Preparing the SSH client on an AIX or Linux host

You can prepare the Secure Shell (SSH) client on an AIX or Linux host.

Ensure that you have an SSH client installed on your system:
IBMAIX operating systems
For IBMAIX 5L for POWER, versions 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, and AIX version 6.1 for IBM POWER architecture, you can obtain the OpenSSH client from the bonus packs, but you also must obtain its prerequisite, OpenSSL, from the IBMAIX toolbox for Linux applications for IBMPower Systems. For AIX 4.3.3, you can obtain the software from the AIX toolbox for Linux applications. You can also obtain the AIX installation images from IBMdeveloperWorks at the following website:

oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/projects/openssh

Linux operating systems
The OpenSSH client is installed by default on most Linux distributions. If it is not installed on your system, consult your Linux installation documentation or visit the following website:

www.openssh.org/portable.html

The OpenSSH client can run on a variety of additional operating systems. For more information about the openSSH client, visit the following website:

www.openssh.org/portable.html

Authentication to the system generally requires the use of a password, but if there is no password you can use a key pair. Use these steps to set up an RSA key pair on the AIXor Linux host and the clustered system:

To authenticate using an SSH key, use the following command:
ssh -i full_path_to_key username@my_system
Where my_system is the name of the system IP, username@my_system is the user name that you also log into the system with, and full_path_to_key is the full path to the key file that was generated in the previous step. Authenticate to the system using a SVC_username and password. (If you require command-line access without using a password, SSH keys can be used.) The system determines which user is logging in from the key the user is using.
Note: You can omit -i full_path_to_key if you configure the SSH client to use the key file automatically.

If you use the Secure Shell (SSH) to log into the system, use the password defined for accessing the GUI. You can also use RSA-based private key authentication.

For more information, see Connecting to the CLI using OpenSSH.