Connecting via an SSH tunnel

Polytomic supports connecting to some databases via an SSH tunnel. Integrations that support SSH connections include:

If your database server requires an SSH connection, we recommend you generate a new SSH key pair for Polytomic. The steps below describe how to do this for Ubuntu environments.

Create a user account for Polytomic.

ubuntu@ip-10-0-5-194:~$ sudo adduser polytomic --disabled-password
Adding user `polytomic' ...
Adding new group `polytomic' (1001) ...
Adding new user `polytomic' (1001) with group `polytomic' ...
Creating home directory `/home/polytomic' ...
Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
Changing the user information for polytomic
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
	Full Name []:
	Room Number []:
	Work Phone []:
	Home Phone []:
	Other []:
Is the information correct? [Y/n]

Switch to the Polytomic user and generate an SSH key pair.

ubuntu@ip-10-0-5-194:~$ sudo su polytomic
polytomic@ip-10-0-5-194:/home/ubuntu$ cd ~
polytomic@ip-10-0-5-194:~$ ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/polytomic/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory '/home/polytomic/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/polytomic/.ssh/id_rsa
Your public key has been saved in /home/polytomic/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:ofESkNzrFipL3Dq39csjkHoFg3my2UDPuOEPVGO22IA polytomic@ip-10-0-5-194
The key's randomart image is:
+---[RSA 3072]----+
| . ..o           |
|E o B..          |
| . & oo..        |
|  X O o= .       |
| + @ *o.S        |
|  X * +.         |
| . B +.          |
|  = +..o.        |
|   +.. .+o       |
+----[SHA256]-----+

The file /home/polytomic/.ssh/id_rsa will now contain the SSH private key needed for Polytomic to connect.

Authorize the public key for the polytomic user.

polytomic@ip-10-0-5-194:~$ cd ~/.ssh/
polytomic@ip-10-0-5-194:~/.ssh$ cp id_rsa.pub authorized_keys

Create a new connection in Polytomic. Databases which support SSH connections will display the option 'Connection over SSH Tunnel?'. Tick the 'Connect over SSH Tunnel?' box to reveal SSH configuration fields.

Fill in the SSH configuration fields. Paste the contents of your private key file (/home/polytomic/.ssh/id_rsa in our example above) into the 'Private key' text field.
Click 'Save'.