SSH Workflow

The current tools I use to work in a remote environment (i.e. work is done on servers) is as follows:

1. Windows computer
2. Git Bash as default terminal
3. VSCode as code editor

Setting up SSH Keys

SSH keys are used to avoid passwords.

Generation

ssh-keygen
# Spam enter for defaults

Note: a single key should exist on each physical device (e.g. one for desktop, one for laptop). We are only providing the public key to outsiders (e.g. servers, Github). Thus, if our local device’s private key is compromised, most likely all of the private keys will be compromised as well.

Source

Adding to Github Account

Settings page of Github Account

Source

SSH Configuration

Populate ~/.ssh/config with information. The ~ refers to the home directory of your local device (in my case Windows device). Here is example with a proxy jump:

Host short-nickname
  HostName 11.111.11.11
  ForwardAgent yes
  ProxyJump loginnode
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Host loginnode
  HostName very-cool-name
  ForwardAgent yes
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

More configurations options

Copying SSH key to Servers

This allows you to directly ssh nickname using your SSH keys instead of password.

ssh-copy-id nickname

Source

Auto SSH agent

Add following to your .bash_profile to automatically create and add keys to an agent on creation of a terminal.

SSH_ENV="$HOME/.ssh/agent-environment"

function start_agent {
    echo "Initialising new SSH agent..."
    /usr/bin/ssh-agent | sed 's/^echo/#echo/' > "${SSH_ENV}"
    echo succeeded
    chmod 600 "${SSH_ENV}"
    . "${SSH_ENV}" > /dev/null
    /usr/bin/ssh-add;
}

# Source SSH settings, if applicable

if [ -f "${SSH_ENV}" ]; then
    . "${SSH_ENV}" > /dev/null
    #ps ${SSH_AGENT_PID} doesn't work under cywgin
    ps -ef | grep ${SSH_AGENT_PID} | grep ssh-agent$ > /dev/null || {
        start_agent;
    }
else
    start_agent;
fi

Source

Forwarding SSH Agents to VSCode Remote-SSH Remote Terminals

For some reason, when you open VSCode through the desktop application (e.g. start menu), ssh agents ENV variables are not passed to the VSCode instance, and thus do not exist in terminals opened on the remote. The workaround is to open VSCode from a terminal that has the SSH agent, in my case, usually Git Bash with code (with no other VSCode windows open). This will allow all VSCode terminals created from that session to have the proper agents created in .bash_profile.

Source

SSH Helper Function

A shell utilty function that combines an ssh and cding into a directory can be done as follows

sshh() {
    ssh -t $1 cd ${2:-/path/to/default/dir/} ';' exec /bin/bash
}

Execute with sshh remote-name.

Development

Text Editing

I like VSCode as my text editor.

I use the Remote - SSH extension to attach a VSCode window to a remote SSH. Use >Remote-SSH: Connect Current Window to Host in VSCode.

Docker Containers

I use the Dev Containers to mount a running container to my VSCode window. This allows the full intellisense, etc. tools to work perfectly, as-if I were working locally on that server. Use >Dev Containers: Attach to Running Container in VSCode.

To configure default user, workspace directory, etc., use >Dev Containers: Open Attached Container Configuration File in VSCode, which opens a JSON file, where you can add

{
  ...
  "workspaceFolder": "/data",
  "remoteUser": "username"
}