Are you having troubles accessing your DirectAdmin server via ssh?

Using SSH to administer a server is very secured way to work with it as the connection goes through a cryptographic network protocol.

Here at Ibmi Media, as part of our Server Support Services, we regularly help our customers to enable SSH access on their control panel to enable them use SSH command line tools such as putty to access their servers.

In this context, we shall look into how Server Experts enable SSH access on DirectAdmin Control Panel.

How to enable ssh access on DirectAdmin control panel?

Follow the following steps to enable ssh access on DirectAdmin;

i. To begin, start by logging into your DirectAdmin panel as an administrator.
ii. Head to the user area by searching the one you want to use with SSH.

iii. Once you are in the particular user's page, click on "Modify user" which is an option there.

iv. Now, tick on the option "SSH Access".

v. Finally, click on the "SAVE" button to effect changes.

This will allow such a user to be accessible via SSH.

How to enable ssh access for a user via the command line for a DirectAdmin control panel?

To grant SSH access and permissions known as privileges to a user via an SSH terminal with tools such as putty, then use the commands below;

useradd [username]

passwd [username]

How to tackle common errors when trying to allow SSH access on DirectAdmin?

Sometimes, server users might face issues with creating a user to allow SSH access on DirectAdmin managed server.

One of such errors is the "Access Denied​ error" one.

To solve this error, it is recommended that you start by checking the sshd_config file located at /etc/ssh/sshd_config path.
Then follow the steps below;

1. Open the sshd configuration file with the command below;

vi  /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Now at the bottom within this file, add the following attribute beneath where root, admin and users are stored;

AllowUsers <username>

Finally, you can save the configuration file and restart the SSH service with the command below;

service ssh restart

Now you will be able to use that user to access the server via SSH without any further issues.

Need support in solving SSH or server errors? We are available.