SSH - Setting Up The Machine

Lecture 408:- SSH - Setting Up The Machine

Setting up SSH (Secure Shell) on your machine allows you to securely access and manage remote servers or cloud instances. Here's a step-by-step guide to setting up SSH on your machine:

Step 1: Check if SSH is Installed

First, check if SSH is already installed on your machine. Open your terminal (command prompt on Windows) and type the following command:

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ssh -V

If SSH is installed, you'll see the version information. If not, you need to install it.

Step 2: Install SSH (if not already installed)

• On macOS and Linux: SSH is usually pre-installed on macOS and most Linux distributions. If it's not installed, you can install it using the package manager specific to your distribution.

  On macOS:

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  # Install or update SSH on macOS sudo apt-get install openssh

  On Ubuntu/Debian:

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  # Install SSH on Ubuntu/Debian sudo apt-get install openssh-client sudo apt-get install openssh-server

  On CentOS/RHEL:

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  # Install SSH on CentOS/RHEL sudo yum install openssh-clients sudo yum install openssh-server

• On Windows: On Windows, you can use the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) or third-party tools like Git Bash, which includes an SSH client.

  If you're using Git Bash, it should already have an SSH client. You can verify by opening Git Bash and typing:

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  ssh -V

Step 3: Generate SSH Key Pair

An SSH key pair consists of a private key (usually stored on your local machine) and a public key (stored on the remote server). Follow these steps to generate an SSH key pair:

1. Open your terminal or Git Bash on Windows.

2. To generate a new SSH key pair, use the following command:

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   ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"

   Replace [email protected] with your email address.

3. It will prompt you to choose a location to save the SSH key files. The default location is usually fine. Press Enter to accept the default location.
4. Next, it will ask you to set a passphrase for your private key. You can leave it blank for no passphrase, or you can set a passphrase for added security. Note that you'll need to enter this passphrase each time you use your private key.

Step 4: Copy the Public Key to the Remote Server

Once you have generated the SSH key pair, you need to copy the public key (id_rsa.pub) to the remote server you want to access. You can use the ssh-copy-id command for this:

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ssh-copy-id user@remote_server_ip

Replace user with your username on the remote server and remote_server_ip with the IP address or domain name of the remote server. It will prompt you for the remote server's password.

Alternatively, you can manually copy the contents of your id_rsa.pub file and append it to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the remote server using an editor like nano or vim.

Step 5: Test SSH Connection

Now that you've set up SSH and copied your public key to the remote server, you can test the SSH connection:

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ssh user@remote_server_ip

Replace user with your username on the remote server and remote_server_ip with the IP address or domain name of the remote server. If everything is set up correctly, you should be able to log in to the remote server without entering a password, as your SSH key is used for authentication.

Congratulations! You have set up SSH on your machine and can now securely access remote servers or cloud instances without using passwords. SSH provides a secure way to manage your remote resources and is an essential tool for any developer or system administrator. Happy server management!