Overview

SFTP and SSHFS both connect to your ALYPOD Storage Box over SSH on port 22. SFTP is ideal for interactive file transfers, while SSHFS mounts the box as a normal directory so tools and scripts can read and write to it like local storage. This article applies to Linux and macOS clients.

Before you begin

• Your Storage Box hostname and username (from the ALYPOD Console → Storage → Storage Boxes).
• The Storage Box password, or a registered SSH public key.
• Root/sudo access if you intend to mount with SSHFS system-wide.

Steps

1. Test an interactive SFTP session:

bash sftp [email protected]

1. Inside SFTP, use ls, put, get, mkdir and bye. Upload a folder recursively:

bash put -r ./backup-2026-10-07 /home

1. For a persistent mount, install SSHFS:

```bash

Debian / Ubuntu

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y sshfs

RHEL / AlmaLinux / Rocky

sudo dnf install -y fuse-sshfs ```

1. Mount the Storage Box root to a local folder:

bash mkdir -p /mnt/storagebox sshfs [email protected]:/ /mnt/storagebox

1. Verify and unmount when finished:

bash ls /mnt/storagebox fusermount -u /mnt/storagebox

1. To make it permanent, add a line to /etc/fstab (using a key-based login):

[email protected]:/ /mnt/storagebox fuse.sshfs _netdev,allow_other,IdentityFile=/root/.ssh/id_ed25519 0 0

Troubleshooting

• Problem: Permission denied (publickey,password). Solution: Re-check the username and password, or re-upload your public key from the Storage Box settings.
• Problem: Mount succeeds but files are owned by root only. Solution: Add allow_other and -o uid=$(id -u) / gid=$(id -g) to your SSHFS options.
• Problem: The mount hangs after a network outage. Solution: Add _netdev and reconnect options, or use autofs.

Related articles

• [Storage Box overview]
• [Connecting to a Storage Box over SMB / CIFS]
• [Backing up your server with rsync]