SSH to VMS (Deathrow OpenVMS Cluster)

I haven't used DCL since 2000/2001 and at work some of our jobs used a VAX/VMS system for our telephone surveys and dialer. I used a VAX for some programming classes back in the late 80s as well. I stumbled on "The Deathrow OpenVMS Cluster" after doing a search for free shell providers. Hey, who can resist checking out a name like "The Deathrow Cluster?"

Getting Started

Well, my primary OS is OS X 10.8.5 on a Mac Mini. I've a modest amount of experience with Linux and BSD. Once upon a time I was pretty good with Windows as well. In my experience the biggest waste of resources is the web client. I didn't want to use it for access to a shell. (The web site appears to be down now; however {telnet,ssh}://jack.vistech.net is still available. The web page had a ssh web client available.)

In Terminal I added a profile. I set shell to "ssh mcsuper5@jack.vistech.net". Under advanced I told the terminal to identify itself as "vt102". VIM complained about the terminal device type, so I set it in my LOGIN.COM. 

$ set terminal/device_type=vt102

Logging In Without A Password

I rely on HOWTOs for setting up ssh login without a password and was fortunate enough to find instructions online, posted by Terje Bjerkseth, 10/29/08. See http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Security/ssh-from-unix-to-vms-without-passwords/td-p/4293254#.VIPDZd5Q2Lc for his post.

On the Mac in a local Terminal: 

cd
ssh-keygen
cd .ssh
ssh-keygen -e -f id_rsa > EXAMPLE.PUB
cat > AUTHORIZATION << EOF
KEY EXAMPLE.PUB
EOF
sftp user@vms
mkdir SSH2
cd SSH2
put AUTHORIZATION
put EXAMPLE.PUB
Ssh/sftp now uses publickey and will prompt for your passphrase. Then in the Terminal configured for the VMS host: (Which will prompt for your passphrase.) 
set default [.SSH2]                              
set security/prot=(g,w) AUTHORIZATION.           
set security/prot=(g:re,w:r) EXAMPLE.PUB
and logged out and back in.

Now to try to find my notes:(

Saturday, 13 April 2024   Michael J. Chappell   Contact me at: mcsuper5@freeshell.org Made with Emacs