SSH

SSH Private Key

Each Amazon cloud account has an associated SSH key file ("Private key") that you can use to connect remotely to the servers launched using that cloud account credentials. This file needs to be protected, as anybody who has access to it can access your servers. On Linux and OS X, it is necessary to change its permissions, so it is only readable by you.

$ chmod 600 bitnami-hosting.pem

Otherwise you may get a 'bad permissions: ignore key' error.

How can I download my private SSH key

Go to the Servers section, select your server, click 'Manage Server' and use 'Connect'  button. In case you don't have any servers, you can download his file going to Clouds > Manage, clicking on the appropriate cloud account. Click on the appropriate format to start the download: 

• Select PEM format if you are going to connect from Linux, OS X or other Unix systems
• Select PPK for Windows Putty, FileZilla and WinSCP. 

How to connect to my server

Windows does not come with a bundled SSH client by default. It is recommended that you use the freely available Putty utility, which can be downloaded from:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

You will need to get your SSH key in PPK format

Once you have your key in PPK format, you can connect following these steps: 

• Start Putty ( Start Menu -> Programs -> Putty -> Putty ).
• Enter your machine IP address or public domain name in the Session section. You can find out the hostname of a server by going to the Servers page, selecting the server and clicking 'Manage Server'. The hostname will appear next to Public DNS and it will be similar to 'xyz.bitnamiapp.com. Of course a server needs to be running so you can connect to it.

• Add your private SSH PPK key path. More Info
  

  

• Click "Open" to start the SSH session.
• Click "yes" to accept SSH key.
• Enter your login: bitnami

  

You can also simplify the above procedure and add your key to the special SSH agent. This way you will not have to provide your ssh key every time you connect.

• Start "Pageant" ( Start Menu -> Programs -> Putty -> Pageant ).
• Click "Add key" and choose the PPK file.
• Open "Putty" application ( Start Menu -> Programs -> Putty -> Putty ).
• Go to Connection -> Data using the left menu.
• Enter "bitnami" as the "Auto-login username".
• Go to "Session".
• Insert your server Public DNS (ec2-xyz.compute-1.amazonaws.com / xyz.bitnamiapp.com) in the "Host Name" field. You can find this in Server Management for BitNami Cloud Hosting servers or in the instance properties in Amazon console. 
• Click "Open" to start the SSH session.

If you prefer to use putty from the command line you should include '-i' and '-l' options as follows:

> putty -i "C:\Path\To\bitnami-hosting.ppk" -l bitnami example.com

MobaXTerm is an enhanced terminal with an X server and a set of Unix commands (GNU/Cygwin) packaged in a single portable exe file. You can dowload it at:

http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net

You will need to get your SSH key in PEM format. In this case it is not necessary to import your private key into the application, you can use it directly.

You can copy files to the machine using the right panel or you can connect to the machine through SSH:

$ ssh -i private_key bitnami@your-machine-hostname

You will need to get your SSH key in PEM format.

Linux and Mac OS X come bundled with SSH clients by default. To connect to your server using SSH, you need to open a Terminal and type the following:

$ ssh -i bitnami-hosting.pem bitnami@xyz.bitnamiapp.com

You will need to replace bitnami-hosting.pem with the path to your private key file and replace example.com with the IP address or hostname of your server.  You can find out the hostname of a server by going to the Servers page, selecting the server and clicking 'Manage Server'. The hostname will appear next to Public DNS and it will be similar to 'xyz.bitnamiapp.com. Of course a server needs to be running so you can connect to it.

Make sure your SSH key bitnami-hosting.pem has proper permissions. You can set the permissions using the command below:

$ chmod 600 bitnami-hosting.pem

How can I access my server as the root user?

By default, you can only log in as the 'bitnami' user to a BitNami EC2 instance. Once logged in, you can use the 'sudo' utility to become the super user or execute.

$ sudo su

SSH tunnel

If you want to connect to the local port which is not available from outside, you can use SSH encrypted tunnel. Assuming that your server application is running at the port 9990 and that you want to have access to it from your local port 9991.

If you are using Windows in your local machine you can create the tunnel as follows:

• Follow the steps to connect using Putty
• Before opening the connection. Go to Connection -> SSH -> Tunnels, enter the values below and click "Add" button:
  • Source port: "9991"
  • Destination: "localhost:9990"

 If you are in Linux or Mac you can run the following in a console in your local machine (using your Public DNS instead of xyz.bitnamiapp.com):

$ ssh -v -N -L 9991:127.0.0.1:9990 -i bitnami-hosting.pem bitnami@xyz.bitnamiapp.com

While the tunnel is active you can connect to your server port 9990 at 127.0.0.1:9991

Troubleshooting

WARNING - POTENTIAL SECURITY BREACH! 
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