User guide

SSH Passthrough Sessions
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An SSH Passthrough session is a serial session opened to a unit without the use of a web
browser. From an SSH client, a user with access rights can establish a connection to any serial
unit managed by the DSView 3 software that supports Secure Shell 2 (SSH2) and Avocent DS
Authentication 2 Protocol (ADSAP2) protocol.
The DSView 3 server provides user authentication and, if events are enabled, logs SSH
Passthrough session events. You can also share SSH Passthrough sessions with multiple users
across multiple DSView 3 servers. Serial sessions initiated from the DSView 3 client software
may also be shared if the Avocent Session Viewer is preconfigured as the serial viewer.
Shared serial sessions provide server redundancy. If a DSView 3 server is no longer available, a
user may establish an SSH Passthrough session to a different DSView 3 server.
Client licenses
A client license is required for each user operating SSH Passthrough sessions. However, a user
can open any number of SSH Passthrough sessions without increasing the license counter,
provided the username is identical, and resides on the same DSView 3 server and network source
address for each SSH Passthrough session. Once the user closes all SSH Passthrough sessions, the
client session license is freed. If the available number of client session licenses is exceeded three
times, users will be prevented from establishing a new SSH Passthrough session. See Licenses on
page 60 for more information.
Configuring SSH Passthrough
• Enable the SSH server; see Enabling the SSH server on page 213.
• Enable SSH Passthrough; see Enabling SSH Passthrough on page 224.
• (Optional) Enable SSH port sharing; see SSH port sharing on page 224.
Only DSView 3 software administrators may enable the SSH servers, SSH Passthrough and SSH
port sharing.