SSH Connect to NAS

try "cat /etc/passwd" if the shell is /bin/false the user is not allowed to login to the machine and therefore not allowed to login via SSH.
Another simple test would be to try to SSH in without rsync...

On linux, root is used when there is no other option left because if it were to be compromised somehow this would allow full access to the machine, and daemons are privileged targets, so using "limited" users makes sense.

Well, I can SSH to the NAS, using a normal user "jim", but the connection is closed right away - I presume the Welcome message means the password was accepted. Then I tried to SSH as user "root" but I don't know the password. I tried nothing (CR) and "password" and the admin user's password - none work.

jim@WS-2 ~/Desktop $ ssh jim@192.168.0.215
jim@192.168.0.215's password: 

Welcome to ReadyNASOS 6.1.9

Connection to 192.168.0.215 closed.

jim@WS-2 ~/Desktop $ ssh root@192.168.0.215
root@192.168.0.215's password: 
Permission denied, please try again.
root@192.168.0.215's password: 
Permission denied, please try again.
root@192.168.0.215's password: 
Connection closed by 192.168.0.215
jim@WS-2 ~/Desktop $ 

How do I find out what NetGear set as the root password? I looked in the software documents for OS6 and it is not there. I don't think I want to use it, but I should know it and stash that information away somewhere in case I do need it some day.

So SSH to the NAS for one of the normal users on the NAS connects but then something on the NAS is closing the connection right away. User jim is valid on all my Linux computers and the NAS all with the same UID value and password. The user I used in the rsync command is not a user on any computers, nor the NAS. It was created only for rsync. Therefore that user does not have an entry in any /etc/passwd or is a member of any group on any of my computers, all my normal users on the computers have the shell set to /bin/bash. SSH to the NAS using that rsync user fails, the same as root in the code block above - it will not accept the valid password.

Thanks

Try toggling SSH off and on under System > Settings > Services > SSH or change your admin password. The password should be the same as the admin password.

Well I don't believe it - changing the admin password (to what I thouhgt it was already) worked. I can ssh in to the NAS as user root and execute commands.

I tried ssh as another user and it kicks me out - so I guess that is saying only root can ssh into the NAS, as someone implied.

I altered my rsync command to use root as the user and it worked!

I'm still a little confused about how to refer to locations on the NAS, in rsync destination paths, but I'll figure that out. I guess the /data (volume) is needed and the share name (Backup in my case) Backup is the only share with Rsync set active. But my rsync command created a subdirectory inside a directory that was already there by the same name instead of putting the files in the existing directory. I probably told Rsync to do that.

jim@WS-2 ~/Desktop $ ssh root@192.168.0.215
root@192.168.0.215's password: 

Welcome to ReadyNASOS 6.1.9

root@spar:~# cat /etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/bin/sh
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/bin/sh
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/bin/sh
  <  removed lines >
root@spar:~# logout
Connection to 192.168.0.215 closed.
jim@WS-2 ~/Desktop $ ssh jim@192.168.0.215
jim@192.168.0.215's password: 

Welcome to ReadyNASOS 6.1.9

Connection to 192.168.0.215 closed.
jim@WS-2 ~/Desktop $ rsync -h --progress --stats -r -tgo -p -l -D --update --delete-after /home/jim/TestFiles root@192.168.0.215:/data/Backup/TestFiles
root@192.168.0.215's password: 
building file list ... 
40 files to consider
TestFiles/

  < removed lines >

Number of files: 40
Number of files transferred: 35
Total file size: 14.20M bytes
Total transferred file size: 14.20M bytes
Literal data: 14.20M bytes
Matched data: 0 bytes
File list size: 1.58K
File list generation time: 0.035 seconds
File list transfer time: 0.000 seconds
Total bytes sent: 14.21M
Total bytes received: 692

sent 14.21M bytes  received 692 bytes  1.50M bytes/sec
total size is 14.20M  speedup is 1.00
jim@WS-2 ~/Desktop $ 

So thanks, this gets me going in the right direction.