System Administrator usually use SSH to remote his Linux servers. So he might need a SSH client to do that. If he use a Linux client, his Linux might already have SSH client installed. If he use Windows client, one of the most popular SSH client is Putty.
We have already seen in NST Linux, we can SSH to the server via browser. Now, you can change you Linux server to become like that using shellinabox application.
What is shellinabox
Shellinabox is a web based terminal that uses Ajax technology to provide the look and feel of a native shell. Using this, as long as your device have a browser, you can remote to your Linux server.
Installation
On Ubuntu Linux :
$ sudo apt-get install shellinabox
On CentOS Linux :
Enable EPEL repository
# rpm -Uvh http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora-epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm
Verify EPEL repository is already in place
# yum repolist
Install Shellinabox
# yum install openssl shellinabox
How to Use Shellinabox
Once shellinabox installed, you need to make sure that shellinabox daemon is running.
On Ubuntu Linux :
$ sudo /etc/init.d/shellinabox start
On CentOS Linux :
# /etc/init.d/shellinaboxd start
By default, shellinabox is using port 4200. If you want to change it, you can configure shellinabox configuration file.
On Ubuntu Linux
$ sudo vi /etc/default/shellinaboxd
On CentOS Linux
# vi /etc/sysconfig/shellinaboxd
Change the PORT parameter into the port you want. Then restart the shellinaboxd service.
When everything is set, then its time to try shellinabox. You can point your browser to the server. Just type https://server_ip_address:4200 .
Here’s sample screenshots of shellinabox in action :
Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox running Midnight Commander
Samsung Galaxy Tab browser
If you right click on the shell, then you will have some simple options available.
Conclusion
Today with the power of AJAX or HTML5, a browser can running “almost” everything. As a cross platform application, shellinabox may help administrators to remote his machines almost anytime. As usual, you can always type man shellinaboxd or shellinaboxd --help to display its manual page and explore more detail.
Hi, I tried this concept then also I got the error to log in as any user in the browser. By spending lot time then only I found that you missed this rule while editing in the configuration file. I gave the details below.
On CentOS Linux
# vi /etc/sysconfig/shellinaboxd
OPTS="--disable-ssl-menu -s /:LOGIN" #It wont allow to login in a browser
OPTS="--disable-ssl-menu -s /:SSH" #It will allow to login as ssh in a browser
is there any way to pre login with certain username. i mean i have embedded the shellinabox in custom webpage so now i want to show only password prompt not username..