PuTTY

Our Dedicated Hosting service can be accessed via SSH (Secure Shell) if you request it, however for security reasons we require you to use public/private key based authentication rather than a password...

Remember that your hosting includes fully managed support so if you want to upgrade Confluence, etc., just ask our support team and they'll be happy to help.

The secure access to the server operating system is provided for customers who want direct control over their server. Each person within your organisation that wants access to the operating system will need their own SSH keys to gain access.

Secure access from Windows

You will need a secure shell client (often referred to as SHH client) to access the operating system on your server.

One of the best SHH clients for Windows is called PuTTY. You can download PuTTY from http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/.

Our Dedicated Hosting service uses certificates for authentication during the log on process. enable this process, you'll have to generate a public/private key pair as explained below...

Generating a public/private key pair

To generate a key pair on windows, use "puttygen.exe" that is installed as part of PuTTY:

Puttygen's default setting for key length (1024) and encryption type (RSA) are acceptable.

To create your public/private key, Puttygen will need to gather some "randomness". Since computers can only generate pseudo-random numbers, Puttygen asks you move your mouse around the empty box until the bar has filled up.

Click the "Generate" button and then move your mouse around the box randomly - avoid doing circles or other obvious movements - pretend you're trying to move the mouse during an earthquake!

Once the bar has filled up, the key generation process will start - this can take a few minutes so you'll have to be patient...

You'll then be asked to enter a "Key comment" and a "Key passphrase".

The "Key comment" is displayed each time you log in to the server and can be anything you want (but not your passphrase, obviously). Some people use it to display an obscure hint to help them remember their passphrase, but obviously the hint has to be something that will only make sense to you.

It's important that you choose a fairly long passphrase (eg. a short rhyme or sentence you will remember) because it increases the security of your login account. Each time you connect to the server, you'll be asked to enter the "Key passphrase" - so make sure you can remember it! If you forget your passphrase you'll have to generate a new public/private key and ask our support team to replace your old key.

Once you've entered the comment and passphrase, click the "Save public key" button and save the key to disk. The public key will need to be sent to our support team (by creating a ticket in our support system) who will then install it on the server.

Next, press the "Save private key" button and save your private key to disk - as it's name suggests, this is private and you should never let anyone else get hold of this private key file.

Configuring PuTTY to connect using keys for authentication.

Start Putty and you'll see the basic options screen:

In the box labelled "Host" enter the host name or IP address of your server (you can get this information from our support team if you're unsure) and make sure "SSH" is selected as the protocol.

In the menu on the left, expand the options for "Connection" and select "Rlogin" and enter the username that our support team provided you with when you sent them your public key:

Next, expand the "SSH" options and select AUTH:

Press the "Browse" button next to the box labelled "Private key file for authentication" then find and select the private key you saved to disk earlier.

Once that's done, select "Session" on the left and in the box labelled "Saved Session" choose a name for the session such as your domain name or server name then click "Save" to add your session settings to the list.

In future you will be able to select you server from list and press "Load" to retrieve all those settings you've just entered.

Accessing your server

To log in to your server, open PuTTY and select the session you saved earlier then click the "Load" button to log in. You'll be prompted for your passphrase and assuming you enter it correctly you'll then be presented with a terminal window giving you complete access to your servers' operating system.

It should be noted that if you're not familiar with Linux or the server-side aspects of Java applications, a mistake could result in your site crashing or going offline. If you are unsure of anything, disconnect and contact our support desk to get assistance.