Make it easier to SSH into your VMs.

You shouldn't need to enter your username

$ mkdir -p ~/.ssh   # make sure you have an SSH config directory
$ cat >> ~/.ssh/config << EOF

Host *.sydney.edu.au
    User <PUT-YOUR-UNIKEY-HERE>
EOF

This add some lines to ~/.ssh/config, that tell ssh that if you try to login to a machine whose name ends with .sydney.edu.au, it should not use your current $USER name, but should use the value inserted in <PUT-YOUR-UNIKEY-HERE> above.

Now try:

$ ssh research-data-int.sydney.edu.au

You shouldn't need to enter a password

If you do not have a private key set up on your current machine (check ls ~/.ssh/id_* for files not ending .pub), use:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa

Once you have a private key set up, you can copy your public key to the VM, which should be the last time you enter your password for that VM:

$ ssh-copy-id <PUT-THE-VM-HOSTNAME-HERE>

SECURITY WARNING: think carefully about putting a private key on a machine that others have sudo powers on. It's giving them the keys to wherever the corresponding public key exists.

You shouldn't need to remember the VM name

If you prefer an alias to writing out the full VM name, you can make another entry in ~/.ssh/config:

$ cat >> ~/.ssh/config << EOF

Host <ALIAS>
    User <PUT-YOUR-UNIKEY-HERE>
    HostName <PUT-THE-VM-HOSTNAME-HERE>.srv.sydney.edu.au
EOF 

This applies only to ssh (and scp, sftp, etc.), making <ALIAS> a shorthand for login into <PUT-THE-VM-HOSTNAME-HERE>.srv.sydney.edu.au.

For example, this might be a useful addition to ~/.ssh/config:

Host hpc
    User wxyz1234
    HostName hpc.sydney.edu.au

Host rds
    User wxyz1234
    HostName research-data-int.sydney.edu.au