Will the iPad gain acceptance among staunch Linux supporters or will the mere mention of such cross-species contamination stir up thoughts of lighted torches and pitchforks? Truth be told, it's a great device for some administrative tasks.
X cursor movement is a little tricky and cumbersome but the convenience of using X far outweighs the flaws in its use. The other problem with the iSSH implementation, though, that’s really worth a fix is that all X programs open in the same screen location (0,0), so you’re able to work with a single application at a time.
For those of you who want to use VNC connectivity to your Linux systems, you’ll have to enable a VNC server on your target system and setup a password for interactive or view-only sessions. Then, create a new connection using VNC parameters instead of SSH ones. See Figure 5 for a sample. As with SSH, your configuration can contain your pre-entered password or the system can prompt you for one every time.
Figure 5: iSSH VNC Profile Configuration Screen
Your VNC port number, 5901 for example, corresponds to the number given by the VNC server for the listener that you setup by running vncserver on the target host.
$ vncserver
You will require a password to access your desktops.
Password: *******
Verify: *******
Would you like to enter a view-only password (y/n)? n
New 'X' desktop is vlad:1
Creating default startup script /home/khess/.vnc/xstartup
Starting applications specified in /home/khess/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /home/khess/.vnc/vlad:1.log
The :1 in the response corresponds to port 5901. A response of :2 corresponds to port 5902 and so on. Create your connection profile, connect, switch to the X window screen and you’ll see your Linux desktop there as shown in Figure 6. Note that the mouse cursor behaves the same in VNC as it does in a standard X session. Tap where you want the mouse cursor to go and then use the right and left buttons for action at that location.
Figure 6: iSSH VNC Session Showing Target Host’s GNOME Desktop
You’ll enjoy and appreciate iSSH and your iPad more as you work with them in this new support context. The iPad is the perfect portable Linux support tool for System Administrators. As the iPad matures, more apps that integrate it with Linux will appear, though admittedly; SSH, X, VNC and web-based apps are already well covered with iSSH and the Safari browser. And, while you’re waiting for systems to update or for a compile to complete, you can always entertain yourself by flinging birds at well-guarded pigs.
* Not jailbroken or otherwise tampered with.
** Yes, it looks like a Close button and it’s counterintuitive but it’s Apple.
Kenneth Hess is a Linux evangelist and freelance technical writer on a variety of open source topics including Linux, SQL, databases, and web services. Ken can be reached via his website at
http://www.kenhess.com. Practical Virtualization Solutions by Kenneth Hess and Amy Newman is available now.
Comments on "Apple iPad: A Linux Administrator’s New Assistant"
I’m using my iPad 16gig 3G with iSSH and love it. Using the iBook app to hold all my reference Linux Magazine PDF’s and documentation is great as well.
The 3g let’s me access my servers from nearly anywhere as well. (non-jail-broken)
Great article, thanks for all the details and screenshots. It seems like a straightforward ssh client should be free. I’ve looked at the free or cheaper ssh clients available, but they all seem fairly limited.
Jesse Casman
San Francisco, CA
AFAIK, none of the iOS ssh clients supports port forwarding, which makes the devices pretty useless for serious administration. Very rarely you will have a WiFi connection in the enterprise that is not firewalled, as this is the first requirement of any security certification (e.g. PCI DSS)
I can also highly recommend iSSH. I’ve only used it on the iPhone but that has saved me a trip to the office several times.
It is also worth mentioning that iSSH can forward TCP ports. Combined with IOS multitasking, I use this feature and the RDesktop app to access microsoft terminal servers.
Best of 3 worlds.
I’ve only recently purchased iSSH (prior to reading this article, but only by a couple of days), so the irony of seeing an article about it here at Linux-mag.com is chuckle-worthy on a personal level.
It should also be noted that the latest version of iOS allows for bluetooth keyboard use with iPad, iPhone4, and 3rd generation iPods. I think mouse functionality might also be available, but I’m still investigating. What’s unclear, based on some of the articles and comments related to this functionality, is whether Ctrl, Alt, and Escape keys work properly (which would severely limit the functionality of mainstays like tmux/screen, vim/emacs, awesome/dwm, etc). Some comments made it sound like those keys were only available and functional when using Apple bluetooth, others implied that they didn’t work at all. iSSH has a last-resort option of remapping what should be the Option key to whatever’s needed, but that still only addresses half the problem (because that’s only one modifier key and both are often heavily used). Someone else may have more details or can confirm this issue for me, as I haven’t had the opportunity to put it all to the test yet, but even with that limitation, an external keyboard would turn the iPad + iSSH combo into a genuine portable powerhouse of Linux goodness.
This seems more a ssh client review for the sysadmin than an iPad review: I mean, any tablet with network access and an ssh, vnc and/or x server should be as good or better of the iPad for a sysadmin, and surely it will be cheaper, and maybe it could provide an ethernet port, that iPad doesn’t provide.
Anyway, nice to know of iSSH.
Well, I am waiting for a pad that works in Linux. There is no reason to fall for Steve Jobs narrative abilities, and when such new pads come out, they’s be much better than iPad…just like the clones of iPhone!
I am using a company purchased iPhone4 (aka small ipad ) with a combination of the juniper VPN app (free), iStat app ($.99) and Wyse PocketConnect RDB/VNC client app (free) to connect over 3G network and view status of all my linux servers and get an X-11 display of VNC sessions when I want direct access to terminals or other X-apps. Also iStat does pings and traceroute when needed as well. So yes ipad/iphone can be a nice portable tool for systems admins. I imagine that andriod versions of simular apps can be just as effective on andriod pad/phones as well.
Real administrators know that X-11 display is in 99% of the cases, useless. In the other hand, a RDP client is much more usefull for administration of windows machines.
A good article would show that first you need to connect to a VPN before starting any administration task. And of course, present the VPN options available in the iOS.
As for administration of non-windows devices, SSH and telnet(!) are the protocols used, and that calls for a good ssh client with port forwarding, automation tools, public key authentication support. (or as many features you can get)
Well, often administration can be made via HTTP(S), which doesn’t call for any specific application.
Server Auditor App:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/server-auditor-ssh-client/id549039908?mt=8