Windows SSH Guide

windows powershell modern versions of windows support running cli ssh commands in powershell we recommemnd you use the cli wherever possible this guide will focus only on windows gui tools if you would like to proceed with the cli, please navigate to the full ssh guide for setup information jupyter terminal ssh alternative as a simple alternative to ssh, you might like to consider jupyter terminal instead all instances started in jupyter launch mode will have this enabled it is a very straightforward web based terminal with session persistence it's great for a quick cli session access the terminal from the ssh connections interface jupyter terminal gui setup guide (windows) several gui tools are available to help with ssh connectivity while it is often most straightforward to use the terminal we will cover some of the popular options here for each application we will assume the following ip address 142 114 29 158 port 46230 username root to find your own connection details you can click the ssh button on your instance card example ssh details putty putty consists of two important components putty for making connections and puttygen for creating ssh keys first, we will generate a public and private key pair putty uses its own ppk private key type open puttygen and click the 'generate' button you will be asked to move your mouse around until the green bar is full key generation interface once the key generation has completed, save both your public and private key somewhere safe such as in your documents folder optionally you can enter a passphrase for your private key for added security next, copy the full public key to the clipboard and add it to your account at https //cloud vast ai/manage keys/ https //cloud vast ai/manage keys/ any keys stored at the account level will automatically be added to new instances as they are created if you have an existing instance you can add keys to it from the instance card save keys interface now that we have a suitable key to use, close puttygen and open the main putty application in the 'session' tab, enter the ip address and the port putty session tab next, move to the 'connection > data` tab and set the auto login username to 'root' connection data tab now navigate to 'connection > ssh > auth > credentials' and browse for the private key ( ppk) that you saved earlier ssh credentials tab finally navigate back to the 'sessions' tab to save the connection details here i have saved the session with the instance id so that i can access it again later save connection finally, click the 'open' button to be connected to your instance putty has many additional features to explore find the full documentation here mobaxterm first, we need to create a public and private key pair mobaxterm uses putty style ppk keys open the application and navigate to tools > mobakeygen (ssh key generator) glick the 'generate' button you will be asked to move your mouse around until the green bar is full key generation interface once the key generation has completed, save both your public and private key somewhere safe such as in your documents folder optionally you can enter a passphrase for your private key for added security next, copy the full public key to the clipboard and add it to your account at https //cloud vast ai/manage keys/ https //cloud vast ai/manage keys/ any keys stored at the account level will automatically be added to new instances as they are created if you have an existing instance you can add keys to it from the instance card save keys interface now you can close the key generation interface we will create a new session navigate to sessions > new session > ssh sesison interface important details to complete remote host specify username (root) port use private key click 'ok' and you will be connected to the instance ssh terminal you can find the documentation for mobaxterm here other gui clients many gui clients are available for windows and other operating systems, and although it is not possible to cover all of these here, the key things to remember when setting up are create a public and private key pair add the public key to your vast account and any running instances keep the private key safe ensure you are connecting to the correct ip address and port as user root ​ ​