Using Bitvise SSH Server in a cluster

While Bitvise SSH Server does not explicitly implement cluster support, it is designed to be cluster-friendly, and can be straightforwardly set up for use in a clustered environment. All you need to do is duplicate SSH server settings and keypair on all machines that are part of the cluster. These data are stored in the Config subdirectory of the Bitvise SSH Server installation directory, and you can easily copy them between machines. Make sure only that you install Bitvise SSH Server before copying files in this directory: the installation directory should be created by the SSH server installer, which takes care to set filesystem permissions so as to protect its contents against unauthorized access.

Password Cache

Since Bitvise SSH Server version 5.50, use of the password cache is optional. Passwords do not need to be stored in the password cache, neither for public key authentication with Windows accounts, nor for Windows accounts used to provide a virtual account security context.

However, it's still possible to use the password cache to ensure that accounts who log in without password authentication can still access network resources.

If configurations that rely on the password cache are used in a cluster situation, then the Bitvise SSH Server password cache needs to be copied from the primary to the secondary installation as well.

The password cache consists of encoded values stored under the following registry keys:

• 32-bit Windows: HKLM\Software\Bitvise\BvSshServer
• 64-bit Windows: HKLM\Software\Wow6432Node\Bitvise\BvSshServer