Software for Linux Owner's manual

16 Using SSH for remote server management
Insight Control for Linux provides several ways for you to access a managed system through SSH.
This chapter addresses the following topics:
• “Setting SSH credentials on managed systems” (page 142)
• “Setting SSH credentials for users” (page 142)
• “Running a command on multiple managed systems” (page 143)
• “Using Insight Control for Linux to run commands and scripts through SSH” (page 144)
16.1 Setting SSH credentials on managed systems
Before you can run a task that uses SSH, you must use the following menu item from the HP Insight
Control user interface; to set SSH credentials on managed systems:
Options→Protocol Settings→System Protocol Settings
For more information about using this menu item to set SSH credentials, see the HP Systems Insight
Manager online help.
16.2 Setting SSH credentials for users
When you enter credentials for a managed system in HP SIM, the username specified in those
credentials is the username that will always be used to execute tasks on the managed system
regardless of the username you used to log into HP SIM. Thus, if you create a non-root user account
in HP SIM to restrict access for certain people, but the credentials stored in HP SIM are for root on
the target servers, then the non-root user in HP SIM still has root access to those target systems.
Through HP SIM and Insight Control for Linux tools, a user could interact with a target managed
system with permissions greater than those assigned to their user account on the target managed
system. This is possible with the Insight Control for Linux menu items that leverage SSH credentials.
The following Insight Control for Linux menu items require SSH credentials to be configured:
• Tools→Command Line Tools→Run SSH Command...
• Tools→Command Line Tools→Run Script...
• Deploy→Deploy Drivers, Firmware, and Agents→Install SPP or PSP...
The following Insight Control for Linux menu items use the SSH credentials if they are available,
but the task can proceed using other methods if the credentials are not available:
• Deploy→Operating System→Red Hat Interactive
• Deploy→Operating System→Red Hat (Kickstart)
• Deploy→Operating System→SLES Interactive
• Deploy→Operating System→SLES (AutoYaST)
• Deploy→Operating System→VMware ESX Interactive
• Deploy→Operating System→VMware ESX (Kickstart)
• Deploy→Operating System→VMware ESXi Interactive
• Deploy→Operating System→Custom or Other Interactive
• Deploy→Operating System→Custom or Other (Unattended)
• Deploy→Operating System→Deploy Linux Image
The following menu item uses the SSH credentials if they are available, otherwise the task uses
another method. However, if you want an orderly shut down of the managed system, HP
recommends that you configure SSH credentials:
142 Using SSH for remote server management