words, you don't need to mention machine name for the machine you're currently in.

scp -i /path/to/your/.pemkey -r /copy/from/path user@server:/copy/to/path

-r if it's a directory.

edited Apr 10, 2014 at 10:21

answered Jan 22, 2014 at 10:02

Syed Priom

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2 Comments

Adam_G Over a year ago

Thank you so much for this. It was the only solution that worked for me.

velastiqui Over a year ago

scp -i "xyz.pem" -r file_xyz.zip [email protected]:/path/

Walter Tross · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-18 21:02:08Z

27

Your key must not be publicly viewable for SSH to work. Use this command if needed:

chmod 400 yourPublicKeyFile.pem

edited May 18, 2014 at 21:02

Walter Tross

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answered May 18, 2014 at 20:43

Castelmager

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DV Dasari · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-08 03:15:47Z

18

You should be on you local machine to try the above scp command.

On your local machine try:

scp -i ~/Downloads/myAmazonKey.pem ~/Downloads/phpMyAdmin-3.4.5-all-languages.tar.gz  [email protected]:~/.

answered Oct 8, 2012 at 3:15

DV Dasari

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Forrest · Accepted Answer · 2018-09-06 14:17:54Z

12

Here are the details of what works for an EC2 instance:

scp -i /path/to/whatever.pem /users/me/path-to-file [email protected]:~

Few notes for beginning:

Note the spaces between the three parameters given after the -i
scp stands for secure copy protocol. Knowing the words makes it easier to remember the command.
-i dictates that you need to give the .pem file as the next param. If there is no -i, than you do not need a .pem.
Note the :~ at the end of the destination for the EC2 instance.

edited Sep 6, 2018 at 14:17

answered Oct 18, 2017 at 17:16

Forrest

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Paul Roub · Accepted Answer · 2020-06-12 22:08:10Z

11

This just worked for me. I used a combination of two other answers to this question.

scp -i /Users/me/documents/myKP.pem -r /Users/me/desktop/testDir \
       [email protected]:/home/ec2-user/remoteDir

The "[email protected]" is copy-and-pasted from your ec2 instance's public DNS.

edited Jun 12, 2020 at 22:08

Paul Roub

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answered Jun 12, 2020 at 22:02

Norman Davis

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1 Comment

Thorvald Over a year ago

This worked for me while the other answers for some reason had no effect. Not sure what the problem was. Ubuntu 20.04 to ubuntu 20.04.

Mustafa Kahraman · Accepted Answer · 2016-01-05 02:03:54Z

10

I had exactly same problem, my solution was to

scp -i /path/pem -r /path/file/ ec2-user@public aws dns name: (leave it blank here)

once you done this part, get into ssh server and mv file to desired location

answered Jan 5, 2016 at 2:03

Mustafa Kahraman

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Viraj Wadate · Accepted Answer · 2019-03-14 10:33:39Z

10

Send file from Local to Server:

scp -i .ssh/awsinstance.pem my_local_file [email protected]:/home/ubuntu

Download file from Server to Local:

scp -i .ssh/awsinstance.pem [email protected]:/home/ubuntu/server_file .

edited Mar 14, 2019 at 10:33

answered Mar 14, 2019 at 9:05

Viraj Wadate

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2 Comments

jryan14ify Over a year ago

How do you know what your [email protected] is? I'm using Windows though

Bhargav Feb 3 at 13:50

This works.....

Vatsal Shah · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-21 11:05:54Z

7

Below SCP format works for me

scp -i /path/my-key-pair.pem [email protected]:~/SampleFile.txt ~/SampleFile2.txt

SampleFile.txt: It will be the path from your root directory(In my case, /home/ubuntu). in my case the file which I wanted to download was at /var/www

SampleFile2.txt: It will be path of your machine's root path(In my case, /home/MyPCUserName)

So, I have to write below command

scp -i /path/my-key-pair.pem [email protected]:~/../../var/www/Filename.zip ~/Downloads

answered Dec 21, 2018 at 11:05

Vatsal Shah

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Prasad Khode · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-05 07:32:49Z

6

scp -i ~/path to pem file/file.pem -r(for directory) /PATH OF LOCAL/localfile user@hostname:PATH OF SERVER/serverdirectory

edited May 5, 2016 at 7:32

Prasad Khode

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answered Sep 16, 2014 at 8:31

Prafull

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Umar Asghar · Accepted Answer · 2021-09-05 06:06:02Z

6

Public DNS

scp -i /path/my-key-pair.pem /path/my-file.txt ec2-user@my-instance-public-dns-name:path/

(IPv6)

 scp -i /path/my-key-pair.pem /path/my-file.txt ec2-user@\[my-instance-IPv6-address\]:path/

answered Sep 5, 2021 at 6:06

Umar Asghar

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1 Comment

Ping Woo Over a year ago

works for me, lol, i actually use ~/path to target that

Tawseef Bhat · Accepted Answer · 2022-07-20 06:40:10Z

5

try to use this command

if your instance is using ubuntu

scp -i myAmazonKey.pem phpMyAdmin-3.4.5-all-languages.tar.gz  [email protected]:~/.

you can get more info about your instance from here https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/connection-prereqs.html

answered Jul 20, 2022 at 6:40

Tawseef Bhat

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Shashwat Gupta · Accepted Answer · 2021-01-25 10:12:37Z

4

SCP Commend

Send File from Local To Remote Server

sudo scp -i ../Downloads/new_bb_key.pem ./dump.zip [email protected]:~/.

Send File from Remote Server To Local

sudo scp -i ~/Downloads/new_bb_key.pem [email protected]:/home/ubuntu/LatestDBdump.zip Downloads/

answered Jan 25, 2021 at 10:12

Shashwat Gupta

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blackHoleDetector · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-26 18:17:26Z

2

The process of using SCP to copy files from a local machine to an AWS EC2 Linux instance is covered step-by-step (including the points mentioned below) in this video.

To correct this particular issue with using SCP:

You need to specify the correct Linux user. From Amazon:
- For Amazon Linux, the user name is ec2-user.
- For RHEL, the user name is ec2-user or root.
- For Ubuntu, the user name is ubuntu or root.
- For Centos, the user name is centos.
- For Fedora, the user name is ec2-user.
- For SUSE, the user name is ec2-user or root.
- Otherwise, if ec2-user and root don't work, check with your AMI provider.
Your private key must not be publicly visible. Run the following command so that only the root user can read the file.
```
chmod 400 /path/to/yourKeyFile.pem
```

edited Nov 26, 2017 at 18:17

answered Sep 12, 2017 at 2:55

blackHoleDetector

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Shravan40 · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-26 07:17:02Z

0

First you should change the mode of .pem file from read and write mode to read only mode. This can be done just by a single command in terminal sudo chmod 400 your_public_key.pem

answered Sep 26, 2015 at 7:17

Shravan40

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Marie D. · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-05 23:19:46Z

0

I tried all the suggestions mentioned above and nothing worked. I terminated the current instance, launched another one and repeated the same exact process. This time no problems. Sometimes it might be the remote ami's fault.

answered Sep 5, 2017 at 23:19

Marie D.

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ahmetcancntrk · Accepted Answer · 2024-01-09 10:09:34Z

0

if you want to copy a folder use the "-r" parameter

scp -r -i AmazonKey.pem /Users/yourUserName/desktop/yourFolderName [email protected]:~/.

answered Jan 9, 2024 at 10:09

ahmetcancntrk

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cn00 · Accepted Answer · 2024-03-08 03:17:43Z

I find a way with aws-cli ssm, this method can work with private subnet instances, the ec2 instance do not need a public ip.

step 1: login to EC2 instance with aws ssm start-session

aws --profile ${AWS_PROFILE} ssm start-session --target ${targetInstanceId}

step 2: add public key to the ec2 instance

echo ${pubKey} >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

step 3: open a port forwarding with aws ssm start-session

aws --profile ${AWS_PROFILE} ssm start-session --target ${targetInstanceId} \
    --document-name AWS-StartPortForwardingSession \
    --parameters '{"portNumber":["'${remotePort}'"],"localPortNumber":["'${localPort}'"]}'
echo "${targetInstanceId}:${remotePort} ==> localhost:${localPort}"

step 4: scp

scp -P ${localPort} some/file ec2-user@localhost:/some/path/

and you can simplify these steps with ~/.ssh/config and makefile utils. this is my util script:

aws --profile ${AWS_PROFILE} ec2 describe-instances | yq '.Reservations.[].Instances.[]
  |select(.State.Name == "running")
  |.InstanceId + " " + .PrivateIpAddress + " " + (.Tags.[]|select(.Key == "Name").Value)' \
| tee out/ec2-running-instances-$ENV.yml | nl

if [[ x${instanceIdx} = x ]]; then
    Input instanceIdx "eg: 1"
fi
sel=$(cat out/ec2-running-instances-$ENV.yml | sed -n ${instanceIdx}p)
set -- $sel
targetInstanceId=$1

if [[ x$forward = x ]]; then # login 
    aws --profile ${AWS_PROFILE} ssm start-session --target ${targetInstanceId}
else # port forward
    if [[ x${remotePort} = x ]]; then
        Input remotePort "eg: 33306"
    fi
    if [[ x${localPort} = x ]]; then
        Input localPort "eg: 33306"
    fi
    echo "${targetInstanceId}:${remotePort} ==> localhost:${localPort}"
    aws --profile ${AWS_PROFILE} ssm start-session --target ${targetInstanceId} \
    --document-name AWS-StartPortForwardingSession \
    --parameters '{"portNumber":["'${remotePort}'"],"localPortNumber":["'${localPort}'"]}'
fi

karthikr · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-11 14:19:40Z

-1

I would use:

scp -i "path to .pem file" "file to be copeide from local machine" username@amazoninstance: 'destination folder to copy file on remote machine'

edited Oct 11, 2012 at 14:19

karthikr

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answered Oct 11, 2012 at 14:16

user1738344

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step 1: login to EC2 instance with aws ssm start-session

step 2: add public key to the ec2 instance

step 3: open a port forwarding with aws ssm start-session

step 4: scp

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step 1: login to EC2 instance with aws ssm start-session

step 2: add public key to the ec2 instance

step 3: open a port forwarding with aws ssm start-session

step 4: scp

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