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Veritas Access Installation Guide

Last Published: 2018-07-27

Product(s): Access (7.3.1)

Platform: Linux

Manually configuring passwordless secure shell (ssh)

The secure shell (ssh) program enables you to log into and execute commands on a remote system. ssh enables encrypted communications and an authentication process between two untrusted hosts over an insecure network.

In this procedure, you first create a DSA key pair. From the key pair, you append the public key from the source system to the authorized_keys file on the target systems.

To create the DSA key pair

On the source system (sys1), log in as root, and navigate to the root directory.
```
sys1 # cd /root
```
To generate a DSA key pair on the source system, type the following command:
```
sys1 # ssh-keygen -t dsa
```
System output similar to the following is displayed:
```
Generating public/private dsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_dsa):
```
Press Enter to accept the default location of /root/.ssh/id_dsa.
When the program asks you to enter the pass phrase, press the Enter key twice.
```
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
```
Do not enter a pass phrase. Press Enter.
```
Enter same passphrase again:
```
Press Enter again.

Output similar to the following lines appears.

Your identification has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_dsa.
Your public key has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_dsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
1f:00:e0:c2:9b:4e:29:b4:0b:6e:08:f8:50:de:48:d2 root@sys1

To append the public key from the source system to the authorized_keys file on the target system using secure file transfer

From the source system (sys1), move the public key to a temporary file on the target system (sys2).
Use the secure file transfer program.
In this example, the file name id_dsa.pub in the root directory is the name for the temporary file for the public key.
Use the following command for secure file transfer:
```
sys1 # sftp sys2
```
If the secure file transfer is set up for the first time on this system, output similar to the following lines is displayed:
```
Connecting to sys2 ...
The authenticity of host 'sys2 (10.182.00.00)' 
can't be established. DSA key fingerprint is
fb:6f:9f:61:91:9d:44:6b:87:86:ef:68:a6:fd:88:7d.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
```

Enter yes.

Output similar to the following is displayed:

Warning: Permanently added 'sys2,10.182.00.00' 
(DSA) to the list of known hosts.
root@sys2 password:

Enter the root password of sys2.

At the sftp prompt, type the following command:

sftp> put /root/.ssh/id_dsa.pub

The following output is displayed:

Uploading /root/.ssh/id_dsa.pub to /root/id_dsa.pub

To quit the SFTP session, type the following command:
```
sftp> quit
```
Add the id_dsa.pub keys to the authorized_keys file on the target system. To begin the ssh session on the target system (sys2 in this example), type the following command on sys1:
```
sys1 # ssh sys2
```
Enter the root password of sys2 at the prompt:
```
password:
```
Type the following commands on sys2:
```
sys2 # cat /root/id_dsa.pub >> /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
sys2 # rm  /root/id_dsa.pub 
```
Run the following commands on the source installation system. If your ssh session has expired or terminated, you can also run these commands to renew the session. These commands bring the private key into the shell environment and make the key globally available to the root user.
```
sys1 # exec /usr/bin/ssh-agent $SHELL
sys1 # ssh-add
```
```
Identity added: /root/.ssh/id_dsa
```
This shell-specific step is valid only while the shell is active. You must execute the procedure again if you close the shell during the session.

To verify that you can connect to a target system

On the source system (sys1), enter the following command:
```
sys1 # ssh -l root sys2 uname -a
```
where sys2 is the name of the target system.
The command should execute from the source system (sys1) to the target system (sys2) without the system requesting a pass phrase or password.
Repeat this procedure for each target system.