To make our IBM i servers more secure, our system administrator has configured our SSH services to require public key authentication rather than password-based logins. To comply with this security policy, we also set up our Visual Studio Code for i connections to use SSH keys.
This article explains how to set up an SSH key with Code for i.
Want to read source member data from within an IBM i shell environment, such as SSH, QShell, or QP2TERM? Need to copy records from a text file to a physical file? Want a quick way to upload a save file without needing FTP?
IBM i’s Rfile command can do all these things easily. Rfile is designed to be easy to integrate into scripts, so it’s a great tool to have at hand.
Secure Shell (SSH) provides the best environment for installing, managing, and running open source software on IBM i. Among SSH’s advantages over QSHELL and QP2TERM: IBM i’s SSH command line works just like SSH on Linux or Windows, helping the IBM i platform appeal to younger developers and admins. Supporting a wide range of Unix programs and open source software, such as git, SSH is our go-to terminal interface for open source and PASE. This article covers how to set up SSH and use it to connect to IBM i servers.
[UPDATED May 2023]
In IBM i releases before 7.4, IBM i’s Secure Shell (SSH) rejected connection attempts with user profile names longer than eight (8) characters. The error message can vary, but may be similar to “Permission denied, please try again” or “Failed to connect sshd.”
For those older releases (7.3 and earlier), you can allow user profiles longer than 8 characters by editing the file:
/QOpenSys/QIBM/UserData/SC1/OpenSSH/etc/sshd_config
and adding a new line containing the string:
ibmpaseforienv PASE_USRGRP_LIMITED=N
To apply your changes, end and then start the SSH server, like so:
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ENDTCPSVR SERVER(*SSHD) STRTCPSVR SERVER(*SSHD) |
An alternative is to set the variable system-wide, to allow other PASE processes to use the improvement:
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ADDENVVAR ENVVAR(PASE_USRGRP_LIMITED) VALUE('N') LEVEL(*SYS) |
For more details about configuring SSH, see How to Configure and Use SSH on IBM i.