PuTTY and SSH

Introduction

Some EAS development activities require that the developer access an EAS Linux VM from their Windows machine to perform certain tasks, for example, to administer an EAS VM, or to perform database queries.  This page describes how to use PuTTY and Secure Shell (SSH) to access an EAS Linux VM from a Windows machine to achieve those ends.

PuTTY

Install PuTTY

Download PuTTY media from https://www.putty.org/, and install it on your Windows machine by following the instructions in the PuTTY Setup Wizard.  There is also online documentation available, for example PuTTY 0.62.

Generate Private and Public Encryption Keys

All of the screenshots that follow are from PuTTY 0.62.

Navigate to "Chapter 8: Using public keys for SSH authentication" of the online documentation, and read "Section 8.2 Using PuTTYgen, the PuTTY key generator" to begin generating the new private and public encryption keys.  The screenshots that follow illustrate the key steps in the process.

1 Run PuTTYgen.

2 Inspect the default parameter values, and then press the "Generate" button.

3 Move the mouse over the blank area that is in the "Key" pane for a few seconds to proceed.

4 Replace the default value that is in the Key comment field with your email address, and then enter in the Key passphrase: field, and confirm, a passphrase that you will remember.

5 Use the buttons to save both the public key (jd_eas_public_key.txt) and the private key (jd_eas_private_key.ppk) somewhere on your Windows machine.  It is also worth selecting (right-click, Select All), and then saving, the public key from the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file: field that is in the PuTTY Key Generator dialog (jd_eas_public_key_paste.txt).

6 Exit the PuTTY Key Generator dialog.

7 Request access to one or more EAS Linux VMs, and provide the public key file (jd_eas_public_key_paste.txt) to the EAS administrator who is fulfilling your request. For an example, see service request SER0159691.

SSH

PuTTY can be used to configure and save an SSH session.  Navigate to "Chapter 2: Getting started with PuTTY" and read this short chapter before attempting to create an SSH session.

Create an SSH Login Session

Create an SSH login session if the intent is to log in to an EAS Linux (target) VM and execute Linux shell commands.  The SSH login session in this example will be for the SF DEV WEB VM (San Francisco data center, DEVelopment environment, eas WEB server, Virtual Machine).

The appropriate IP addresses will be provided by an EAS administrator for any sessions that you need to create.  Sensitive information has been redacted in the screenshots that follow.

1 Run PuTTY.

2 Under the Session category, enter the IP address of the target VM in the Host Name (or IP address) field, and specify port 2241 in the Port field.  Also confirm that the connection type is "SSH".

3 Under the Auth category and in the Private key file for authentication: field, browse to the private key file (jd_eas_private_key.ppk) that was saved in Step 5 above.

4 The remainder of the configuration consists of default values, but if additional configuration is required, then "Chapter 4: Configuring PuTTY" should be consulted.

The following login session names should be used to maintain consistency with standard EAS nomenclature.  The login session name for this example (eas-sf-dev-web) is highlighted in bold font in the table below.

5 Return to the Session category to save this login session.  Enter the login session name in the Saved Sessions field, and then press the "Save" button.

6 Before the saved login session can be tested, an EAS administrator must place your public key on the target VM.  This should already have been done in Step 7 above.

7 To test the saved login session, select the saved login session from the Saved Sessions list, press the "Load" button, and then press the "Open" button.

8 You will be prompted to log in to the target VM.  Use the username that was given to you by the EAS administrator, and when prompted a second time, enter the passphrase that was used to create your private key in Step 4 above.

9 Congratulations, you should now be logged in to the target VM!

Create an SSH Tunnel Session

Create an SSH tunnel session if the intent is to access an EAS database from pgAdmin (or another database client product) running on your Windows machine.  The SSH tunnel session in this example will be for the SF DEV DB VM (San Francisco data center, DEVelopment environment, eas DataBase server, Virtual Machine).  The appropriate IP addresses will be provided by an EAS administrator for any tunnel sessions that you need to create.  Sensitive information has been redacted in the screenshots that follow.

1 Run PuTTY.

2 Under the Session category, enter the IP address of the target VM in the Host Name (or IP address) field, and specify port 2241 in the Port field.  Also confirm that the connection type is "SSH".

3 Under the Auth category and in the Private key file for authentication: field, browse to the private key file (jd_eas_private_key.ppk) that was saved in Step 5 above.

4 The following source port numbers should be used to prevent collisions among them on the Windows machine.  The source port number for this example (5433) is highlighted in bold font in the table below.

5 Under the Tunnels category, and in the Source port field, enter the desired source port number ("5433" in this example), and then in the Destination field, enter the desired destination port, "localhost:5432".  Also confirm that the Local and Auto radio buttons are selected.  Press the "Add" button to add this forwarded port to the SSH tunnel session.

6 The forwarded port was added to the SSH tunnel session.

7 The following tunnel session names should be used to maintain consistency with standard EAS nomenclature.  The tunnel session name for this example (eas-sf-dev-db-tunnel) is highlighted in bold font in the table below.

8 Return to the Session category to save this tunnel session.  Enter the tunnel session name in the Saved Sessions field, and press the "Save" button.

9 Before the saved tunnel session can be tested, an EAS administrator must place your public key on the target VM.  This should already have been done in Step 7 above.

10 To test the saved tunnel session, select the saved tunnel session from the Saved Sessions list, press the "Load" button, and then press the "Open" button.

11 You will be prompted to log in to the target VM.  Use the username that was given to you by the EAS administrator, and when prompted a second time, enter the passphrase that was used to create your private key in Step 4 above.

12 Congratulations, you should now have an open tunnel from the Windows machine to the target VM!

13 Please refer to the Database page PostgreSQL SSH Tunnel Connection to learn how to use the open tunnel to connect to an EAS database.