Managing SSH Access to a Service Instance

You may require Secure Shell (SSH) access to a Service Instance for troubleshooting, to view log files, or for other purposes.

Data Management for VMware Tanzu does not permit SSH access to a Service Instance by default. To permit a special DMS-created operating system user to access a Service Instance, you or the Provider Administrator must first explicitly enable SSH access to the instance.

Enabling SSH Access

When you enable SSH access to a Service Instance, Data Management for VMware Tanzu configures access to the instance for a DMS-created operating system user named tenant-admin and generates a new password for this user.

Data Management for VMware Tanzu assigns the tenant-admin user read-only permission to log files residing on the Service Instance.

Warning: tenant-admin must not execute any command that will impact or interfere with services running on the instance.

You share the management of SSH access to a Service Instance for the tenant-admin operating system user with the Provider Administrator.

Note: The Provider Administrator can also enable SSH access for a Service Instance at any time, and in doing so will reset the tenant-admin user password. Connecting to a Service Instance with an SSH Client describes how to obtain the password should it have changed.

Prerequisites

Before you enable SSH access to a Service Instance, ensure that:

• The Service Instance is powered on and online.
• SSH access is currently disabled for the instance.

Procedure

Perform the following procedure to enable SSH access to a Service Instance:

1. Select Databases from the left navigation pane.

   This action displays the Databases view, a table that lists the provisioned database instances.

2. Examine the databases listed in the table, identify the instance for which you want to enable SSH access, and navigate to that table row.

3. Click the database Instance Name.

   The database information Details tab displays.

4. Locate the VM Admin User Details section of the pane, click ACTIONS, and select Enable SSH Access from the drop down menu.

   The Enable DB VM SSH dialog displays.

5. Click CONFIRM.

   Data Management for VMware Tanzu initiates the task, generating an operation of type ENABLE_DB_VM_SSH.

6. Monitor the progress of the task in the Operations tab or in the Database Operations view:

   1. Locate the ENABLE_DB_VM_SSH operation type and click it.
   2. Select the State History tab to view the subtasks and their status.
   3. If the operation fails, select the Error Info tab to examine the returned error information.

Connecting to a Service Instance with an SSH Client

After you enable SSH access to a Service Instance, the instance allows SSH connections from clients running on any hosts with connectivity to the Service Network.

You obtain the IP address and FQDN of the Service Instance from the Server Information section of the Databases instance Details tab:

You obtain the login credentials for the tenant-admin operating system user from the VM Admin User Details section of the Databases instance Details tab:

(Recall that the tenant-admin user has read-only permission to log files residing on the Service Instance, and should not execute any commands that impact running services.)

You use the DB IP Address or DB FQDN and the Org Admin User and Org Admin Password credentials to ssh into the Service Instance. For example:

user@host$ ssh tenant-admin@DBFQDN
password: 

Disabling SSH Access

When you disable SSH access to a Service Instance, Data Management for VMware Tanzu removes access to the instance from the tenant-admin user.

Note: The Provider Administrator can also remove SSH access from the tenant-admin user at any time.

Prerequisites

Before you disable SSH access to a Service Instance, ensure that:

• The Service Instance is powered on and online.
• SSH access is currently enabled for the instance.

Procedure

Perform the following procedure to disable SSH access to a Service Instance:

1. Select Databases from the left navigation pane.

   This action displays the Databases view, a table that lists the provisioned database instances.

2. Examine the databases listed in the table, identify the instance for which you want to disable SSH access, and navigate to that table row.

3. Click the database Instance Name.

   The database information Details tab displays.

4. Locate the VM Admin User Details section of the pane, click ACTIONS, and select Disable SSH Access from the drop down menu.

   The Disable DB VM SSH dialog displays.

5. Click CONFIRM.

   Data Management for VMware Tanzu initiates the task, generating an operation of type DISABLE_DB_VM_SSH.

6. Monitor the progress of the task in the Operations tab or in the Database Operations view:

   1. Locate the DISABLE_DB_VM_SSH operation type and click it.
   2. Select the State History tab to view the subtasks and their status.
   3. If the operation fails, select the Error Info tab to examine the returned error information.