Accessing the VM with SSH

Overview

Teaching: 10 min
Exercises: 20 min

Questions

• How do I connect to my Azure VM?

Objectives

• Establish an SSH connection to the Azure VM using PuTTY.

• Configure PuTTY to establish tunnels for VNC, and Jupyter connections

Secure Shell (SSH)

You can use any SSH client to connect to your VM. Here, we provide the steps using PuTTY for Windows and Linux operating systems.

For Linux

1. Open a terminal on your Linux machine and navigate to the path of the .pem file you downloaded from Azure before.

2. Set the correct permissions for the pem file by running the following command:

    chmod 600 <VMName>_key.pem
   

3. Execute the following command:

    ssh -i <VMName>_key.pem -L 5901:localhost:5901 -L 6080:localhost:6080 -L 8888:localhost:8888 azureuser@<AZURE_VM_IP>
   

For Windows

Using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Using WSL, users can seamlessly operate within their Ubuntu shell and effortlessly follow the Linux instructions.

Using Command Prompt

1. Open Command Prompt.

2. Run the following command:

     ssh -i C:\Users\<WindowsUserName>\Downloads\<VMName>_key.pem -L 5901:localhost:5901 -L 6080:localhost:6080 -L 8888:localhost:8888 azureuser@<VM_IP>
   

Using the PuTTY application

1. Download the latest version of PuTTY from the official website: PuTTY

2. Open PuTTYgen and select the Conversions option.

3. Then, choose Import key to locate and select the .pem file you downloaded previously from Azure.

Note: Do not select Generate.

1. Go to the File menu, select Save private key, and confirm by clicking Yes in the pop-up window.

2. Save the new file as Any_name_you_want.ppk to your computer.

3. Close the PuTTYgen window.

Configuration of PuTTY

1. Open PuTTY and navigate to the left part of the PuTTY window. Select Category > Session and fill in the following values:

   • Host Name (or IP address): Azure_VM_IP
   • Port: 22

2. In the left part of the PuTTY window, select Category > Connection > SSH > Auth. Under Private key file for authentication, click on Browse and load the .ppk file created earlier.

3. For VNC connections, navigate to Category > Connection > SSH > Tunnel.

   • To add the VNC tunnel, set Source Port to 5901, Destination to localhost:5901, and click the Add button.
   • To add the WebVNC tunnel, set Source Port to 6080, Destination to localhost:6080, and click the Add button.
   • To add the Jupyter tunnel, set Source Port to 8888, Destination to localhost:8888, and click the Add button.

   Note: Tunnels will be required later. They will allow you to easily connect to VNC or Jupyter when the corresponding container is launched.

4. After defining the above tunnels, save the SSH connection settings and establish the connection by clicking the Open button. In the pop-up window, select Accept and enter the VM credentials (by default, azureuser).

Congratulations! You now have remote access to your VM created in Azure.

Key Points

• Once connected, you will have command-line access to the VM, allowing you to execute commands and perform administrative tasks remotely.