Recommendations for SSH Access

Does anyone know of a service like Teamviewer but for terminal access to freepbx boxes? What I’m wondering is if there’s a way for me to deploy a freepbx box and ship it to a customer and have something that’s like teamviewer but that will give me ssh access to the box? Or is the only option to have to establish some type of VPN connection or open SSH ports to the box? I’d like to be able to deploy freepbx on hardware then ship that box to someone and have them be able to plug it into their network and then get a DHCP address and be able to “teamviewer in” to complete the setup. Obviously i’ll need to have access to the web interface but if I can get SSH access to the box then that’s easy enough to figure out from there.

So guess I’m curious how you guys deal with boxes that you might not be on site to deploy and instead need to be deployed remotely with someone on the other end only being able to provide basic setup assistance (plug in the box, make sure its booted up and has network access). Then from there I want to be able to connect to a SSH session without them having to change any settings.

screen is already built into your system and would suffice.

Some of our engineers use this as well: https://github.com/tmate-io/tmate

Free: ZeroTier.com
Not free: Connectwise Control

The real question that needs to be answered is, how much control or access will you have to the individual networks these systems are sitting behind? If the PBX is going to a location that has a decent firewall and real network management happening on it then why wouldn’t you just request them to setup management rules for the PBX in the firewall to access the PBX?

You can install any program you want but it’s going to come down to the network in the end. Because that program you’re running (SSH, etc) still is just listening for connections on the system. You still need to be able to reach the system for it to hear your request. Even if you’re running something like Team Viewer or an RDP-ish type service that might check in with an external system. Is the router/firewall good enough to keep that NAT-hole open from the outbound request?

If there is an expectation of remote management/support by the customer from you for the PBX that you are providing them then they should be more that willing to work with you to make sure you have the proper access to do it.

Are you using it on FreePBX? How does it work?

I used it in the past. Before I learned about ZeroTier.

I just installed the agent on my current FreePBX 14 system and it worked, but I have a black screen. This is a fairly common bug recently with ScreenConnect on Linux. I have seen threads with resolutions for this, but have not needed to deal with it.

I can type, but I cannot see what the screen shows. I watched from the VNC console in another window :stuck_out_tongue:

If you don’t need constant access to log in at any time, you could set up a reverse-ssh connection that someone would have to allow.

OK well, yeah. That’s the reason we never installed ScreenConnect on Linux…

I’m looking forward for the day it’ll work as smooth as it works on Windows Machines.

How about a preconfigured openvpn config set to autoconnect to home base?

Off topic a bit, sorry OP…
it does work with Fedora. Both server and desktop. I run Fedora 28 + Cinnamon for my desktop and laptop and i remote into them just fine. Only time i get the black screen is if the desktop is locked or not logged in. Since I am the only user, I just know I can type my password and then it all shows normally.

Fedora 28 server also works fine.

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Looks like maybe connect wise would fit the bill as it’s a remote support client. I’d like to just connect to remote hosts as needed. Whether it’s one with an unattended access setup or just something where they can run a command for it to allow access.

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