Documentation

Check Types

SSH Checks

About SSH Checks

Secure Shell (SSH) is a network protocol for secure data communication, remote shell services or command execution via a secure channel over an insecure network like the Internet. Many servers are equipped with SSH services to allow remote logins to a shell.

When to use SSH Checks

NodePing's SSH checks can be used to ensure the availability of your SSH services. In addition, the check can be configured with optional response string matching that, when used in conjunction with a login script, can provide notifications for things like CPU utilization, memory availability, or disk usage.

Using SSH Checks

To set up an SSH check,

  1. Select SSH from the Check type drop down.
  2. Give it a friendly label to identify this check in lists and notifications.
  3. Set which geographical region you want the check to run from.
  4. Set how often you want the check to run on the Check Frequency field, up to once per minute.
  5. Set the host name or IP address for the server.
  6. Optionally set the port number your SSH service is responding on. If left blank, this defaults to port 22.
  7. Enter the 'Username' and 'Password' if you want the check to attempt to login. This is optional. If you leave these blank, the check will just ensure that the service is accepting connections. If you do choose to save your username and password in these fields, please keep our Terms of Service in mind and limit the access provided by the credentials you use.
  8. If you'd like to verify that particular words appear or do not appear in the response to the successful SSH login, type the exact string into the optional 'Content String' field and set the dropdown to either 'Contains' or 'Does not contain'. This field is optional and the SSH login response is not inspected if this field is left blank. Using the Content String checking requires that you put in a valid username and password in the fields provided above.
  9. Set a time out. The default 5 seconds works fine for most situations.
  10. Set the Sensitivity. 'High' is usually appropriate.
  11. Set the notifications you want for this check.
Common usage:
  • To test availability of SSH services
  • To receive alerts based on the text response to an SSH login script.