At the beginning, you will learn how to manually connect to the Ubuntu server using SSH, which was created with Terraform. This will help you verify that the server is running and accessible over the network. Later, this process will be automated using Ansible, but first, manual connection allows you to understand how it works.

What SSH?

Everything you send through SSH, including your login, password, and commands, is encrypted, so no one can intercept it.

SSH gives you full control over the remote server. You can do everything you normally do on your own computer: run programs, edit files, and install packages. For beginners, it's useful to think of it as "working on a computer remotely", without needing to be physically near it.

SSH Connection

To manually connect to a server, use the following template: ssh <USERNAME>@<HOST> -p <PORT> .

In our case, it looks like this:

Here, root is the username. We use root because it is the administrative user with full privileges, allowing you to run any command without restrictions. localhost indicates that the server is running on your machine (through Docker, but normally you would use the server’s actual IP), and -p 2222 specifies the port used to access the container.

The first time you connect, SSH may ask for a password. In our case, it is the root password, which was already set in the image created with Terraform.

After running the command, you will be in the server's terminal, where you can run commands, install packages, and check that the system is working. This step helps you understand how remote server management works and sets the stage for automating tasks with Ansible.