Sometimes, we want to authenticate ourselves over SSH, but do not prefer to use passwords for authentication. Executing test scripts on a remote machine in an automated way is just one such example. In this article, we will discuss how to configure SSH key-based authentication on a Linux server with an example of executing test scripts on a remote Linux machine.

What are the disadvantages of password-based authentication in SSH?

Here, I have a remote machine in my local network with IP address REMOTE_IP. I would want to execute some local scripts in that machine and analyze the results. In this article, I will show what the disadvantages of password-based authentication in this scenario are, and then we will configure SSH key-based authentication.

Installing SSH

Let’s first install SSH on both machines.

# sudo apt-get install ssh

Now, I can log in to the remote machine from the local host.

# ssh <user and REMOTE_IP>
Password:

I am able to log in, so the first step is done.

Copying test scripts in the remote machine

Now, I would open another terminal and copy the local script to the remote machine.

# scp -p sample.sh <user and REMOTE_IP>:/home/user/testsuites
Password:

Once I give the correct password, the script will be copied in the remote host.

Executing the test scripts in the remote machine