---
title: "Setting up environment access"
date: "2024-02-14T06:18:38+00:00"
summary: "Learn how to set up environment access, generate SSH keys, and securely connect to Acquia's Task Server for efficient application development."
image:
type: "page"
url: "/service-offerings/setting-environment-access"
id: "12d1962a-ca9f-4115-bad4-28bfdb40e8cd"
---

Environments overview
---------------------

Separate environments help you maintain a clear and orderly workflow as you develop, test, and publish your applications. An application is deployed on each of its environments. However, each environment may be in a different state with its own database and files, and can have a different code branch or tag deployed.

Request SSH to the server
-------------------------

Each application has its own Unix user account based on the application name. You can SSH into Task Server as the application Unix user.

Note

For the non-Production and Production environments, you can only SSH to the server through the bastion server.

Prerequisites
-------------

To SSH into your Task Server:

1.  Generate an SSH private/public key pair.
2.  [Create a Support ticket](/service-offerings/support#contact-acquia-support) with the following information:
    *   Attach your public key
    *   Provide your IP address with the CIDR notation
3.  Update your local SSH config to log in through the bastion server.

Generating an SSH private/public key pair
-----------------------------------------

To generate an SSH private/public key pair, you can run the `ssh-keygen` command from the command line.

1.  On your local computer, open a command-prompt window.
2.  Ensure that you do not already have a public key saved to your computer. To determine if you already have a saved public key, run the following command:
    
        cd ~/.ssh; ls -l
    
    You can also use your existing public key.
    
3.  Run the following command to generate a new key pair:
    
        ssh-keygen -t rsa -f <keyname>
    

After generating the key pair, you can [create a Support ticket](/service-offerings/support#contact-acquia-support) and request SSH access to Task Server.

Updating the local SSH configuration for logging in to Task Server
------------------------------------------------------------------

1.  On your local computer, edit your local SSH file config in the `~/.ssh/config` directory.
2.  Update the config file.
    
        Host bastion
                HostName <ip of bastion server>
                User <application name>
                IdentityFile <path of your private key>
        Host task
                HostName <internal ip of task server>
                User <application name>
                ProxyCommand ssh bastion -W %h:%p
                IdentityFile <path of your private key>
    
3.  Run the following command to log in to Task Server through SSH:
    
        ssh task
    

IP allowlisting
---------------

Any traffic to Acquia China Hosting is protected with AWS VPC VCL and a security group. To SSH into Task Server(s), [create a Support ticket](/service-offerings/support#contact-acquia-support) with the following information:

*   IP address(es) with CIDR notation
*   SSH public key