The Gateway simplifies hosting services behind a firewall by enabling tunnel connections through an SSH server.

Configuring Local Database Access

The connection from the SQL Gateway to the SSH server is a reverse SSH tunnel; after authenticating the SQL Gateway, the server automatically forwards remote connections.

Along with the Host and Port in the Remote Server section, you need to specify the credentials needed to perform SSH authentication. You also must have already created a service and selected the Expose through SSH Tunnel option on the Services tab.

Authenticating to the Server

Select one of the following options in the Auth Mode menu in the Remote Server section and then click Test SSH Connection to initiate a login to the SSH server.

Password

In this authentication method, the SQL Gateway logs in with the username and password of a user account on the machine running the SSH server. The password is securely sent through the encrypted SSH tunnel.

Public Key

You must have a key pair to perform this authentication method. Specify a digital certificate or create a certificate to obtain a key pair: click the "..." button in the Certificate box.

• Private Key: select the private key from the Windows certificate stores, from a .pfx or .pem file.
• Public Key: click Export Public Key to save the public key as an OpenSSH public key, an SSH2 public key, or an X.509 public key certificate.

The public key is configured on the server and used to encrypt data that can only be decrypted by the private key. The SQL Gateway uses the private key to decrypt data packets from the server and to authenticate.

Managing SSH

In the Advanced Settings section, you can configure SSH connection behavior:

• Timeout: set the maximum allowable idle connection interval in seconds.
• Auto Reconnect: select whether the SQL Gateway attempts to reconnect when the SSH connection is lost.
• Reconnect Interval: specify the retry interval in seconds.
• Reconnect Count: enter the number of reconnection attempts the SQL Gateway makes when the connection is lost. A value of -1 signifies that the SQL Gateway will attempt to reconnect indefinitely.