Hey all, now through ssh everyone says do not allow root access, especially passwordless access well that may be fine but i need a user configured to do remote scripts that generally require root access(copying and moving files) late at night when noone is here, therefore no user input can be given ie passwords. So whats the best way to go about that, is that what the sudo thing is for? and if i shouldnt do passwordless ssh access via authorized keys is there a way i can type the password during the day and then my ssh scripts will remember it for later at night?

What is usually meant is:"Do not allow root to directly log in."

Means before acquiring root status you have to log into a machine using an other authorized username and password.

What you can do is allow the wheel group to become root using the su command.

Or configure sudo.

Sounds like what you want is a cron job on the server unless I'm missing something. Just eliminate the ssh step all together and have everything managed on the server.

hmm, thanks for the speedy replies, the scripts are set up as cron jobs however they involve copying data from one server to another, hence the need for some form of network protocal (ssh) so if I create a user and add them to the group 'wheel' they'll have su access? is that right?

You will have to configure it, depending on your distro.

It is a good Idea to do this when you have access to the machine.
It is quite easy to lock yourself out from remote ssh login, during the configuration.