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Introduction

Edge Infrastructure Services provides two mechanisms for SSH access to nodes:
  • EdgeView SSH: the recommended method. EdgeView provisions a short-lived SSH key pair for the duration of an EdgeView session. The private key is displayed in the browser and automatically revoked when the session ends or when you click Revoke. No persistent SSH configuration is required on the node.
  • Persistent SSH via ZCLI: an alternative method where you explicitly enable or disable the SSH daemon on the node using a ZCLI configuration item. This is appropriate for scenarios that require direct SSH access without an EdgeView session.
The two methods work independently. You can have EdgeView SSH active during a session while also having persistent SSH enabled via ZCLI.

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Prerequisites

  • You have the SysManager or SysAdmin role in your enterprise. See Manage Roles.
  • For EdgeView SSH: the EdgeView feature enabled on the node.
  • For persistent SSH: ZCLI installed and authenticated. See Get Started With ZCLI for setup instructions.
EdgeView provisions a temporary SSH key automatically when you open an SSH console session from the node detail page.
  1. Open Infrastructure > Fleet > Nodes.
  2. Click the name of the node you want to access.
  3. In the page header, click the Open remote console button to open the EdgeView panel, then select the SSH console option.
  4. EdgeView provisions an ephemeral SSH key pair. The SSH Credentials section in the EdgeView panel shows the key fingerprint and a countdown timer indicating how long the key remains valid.
  5. Use the displayed connection details to open an SSH session. The EdgeView panel shows the connection command.
  6. To revoke the SSH key before it expires, click Revoke in the SSH Credentials section.
The SSH key expires automatically at the end of its time-to-live (TTL). No cleanup is required after the session. See EdgeView and Remote Access for complete EdgeView documentation.

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Enable Persistent SSH with ZCLI

To enable a persistent SSH daemon on a node independent of EdgeView:
Replace <EDGE_NODE_NAME> with the name of the target node. EVE-OS (Edge Virtualization Engine) applies the change at the next configuration sync cycle. After the change is applied, you can SSH to the node on port 22 using standard key-based or password authentication (depending on how EVE-OS is configured on the device).

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Disable Persistent SSH

To disable the persistent SSH daemon:
To restore the default configuration (SSH disabled unless enabled by an active EdgeView session):

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Verify the SSH Configuration

To confirm the current SSH configuration item on a node:
Review the configuration items in the output and look for debug.enable.ssh. If the item is not present, SSH defaults to disabled.

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Manage Applications From the Console

Once you have an SSH or EdgeView SSH session open to a node, you land at the EVE-OS console prompt. From this prompt, use the eve command to list the applications deployed to the node and to open a shell or console session inside one of them. ZEDEDA recommends using these commands only for troubleshooting purposes. The eve app commands are available in EVE-OS 16.10.0 and later, including 17.0.0-lts. On earlier versions, including the 14.5-lts and 16.0-lts releases, use the older commands listed in Older command aliases. To check the EVE-OS version of your node, run eve version.

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List applications on the node

Use eve app list to display all applications deployed to the node, along with their current status.
The TYPE column shows whether the application runs as a virtual machine (VM) or a container (CONTAINER), and the virtualization mode in parentheses. A type of CONTAINER(NOHYPE) means the container runs directly on the node without a virtual machine. Any other mode (for example, HVM or FML) means the container or virtual machine runs inside a virtual machine.

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Open a shell inside an application

Use eve app enter <application> to open an interactive shell inside a running application. Specify the application by its display name (shown in the eve app list output) or by its container ID.
This command replaces the older eve enter-user-app <application> command, which is still supported for backward compatibility. For a native container (CONTAINER(NOHYPE)), this command opens a shell inside the application itself. For a container or virtual machine that runs inside a virtual machine, this command opens a shell inside the hosting virtual machine’s shim process instead, and EVE-OS displays a warning. To reach the application itself in that case, attach to its console instead.

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List and attach to application consoles

A virtual machine application exposes a console that you can attach to directly, similar to connecting a monitor and keyboard to the virtual machine. Use eve app console with no arguments to list the available consoles on the node. Application consoles are supported on nodes that run the standard EVE-OS (EVE-kvm) variant. On nodes that run other variants, such as EVE-k, eve app console might not list any consoles.
Each row represents one available console. The CONS-ID column shows the identifier that you pass to eve app console <id> to attach to that console.
This command replaces the older eve list-app-consoles and eve attach-app-console <console> commands, which are still supported for backward compatibility. After you attach, press Enter to activate the session. To end the console session, press Ctrl-T followed by q.

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Older command aliases

In EVE-OS 16.10.0 and later, EVE-OS keeps the following older commands as aliases so that existing scripts and documentation continue to work. ZEDEDA recommends using the new eve app commands on these versions. On EVE-OS versions earlier than 16.10.0, including the 14.5-lts and 16.0-lts releases, only the older commands are available. On these versions, eve enter-user-app accepts only the application’s container ID, not its display name. The container ID is the application UUID followed by a suffix, for example c401b61d-9ade-48fd-ac4b-98741a52480a.1.1. To list the container IDs on the node, run ctr --namespace eve-user-apps containers ls.

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Next Steps

EdgeView and Remote Access

Full EdgeView documentation including VNC and SSH console.

Enable Last Resort

Emergency SSH access when all other methods are unavailable.

Download a Diagnostic Bundle

Diagnostics available without an SSH session.