At work we are using Windows workstations, but we are working most of the time in our Virtual Machine, hosted in a Cloud, running under Linux. We have access to our Linux VM with NXClient or by using Putty. If you want to transfer some files from your Windows workstations to your Linux VM, several solutions exists. Most solutions are using the built-in SFTP server of OpenSSH : Filezilla, WinSCP. Their drawbacks ? They are just some FTP-like clients, and so you lack integration with Windows, notably the Windows Explorer.

Under Linux we can use SSHFS to mount your SSH server as a filesystem. Nautilus and Dolphin, at least, allow also to mount your remote SSH server in your local filesystem. Under Windows there are 2 solutions : ExpanDrive which a proprietary solution, and Dokan which is an OpenSource and Free implementation of a FUSE-like filesystem.

Installing Dokan

In fact Dokan is not really a program but a library implementing a FUSE-like filesystem. So for SSHFS support, you need to install the Dokan library, and then after, you will install the module allowing to use SSHFS protocol.

1. Download the latest version of the Dokan library : http://dokan-dev.net/en/download/#dokan
2. Install the Dokan library by running the installer
3. Download and install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package.
4. Download the latest and matching version of the Dokan SSHFS support : http://dokan-dev.net/en/download/#sshfs
5. Extract the content of the archive ( if you are using the zip version ) in C:\Program Files\Dokan
6. To start Dokan, just run the binary DokanSSHFS.exe which is located normally in C:\Program Files\Dokan\dokan-sshfs-0.6.0.
7. You may want to create a shortcut on your Desktop ( right click on DokanSSHFS.exe -> Send To -> Desktop ( create a shortcut )

Using Dokan

To use Dokan you just need to run DokanSSHFS.exe, then a window will allow to enter the different settings.

1. Enter you connection settings ( SSH server Host, username, password or identity file ).
2. If you want to map directly your $HOME, put the full Linux path to your home directory in Server Root.
3. Select the Windows letter drive which will map your SSHFS drive.
4. You can save theses settings by giving a name to the profile and then clicking on [Save] at the top of the window.
5. Press [Connect] and if everything is fine, you should have a new  drive letter in your Windows Explorer.

Links :

• Monter un système de fichier via SSH sous Linux et Windows (FR)
• SSH Filesystem (EN)
• Configurer un serveur SFTP (FR)
• Share from Linux using SSHFS on Windows with Dokan (EN)

Dokan SSHFS Configuration windows