Changing the Astronaut SSH password

The Astronaut SSH tunnel is enabled by default using a *nix login ID of client9260 with a default password of not#1sostrong. It is in the /etc/passwd file. You can change it via the passwd command as root. Make sure that the passwords agree on the client side. It runs with no shell and exist only for client communication. The same arrangement exists for the text9260 login ID.

Changing Windows environment variables and shortcuts

 * Change environment variables %ASTRO_SSH_CLIENT_PASS% and %ASTRO_TEXT_PASS% :


 * Start Menu -> Control Panel -> Settings -> Advanced system settings -> Advanced -> Environment variables

There is also an Astronaut utility that brings up the environment variables:
 * Start Menu -> Programs -> Astronaut -> Sessions -> Client Variables -> Environment Variables

A list of the environment variables is displayed.


 * -> Variable Name: ASTRO_SSH_CLIENT_PASS -> Modify...
 * -> Variable Value: super123duperxyzstrong#%!password


 * -> Variable Name: ASTRO_TEXT_PASS -> Modify...
 * -> Variable Value: super123duperxyzstrong#%!password

Although in this example I used the value super123duperxyzstrong#%!password (instead of the default value not#1sostrong) for the SSH client9260 and text9260 passwords, obviously create your own private password.

Change Astronaut SSH shortcut
The "Astronaut SSH" shortcut that is used to invoke the PuTTY SSH client uses a command line: "C:\Program Files\VistA\Putty\putty.exe" -ssh -l %ASTRO_SSH_clientID% -pw %ASTRO_SSH_CLIENT_PASS% -L %ASTRO_PORT%:127.0.0.1:%ASTRO_PORT% %ASTRO_SSH_HOST%


 * No changes need to be made if you changed the environment variable.

If using a manual Configuration (for protected environments or on a USB drive, for example) the revised Astronaut SSH shortcut would be similar to: "C:\Program Files\VistA\Putty\putty.exe" -ssh -l client9260 -pw super123duperxyzstrong#%!password -L 9260:127.0.0.1:9260 192.168.56.101

Change Text client shortcut
The "Text client" shortcut that is used to invoke the Text client uses a command line: "C:\Program Files\VistA\Putty\putty.exe" -P 22 %ASTRO_SSH_HOST% -l %ASTRO_textID% -pw %ASTRO_TEXT_PASS%


 * No changes need to be made if you changed the environment variable.

If using a manual Configuration (for protected environments or on a USB drive, for example) the revised Text client shortcut would be similar to: "C:\Program Files\VistA\Putty\putty.exe" -P 22 192.168.56.101 -l text9260 super123duperxyzstrong#%!password

Changing the OpenSSH passwords on the Ubuntu server

 * You must be logged into the Ubuntu Server (on which the VistA server is running) to make these changes. Login as the primary user created during the original installation of the Ubuntu Server, or any user with sudoer privileges. (Do not use the worldvistaEHR user ID because by default it does not have root user (sudoer) privileges.)


 * From the Ubuntu Server command-line terminal edit the /etc/passwd file using the *nix passwd command. This should be done for the client9260 user:

sudo passwd client9260
 * Enter your Ubuntu user password when prompted.

Enter new UNIX password: super123duperxyzstrong#%!password Retype new UNIX password: super123duperxyzstrong#%!password

Now do it for the text9260 user:

sudo passwd text9260
 * Enter your Ubuntu user password (default is vista!123) when prompted.

Enter new UNIX password: super123duperxyzstrong#%!password Retype new UNIX password: super123duperxyzstrong#%!password