RE: Conserver 7.2.7 using Cyclades terminal servers with SSH

> On Tue, Apr 26, 2005 at 09:59:17AM -0700, Greg Brown wrote:
> > 1) How will Conserver connect to each port on a terminal server
using
> SSH?
> > Does all traffic stay on TCP port 22?  (There is a firewall between
the
> 2
> > networks.)  I will be glad to Read The Fine Manual, if someone would
> point
> > out the location of this info.
> 
> conserver can interact via ssh by invoking the ssh command as it's
> method of talking to the console (instead of creating a direct tcp
> connection on a port - normally 23).  in this case, whatever the ssh
> command does determines the traffic (so, port 22 by default).

I am successfully doing this; it works well.   You need to do the
following:

a) Create a local user (NOT web user) on the cyclades box.    
b) Configure the cyclades port(s) in question to use "Socket SSH"
c) Using your SSH know-how, create an SSH client key on the console
server, and install the public key on the cyclades- in the user
directory of the user account.     Test this manually.........
d) Configure your conserver.cf file to include the ssh command.    I
have a sample conserver.cf file attached below for reference....


> > 3) I may decide to bring up a new Conserver host on Linux, Fedora
Core 3
> or
> > ES4, rather than try upgrade on the current HP/UX 10.20 server, or
to
> find
> > an HP/UX 11.x box, or run it on a Sun Solaris server.  Is there
anyone
> out
> > there with strong feelings about which OS is best for Conserver and
> whether
> > Linux is adequate?  (HP/UX 10.20 on 64-bit architecture has been
working
> > well for me.)

Similar to Bryan, I don't have any PREFERENCES...    but I am
successfully using conserver on RHEL 3, but I suspect it would be just
fine under Fedora, etc.    To me, the biggest issue is the stuff on the
server you need to build conserver; Linux comes with all the toys out of
the box, other OS's may require adding GCC and so on.....  

Here's my conserver.cf that does ssh..  I'll probably get bashed for
"why aren't you using such-and-such advanced features?!?!?!"...   

We have two (2) cyclades terminal servers.   They're both set up with
the same local userid ("conserver"), and the same SSH client key from
the console host.    I only show a small subset of the actual hosts for
clarity..........



#
# This is a fairly basic configuration file that interacts with one
# terminal server.
#

# first, we're going to set some generic console defaults so that we
# don't have to duplicate them for each console.
default * {
        logfile /var/log/consoles/&;    # '&' is replaced with console
name
        timestamp 1hab;                 # write timestamps
        rw *;                           # allow all users
        master localhost;
}

## These are term servers accessed with an ssh command
## local user on these is conserver, they have ssh keys for root
## from this host.
# it too uses pattern substitution and such to get the job done
default cyclades1 { type exec; 
                   host my.cyclades.host.name;
                   exec /usr/bin/ssh -l conserver:P H;
                   execsubst H=hs,P=Pd; 
                   portbase 7000; portinc 1; }

default cyclades2 { type exec;
                   host my.other.cyclades.host.name;
                   exec /usr/bin/ssh -l conserver:P H;
                   execsubst H=hs,P=Pd;
                   portbase 7000; portinc 1; }

# ------- define the consoles on ts1.conserver.com --------
console gray    { include cyclades1; port 4; }
console fender  { include cyclades1; port 5; }
console white   { include cyclades1; port 6; }
console rote    { include cyclades1; port 7; }
console ntp     { include cyclades1; port 8; }
console ploto   { include cyclades1; port 9; }
#
console june    { include cyclades2; port 25; }
console mcnally { include cyclades2; port 24; }
console dale    { include cyclades2; port 23; }
console brock   { include cyclades2; port 22; }
console coffman { include cyclades2; port 21; }
#
# set up the an access list to avoid the default
# anything *not* matched here will fallback to the default access (-a)
# mode
access * {
        trusted 127.0.0.1;
}