NetApp internals – how to add SSH keys without C$ nor NFS shares

This post will describe the process of placing SSH keys using the internal ‘systemshell’ command of NetApp. As always – when doing something which the vendor did not intend you to do, do it very carefully. This data was obtained from NetApp forums, and while I do not have the original post to link (I usually link to the original, as a courtesy to the original author), this is the content, as is.

First, set to advanced mode:
filer> priv set advanced

Then, unlock and set a password to diag account:
filer*> useradmin diaguser unlock
filer*> useradmin diaguser password

Start the systemshell, create the directory you need and put the pubkey generated in the authorized_keys file:
filer*> systemshell

login: diag
Password: the same you set in the previous step

filer% mkdir -p /mroot/etc/sshd/root/.ssh
filer% vi /mroot/etc/sshd/root/.ssh/authorized_keys
filer% sudo chown -R root:wheel /mroot/etc/sshd/root
filer% sudo chmod -R 0600 /mroot/etc/sshd/root

Last, exit systemshell, lock diag account and exit advanced mode:
filer% exit
filer*> useradmin diaguser lock
filer*> priv set admin

If you want to do it for any other user, just replace the word ‘root’ with the said user.

An additional note – I had to create a user to perform ‘df’ operations only. The purpose was to be able to obtain data using ‘ssh’ without disclosing the keys used for root SSH access, by having a very limited user, designed to do that.

So the commands to create such a user are as follows:

useradmin role add df -a cli-df*,login-ssh
useradmin group add df_users -r df
useradmin user add df -g df_users
(here you will be asked to enter the user’s password)

Hope it helps!