Getting Started With SSH

Jason Moore

In this guide, I will show you how to use SSH to access remote systems.

Introduction

You can use SSH to connect to any remote system that you have access to. In fact, many people can be connected at once. This makes it handy for multiple people to do several tasks at once. 

The SSH Tool

SSH gives you command line access so you can perform tasks as needed. SSH is used more because it is simpler. SSH belongs to the OpenSSH suite of tools. This suite contains several tools that are useful. 

SSHd is the server component and accepts connections from your SSH client. It uses TCP to manage the connections. It uses port 22 by default, but you can change it to anything that is not currently being used. To start a connection, you need the IP address or hostname of the server you want to access. Then, you will need a username. This is something that has to be set up for you by the server admin. If you do not have key access set up, it will ask you for a password. SSH keys are the best option, though. 

Installing SSH

Most Linux systems already have SSH installed. However, if it is not installed originally or it was removed, you can reinstall it.  

sudo dnf install openssh-server

systemctl enable –now sshd

This will install and enable it on the Linux system that you need to access. To remote into the system, you just need to use a terminal that supports SSH. Most modern terminals do. 

Logging In With SSH

The format of the command to log in is:

ssh user@host

So, I will use myself as an example.

ssh [email protected]

If you have changed the default port, you change that in the command.

ssh -p 1234 [email protected]

When asked to confirm your identity for the first log in, just accept and say yes. The SSH fingerprints it references can be confirmed by your system admin. 

Conclusion

SSH is a great tool. It has many options to help the admin that needs to run tasks on a remote system. Installing is quick and easy. However, it should be on most modern systems. Logging in is also simple. Remember to set up your key access if you are able to.

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