School of Computer Science Wiki

SSH Allows you to remotely connect to SoCS Linux servers. To connect from a Linux or Mac OS/X base computer, use the command “ssh <username>@<hostname>socs.uoguelph.ca”, where <username> is your SoCS username and <hostname> is the name of the server you wish to connect to (i.e. linux, portkey).

The CCS Firewall blocks ssh access to most hosts from off campus. To connect from off campus there are two options:

• Connect to portkey.socs.uoguelph.ca and from there connect to your desired host
• Set up the CCS VPN. Instructions can be found at vpn.uoguelph.ca

SSH Keys allow you to use a key to connect instead of using your password. This has the benefit of being both more secure, and more convenient to use.

To set up public key private key access to linux:

1. Have a passphrase (password) handy that you can remember.
2. Open a terminal window
3. Type ssh-keygen -t rsa -C yourusername@linux.socs.uoguelph.ca at the command prompt
   1. Press return to accept the default file locations for storing keys
   2. Enter your passphrase when prompted (make sure you can remember it)
   3. Enter the SAME passphrase again
4. In the same terminal window, change to your .ssh directory. A foolproof way to do this is to first type cd followed by return, then type cd .ssh
5. Type “more id_rsa.pub” without the quotes
6. Copy the long string of text that begins with ssh-rsa and ends with yourusername@linux.socs.uoguelph.ca. It will wrap across several lines.
7. Keep that text in the clipboard for the next step.

1. Have a passphrase(password) handy that you can remember
2. Follow all of “step one” on this website: http://www.ualberta.ca/CNS/RESEARCH/LinuxClusters/pka-putty.html
3. Keep the text in your clipboard for the next step.

1. ssh to portkey.scos.uoguelph.ca using your SoCS login and password (use putty on windows if you don't have a different client. On OS/X and linux just use a terminal)
2. Type “cd .ssh” at the command prompt (without the quotes).
3. If you get an error “.ssh No such file or directory”, type “mkdir .ssh”, then type “cd .ssh”.
4. Use your favourite command line editor (vim, nano, emacs or whichever) to edit the authorized_keys file

• i.e. type 'nano authorized_keys' at the command line
• Unless you've done this step once already, you will be creating this file. it MUST be called authorized_keys

1. Paste in the long string of text that you copied to your clipboard in step A
2. Save the file.
3. Log out of Portkey.

1. Open putty or a terminal window
2. ssh to linux.socs.uoguelph.ca
3. You SHOULD be prompted for the passphrase you used in Part A, and then you should connect to linux.
4. This login method works for secure FTP programs too, such as filezilla, which will allow you to ftp files directly to your linux account.