Ever want your own web based SSH terminal?
January 15, 2008
A coworker passed on this tool to install on your own server that provides AJAX ssh access to your box. From there, of course, you can ssh to any other server accessible via the intarwebs.
I’ve often seen the cool web based terminals that some VPS and other server control panels give you and wondered how to set one up for myself. Anyterm is the answer.
Using a custom apache module and some AJAX magic, anyterm allows you to set this up on your own box.
They also offer a hosted version if you’d prefer not to run it on your own production servers. To quote their own slightly veiled disclaimer, “Although Anyterm is now reasonably well tested it is still fairly new code, and loading its module into your HTTP daemon is not going to make it more reliable.”
That said, I’d probably be nervous about putting this module on any machine in serious production use, but they do offer instructions on setting it up with its own apache instance to mitigate the danger of crashing your main web server.
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January 16th, 2008 at 1:30 am
AjaxTerm is another alternative that seems a little easier to install and manage.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I think this is where a Java applet can come in handy. It requires no server side technology of any kind. Webmin has one and there are plenty of others that can be found at freshmeat and through Google. I even found mention of a Flash movie.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
… a flash movie that is a telnet / ssh client.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Thanks, Benjamin. I generally hate java applets, though, and I thought this was a neat implementation. On the plus side, that java applet can’t crash your server like the relatively untested Apache module Anyterm provides…
January 17th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
[...] Ever want your own web based SSH terminal? | Tip o’ the Day (tags: ajax linux sysadmin shell web ssh) [...]
January 18th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Hi! I’m the author of Anyterm, and I’ve just seen this appear in my referrer log. Thanks for the link!
Note that instead of the Apache module, you can run Anyterm as a stand-alone daemon and proxy to it from Apache. This is a bit safer if you don’t want my code crashing your websites, and it doesn’t seem to be any slower. The comment about “still fairly new code” is a bit out-of-date now; version 1.0 was 2 and a half years ago.
Re: using a Java applet: the problem with that is that you need an open port to the server. Anyterm uses only the HTTP(S) port, so it will get through firewalls. The anyterm site has a page of comparisons with other solutions including the Java apps and AjaxTerm.
Cheers, Phil.
January 18th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
Phil,
Thanks for the added info and insight — that’s a good point about the java applet needing an open port on the server anyway. And thanks for straightening out the reference to your code’s maturity - I was simply going by what I’d seen in your introduction and installation pages.
Drop by again sometime!
Best,
Mike
March 25th, 2008 at 2:30 am
if you want to try out anyterm or use a web based ssh client for free, simply go to http://www.serfish.com
June 15th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I tried serfish but i like http://webssh.50webs.com more, that one lets me choose between white on black and black on white as colors (I noticed that most people don’t trust me if i use white on black)