I recently created a DigitalOcean Droplet and now I am new to digital ocean Linux server, but not the first time working with Linux. In my previous work we’re working on the servers like this, as well as connecting to the server using SSH (Secure Shell), but not me as an administrator. If you are windows users, you can experiment Linux server using WSL (Windows sub-system for Linux).
What I am going to discuss here is how to connect using username and password. Next article will be how to connect using ssh.
Prerequisites
In order to connect to a remote Linux server via SSH, you must have following:
- User name: The remote user to log in as. The default admin user, or Superuser, on most Linux servers is
root - Password and/or SSH Key: The password that is used to authenticate the user that you are logging in as. If you added a public SSH key to your droplet when you created it, you must have the private SSH key of the key pair (and passphrase, if it has one)
- Server IP address: This is the address that uniquely identifies your server on the Internet, and can be found in your DigitalOcean Droplets page
The first time creating a droplet, DigitalOcean will sent the email about the IP Address, Username and Password which will be used to login to the server for the first time. The emailed password is temporary, and must be changed after the first login.
SSH Client Software
The time I wrote this article, I am using windows, so the software I need is the following:
- PuTTY (Windows): A free SSH client that can run on Windows, and is available for download on the PuTTY Download Page.
putty.exeis the SSH client, andputtygen.exeshould also be downloaded if you want to use SSH keys.
SSH Login as Root
Now given all of the required information and software, we’re are now ready to log in to your server for the first time.
Run putty.exe by double-clicking on it, which will start the program and take you to the configuration screen.
Note: These steps do not cover using SSH keys with PuTTY. If you need to use SSH keys with PuTTY, use PuTTYgen to generate and load keys. A tutorial on this subject can be found here: How To Use SSH Keys with PuTTY.
Step 1 — Configure the Connection
To properly configure the the SSH connection in putty, ensure that the following settings are set:
- Host Name (or IP address): Enter your server’s IP address here
- Port: 22 (default)
- Connection Type: SSH (default)
You may now name and save this particular connection for future use by typing a name in the “Saved Sessions” field, and clicking “save”.
Step 2 — Initiate the Connection
To initiate the connection, double-click on the session name, and accept the security alert (this will only appear the first time you connect to a server).
Step 3 — Authenticate
The authentication step involves providing the login credentials, the user name and temporary password, to connect to the server. Following the initial connection, you will be required to change the password.
Follow these steps to complete the login process:
- At the
login asprompt, enterroot - At the
Password prompt, enter the password that was emailed to you (copy and paste it) - At the
(current) UNIX passwordprompt, paste in the temporary password again - At the
Enter new UNIX passwordprompt, enter a strong password - At the
Retype new UNIX passwordprompt, enter the same strong password that you just entered
Don’t forget the new password that you set.
Credits:
Most of the information written here are derived from the DigitalOcean tutorial which I followed and successfully implemented it.
Hope this will help you too.
