OPS245 Lab 8 Newversion

The server concept

For most people a server is something on the internet you connect to, and a client is something you connect from. That sort of view is mostly valid, but it breaks down a little when the server and the workstation are the same machine.

A couple of examples:

• When you connect to wiki.littlesvr.ca in Firefox:
  • Firefox is the client, it's making the request for a web page
  • The web server on wiki.littlesvr.ca is the server, responding the the request with the contents of the web page
• When you use your phone to check your school email:
  • The email application on your phone is the client, making the request to get new email
  • The school email server is the server, responding to the request with a list of new emails

Most of a Linux system administrator's work is done in a terminal, and most of that is done on remote machines. Few companies can afford to hire in-house administrators, and those that can afford it have too many machines to connect keyboards and monitors to. But everything is connected to a network.

Also

• Create an account on ops345.ca for ssh practice
• The "server" concept
• Using ssh to control a remote Linux server
• Remote credentials don't need to match local credentials
• Permissions work the same way, they apply to the user who is logged in
• Practice with permissions on files you own and files you don't own
• Copy files between Linux machines using scp
• Copy directories
• Note how ownership applies to files transferred between systems