Configuring passwordless SSH access

The primary Admin Node acts as an SSH access point for other grid nodes. This means that after you log in to the command shell of the primary Admin Node, you can access any other grid node through SSH without entering the grid node’s password.

About this task

You are only prompted to enter the SSH Access Password. Optionally, you can enable passwordless access to grid nodes by starting ssh-agent. In this case, you are only prompted for the SSH Access Password once.

To connect to a grid node through SSH, you can:

From any grid node, use the remote server password.
From the primary Admin Node, use the SSH private key password (SSH Access Password listed in the Passwords.txt file).
From the primary Admin Node, without entering any password except the SSH Access Password once.

To enable passwordless SSH access to remote grid nodes, you need:

The password for the SSH private key (SSH Access Password in the Passwords.txt file).
By default the SSH access point is installed with a password.
The SSH private key to be on the primary Admin Node.
By default, the private key is located on the primary Admin Node. However, it might have been removed to prevent the Admin Node from acting as an SSH access point.
The private key added to the SSH agent.
This must be done each time you log in to the primary Admin Node at the command line.

Steps

From the service laptop, log in to the primary Admin Node:
1. Enter the following command: ssh admin@primary_Admin_Node_IP
2. Enter the password listed in the Passwords.txt file.
3. Enter the following command to switch to root: su -
4. Enter the password listed in the Passwords.txt file.
  When you are logged in as root, the prompt changes from $ to #.
Add the SSH private key to the SSH agent to allow the primary Admin Node passwordless access to the StorageGRID Webscale system’s other grid nodes. Enter: ssh-add
You must add the SSH private key to the SSH agent each time you log in at the command line.
When prompted, enter the SSH Access Password listed in the Passwords.txt file.
You can now access any grid node from the primary Admin Node through SSH without entering additional passwords.
When you no longer require passwordless access to other servers, remove the private key from the SSH agent. Enter: ssh-add -D
Log out of the primary Admin Node. Enter: exit