SSH benefits

Hi guys total newb here.

I have been watching a ton of YouTube Vids about openhab and I have a question.

In most Vids, people are using SSH to program the the openhab. I would like to ask what the benefits are of using the SSH over the paper ui panel?

Is it worth learning how to do this or can I get by just using the paper ui panel?

Also, in all the videos on YouTube people are using SSH into their raspberrypies. Can anyone point me into the direction of learning to SSH into openhab server on a windows machine. As the commands sudo…cmds don’t work on windows and I don’t see Vids on YouTube with people SSH into windows.

Thanks in advance.

SSH is only of benefit to those that run their OpenHab system headless (which means on a computer that has no monitor or keyboard attached). It provides a command line interface (often called shell) from a computer with screen and keyboard to the one without. See also here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell

It will be worthwhile learning if you want ultimately use a raspberry Pi or a similar LINUX system that in most cases is just sitting in a corner without monitor or keyboard. As you are using windows right now, I don’t think it is a priority for you at this moment.

Hope that helps

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If using openHAB on windows, there is no easy way to use ssh, as Windows does not provide ssh at all.

But if you want to use the karaf console, you have to use ssh anyway, as the karaf console is a ssh console.

Simply install PuTTY (most common ssh client for Windows) and establish a session to localhost port 8101,
User name is openhab, password is habopen, now you are logged in to a ssh console (this is in fact the karaf console of openHAB)!
Tryout help as a command to see all commands. tryout log:display to see the last few rows of the logs…
use logout to logout.

If using a full featured openHAB or, even better, some other additional software, there are options which won’t emerge in Paper UI (or any other web interface). GNU/Linux is less graphic but more text oriented, it’s simply faster and there is less overhead. There are some options which can’t be set through Paper UI, for example setting up an openHAB1 Binding, linking items to Alexa, some recently added settings…
Sometimes maybe the web interface won’t work any longer. How to fix this if you don’t get a web interface?

If running openHAB on a windows machine, you would use a command line or notepad++ or something similar to fix those things, but you will need at least video and keyboard for this computer, unless using Remote desktop.

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Not completely right Udo.
Windows 10 with its Linux subsystem does provide ssh on commandline.

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Well, if Linux subsystem is installed… :wink:

As I’m not familiar with the Linux subsystem (why? I have already some real Linux systems and don’t need a crippled one…) I don’t have any idea what’s possible and what’s not…

Thanks very much guys for the info. As long as I can get by with just using the graphical interface I will use that as it is much easier. I just thought there would be additional benefits. I will probably in the future move to raspberry pi once I get a few more controllable devices.

Thanks again

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Nope :slight_smile:

In fact, there is no benefit for graphical interface other than “Wow, there is a graphical interface!”

Of course, as you have dedicated fields for every value, at least you don’t have to know all key words, but you have to know the function of a value, so you have to read the manual anyway… :wink:

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