topic Re: OpenSSH question in Server Management - Systems Insight Manager

OpenSSH question

Pat Wilson_1 — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 12:46:44 GMT

I have one server that I have installed OpenSSH to, and it works fine. (It's currently the HPSim CMS)

I have a second server that I have installed OpenSSH to (I want to move the HPSim CMS functionality to this new server). The install went smoothly. The OpenSSH service is running. When I connect (the first time - or if I delete the .ssh subdirectory under the user's profile), I am offered the RSA certificate, but then the connection is refused (access denied).

I have checked the file permissions on both servers, and they are identical for the user profiles and installation directories. I checked the local security profiles, and they look good too.

The only difference between the two that I can think of is that Server#2 has IIS on it (both are Windows Server 2003 with SP1). Would this affect the OpenSSH service?

I have attached a log of a login attempt (server names changed to protect the guilty). Note that this is being run from server #2, but I get the same result from any other SSH client anyway.

Please help. I need this so I can call an external paging application (TeleAlert) from HPSim.

Re: OpenSSH question

Rob Buxton — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 21:21:40 GMT

I start by just using a utility like putty or the SSH client to start a simple ssh connection to the new location.
If that fails for any reason it would indicate either the account credentials on the Server are invalid or there's some kind of firewall blocking ssh access.

As far as HPSIM is concerned, the mxagentconfig utility has resolved a number of ssh funnies for me.

Re: OpenSSH question

Pat Wilson_1 — Thu, 06 Oct 2005 07:00:45 GMT

Thanks for the response Rob. I thought it must be the authentication too, but I was trying a couple of different SSH clients (SSH Communication's windows client, and the 'ssh.exe' command-line client supplied with HP's OpenSSH). I knew the Windows authentication was good because I logged in (Windows login) with the account/password to be able to launch the SSH client locally from the command line. There is no firewall between them - because I was logged in locally.

I was actually coming back to the forum to congratulate the Unix guys I work with for their giving me the clue that resolved this.

I had noticed an sshd error reported in the Windows Application event log ("PID 5856 : User Insight not allowed because shell /bin/switch is not executable.") I had checked the folder permissions, and verified that at the Windows level, the local administrators group (the account is a member) has full control. When I ran 'switch' from Start->Run, it opened a command prompt correctly - so I knew the executable was not corrupted.

HOWEVER - when I ran 'bin\ls -ld OpenSSH' the response came back 'd--------- OpenSSH'. Since OpenSSH is a unix utility, it is looking for unix style permissions. I ran 'chmod 700 OpenSSH -R' and everything works now.

Thanks again to my Unix co-workers.