Handle lots of servers at one time

As a devops engineer, I have to handle, config, and monitor different linux servers at the same time. While connecting the servers ssh, remembering all those pemfiles and hosted IP makes little bit awkward.

So I have one master server where I manage all pemfiles and connect quickly and easily. I'll show how I perform such task easily today.

First of all I should have pemfiles of child server, and master server.

ssh-keygen -t rsa
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub badmin@192.168.2.58

Now time to add the host on ssh-config file:

sudo nano ~/.ssh/config

Host master
  HostName 192.168.2.58
   User badmin

ssh badmin

Now you have successfully config for master server badmin:

After getting connected to master server. Time to config others too:

Host autodeploy
    HostName 13.127.143.152
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/Documents/pemfiles/development/development.pem

Host portal
    HostName portal.in
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/Documents/pemfiles/portalapi/portal.pem

Host rnd
  HostName 192.168.2.87
   User uat

Host mobileapi
    HostName 3.111.219.167
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/Documents/pemfiles/mobileapi/mobileapi.pem

Host product
    HostName 3.109.136.192
    User ubuntu
    IdentityFile ~/Documents/pemfiles/product_server/product.pem

• Make sure you have given correct pemfiles, username and hostname properly. You can change hosts as per your requirements.

Now you can access servers without any burden.

ssh autodeploy #autodeploy server
ssh portal #portal server
ssh rnd #uat server
ssh mobileapi #mobile api server
ssh product #productserver

The best part is that you don't need to connect ssh with hostname and pemfiles and this process also makes your task more smoothly.

I personally suggest to use tmux : terminal multiplex for your daily tasks.

tmux new -s autodeploy
ssh autodeploy

Now, ctrl + b then press d to Disattach the session from terminal. But your tasks will run in background.

Then, you can also try again for another server:

tmux new -s portal
ssh portal

Same as the autodeploy you can disattach the session.

Later, if you want to attach the previous session, you can try this command:

tmux attach -t autodeploy // to attach autodeploy server again

Disattach is same ctrl + b then type d .

This is the way, you can handle lots of linux server at the same time. This is the easiest and simplest form too manager servers.