Starting Bitvise SSH Server and monitoring activity

Bitvise SSH Server can be started and stopped in the following ways:

  • using the SSH Server Control Panel;
  • from Administrative Tools > Services;
  • from PowerShell or the Windows Command Prompt using commands sc start BvSshServer and sc stop BvSshServer;
  • the service can also be stopped remotely, using the SSH Server Remote Control Panel, in Bitvise SSH Client.

Monitoring

The SSH Server Control Panel features a Sessions tab, which shows SSH connections currently active on the server.

The SSH Server Control Panel also features an Activity tab, which shows a history of recent events on the SSH server, such as logins, disconnects, or file transfers. When the SSH Server Control Panel is open or minimized, it can be configured to show pop-up notifications for events that show up in the Activity tab.

The Session and Activity tabs are intended to provide a casual overview of SSH server activity, but not a thorough overview. For a thorough overview or diagnostics, consult textual SSH Server log files.

Logging

When the SSH Server is running, its default logging behavior is as follows:

  • Errors and warnings are logged to the Application section of the Windows Event Log. Many applications write their log messages to this log. To reduce clutter, Bitvise SSH Server records no Info messages here by default.

    You can access the Windows Event Log using Administrative Tools > Event Viewer. It can also be started using the Windows Run dialog (Windows Key + R) by running eventvwr.

  • Errors, warnings and informational messages are logged into textual XML log files, created by default in the Logs subdirectory of the SSH server installation directory. These log files are stamped with the date and time of their creation and can be viewed with any text editing software, e.g. Notepad.

The logging level for each of these destinations (textual log files or Windows Event Log) can be changed in the SSH Server's Advanced settings. You should log at least errors and warnings, and inspect the log periodically to make sure there are no issues. For storage reasons, do not set the log level higher than Info, except temporarily for troubleshooting.