How to connect to Sandbox VM using Windows tools (putty, winscp, etc.)

After you are connected to the T2 VPN, you can connect to the Sandbox VM using the command-line “putty.exe” tool (Download PuTTY: latest release (0.78)):

putty.exe –i my_private_key.ppk my_username@sandbox_hostname

Note that the Sandbox VM is a Linux Centos - based OS.

Copying data from your own machine to the Sandbox VM can be done in two different ways:

  1. From the command-line by using the “pscp.exe” command (which can also be downloaded from the hyperlink above).

pscp.exe –i my_private_key.ppk –r local_path my_username@sandbox_hostname:/remote_path

For example, if you want to copy all files from the local directory “C:\temp\mydir” to the "/tmp/ folder of the Sandbox VM, you can execute following command:

pscp.exe –i my_private_key.ppk –r C:\temp\mydir my_username@sandbox_hostname:/tmp

  1. If you prefer to use a graphical user interface for copying data, you can use e.g. WinSCP (WinSCP download | SourceForge.net):

a) Open WinSCP and fill in the credentials of the Sandbox VM you are trying to connect

b) Click the “Advanced” button and go to “SSH - Authentication”

c) Select the “Private key file” you need to connect to the Sandbox VM. This is the same key file you have been using in the putty command mentioned above.
d) Press “OK”. Then press the “Login” button.
e) A window pops up and after you clicked “Continue”, you can start copying data to/from the Sandbox VM simply by dragging and dropping data from one side to the other. The left side of the window represents your local file system, the right side of the panel represents the Sandox VM.

1 Like