Linux Activate SSH

As a programmer, you might often need to access remote servers or machines for development, deployment or other purposes. In such cases, SSH (Secure Shell) is a reliable and secure method for remote login and communication. In this article, we will discuss how to activate SSH on Linux and use it for remote access.

Prerequisites

Before activating SSH on Linux, ensure that your system has the following prerequisites:

• A Linux OS (such as Ubuntu, CentOS, Debian, etc.)
• A non-root user with sudo privileges
• A terminal or command-line interface to execute commands

Activate SSH

To activate SSH on your Linux system, follow these steps:

1. Open the terminal (or command prompt) on your Linux system.

2. Use the following command to install the OpenSSH package:

   sudo apt-get install openssh-server
   

   This command installs the OpenSSH server package, which is necessary for SSH communication.

3. Once the package is installed, start the SSH service using the following command:

   sudo service ssh start
   

   This command starts the SSH service, enabling it to receive incoming connections.

4. (Optional) If you want to configure the SSH service to start automatically on system boot, run the following command:

   sudo systemctl enable ssh
   

   With this command, the SSH service will start automatically whenever the system reboots.

5. Finally, verify that the SSH service is running by executing the following command:

   sudo systemctl status ssh
   

   You should see a message similar to the following:

   ● ssh.service - OpenBSD Secure Shell server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ssh.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sun 2019-11-03 18:23:21 IST; 2s ago
   ...
   

   If SSH is running, you can proceed to the next section to use it for remote access.

Use SSH

To use SSH for remote access on your Linux system, follow these steps:

1. Open the terminal on your local machine (the one you want to connect from).

2. Use the following command to connect to the remote machine:

   ssh [user]@[ip_address]
   

   Replace [user] with your username on the remote machine, and [ip_address] with the IP address of the remote machine.

   For example, if your username is 'johndoe' and the remote machine has the IP address '192.168.0.100', the command would be:

   ssh johndoe@192.168.0.100
   

3. When prompted, enter your password for the remote machine. Note that while typing the password, no characters will be displayed on the screen for security reasons.

4. If your credentials are correct, you should now have access to the remote machine via SSH. You can execute commands, transfer files, and perform other operations as needed.

Conclusion

Activating SSH on Linux can be a useful tool for programmers to remotely access servers or machines. By following the above steps, you can easily set up and use SSH on your Linux system.