Re: How to access ... ?

Dave Grubb <davidagrubb@hotmail.com> writes:

> Hello, 
> 
> I just installed conserver to log and manage the output of 50 different devices. It works very nicely and I'm very happy with the results but I've been asked for a way for Windows users to connect to those devices through a mixture of typical Windows-based terminal software (PuTTY, Tera Term etc.,). 
> 
> Right now, I'm using console to connect:
> 
> $ console -M <IP address> -p <port> <console name>
> 
> Which takes me straight to the requested terminal. Is there any way I can achieve similar results without using console?
> 


for some of my co-lo customers, what I do is that I force them to log in
with public key authentication (works in putty with minimal fuss[1])
and then set up the authorized_keys file so that it runs the console
command for their console... 

something like this:

no-agent-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-port-forwarding,command="console -M <IP address> -p <port> <console name>" ssh-rsa  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


logging in with the proper key automatically dumps the user into the console
they want.  

Of course, this still uses console (which you specifically wanted to aviod)
but it hides the details from your end user;  once the putty config is
set up.


[1]http://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/0.53b/htmldoc/Chapter8.html#8.2.10