OpenSSH problems

[ms.tim]

I receve this error upon starting "OpenSSH Server" service:

OpenSSHd : PID 4984 : starting service `OpenSSHd' failed: execv: 255, error 255.

Note this is a CygWin version of sshd because the version that came with SIM couldn't be installed. when tryed to install it the setup aborted with explanation that cygwin version of sshd is installed and to first uninstall that one although nothing was ever installed before that!

tnx

[Andrzej Kowalik]

http://www.hp.com/wwsolutions/misc/hpsim-helpfiles/hpsim-ssh-wp.pdf
"Windows SSH server
While HP-UX and most Linux distributions usually ship with OpenSSH already installed, the same is not true of Windows-based operating systems. HP Systems Insight Manager provides a version of OpenSSH to be used with the DTF on Windows systems. This is installed along with the rest of the CMS software when installing the CMS. For managed systems, it can be installed from the management CD or downloaded from HPâ s website.
The version provided by HP Systems Insight Manager was repackaged to work seamlessly with the install process. It was also modified to provide greater security than other widely-available distributions. Since OpenSSH is part of OpenBSD, it was originally implemented for UNIX-like operating systems. In order to easily port it to Windows, an emulation layer called Cygwin is used.
Cygwin provides a UNIX emulation layer so that UNIX software can be easily ported to Windows. It also has some well-known security problemsâ it creates world-readable data structures to emulate UNIX processes. In order to make OpenSSH more secure, the version distributed with HP Systems Insight Manager contains a modified Cygwin compatibility layer that restricts access to these data structures to members of the Administratorâ s group. Because of this, when HP Systems Insight Managerâ s version of OpenSSH is used, only Windows Administrators can log into the Windows system via SSH." and:
"Coexistence problems with other Cygwin installations
Only one Cygwin-based program can be installed on a system at any given time.
In order for Cygwin to function, there are certain registry settings that have to existâ namely, the mount points defined above. The installer checks for the Cygwin registry keys and refuses to install if they exist. The installation also fails if the full Cygwin distribution, or any other software that uses Cygwin (for example, the Python distribution in WinCVS), is installed. This is an unfortunate consequence of multiple Cygwin installations not being able to coexist.
There are other products that use Cygwin out there, and HP Systems Insight Managerâ s OpenSSH distribution is not compatible with them. This includes other freely available OpenSSH distributions. If you are already using another version of OpenSSH and do not want to install the HP Systems Insight Manager version, that is fine. Keep in mind, however, that the HP Systems Insight Manager version is the only version that restricts access to the Cygwin data structures.
If the user has already installed the generic distribution of OpenSSH for Windows and sets up the keys to work with the CMS, the security hole that existed before HP Systems Insight Manager was used will still exist. It will not affect any other managed systems or the CMS. The potential exists for a non-administrator user on the managed node to interfere with any DTF tasks run on that node. However, this same problem existed on this system before HP Systems Insight Manager was in use.
If you are having trouble getting the HP Systems Insight Manager OpenSSH package to install, search your system for the Cygwin registry keys, as well as the file cygwin1.dll. The location of the file might give you some idea of what software is installed that is conflicting with OpenSSH.

[ms.tim]

tnx
that explains a lot
I tryed before to remove all cygwin and cygnus registry entries but they were in use and couldn't find with what.
btw for what purposes is ssh used? suppose for executing remote commands from CMS, but is there anything else?

[Andrzej Kowalik]

From the same document ;-)

"Features of HP Systems Insight Manager requiring SSH
All command line tools in HP Systems Insight Manager are executed by the distributed task facility (DTF) using SSHâ even those executing on the CMS itself. SSH was used for execution on the CMS for platform independenceâ multiple native methods are not needed to support Linux®, HP-UX, and Windows®. Tasks can be run the same way across all platformsâ they are always executed via SSH.
Custom commands, or â application launch tools,â come from Insight Manager 7. They are executed on the CMS. When you select a custom command to be executed against a set of managed systems, a process is executed on the CMS. The list of systems is passed to the DTF via an environmental variable. The custom command then does whatever it was written to do against each target system. The target systems do not necessarily have to be running SSH in order to function properly. The custom command could operate via another protocol that, for example, network switches understand. Unlike most command line tools, only the CMS has to be running an SSH server to enable custom commands.
Command line tools come from HP Servicecontrol Manager. There are two styles: single-system aware (SSA) and multi-system aware (MSA). MSA tools function much like custom commands: the tool is run on an execution node (which is usually the CMS), and the target systems are passed via an environmental variable. The tool is then responsible for communicating with the managed systems using whatever protocol it uses. An example of an MSA tool is Software Distributor for HP-UX. The execution node is the system running the Software Distributor service. SSH is required to be running on that node so that the CMS can contact it with information about the software to install and the managed systems on which to install it.
Unlike custom commands and command line tools, SSA tools are run directly on the managed system. The distributed task facility opens up an SSH connection with each of the target systems, executes the command over the SSH protocol, and stores any output (valid command output as well as error messages) in the repository. This process occurs on each target system that the user selected. Because of this, each target system must be running an SSH server. Examples of both MSA and SSA command line tools that ship with HP Systems Insight Manager can be found in Appendix C: Tool examples.
2
To summarize, the central management server (CMS) must have a Secure Shell (SSH) server installed and configured in order to run any custom commands and most multi-system aware (MSA) command line tools. In addition, each managed system that you want to select as a target for a single-system aware (SSA) command line tool must be running a properly configured SSH server

[ms.tim]

damn, rtfm :)
tnx!