Enable Remote Access to Your Raspberry Pi With SSH

Learn how to use the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol to access and control your Raspberry Pi remotely. …


Updated September 8, 2023

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Learn how to use the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol to access and control your Raspberry Pi remotely.

SSH, or Secure Shell, is a remote administration protocol that allows users to securely log in to and execute commands on a Raspberry Pi from another computer over the network. It’s a powerful tool for managing multiple devices and automating tasks without having to be physically present at each device. This article will guide you through checking if SSH is running on your Raspberry Pi, as well as how to enable it if necessary.

Checking If SSH Is Running

To check if SSH is running on your Raspberry Pi, open the terminal and run the following command:

sudo systemctl status ssh

If SSH is running, you should see output similar to this:

● ssh.service - OpenBSD Secure Shell server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ssh.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Fri 2022-01-07 14:36:59 UTC; 1h 2min ago
 Main PID: 866 (sshd)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 9551)
   CGroup: /system.slice/ssh.service
           └─866 /usr/sbin/sshd -D

If SSH is not running, you will see output similar to this:

● ssh.service - OpenBSD Secure Shell server
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/ssh.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)

Enabling SSH

If SSH is not running, you can enable it using the following steps:

  1. Open the terminal and type the following command to start the SSH service:
sudo systemctl start ssh
  1. Check if SSH has started by running the status command again:
sudo systemctl status ssh
  1. If SSH is still not running, you may need to enable it using the following command:
sudo systemctl enable ssh
  1. Finally, check the status of SSH one last time:
sudo systemctl status ssh

You should now see output similar to the first example above, indicating that SSH is running and active on your Raspberry Pi.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to check if SSH is running on your Raspberry Pi and enable it if necessary, you can remotely access and control your device from anywhere with an internet connection. This is a powerful tool for managing multiple devices and automating tasks without having to be physically present at each device.