How to enable ssh on startup in opensuse

1. Verify installation

Run which sshd to get the path it is called from. If you don't get /usr/sbin/sshd in response, it is most likely not installed.

2. Installing sshd

Run zypper in openssh to install the application.

3. Check firewall

Run the command cat /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2 | grep sshd.

You need to see FW_CONFIGURATIONS_EXT="sshd" - This means the firewall allows incoming traffic on port 22.

If you do not find it, you may add it using a text editor like this:

vi /etc/sysconfig/SuSEfirewall2 and locate the line where it says FW_CONFIGURATIONS_EXT="" and change it to FW_CONFIGURATIONS_EXT="sshd"

4. Check the service is running

systemctl status sshd | grep Active - If you get Active: inactive (dead) you need to start it with systemctl start sshd.

Run the command again systemctl status sshd | grep Active and you should now see Active: active (running) since ...

5. Enable SSH on startup

systemctl enable sshd

OpenSUSE as of Leap 15, and Tumbleweed got rid of the old firewall in favor of firewalld as used on Fedora. That changes how you add the SSH config:

firewall-cmd --add-service=ssh --zone=external --permanent

--add-service=ssh Since SSH is one of the predefined services, you can use it as a service. The alternate is --add-port=22.

--zone=external Updates the external zone. Zones are assigned to interfaces.

--permanent Persists this change across reboots.

To verfiy this is done, the XML files in /etc/firewalld/zones can be examined.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<zone>
  <short>External</short>
  <description>For use on external networks.</description>
  <interface name="eth0"/>
  <service name="ssh"/>
  <masquerade/>
</zone>