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How to Use SSH

How to Use SSH
Hostman Team
Technical writer
Linux
09.07.2024
Reading time: 7 min

Imagine you have rented a cloud server on Hostman to host your website. After purchase, you receive a clean system that you need to set up by installing a web server, uploading files, and so on. Instead of going to a data center with a flash drive, you use the SSH protocol.

In this article, we will discuss how to use SSH in Linux and Windows.

What is SSH?

SSH (Secure Shell) is a protocol for remote access to any Linux operating system device, such as computers, servers, and phones. In other words, it allows you to connect to a device located anywhere in the world.

The word "secure" in the protocol's name means that data exchanged between devices is encrypted, allowing you to work with sensitive information like passwords and access codes securely. Data is transmitted in encrypted form, enhancing the security of the data you work with. Connection and authentication are done in one of two ways:

  1. Password login: A shared secret key is created between the client and server, encrypting the traffic.

  2. SSH Key pair login: Before the first connection, the user generates two keys: a public and a private one. These are stored on the remote and local devices, respectively.

This article will explore the protocol's capabilities, SSH command syntax, and SSH daemon settings.

Logging in with SSH Keys

Using a password to log into a server via SSH is unsafe and inconvenient:

  1. A password can be brute-forced.

  2. Passwords can leak accidentally, especially when dealing with multiple devices and different passwords.

  3. Entering a password every session is tiresome.

The most reliable way is to log in using an RSA key pair. Let’s look at how to use SSH keys to connect to remote servers.

First, create keys on your local computer:

ssh-keygen -t rsa

During creation, you will need to choose the location of the SSH key files and a passphrase. To connect without a password, leave the Passphrase field empty. A passphrase is an additional code that protects the key. If your private key is compromised, attackers won't be able to use it without the passphrase.

Next, send the public key to the server:

ssh-copy-id -p 222 -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub remote@example.com

This command will create an SSH session. After entering your password, the public key will be copied to the authorized keys file, and you won't need to enter a password again.

You can further enhance security by completely disabling password access. Edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file with the following directives:

  • PasswordAuthentication no — disable password login.

  • PubkeyAuthentication yes — enable SSH key authentication.

  • ChallengeResponseAuthentication no — disable PAM authentication.

After updating the file, reload the SSH daemon:

sudo systemctl reload ssh

Setting Up SSH

To connect, the SSH server (sshd) must be running on the remote device. In Ubuntu, start it using systemd:

sudo systemctl start ssh

On Hostman servers, sshd runs by default.

The sshd server configuration is in the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file. Let's look at the main SSH settings you can use.

  • Port: By default, sshd monitors port 22. Change this to complicate unauthorized access attempts using the Port directive. However, port scanning scripts can still find it, so we recommend closing SSH access for the root user for better security.

  • Superuser Access: By default, remote root user access is allowed to administer Linux servers, which is unsafe. Use the PermitRootLogin no directive to disable this.

  • Protocol: SSH supports protocol versions 1 and 2. Version 2 supports more encryption methods and authentication techniques. Use the Protocol directive to specify a version: Protocol 2.

  • User Access: Enhance security by allowing remote access only for certain users and groups using the AllowUsers and AllowGroups directives. For example:
AllowUsers adm1, adm2

Or

AllowGroups admin, infrastructure

You can also deny access to specific users with DenyUsers and DenyGroups.

  • Logging: Set the logging level with the LogLevel directive. The default is INFO, but you can use VERBOSE or disable logging with QUIET for debugging.

  • Password Access: Control password access with the PasswordAuthentication directive, set to yes (default) or no.

After making changes, restart the sshd server to apply the new configuration. Ensure you have saved the key file on the server or retained password access to avoid losing access:

sudo systemctl reload ssh

Using SSH on Windows

That’s all good for Linux, but you may wonder how to use SSH in Windows.

Well, good news: the latest Windows versions (starting from Windows 10) have a build-in OpenSSH client, so you can simply run Windows PowerShell and connect as usual:

ssh user@server

On older Windows systems, you can use SSH via special applications, which can save connection data and customize color schemes for different sessions, which is useful for managing multiple servers. Popular SSH clients include:

  • PuTTY

  • WinSCP

  • Termius

  • FileZilla (for SFTP)

  • MobaXterm

Syntax

To connect remotely, use the SSH command with the server's IP address or domain name:

ssh example.com

If the local and remote system usernames differ, specify the remote username:

ssh remote@example.com
ssh remote@server-ip

End the session with the exit command.

If the remote server uses a non-default port, specify it with the -p flag:

ssh -p 222 remote@example.com

Usage Scenarios

Common and interesting SSH use cases include file and directory transfer, SSH tunnels, and SFTP.

File and Directory Transfer

First, let’s talk about how to transfer files using SSH.

With the sshd daemon running on your server, you can use utilities like scp to transfer files using the RCP protocol. To transfer filename.txt to the ~/trash/txt directory on example.com, use:

scp filename.txt remote@example.com:~/trash/txt

Reverse the local path and server to copy files from the remote server to your local device. To transfer a directory, add the -r flag and end the destination path with a slash. For example, to copy the images directory from the server to your local documents folder:

scp -r remote@example.com:~/images ~/documents/

You can also transfer files between two remote machines by specifying server paths instead of local files.

SSH Tunnels

SSH tunnels provide secure remote access and file transfer over a protected network. They are commonly used for accessing private networks or creating encrypted channels. To forward a port from a remote server, use the -L flag. For example, to access a remote database available only on the local machine's port 3306:

ssh -N 53306:127.0.0.1:3306 remote@example.com

In this command, -N means no command needs to be executed on the remote machine, 53306 is the local port, and 127.0.0.1:3306 is the address where MySQL runs on the remote server.

SFTP

SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) operates over a secure channel and is part of OpenSSH. If your SSH daemon works correctly, you can use SFTP without additional setup. Unlike standard FTP, SFTP encrypts all data.

Start an SFTP session with the same credentials—login and password or key—as SSH. Specify a different port if you changed the default from 22:

sftp -oPort=222 remote@example.com

After successful authentication, you can work with files on the remote server.

Conclusion

In this article, we covered what SSH is and how it works. Knowing the basics of this protocol is essential for system administrators and programmers. SSH allows you to connect to devices anywhere in the world with the same rights and capabilities as if you were physically present.

If you host a website on a private server, an incorrect SSH configuration can lead to unauthorized access and severe consequences. 

Any server you rent on Hostman is accessible via SSH by default. If you need additional configuration, our support is always available to help.

Linux
09.07.2024
Reading time: 7 min

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In this case, when exiting the console, the server will stop working. To prevent this, you need to create a file for the systemd service: sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/nats-server.service Its contents will be: [Unit] Description=NATS message broker server After=syslog.target network.target [Service] Type=simple ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/nats-server -c /etc/nats/nats-server.conf User=nats Group=nats LimitNOFILE=65536 ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID Restart=on-failure [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target This file contains several key parameters: Description: Short description of the service ExecStart: NATS server startup command with the configuration file explicitly specified User: Name of the user created for NATS Now we need to set up the service to start up at boot:  systemctl enable nats-server --now The --now flag immediately starts the specified service. The corresponding message will appear in the console: Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/nats-server.service → /etc/systemd/system/nats-server.service. Now check the status of the running service: systemctl status nats-server If the NATS server service started successfully, the corresponding message will be among the console output: ... Active: active (running) ... Connecting to NATS You can connect to the NATS server through the console terminal and thus perform message broker testing. For example, publish messages or subscribe to subjects. Client Installation To manage the NATS server, you need to install the natscli client. You can download it from the official GitHub repository: wget https://github.com/nats-io/natscli/releases/download/v0.1.5/nats-0.1.5-amd64.deb After this, the downloaded archive can be extracted and installed: dpkg -i nats-0.1.5-amd64.deb The archive itself can be deleted as it's no longer needed: rm nats-0.1.5-amd64.deb Sending Messages Now you can send a message to the message broker: nats pub -s 127.0.0.1 "someSubject" "Some message" In this command, we send the message "Some message" to the subject "someSubject" to the message broker running on IP address 127.0.0.1 and located on the standard NATS port - 4222. After this, information about the sent data will appear in the console terminal: 10:59:51 Published 12 bytes to "someSubject" Reading Messages Currently, no one will see this message since there's no agent subscribed to the specified subject. We can simulate a service subscribed to the subject and reading messages using another SSH session. To do this, you need to open another console terminal, connect to the remote machine, and subscribe to the previously specified subject: nats sub -s 127.0.0.1 "someSubject" A message about successful subscription will appear in the terminal: 11:11:10 Subscribing on someSubject Now repeat sending the message from the first terminal: nats pub -s 127.0.0.1 "someSubject" "Some message" Information about the new message will appear in the second terminal: [#1] Received on "someSubject" Some message Let's send another message from the first terminal: nats pub -s 127.0.0.1 "someSubject" "Some message again" The corresponding notification will appear in the second terminal: [#2] Received on "someSubject" Some message again Note that the console output of received messages has numbering in square brackets. Go Program + NATS Let's create a small program in the Golang programming language using the NATS message broker. Installing Go First, you need to ensure that the Go compiler is installed in the system: go version If the following message appears in the console terminal, then Go is not yet installed: Command 'go' not found, but can be installed with: snap install go # version 1.23.2, or apt install golang-go # version 2:1.18~0ubuntu2 apt install gccgo-go # version 2:1.18~0ubuntu2 See 'snap info go' for additional versions. In this case, you need to download it as an archive from the official website: wget https://go.dev/dl/go1.23.3.linux-amd64.tar.gz -O go.tar.gz And then extracted: sudo tar -xzvf go.tar.gz -C /usr/local As we no longer need the downloaded archive, we can delete it: rm go.tar.gz Next, you need to add the Go compiler to the PATH variable so it can be called from the console terminal: echo export PATH=$HOME/go/bin:/usr/local/go/bin:$PATH >> ~/.profile Then apply the changes: source ~/.profile Verify that Go is installed successfully by requesting its version: go version You will see a similar output: go version go1.23.3 linux/amd64 Creating a Project Let's create a separate folder for the Golang program: mkdir nats_go Then navigate to it: cd nats_go And initialize the Go project: go mod init nats_go Installing the Module After project initialization, you need to install the NATS client from the official GitHub repository. You don't need to download anything manually; it's enough to use the built-in Golang function: go get github.com/nats-io/nats.go/ Writing Code Now you can create a file with the program code: nano nats_go.go Its contents will be: package main import ( "fmt" // module for working with console "os" // module for working with system functions "time" // module for working with time "github.com/nats-io/nats.go" // module for working with NATS server ) func main() { // get NATS server address from environment variable url := os.Getenv("NATS_URL") // if there's no address in environment variable, use default address if url == "" { url = nats.DefaultURL } // connect to NATS server nc, _ := nats.Connect(url) // defer message broker cleanup until main() function completion defer nc.Drain() // send message to subject without subscribers to ensure it disappears nc.Publish("people.philosophers", []byte("Hello, Socrates!")) // subscribe to all sub-subjects in "people" subject sub, _ := nc.SubscribeSync("people.*") // extract message msg, _ := sub.NextMsg(10 * time.Millisecond) // output message status (it's not there because it was sent before subscribing to subjects) fmt.Printf("No message? Answer: %v\n", msg == nil) // send message to "philosophers" sub-subject of "people" subject nc.Publish("people.philosophers", []byte("Hello, Socrates!")) // send message to "physicists" sub-subject of "people" subject nc.Publish("people.physicists", []byte("Hello, Feynman!")) // extract message and output to console msg, _ = sub.NextMsg(10 * time.Millisecond) fmt.Printf("Message: %q in subject %q\n", string(msg.Data), msg.Subject) // extract message and output to console msg, _ = sub.NextMsg(10 * time.Millisecond) fmt.Printf("Message: %q in subject %q\n", string(msg.Data), msg.Subject) // send message to "biologists" sub-subject of "people" subject nc.Publish("people.biologists", []byte("Hello, Darwin!")) // extract message and output to console msg, _ = sub.NextMsg(10 * time.Millisecond) fmt.Printf("Message: %q in subject %q\n", string(msg.Data), msg.Subject) } Now you can run the created program: go run . The program's output will appear in the console terminal: No message? Answer: true Message: "Hello, Socrates!" in subject "people.philosophers" Message: "Hello, Feynman!" in subject "people.physicists" Message: "Hello, Darwin!" in subject "people.biologists" Python Program + NATS As another example, let's consider using the NATS message broker in the Python programming language. First, you need to ensure that the Python interpreter is installed in the system by requesting its version: python --version The corresponding message will appear in the console: Python 3.10.12 Note that this guide uses Python version 3.10.12. Installing PIP To download the NATS client for Python, you first need to install the PIP package manager: apt install python3-pip -y The -y flag helps automatically answer positively to all questions during installation. Installing the Client Now you can install the NATS client for Python: pip install nats-py Creating a Project For the Python program, let's create a separate directory: mkdir nats_python And navigate to it: cd nats_python Writing Code Let's create a file with the program code: nano nats_python.py Its contents will be: import os import asyncio # import NATS client import nats from nats.errors import TimeoutError # get environment variable containing NATS server address servers = os.environ.get("NATS_URL", "nats://localhost:4222").split(",") async def main(): # connect to NATS server nc = await nats.connect(servers=servers) # send message to subject without subscribers to ensure it disappears await nc.publish("people.philosophers", "Hello, Socrates!".encode()) # subscribe to all sub-subjects in "people" subject sub = await nc.subscribe("people.*") try: # extract message msg = await sub.next_msg(timeout=0.1) except TimeoutError: pass # send message to "philosophers" sub-subject of "people" subject await nc.publish("people.philosophers", "Hello, Socrates!".encode()) # send message to "physicists" sub-subject of "people" subject await nc.publish("people.physicists", "Hello, Feynman!".encode()) # extract message and output to console msg = await sub.next_msg(timeout=0.1) print(f"{msg.data.decode('utf-8')} in subject {msg.subject}") # extract message and output to console msg = await sub.next_msg(timeout=0.1) print(f"{msg.data.decode('utf-8')} in subject {msg.subject}") # send message to "biologists" sub-subject of "people" subject await nc.publish("people.biologists", "Hello, Darwin!".encode()) # extract message and output to console msg = await sub.next_msg(timeout=0.1) print(f"{msg.data.decode('utf-8')} in subject {msg.subject}") # unsubscribe from subjects await sub.unsubscribe() # clean up message broker await nc.drain() if __name__ == '__main__': asyncio.run(main()) Now you can run the created script: python nats_python.py The result of its operation will be the following output in the console terminal: Hello, Socrates! in subject people.philosophers Hello, Feynman! in subject people.physicists Hello, Darwin! in subject people.biologists As you can notice, the logic of this Python program doesn't differ from the logic of the Go program. The difference is only in the syntactic constructions of the specific programming language. Conclusion This guide examined the use of the NATS message broker in sequential stages: Downloading and installing NATS from the official GitHub repository Minimal NATS server configuration Managing the NATS server through the console terminal client Using NATS in a Golang program Using NATS in a Python program We downloaded all NATS clients used in this guide (for terminal, Go, and Python) from the official NATS repository on GitHub, which hosts modules and libraries for all programming languages supported by NATS. You can find more detailed information about configuring and using NATS in the official documentation. There are also many examples of using NATS in different programming languages.
24 June 2025 · 13 min to read

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