Distributing Mainframe Server Keys
The server is run as a started task under the SSHD2
user as
described in Section Running as a Started Task, one server on each LPAR that will be accessed.
Each system (LPAR) has its own /etc/ssh2
directory. A server
key is generated for each system. The mainframe administrators can
publish the fingerprints of these keys.
The remote users download the server public key on the first Secure
Shell access to the mainframe and whenever the server key has been
changed. This access must be interactive and the user must verify the
key by its fingerprint and allow the Secure Shell client program to
write it to the user's hostkey directory or file. The directory is
$HOME/.ssh2/hostkeys
for SSH Tectia Client on Unix and
"%USERPROFILE%\Application Data\SSH\HostKeys
"
for SSH Tectia Client on Windows. OpenSSH clients store the host keys in the
$HOME/.ssh/known_hosts
file.
To set up client access to mainframe Secure Shell servers, the users
must access all the mainframe systems, either using manual interactive
connections or using a script similar to ssh-1st-connect2
.
When this is done, accessing the mainframe only requires the users to
enter their passwords.