How do I send server files I built locally, to my remotely hosted server?

[settingsun]

I'm building a server on a laptop that runs fedora. It is part of my home network. At some point I'm going to get colocation services - that is - I'm going to buy my own production hardware, buy hosting services that require that I maintain my own website. I know I will have to transfer the files from the laptop to the production server.

I don't know how to do this. I'm asking for someone to explain it to me. This is how I think it goes:

1) Buy the hardware

2) Physically connect it to my home network.

3) Use the network to install the operating system.

4) Mail the server to the co location host.

5) Create an ssh key pair on my local laptop

6) Log into the production server after it arrives at the co location host.

7) Log into it with an ssh password long enough to send the public key to it.

8) Log in with the private key

9) Secure copy the server files to it.


How do I use ssh to transfer the files. Do I just ssh the root file to the server? Do I ssh /?

Thanks

[jakebpg]

Why not just do all the configuring before sending it to the company that's going to host it for you. That way you don't need to worry initially about transferring files until you need to make changes and the keys will already be in place for your ssh sessions.

[AndrewSerk]

man sftp

Sftp is what I would use.

[Doug G]

I almost always use ssh/scp to transfer files to a remote server. From linux you can use the command line scp program, gui filezilla and others. From windows the free winscp does a great job.

You can also use sshfs and just mount the remote drive.

If you just get shared hosting you probably won't have ssh available, then use ftp/sftp whatever the host offers.

[settingsun]

Thanks for all the replies.

I'm planning to use one of the copying protocols (scp, rsync, etc) over an ssh tunnel for everything, so shared hosting won't be enough. Maintaining my own server in this way - what is the term for this type of hosting?

[AndrewSerk]

FYI, SFTP is a subsystem of ssh and requires nothing but ssh connection.( No extra software or access)

[flyingfsck]

scp filename 1.2.3.4:/wherever/filename