I am having trouble setting up SFTP for opencart site

chetd90 2020-01-24 21:48:18 UTC #1

Keywords: OpenCart - Google Cloud Platform - How to - Connectivity (SSH/FTP)
Description:
I am currently trying to update the ssl certificate of an opencart site I worked on in the past. However, I need to set up an sftp connection in order to install a new godaddy certificate due to a domain name change. Unfortunately, I didn't create this site using Bitnami Google Cloud Platform Launchpad, so I wasn't able to easily get the SSH keys for this vm instance. Also, it is a VM instance on google cloud platform by the way. Therefore, I need help on establishing a connection to my vm instance of opencart on using sftp and filezilla.

chetd90 2020-01-26 20:22:13 UTC #2

Ok, I am going to reply and elaborate a little more. There various ssh keys in the metadata of the vm instance. However, these are just public keys and I need a public and private key pair in order to make this work. I guess I could just make a new one and put it in the metadata.

michiel 2020-01-27 08:15:34 UTC #3

Hi @chetd90,

The following guide shows how to obtain SSH credentials:

https://docs.bitnami.com/general/faq/get-started/connect-ssh/#obtain-ssh-credentials

With those credentials you can then upload through SFTP:

https://docs.bitnami.com/general/faq/administration/upload-files/

Regards,
Michiel

chetd90 2020-01-27 20:29:53 UTC #4

Hello, thanks for the links. I tried both methods and it still didn't work. It gave a error message stating: Disconnected: No supported authentication methods available (server sent: publickey)
Error:Could not connect to server

Maybe I need a .pem file?

davidg 2020-01-28 07:41:05 UTC #5

Yes @chetd90,

As you can see here:

Download the SSH key for your server (.pem for Linux and Mac OS X,.ppk for Windows). Note the server IP address on the same page.

I hope it helps

chetd90 2020-01-29 16:26:35 UTC #6

Okay, I tried generating the ssh keys in PUTTYgen and then pasting what was generated onto the metadata on my vm instance. Also, I added the ppk file as a keyfile in Filezilla. But it is still not working, I don't know what I am doing wrong here?

gongomgra 2020-01-30 08:05:50 UTC #7

Hi @chetd90,

SSH keys generated with PuTTY doesn't have the format expected in the authorized_keys file. PuTTY generates it in a multiline file, but the authorized_keys requires the public keys to be added in a single line. Can you try adding the content of the SSH public key generated by PuTTY as a single line into the authorized_keys file? Note you should add ssh-rsa as a prefix so the newly added line looks like

ssh-rsa [YOUR_SINGLE_LINE_SSH_PUBLIC_KEY]

chetd90 2020-01-30 15:36:47 UTC #8

The public key I am trying to use already has the ssh-rsa prefix. Also, I might have an idea, maybe on the key I could add an @ symbol and the ip address at the end of the key have help. I've seen it done with other ssh keys in the metadata of my instance.

gongomgra 2020-01-31 10:33:45 UTC #9

Hi @chetd90,

I think I'm not fully understanding your issue. Can you tell us how did you launch the mentioned server? Did you launch it from the Google Marketplace website? If so, please follow the guide below just in case you are missing any step about how to launch and configure a Bitnami server using the Google Marketplace

https://docs.bitnami.com/google/get-started-marketplace/

Hope it helps

chetd90 2020-01-31 17:05:27 UTC #10

Ok, I launched the server through Google Marketplace years ago. The problem is that I need to update the ssl certificate for the website on the server. I wanted to setup a sftp connection in order to easily facilitate this. I have been able to facilitate a sftp connection in the past with this vm instance but now I've been having problems setting up. I think it might have something to do with the vm instance of Opencart being at least 5 years old.

Maybe I should look into alternative method enabling https/ssl on the website?

gongomgra 2020-02-03 09:37:41 UTC #11

Hi @chetd90,

You mention this is an old server. Did you have SSH or SFTP access previously?

I have been able to facilitate a sftp connection in the past with this vm instance but now I've been having problems setting up

You don´t need to configure a new SSH credential every time you want to connect to your server. You should continue having access using the original credentials unless you have removed them from your server.

chetd90 2020-02-03 18:52:32 UTC #12

Well about that, I am trying to set up a connection with a computer that I didn't use before. Maybe that is the problem. Also, I have already set up new SSH credentials and it is still not working.

gongomgra 2020-02-04 09:29:43 UTC #13

Hi @chetd90,

Isn't it possible to SSH connect using the browser? You can check the official Google Cloud documentation at https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/ssh-in-browser

Also, can you check that you are setting the new SSH keys for the bitnami user? Can you try connecting using that new key from the command line and letting us know which error message are you getting? Can you also post some screenshots of the steps you are doing?

ssh -vvvv -i PATH_TO_PRIVATE_KEY bitnami@YOUR_SERVER_IP_ADDRESS

Remember to replace the placeholders in the command above

chetd90 2020-02-10 19:58:57 UTC #14

Ok, I did the command so what am I suppose to get from the text generated?

Also, here is a screenshot of the ssh keys in the metadata:

Here is the screenshot from filezilla:

AND here is the error message I am talking about:

gongomgra 2020-02-11 09:42:30 UTC #15

Hi @chetd90,

Thanks for the screenshots. According to the first one, you are using the Google Cloud SSH in-browser console. This console is already logged into your server as the furiousstyles90 user. From that user, you can become the bitnami user running the command

sudo su bitnami

And after that, you can install the SSH public key with the commands below

cd /home/bitnami
echo "SSH_PUBLIC_KEY" >> /home/bitnami/.ssh/authorized_keys

If you have already installed any SSH key in the /home/furiousstyles90/.ssh/authorized_keys file, then you should be able to connect using SFTP with the furiousstyles90 user instead of bitnami.

chetd90 2020-02-12 15:55:32 UTC #16

Ok, thanks for the advice I will try to connect using the furiousstyles90 user. Do I have to generate the ssh keys using PUTTYgen or anything like that or are the keys already there? Also, is there any way to install a free ssl certificate or at least enable HTTPS? I think I tried the letsencrypt certificate download thing but it didn't work.

BillGates 2020-02-13 01:07:57 UTC #17

You can use Cloudflare to get https free forever. However, you want to connect your site through SFTP, you should use FileZilla Client and use IP instead of domain(with https).If you have any questions, feel free to text me. I'll help you

gongomgra 2020-02-13 09:36:32 UTC #18

Hi @chetd90,

I understand from your previous messages that you have already installed the SSH keys that were generated with PuTTY on your server. You can check if they are installed for the furiousstyles90 user by checking the /home/furiousstyles90/.ssh/authorized_keys file. If you want to use them with the bitnami user instead, you will need to manually install them as I explained in my previous post.

Regarding Let's Encrypt and SSL certificates, I think it is a different question, but I recommend you to continue working on the SSH keys and SFTP issue and once it is solved, open a new thread so we avoid mixing different topics here.

chetd90 2020-02-16 00:47:57 UTC #19

I apologize for introducing too many topics at once. I really want to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Also, what are the exact commands needed in order to check the authorized key files? Are the commands similar to your previous post?

gongomgra 2020-02-17 09:47:11 UTC #20

Hi @chetd90,

I apologize for introducing too many topics at once.

No problem! You can check the authorized SSH keys for the furiousstyles90 user by running the command below in the SSH browser console

cat /home/furiousstyles90/.ssh/authorized_keys

For the bitnami user, you can run

sudo cat /home/bitnami/.ssh/authorized_keys

To install a new SSH public key for the bitnami user you can use the commands in my previous post.

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