Give sessions SSH access to a server

A session works in its own container and cannot reach your servers. Add an SSH server when the work is outside the project: to read the logs of a staging server, to restart a service, or to run a deploy command.

This access is powerful. An agent in any of your sessions can use each server that you enable. Give the access only for the time that the work needs it.

Do this on the server before you open Rondar:

1. Make a user for this purpose. Do not use root, and do not use your own account.
2. Give the user only the permissions that the work needs.
3. Make a new key pair for this user. Do not use your personal key.
4. Add the public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys of the user.

Rondar does not support sign-in with a password.

The host key lets Rondar make sure that it speaks to your server. Read it from a source that you trust, for example on the server itself:

cat /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub

The line starts with ssh-ed25519 AAAA.

Open Settings → SSH servers and select Add server. Give these fields:

• Label: a name that tells you and the agent what the server is for.
• Host, Username and Port. The usual port is 22.
• Private key: the private key of the pair that you made.
• Host key: the line from the step before.

Select Enable for agent sessions. Then select Test connection, and Save server.

The page shows an alias for each server. New sessions, and sessions that you resume, can use it. Tell the agent what to do and name the server, for example: "Read the last 200 lines of the application log on the staging server and find the cause of the 500 errors."

Rondar puts the key only in the containers of sessions. It is not part of the project setup or of its saved image.

Select Disable on a server to stop its use and keep its data, or Delete to remove it. Edit / rotate key replaces the key. When the work is done, disable the server in Rondar and remove the public key on the server.