Skip to content

Servers

Redbrick provides two main servers (Azazel and Pygmalion) for it's members to use for various use cases, for example running applications or user programs.

Entrypoints

The main login server used in Redbrick is Azazel. You may also log in to Pygmalion if you wish at pyg.redbrick.dcu.ie

2 Factor Authentication is required to log in to Redbrick servers. This is done via an SSH key and your Redbrick username/password combination. For more information on how to create an SSH key, and configure your account for 2FA, please read below.

Logging in

You've set up 2FA on your account with an SSH key, right? If not, you really have to, I'm sorry.

You can log in using SSH in your command prompt or terminal application of choice with your Redbrick username and password like so:

Bash
ssh YOUR_USERNAME@redbrick.dcu.ie -i SSH_KEY_LOCATION_PATH

# When prompted for the password, please input your Redbrick account password.
# NOTE: The "-i" flag specifies the location of your private ssh key.

Alternatives

If you are an unbothered king/queen that simply does not mind using a web interface, let me introduce you to wetty.redbrick.dcu.ie. You do not need an SSH key here.

Logging in to other Servers

Your home directory is synced (i.e the same) on all public Redbrick servers. Thus the authorized_keys file will be the same on Azazel as it is on Pygmalion, meaning you can log in to pyg.redbrick.dcu.ie too, and so on.

Setting up an SSH Key

Generating an SSH key pair creates two long strings of characters: a public and a private key. You can place the public key on any server, and then connect to the server using an SSH client that has access to the private key.

When these keys match up, and your account password is also correct, you are granted authorisation to log in.

1. Creating the Key Pair

On your local computer, in the command line of your choice, enter the following command:

Bash
ssh-keygen -t ed25519

Expected Output

Text Only
Generating public/private ed25519 key pair.

2. Providing Some Extra Details

You will now be prompted with some information and input prompts:

  • The first prompt will ask where to save the keys.
Text Only
Enter file in which to save the key (e.g /home/bob/.ssh/id_ed25519):

You can simply press ENTER here to save them at the default location (.ssh directory in your home directory). Alternatively you can specify a custom location if you wish.

  • The second prompt will ask for a new passphrase to protect the key.
Text Only
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):

Here you may protect this key file with a passphrase. This is optional and recommended for security.

Note

If you do not wish to add a passphrase to save you all that typing, simply press ENTER for the password and confirmation password prompts.

The newly generated public key should now be saved in /home/bob/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub. The private key is the same file is at /home/bob/.ssh/id_ed25519. (i.e under the .ssh folder in your user home directory.)

NOTE FOR WINDOWS (you heathen)

This key is saved under .ssh under your User directory. (i.e C:\Users\Bob\.ssh\id_ed25519)

3. Copying the Public Key to the Server

In this step we store our public key on the server we intend to log in to. This key will be used against our secret private key to authenticate our login.

For the purposes of this tutorial we will be using Pygmalion (pyg.redbrick.dcu.ie) as our server.

Logging in to Wetty

In order to access the server to actually place our keys in it, we need to log in via Wetty - a shell interface for Pygmalion on the web.

You should see this prompt:

Text Only
pygmalion.redbrick.dcu.ie login:

Enter your Redbrick username and press ENTER. When prompted, enter your Redbrick password. Forgot either of these?

Adding the Key into the authorized_keys File

  • Add the key

Grab the contents of your public key. You may use the cat filepath command for this:

Bash
cat /home/bob/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

On Wetty, enter the following command in the shell, with YOUR_KEY replaced with your public ssh key.

Bash
echo "YOUR_KEY" >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

This command will append your public key to the end of the authorized_keys file.

Note!

The speech marks surrounding YOUR_KEY are important!

PSSST… Made a mistake?
Text Only
*You can manually edit the authorized_key file in a text editor with the following command to fix any issues:*
Bash
nano ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Congratulations! If you've made it this far, you're ready to login now.

Forgot Your Password?

Contact an admin on our Discord Server or at elected-admins@redbrick.dcu.ie