Shellhub is an open source alternative to Dataplicity. Run the Shellhub host on a host computer then run the agents on the remotes.
Host
- if you are already running ssh on the host you'll need to create (or add to) a
.env.override
fileSHELLHUB_SSH_PORT=<SOMETHING_OTHER_THAN_22>
- you'll use this port # when logging into the remotes via ssh cli e.g.
ssh -p <PORT_#> <USER>@<SSHID_FOR_REMOTE>@<HOST_IP_OR_NAME>
- directions for install (dev environment not necessary)
- for ssl add to
.env.override
:
SHELLHUB_AUTO_SSL=true SHELLHUB_REDIRECT_TO_HTTPS=true SHELLHUB_DOMAIN=<your domain or subdomain without quotes>
autostart
Add a systemd
service:
- create
/etc/systemd/system/shellhub.service
:
[Unit] Description=ShellHub After=network.target [Service] User=root Type=simple WorkingDirectory=<DIRECTORY WHERE SHELLHUB ROOT LIVES> ExecStart=make start Restart=always [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
sudo systemctl enable shellhub.service
sudo systemctl start shellhub.service
Remote
- Shellhub provides a docker container for RPI and friends but our candidate was a riscv64 mangopi for which there was no suitable Docker container
- Instead we cloned the repo then build the agent from source
git clone -b v0.10.4 https://github.com/shellhub-io/shellhub.git shellhub sudo apt install golang cd shellhub/agent go build -ldflags "-X main.AgentVersion=v0.10.4"
- Format for the public/private keys must be
pem
so ssh keys from standardssh-keygen
will not work. Instead do something like:ssh-keygen -t rsa -f key.pem -m pem
with-m pem
being the magic sauce (source).
Autostart of Agent
- add a script
startAgent.sh
to start the agent:
#!/bin/bash export SHELLHUB_TENANT_ID="TENANT_ID" export SHELLHUB_PRIVATE_KEY="PRIVATE KEY PATH AND FILENAME IN PEM FORMAT" export SHELLHUB_SERVER_ADDRESS="SHELLHUB SERVER ADDRESS" ./agent
sudo chmod 755 startAgent.sh
- starting the script from the shell works fine but for some reason does not work with
systemd
unless we change/bin/sh
to usebash
instead ofdash
sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash
and chooseno
when prompted
- create
/etc/systemd/system/shellhubAgent.service
[Unit] Description=ShellhubAgent After=network.target [Service] User=root Type=simple WorkingDirectory=FULL PATH WHERE AGENT AND STARTUP SCRIPT ARE LOCATED ExecStart=FULL PATH AND FILENAME OF STARTUP SCRIPT Restart=always [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
sudo systemctl enable shellhubAgent.service
sudo systemctl start shellhubAgent.service
Login with cert to remote (agent)
- local machine generate public/private key.
- it could be that any public/private key would work but docs suggest
ssh-keygen -t ed25519
- upload public key to web portal (public keys menu on LHS)
- make sure private key on local machine has permissions 600
- login from local machine using private key:
ssh -p <PORT> -i <PRIVATE_KEY_PATH_AND_FILE> <USER>@<SSHID_FOR_REMOTE>@<HOST_IP_OR_NAME>
Disable Password login
This is not a built-in function for community edition it appears so as a workaround we can hack the code
- pre v0.13.0: in
/pkg/agent/server/server.go
editfunc (s *Server) passwordHandler(
so the first line of the method readsreturn false
- post v0.13.0: in
/pkg/agent/server/authentication.go
editfunc (s *Server) passwordHandler(ctx gliderssh.Context, pass string) bool {
so the first line of the method readsreturn false
cd shellhub/agent
go build -ldflags "-X main.AgentVersion=<VERSION>"
Setting up VNC on remote (Xubuntu 22.04)
On Remote
sudo apt install xtightvncviewer
- change
~/.vnc/xstartup
to read:
env -i /bin/sh -c "export PATH=$PATH; export XAUTHORITY=$XAUTHORITY; export DISPLAY=$DISPLAY; export HOME=$HOME; export LOGNAME=$LOGNAME; export USER=$USER; /usr/bin/xfce4-session"
- write a script:
#!/bin/bash if ! pgrep -x "Xtightvnc" >/dev/null then vncserver -geometry 1366x768 fi
- call this script in session and startup (yes systemd is the right way to do this but I couldn't get it to work)
- restart Xserver
local
ssh -p 24 -i <PRIVATE_KEY> <NAME_OF_REMOTE> -L 5901:127.0.0.1:5901
- then in a separate window
gvncviewer :1