--- title: "Getting started with SSH" date: "2024-02-14T06:18:38+00:00" summary: "Learn how to securely access and manage your Cloud Platform environments using SSH. Set up keys, connect, and perform essential tasks." image: type: "page" url: "/acquia-cloud-platform/getting-started-ssh" id: "d1d9c582-3e19-413f-80b0-60b03e77d9ae" --- Table of contents will be added For each application, Cloud Platform creates a Unix user account called the _site user_. An application’s Drupal or PHP code runs as a _site user_, and all of the application’s environments, including the Development, Staging, and Production environments, use this same account. To use SSH to sign in as the website user, you must first register SSH public keys for your Acquia user profile, which provides a more secure method of signing in than using a password alone. You can add as many SSH keys as you want, each with their own nicknames to help you track them. Note The SSH key nickname is not a Unix username. The nickname serves only to help identify your SSH keys. You must sign in using the website user’s Unix username. Requirements ------------ To use SSH to access your environment, you must meet the following requirements: * Have the appropriate [permission](/acquia-cloud-platform/manage-apps/command-line/ssh/getting-started/add-key). This means you must be a member of a team assigned to the application, and have a role that has SSH access. * Register an SSH public key in your Acquia profile, as described in [Adding a public key to an Acquia profile](/acquia-cloud-platform/manage-apps/command-line/ssh/getting-started/add-key). Note * After you add an SSH key, it may take Cloud Platform several minutes until you can use the key to access your environments. * Acquia supports only RSA user keys. Using SSH --------- When you connect to an environment with SSH, your PATH and other environment variables are configured exactly as they are for web processes, cron jobs, and Cloud hooks. In particular, whichever version of PHP you have configured will be the first in the PATH, and therefore will be the default in your SSH browser session. To use SSH to access your environments, you can either use the `ssh` command line application, or if you are a Windows user, you can use the PuTTY SSH client. ### Command line After you enable SSH access, you can access your application’s web infrastructure using a command in the following form: ssh [SSH address] where `[SSH address]` is your environment’s infrastructure name. To determine your environment’s infrastructure name in the Cloud Platform user interface, view the environment’s SSH URL. You can find the SSH URL for an environment on the environment’s **Overview** page. ### PuTTY (Windows ) Windows users can use PuTTY (a free Telnet/SSH client) that provides a command-line access to your files. To install and configure PuTTY on your computer, complete the following steps: 1. Download [PuTTY](https://www.putty.org/) to your computer. 2. Start the application. Note When you run PuTTY, either enter the connection information for your infrastructure or load a browser session previously configured to connect to your web infrastructure, and click **Open**. 3. Go to **Category > Session**, and in the **Host Name (or IP address)** field, enter the SSH address of the environment. For information about Cloud Platform environment infrastructure, including their SSH addresses, go to the [Infrastructure page](https://docs.acquia.com/acquia-cloud-platform/manage-apps/infrastructure) in the Cloud Platform user interface. 4. Go to **Category** > **Connection** > **SSH** > **Auth**, and in the **Private key file for authentication** field, browse for the private SSH key file stored on your computer. 5. Go to **Category** > **Session**, and in the **Saved Sessions** field, enter a descriptive name for the infrastructure connection. 6. Click **Save**. You can use the session you created to connect securely to Cloud Platform. SSH and RSA key warnings ------------------------ If you receive the following warning message when attempting to use your SSH key, it may indicate that your infrastructure has been relaunched: WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED! For information about how to handle this warning message, see [SSH and RSA key warnings after infrastructure relaunch](/acquia-cloud-platform/manage-apps/command-line/ssh/getting-started/rsa-key-warning). Tasks you can perform from the command line ------------------------------------------- After you [add your SSH key](/acquia-cloud-platform/manage-apps/command-line/ssh/getting-started/add-key) in Cloud Platform, you can use SSH in the Cloud Platform environment to perform the following tasks: * [Access your file storage directories from the command line](#cloud-access-files-cli) * [Import and export databases](#cloud-import-export-databases) * [Use the Drush command-line tool](#cloud-import-drush-cli) ### Access your file storage directories from the command line You have shell access to all web nodes running your application, using the same username and SSH public key credentials you use for rsync, Secure Copy (SCP), or Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) on Cloud Platform. To access your file storage directories, use a command such as: ssh [SSH address] For example, this command accesses the Dev environment of an application named `example`: ssh example.dev@exampleywvb9gk6em.ssh.example.acquia.com ### Import and export databases Cloud Platform has unique database requirements to provide the best possible Drupal application performance. With SSH access enabled, you can use the Cloud Platform database import script. For more information, see [Importing your database](/acquia-cloud-platform/create-apps/import/manual/manual-db). ### Use the Drush command-line tool Cloud Platform applications with SSH access have an installed and configured infrastructure of Drush for performing administrative and application maintenance tasks from the command line instead of using the Drupal administrative interface. For more information, see [About Drush on Cloud Platform](/acquia-cloud-platform/manage-apps/command-line/drush). Related topics -------------- * [Generating an SSH public key](/acquia-cloud-platform/manage-apps/command-line/ssh/getting-started/generate) * [Adding a public key to an Acquia profile](/acquia-cloud-platform/manage-apps/command-line/ssh/getting-started/add-key)