Documents - Manuals - Windows Server: Install OpenSSH

Windows Server: Install OpenSSH

Overview
Prerequisites
Install OpenSSH for Windows
Setup automatic SSHD startup
Configure Firewall Rules for SSH Server

1. Overview

OpenSSH is an essential tool for securely managing servers remotely. This guide explains how to install and configure OpenSSH on Windows Server 2022 to utilize the SSH service.

2. Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure your computer meets the following requirements:

A device with at least Windows Server 2019 or Windows 10 (build 1809).
PowerShell 5.1 or later.
An account that is a member of the built-in Administrators group.

3. Install OpenSSH for Windows

To install OpenSSH using PowerShell, run PowerShell as an Administrator.

powershell

Get-WindowsCapability -Online | Where-Object Name -like 'OpenSSH*'

The command should return the following output if neither are already installed:

powershell

Name  : OpenSSH.Client~~~~0.0.1.0
State : NotPresent

Name  : OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0
State : NotPresent

Then, install the server or client components as needed:

WARNING

If you install OpenSSH Server, you (maybe) need to restart the system.

powershell

# Install the OpenSSH Client
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Client~~~~0.0.1.0

powershell

# Install the OpenSSH Server
Add-WindowsCapability -Online -Name OpenSSH.Server~~~~0.0.1.0

Both commands should return the following output:

powershell

Path          :
Online        : True
RestartNeeded : False

4. Setup automatic SSHD startup

Setup SSH Service to start automatically with the System:

powershell

Set-Service sshd -StartupType Automatic
Start-service sshd

5. Configure Firewall Rules for SSH Server

powershell

#specificIPs = Managementserver (e.g.:IP,IP2)
$specificIPs = "172.XX.XX.XX"
# Confirm the Firewall rule is configured. It should be created automatically by setup. Run the following to verify
if (!(Get-NetFirewallRule -Name "OpenSSH-Server-In-TCP" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Select-Object Name, Enabled)) {
    Write-Output "Firewall Rule 'OpenSSH-Server-In-TCP' does not exist, creating it..."
    New-NetFirewallRule -Name 'OpenSSH-Server-In-TCP' -DisplayName 'OpenSSH Server (sshd)' -Enabled True -Direction Inbound -Protocol TCP -Action Allow -LocalPort 22 -RemoteAddress $specificIPs
} else {
    Write-Output "Firewall rule 'OpenSSH-Server-In-TCP' has been created and exists."
}