How to properly set-up an SSH tunnel on FreeBSD for automatic backups

[Olaf Greve]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies!

I also received several very helpful off-list replies, and they caused 
me to opt for my plan B, which is simply a 'rendez vous' type 
pull-mechanism. I already had a nightly cron job set up on the live 
server that neatly dumps the MySQL DB instances to a convenient 
directory. Also, I already had set up Rsync such that it only ever 
allows connections from my fall-back machine (I use this for the nightly 
file syncing), so I just decided to add an additional DB import script 
which is scheduled well after the DB dumping on the live machine takes 
place. Those dumps are now picked up using rsync (called from the 
fall-back machine) and they are then simply locally processed and worked 
into my DB.

The main reason for deciding for this mechanism after all is that for 
two normal users I want (and need!) to have SSH access enabled from all 
over the world, using a client like PuTTY, using password 
authentication, yet opening up SSH in anyway for root is for me a no-no
(I see too many SSH hack attempts in my daily security reports in order 
to feel comfortable with that ;) ).

O.k., at the expense of having a perhaps slightly less elegant DB 
syncing mechanism I have opted for the above and I just tested it and it 
works fine...:)

Cheers,
Olafo