Gaining root access to VBA via ssh

This post provides the steps necessary to logon to a VBA through SSH and load the dpnid key to ensure all the commands are run correctly, so that root user can be accessed.

Perform the following steps:

  1. Open a terminal window (Solaris/Linux) or a putty session (Windows) and connect using the IP address (or hostname) of the VBA.
  2. Login using the admin user Note: The admin user MUST be used to login through SSH as root access via SSH from an external IP address is blocked.
  3. Load the dpnid ssh-keys using the following commands:
    admin@VBA:~/>: ssh-agent bash
    ssh-admin@VBA:~/#: ssh-add ~/.ssh/dpnid
    Identity added: /home/admin/.ssh/dpnid (/home/admin/.ssh/dpnid)
    admin@VBA:~/#:
  4. Confirm the dpnid is loaded by running ssh-add -l:
    admin@VBA:~/#: ssh-add -l
    3072 62:3f:f3:43:fd:9d:d4:36:62:78:cd:75:26:0a:01:a0 /home/admin/.ssh/dpnid (RSA)
    admin@VBA:~/#:
  5. To gain root access ssn can be used :
    admin@VBA:~/#: ssn --user=root 0.s
    Using /usr/local/avamar/var/probe.xml
    ssh -x root@10.10.10.1 ''
    Last login: Mon Mar 2 09:40:02 2015 from 10.10.10.1
    root@VBA:~/#:
    Note: No Avamar management commands (dpnctl status. cplist, status.dpn, dpnctl XXXx) should be run as root