Remote Control Cabinet Connection Guide via MobaXterm

During robot development, logging into the control cabinet via SSH lets you more intuitively grasp the control cabinet's current status and more easily perform diagnostics, log copying, configuration changes, and other operations. MobaXterm is a mainstream remote access tool currently on the market; a free personal edition is available for trial download. The following explains in detail how to use MobaXterm to log into the control cabinet via SSH.

1 Enabling SSH Connection on the Control Cabinet

The following uses ARCS v0.29 as an example.

1. From the teach pendant home page, enter the Settings function

   

2. Select Security - Secure Shell, check Enable SSH access, and configure the port and authentication method.

   In the example below, Port is configured as 8822, and both Password-based and Key-based authentication methods are checked.

   

2 Logging into the Control Cabinet via SSH

Password-based authentication and key-based authentication are two ways the SSH server authenticates a client:

• Password-based authentication

  • Advantages: lower barrier to entry, no upfront configuration required

  • Disadvantages: risk of brute-force password cracking, so root account login is usually disabled

• Key-based (publickey) authentication

  • Advantages: high security, suitable for root account remote login

  • Disadvantages: higher barrier to entry; requires understanding the principle and usage of key pairs

The following uses MobaXterm Home Edition v24.2 as an example to explain the password authentication login and key authentication login methods respectively.

2.1 Password Authentication Login

1. Open MobaXterm, and select Session from the toolbar at the top of the interface to create a new remote session

2. In the popup window, select the SSH session

   

3. Enter the remote host IP in Remote host, and enter the port number configured in Step 1: Enabling SSH Connection on the Control Cabinet in Port, then click OK

   

4. The session is created successfully; enter the username to log in. The root user is generally used for login

   

   Enter the password; the default password for root is root or bestcobot

   

   Login successful

   

2.2 Key Authentication Login

2.2.1 Generating a Key Pair

A key pair consists of two files: the private key file (Private Key) and the public key file (Public Key)

• Private key file

  Equivalent to a door key, and is the key to logging into the remote host.

  (The private key file must not be leaked; otherwise the remote host is at serious security risk)

• Public key file

  Equivalent to a door lock, which can be opened by anyone with the key. The public key file can be published anywhere and does not need to be kept secret.

The steps to generate a key pair using MobaXterm are as follows:

1. In the MobaXterm software, click Tools

2. Select MobaKeyGen (SSH key generator) to open the operation interface

   

3. Click the Generate button to start generating the key pair

   

4. Moving the mouse generates more random numbers, speeding up the process

   

5. Generation takes about one minute

6. The key pair has been generated

   

2.2.2 Saving the Public Key and Private Key

1. Create a new folder named ProLinux to save the public key file and private key file.

   

2. Select all the content in the Public key for pasting into Open SSH server (~/.ssh/authorized_keys file) box, right-click, and select Copy

   

3. Double-click to enter the ProLinux folder you just created, create a new Text Document, and change the file name to mk.pub

   

4. Select and right-click the mk.pub file, and choose > Open with (H) > Notepad

   

5. Paste the public key content (the content copied earlier)

   

6. Click File and select Save

   

7. Return to the MobaXterm SSH Key Generator interface

   Click the Save private key button to begin saving the private key file. If no private key password is set, MobaXterm will pop up a warning; select Yes (Y) to ignore it.

   

8. Enter the ProLinux folder you just created, and enter the private key file name in File name (N):. Here we use [mk] as an example.

   Click the Save button to save the private key file.

   

9. View the key files

   After following the steps above, you will obtain two files

   • mk.pub

   • mk.ppk

2.2.3 Uploading the Public Key

1. Select mk.pub, press Ctrl+C to copy the file, then rename it to authorized_keys

   

2. First log into the host using the method in Section 2.2: Password Authentication Login. Here we use 172.30.10.103(root) as an example, and upload the authorized_keys file to the /tmp/ directory, because this is the directory opened by default when the teach pendant adds a new key.

   

3. Seeing authorized_keys in the directory tree means the upload was successful; then close the connection tab.

2.2.4 Enabling the Private Key

1. Right-click 172.30.10.103(root) and select Edit session to edit the remote host configuration parameters

   

2. A settings interface pops up

   Select the Advanced SSH settings tab, find the User private key parameter, and click the file icon at the end of the input box to open the mk.ppk private key file

   

3. The configured result is shown in the figure; click OK to save the configuration

   

2.2.5 Uploading the Public Key File on the scope Interface

1. Here we use the teach pendant as an example; from the teach pendant home page, enter the Settings function

   

2. Select Security - Secure Shell, and click Add

   

3. The popup shows the default /tmp directory; select authorized_keys.pub and open it

   

4. The interface shows that the key was added successfully

   

2.2.6 Testing Key Login

In the MobaXterm main interface, double-click 172.30.10.103(root) in the User sessions list.

If the login succeeds, it means key login is successful.