Enabling SSH on Proxmox VE Hosts

Product version: 11.1

Last modified: 26 May 2025

Question

I cannot back up a VM from a Proxmox VE host with SSH access disabled. How to enable SSH on Proxmox VE?

Answer

NAKIVO Backup & Replication requires SSH access enabled on Proxmox VE hosts. To enable SSH in the Proxmox VE host, follow the steps below:

  1. Log in to the Proxmox Web UI via https://<your-proxmox-ip>:8006.

  2. In the left panel, select the node (host) you want to configure.

  3. Click Shell in the top-right panel of the selected node. This opens a terminal directly in your browser.

  4. Check the SSH service status using the following command:

    systemctl status ssh

  5. If the SSH service is inactive, enable and start it with:

    systemctl enable ssh

    systemctl start ssh

  6. (Optional) To allow SSH through the firewall (if enabled), run:

    pve-firewall allow SSH

  7. (Optional) To test the SSH connection, run:

    ssh <user name>@<proxmox host IP address>