Setting up ssh keys on your machine

• Everything you need is here on my Git page.

SSH Access to Servers (Mac and Windows)

• !! Remember your backend code might be running in a docker container, so you won’t see the code directly on the instance – you have to look into the docker container
  • To see running docker instances: sudo docker ps -a
• To ssh direct into instance, you can use a pem file
• To copy files, see Copying Files From an SSH-ed Instance
• Ssh access: These are the commands to run on command line:
  • !! It’s not the same on Windows – see below
  • This: ssh -i “your-pem-file.pem” ubuntu@[ip address here]
  • Your pem file has to be in same path - or specify exact path
  • To find the url: Go to EC2 instance, select in EC2, bottom right see public IPv4 and domain IPv4 - one is just numbers, one is longer with letters, either one of those will do
  • Note that each url must be prefixed by user name
    • For instances which are spawned by EBS, the user is likely to be ec2-user
  • To ssh out again, type logout
• !!On Windows, use Putty.
  • Comprehensive instructions for setting this up here: https://linuxacademy.com/howtoguides/posts/show/topic/17385-use-putty-to-access-ec2-linux-instances-via-ssh-from-windows
  • Once you’re set up, this is how you ssh in:
    • Start the PuTTY utility
    • Enter host name,
      • eg ubuntu@[ip address]
    • Expand the SSH section on the left and click Auth
    • Browse for ppk file
    • Click Open
    • To ssh out again, type logout
    • For more on how to use PuTTY, see PuTTY section below

Copying Files From an SSH-ed Instance

• To copy files, use SCP command or PSCP on Windows with Putty installed (see above)
  • SCP on a Mac:
    • scp -i “[path to file]” ubuntu@[ip address]:/home/ubuntu
    • !! Note that you might only have permission to copy into home folder
    • That command (^) copies files from local machine to ssh-ed machine
    • To do it the other way around, just swap source and target
  • PSCP in Windows with PuTTY:
    • Copying files from the ssh-ed machine to the outside world:
      • First create a saved host config:
        • In PuTTY, set up a host config
        • Then instead of clicking Open, select Sessions (top left)
        • Enter a name under Saved Sessions
        • Click Save
        • Now if you want that host config again, you can just click Load
      • Now in a command prompt: pscp ec2-user@SavedHost:/folder/myfile.txt C:\Temp
        • (or pscp C:\Temp/myfile.txt ec2-user@SavedHost:/folder for the opposite direction)
        • SavedHost is your saved PuTTY host config.
        • In this case ec2-user is the user you are using to log in to the remote server
        • This will copy the file from the remote SSH-ed host to your local machine.
      • More here: https://it.cornell.edu/managed-servers/transfer-files-using-putty

PuTTy Tips

• You can configure the user name (eg ec2-user) so you don’t have to type it in every time - on the left, Connection

  Data and then Auto-login username. Don’t forget to go back to Session (left) and click Save.

• When you make changes to a config, you have to go back to Session (top left) and click Save for those changes to stick.

• You can use SSH tunnel (on the left - Connection

  SSH

  Tunnels) to attach a port to an SSH configuration and forward from that port to your server via SSH (you have to manually open the session first for it to work).

Copying files between a remote AWS SSM instance and your local machine

• SSM - AWS Systems Manager Session Manager.
• Details here

Using ssh to access GitLab

First make sure you have a GitHub account. If you don’t have one already, you can sign up (it’s free): https://github.com/

Then you will need to create an SSH key and add it to both GitHub and GitLab. The following instructions tell how to create / add an SSH key to GitHub: https://help.github.com/articles/generating-an-ssh-key/.

Then you can add your key to GitLab:

• Go to GitLab: https://git.stockport.gov.uk/

• Go to Profile Settings (picture of a person, bottom right)

• Select SSH Key at the top

• In a command prompt (or GitBash, Powershell or equivalent) run this command: clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

• This will put the SSH key in your clipboard. Now you can paste it into the large “Key” text box, enter a Title and then click Add Key.