Run Remote Commands with SSH and Certificate Authentication on Linux / macOS Terminal

1. Ensure SSH Key-Based Authentication Is Set Up

Before proceeding, make sure you have SSH key-based authentication set up between your local machine and the remote server:

1. Generate SSH Key Pair (if not already done): On your local machine, generate a new SSH key pair (private and public key):

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"

By default, this creates the keys in ~/.ssh/id_rsa (private key) and ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (public key).

• 2. Copy the Public Key to the Remote Server: Copy the public key (id_rsa.pub) to the remote server’s ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.

You can use ssh-copy-id:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@remote_host

Or, manually append the public key to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the remote server.

2. SSH Command to Execute Script Remotely

Once SSH key-based authentication is set up, you can log into the server and execute a script remotely by using the following script:

Make sure to replace username, IP Address, and other placeholders with your actual values.

To save the script as a local_execute.sh file locally:

#!/bin/bash

# Configuration
PRIVATE_KEY="/path/to/private_key"       # Path to the private key
REMOTE_USER="username"                  # Remote host username
REMOTE_HOST="remote_host_or_ip"         # Remote host address or IP
REMOTE_PORT="22"                        # SSH port (default is 22, change if necessary)
REMOTE_SCRIPT="/path/to/remote_script.sh" # Path to the remote script
LOG_FILE="/tmp/remote_execution.log"    # Path to the local log file

# Connect to the remote host and execute the script
echo "Connecting to the remote host on port $REMOTE_PORT and executing the script..."
ssh -i "$PRIVATE_KEY" -p "$REMOTE_PORT" "$REMOTE_USER@$REMOTE_HOST" "bash $REMOTE_SCRIPT" > "$LOG_FILE" 2>&1

# Check the exit status
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    echo "Script executed successfully. Exiting..."
else
    echo "Script execution failed. Check the log file for details: $LOG_FILE"
fi

# Terminate the terminal session
echo "Closing terminal session..."
exit

Make the script executable: After saving the file, you need to give it executable permissions. In the terminal, run:

chmod +x ./local_execute.sh

Run the script: To execute the script locally, you can run:

./local_execute.sh

This will execute the script on your local machine, which will connect to the remote server via SSH using the provided private key and run the specified script.