SSH Remote Server Setup

A DevOps learning project built to ssh into remote VM instance on GCP

Procedure

SSH Remote Server

1. Generate ssh public and private using the following command:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -f gcp -C architxkumardev

2. Upload the public key in Metadata section on GCP Compute Engine
3. Create a VM instance by adjusting the configuration
4. SSH by opening the terminal in the key containing directory and running the following command:

ssh -i gcp architxkumardev@34.131.97.170

Congratulations! You have just sshed into the VM Instance. The user and hostmachine name will change to the remote VM's configuration

SSH Config file

1. Create a config file in the '.ssh' flolder with permission set to read/write only for the user

cd ~/.ssh && touch config

2. Store the follwing configuration in the file

Host [alias-name]
    Hostname [Hostname]
    User [User]
    IdentityFile [Path to private key]

3. SSH using the alisa name

ssh [alias-name]

Fail2ban Setup

1. SSH into the server
2. Install dependencies

sudo apt update
sudo apt install fail2ban -y

3. Create Local config file

sudo cp /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

4. Edit jail.local file

sudo nano /etc/fail2ban/jail.local

Scroll down to sshdsection and type in the following commands

[sshd]
enabled = true
port    = ssh
logpath = %(sshd_log)s
maxretry = 5

5. Save and start the service

sudo systemctl start fail2ban
sudo systemctl enable fail2ban

6. Check status

sudo fail2ban-client status