ssh

Configuring SSH login without password between two systems

SSH login without password

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If you ever get tired of typing in your SSH password, we’ve got good news. It’s possible to configure public key authentication on Linux systems, which allows you to connect to a server through SSH, without using a password.

The best part is, using key authentication is actually more secure than typing in a password each time. This is in addition to being far more convenient. It also allows you to automate certain tasks, such as rsync scripts or other Bash scripts that utilize SSH, SCP, etc.

The process for setting up key authentication involves generating RSA keys on one system, then copying the key to a remote host. This works on any Linux distribution and is a short and easy process. Follow along with the instructions below as we take you through the step by step guide to configure passwordless SSH on Linux.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • Generate RSA keys and transfer to remote system
  • How to login with SSH without a password

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Connecting to a running Docker container via SSH on Linux

How to connect to Docker container via ssh

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After installing Docker on Fedora, AlmaLinux, Manjaro, or some other distro, it’s time to install more containers. Once you have a Docker container up and running on a Linux system, one of the things you’ll likely need to do is run commands inside the container. This allows you to use the container similarly to how you would a physical machine, except that Docker has done most of the setup legwork for us already.

There are already two commands available that allow us to run commands on a Docker container. The first one is docker exec, and the second command, which allows us to attach to a running container, is docker attach. These commands usually suffice, but you may find yourself in a scenario where you’d prefer to use SSH to connect to the Docker container and manage it.

Not all Docker containers are provisioned to run SSH. Normally, Docker containers are very lightweight and only programmed to do one thing. However, some Docker containers will allow SSH, and this can make management of the container much easier. In this guide, we’ll see how to connect to a Docker container via SSH from the host system on Linux command line.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to connect to a running Docker container via SSH

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Creating an SSH tunnel through port forwarding on Linux

Enable SSH port forwarding on Linux

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Most Linux users are familiar with the SSH protocol as it allows remote management of any Linux system. It’s also commonly used for SFTP to download or upload files. SSH is known as a very secure protocol because it encrypts traffic end to end. But the encrypted tunnels it creates are actually quite versatile and can be used for more than just remote server management or file transfer.

SSH port forwarding can be used to encrypt the traffic between two systems for pretty much any protocol. This is accomplished by creating a secure tunnel and then routing another protocol’s traffic through that tunnel. By principle, it works very similarly to a VPN.

In this guide, we’ll go over the step by step instructions to show you how to use SSH port forwarding to create a secure tunnel for some other application. As an example, we’ll create port forwarding for the telnet protocol, which is usually avoided because of how it transfers data in clear text. This will secure the protocol and make it safe to use.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to use SSH port forwarding
  • How to create a persistent SSH tunnel

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Changing the hostname in AlmaLinux

Change hostname on AlmaLinux

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The hostname of a Linux system is important because it’s used to identify the device on a network. The hostname is also shown in other prominent places, such as in the terminal prompt. This gives you a constant reminder of which system you’re working with. It’s a real life saver when you’re managing multiple systems through SSH and those command line terminals start to blend together in your mind.

Of course, IP addresses are used when devices need to communicate with each other, but those can change frequently. Hostnames give us a way to know which device we’re interacting with either on the network or physically, without remembering a bunch of numbers that are subject to change. Thus, it’s important that your system bears a hostname which helps you to identify it quickly. For example, “backup-server” is much more informative than “server2.” If you can’t easily identify a system’s purpose from the hostname, it’s time to change it.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to change the hostname on AlmaLinux. This can be especially useful if you’ve recently migrated from CentOS to AlmaLinux and need to update the hostname accordingly. Changing the hostname can be done either by command line or GUI, and we’ll show you the steps for both methods below.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to change the AlmaLinux hostname from command line
  • How to change the AlmaLinux hostname from GNOME GUI
Changing the hostname in AlmaLinux

Changing the hostname in AlmaLinux

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How to create incremental backups using rsync on Linux

How to create incremental backups using rsync on Linux

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In previous articles, we already talked about how we can perform local and remote backups using rsync and how to setup the rsync daemon. In this tutorial we will learn a very useful technique we can use to perform incremental backups, and schedule them using the good old cron.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • The difference between hard and symbolic links
  • What is an incremental backup
  • How the rsync –link-dest option works
  • How to create incremental backups using rsync
  • How to schedule backups using cron

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How to install and configure Dropbear on Linux

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The dropbear suite provides both an ssh server and a client application (dbclient), and represents a light alternative to OpenSSH. Since it has a small footprint and uses system resources very well, it is generally used on embed devices, with limited memory and processing power (e.g routers or embed devices), where optimization is a key factor. It provides a lot features, like, for example, X11 forwarding, and it is fully compatible with the OpenSSH public key authentication. In this tutorial we will see how to install it and configure it on Linux.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to install and configure dropbear on linux
  • How to use the dropbearkey, dropbearconvert and dbclient utilities

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Most common custom SSH Configurations of the OpenSSH Server

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The Openssh set of utilities let us create secure, encrypted connections between machines. In this tutorial we will take a look at some of the most useful options we can use to change the behavior of sshd, the Openssh daemon in order to make your Linux system administration job easier.

In this article we assume the existence of an already running and accessible server. If you want to know more about Openssh installation, you can take a look at this article on how to install SSH server on Ubuntu Linux.

In this tutorial you will learn:

  • How to customize the behavior of the sshd daemon by manipulating options in the main ssh config file /etc/ssh/sshd_config
  • How to change the default port(s) used by the server
  • How to change the address the server listens to
  • How to change the maximum SSH login time
  • How to allow or deny login as root
  • How to change the max login attempts and maximum number of session opened
  • How to display a message when user tries to authenticate to the server
  • How to Enable/Disable password and pubkey authentication
  • How to Enable/Disable HostBasedAuthentication
  • Enabling/Disabling X11 Forwarding

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Install ssh on Ubuntu 18.04

Enable SSH on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux

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Objective

The below guide will provide you with information on how to enable ssh on Ubuntu 18.04 Linux. SSH stands for secure shell which allows encrypted remote login connections between client and server over insecure network.

Operating System and Software Versions

  • Operating System: – Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver
  • Software: – OpenSSH 7.5 or higher

Requirements

Privileged access to your Ubuntu System as root or via sudo command is required.

Conventions

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