Access linux shared hosting using SSH – PuTTY
There are many occasion, you wished you had access to your shared hosting with SSH. We are going to access Linux shared hosting using putty by generating public and private key and configuring them in cpanel.
completing this tutorial will allow you to access any Linux hosting shared/dedicated with cPanel using SSH, there are many other SSH clients but in this tutorial we are going to use PuTTY – PuTTY Key Generator for generating private/public key and PuTTY to actually connect to our Linux server using SSH.
Step: 1 – Downloading & Using PuTTY key generator
Let us first download & install PuTTY, it’s will allow you to do SSH connection to your server. Download the installer from your known sources; I downloaded it from here: https://www.ssh.com/ssh/putty/download.
Post Installation open PuTTY Key Generator and click “Generate” Button in Actions tab/section
Now you need to “Generate some randomness by moving over the blank area”. And see the bar progressing. Once the process completed it will look as follows:
Now click on “Save private key” opening the dialog box to save your file at some secured location on your pc name the file “server_private_key” or as you desire.
Keep this window open as we will need the content inside the key tab/section afterward.
Step: 2 – Login to your Linux shared hosting cPanel
Open your favourite browser and navigate to http://cpanel.[yourwebsitename].[com/in/etc] it will take you to the login panel as follows:
Enter your username / password provided to you by your hosting provider and click login, which will take you to the cPanel dashboard.
Scroll down in the list section named “Security” there you will find SSH Access or you can even type in search box SSH which will filter out the options for you. Just in case you don’t follow this is how it should look
Click to open SSH Access.
Step: 3 – Manage SSH Keys in Linux hosting cPanel settings
After you open SSH Access > Click “Managed SSH Keys” which will take you to following interface:
Click on “Import Key” Button, opening another page fill in the name of the key which you saved. And copy the content from PuTTY Key Generator – Key Tab/Section to the open webpage text box saying “Paste the public key into the following text box:”
And now click “Import” button. Now to go back by click “Back to Manage Keys”.
Now we need to allow key with the name “server_private_key” for use when connecting to the account. To do that click on “Manage” link i.e icon with a wrench. Which open another page and on that page click on “Authorize” button.
Step: 4 – login using PuTTY by setting some properties.
Now open PuTTY which you just install (note it’s not PuTTY Key Generator, PuTTY is another executable.)
Type in your host name without http:// for example google.com & not http://google.com. Replace with your domain name.
Now on the left side you will see Category tab/section inside which there is treeview; navigate to
Connections > SSH > Auth
Now click on “Browse” button open the location where you saved your private key and select the private key file.
Click Open button to start your session, for the first time a dialog box will appear click “Yes” and then a terminal will open.
Login as: [Enter your cPanel Username here] and press enter.
And your are done !!!