Because I had so much trouble finding this information.
If you’ve already got telnet set up, and your config includes a line like
username admin password 123487123458134789561278561927845 level 15 encrypted
Then you’re already very close. Only two steps remain between you and SSH console access.
- crypto key generate dsa (or rsa)
- ip ssh server
That’s it! Don’t bother with the instructions that you might find in the user guide for “configuring an initial SSH console password” that have you mess with aaa authentication default line and the like. They’re red herrings.
Thank you, thank you…
Incidentally, if you DO have a aaa server, here’s part of what one of my active configs looks like (the important part, of course):
aaa authentication login default tacacs local
enable password level 15 123123123123123123 encrypted
username admin password 123123123123123123 level 15 encrypted
ip ssh server
tacacs-server host 1.1.1.1 key i.shared.this
But getting the ssh server to run is just the two commands in the article. Assigning a management IP, setting up user accounts, and any other operational steps are left as exercises for the reader.