SSH-LINK Agent Documentation

Agent documentation

Run the Agent by operating system

Each operating system has its own collapsible setup section. Open only the section you need.

What this page is for: Prepare SSH on the remote computer, start the SSH-LINK Agent manually, and choose between SSH key login or username/password login on Windows.

Windows Windows Agent

Run PowerShell as Administrator to install OpenSSH. Then start the Agent in a normal PowerShell window when you want access.

Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0
Start-Service sshd
Set-Service -Name sshd -StartupType Automatic
New-NetFirewallRule -Name sshd -DisplayName "OpenSSH Server (sshd)" -Enabled True -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -Action Allow -LocalPort 22

& "C:\Program Files\SSH-LINK\ssh-link-agent.exe" --agent-id WINDOWS-PC --token AGENT_TOKEN

Windows YAML example

Windows SSH login

Use SSH keys when possible. Username/password also works for a local Windows account with admin rights when password authentication is enabled.

SSH key login for an Administrator user:

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force C:\ProgramData\ssh | Out-Null
notepad C:\ProgramData\ssh\administrators_authorized_keys
icacls C:\ProgramData\ssh\administrators_authorized_keys /inheritance:r
icacls C:\ProgramData\ssh\administrators_authorized_keys /grant "Administrators:F" /grant "SYSTEM:F"
Restart-Service sshd

Username/password login:

$Password = Read-Host "Enter password for sshlink" -AsSecureString
New-LocalUser -Name "sshlink" -Password $Password -FullName "SSH-LINK Admin"
Add-LocalGroupMember -Group "Administrators" -Member "sshlink"

$cfg = "C:\ProgramData\ssh\sshd_config"
if (Select-String -Path $cfg -Pattern "^\s*#?\s*PasswordAuthentication\s+" -Quiet) {
  (Get-Content $cfg) -replace "^\s*#?\s*PasswordAuthentication\s+.*", "PasswordAuthentication yes" | Set-Content $cfg
} else {
  Add-Content $cfg "`nPasswordAuthentication yes"
}
Restart-Service sshd

After the Manager opens a local tunnel, connect from the Mac with ssh sshlink@127.0.0.1 -p 2222.

macOS macOS Agent

Enable Remote Login in System Settings, or with the command below, then run the agent binary.

sudo systemsetup -setremotelogin on
./ssh-link-agent --agent-id MAC-MINI --token AGENT_TOKEN

macOS YAML example

Linux Linux Agent

Install and start OpenSSH, then run the Agent from your shell or terminal multiplexer.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y openssh-server
sudo systemctl enable --now ssh
./ssh-link-agent --agent-id UBUNTU-PC --token AGENT_TOKEN

Linux YAML example