SSH & Remote Administration

Ditch the double-hop SSH and jump right in

🧩 The Challenge

Ever had to SSH to a bastion host, then SSH *again* from there to your actual target machine? And it’s a pain, especially when you have a bunch of servers behind that jump box. Nobody tells you there’s a better way until you’ve wasted hours on this dance.

💡 The Fix

You can configure your SSH client to automatically jump through that middle server for you. It simplifies your workflow immensely and cuts down on all that repetitive typing.

~/.ssh/config
Host jumpbox
Hostname 192.168.1.100
User youruser

Host targetserver
Hostname 10.0.0.50
User youruser
ProxyJump jumpbox

Then just ssh targetserver

⚙️ Why It Works

Your SSH client sees the ProxyJump directive and automatically sets up a tunnel through the jumpbox host. It’s like asking the jumpbox to forward your SSH session directly to the targetserver without you having to manually connect twice.

🚀 Pro-Tip: Mix in IdentityFile for specific keys on certain hosts.

Linux Tips & Tricks | © ngelinux.com | 9/29/2026