Until now Unix and Linux system administrators have to download a third-party SSH client software like Putty on their Windows machines to securely manage their machines and servers remotely through Secure Shell protocol or Shell Session (better known as SSH).
This might have always been an awkward feature of Windows platform, as it lacks both – a native SSH client software for connecting to Linux machines, and an SSH server to support inbound connections from Linux machines. But…
Believe it or not:
You don't need to deal with any third-party SSH client now, as Microsoft is working on supporting OpenSSH.
Yes, Microsoft has finally decided to bring OpenSSH client and server to Windows.
The PowerShell team at Microsoft has announced that the company is going to support and contribute to OpenSSH community in an effort to deliver better SSH support in the PowerShell and Windows SSH software solutions.
So, the upcoming version of Windows PowerShell – the command-line shell and scripting language – will allow users to manage Windows and Linux computers through SSH.
"A popular request the PowerShell team has received is to use Secure Shell protocol and Shell session (aka SSH) to interoperate between Windows and Linux – both Linux connecting to and managing Windows via SSH and, vice versa, Windows connecting to and managing Linux via SSH," explained Angel Calvo, PowerShell Team Group Software Engineering Manager.
"Thus, the combination of PowerShell and SSH will deliver a robust and secure solution to automate and to remotely manage Linux and Windows systems."
For those who are unaware, SSH is basically designed to offer the best security when accessing another computer remotely. It not only encrypts the remote session, but also provides better authentication facilities, with features like secure file transferring and network port forwarding.
This is not first time Microsoft has planned to adopt SSH for its Windows platform, the company had tried to allow the secure shell protocol to be used within Windows twice but was unable to implement it.
However, developers who are eager to use this new functionality in PowerShell still have to wait for some time, as the project is still in the early planning phase. So far, there isn’t any definite release date.