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Granting Support Access

Overview​

Granting Support Access lets the Hypervisor support team SSH into your server when they need to investigate something. Instead of you copying our SSH public key by hand, a one-line curl ... | bash script does it for you. The same script can remove the key when you are done, take a backup of ~/.ssh/authorized_keys first, or check whether the key is currently installed.

The script does not stay on disk after it runs. There is nothing to uninstall.

Concepts​

  • SSH is the standard secure-shell protocol used to log in to Linux servers from the command line.
  • Authorized keys file is ~/.ssh/authorized_keys. It lists the public keys that are allowed to log in to the current user account. Adding our public key to this file is what grants us access; removing it revokes us.
  • Support key is the SSH public key the Hypervisor support team uses. The script downloads it over HTTPS and verifies its SHA-256 checksum before installing it, so a tampered key cannot land on your server.

Commands​

Run any of these directly from your management server's shell:

CommandDescription
curl -sSL https://packages.hypervisor.io/tools/hv_support.sh | bash -s -- addInstall the support key
curl -sSL https://packages.hypervisor.io/tools/hv_support.sh | bash -s -- removeRemove the support key
curl -sSL https://packages.hypervisor.io/tools/hv_support.sh | bash -s -- checkCheck if the key is installed
curl -sSL https://packages.hypervisor.io/tools/hv_support.sh | bash -s -- backupBack up authorized_keys

How it works​

  1. The script lives only on Hypervisor's HTTPS CDN. There is no local file to manage.
  2. It verifies the downloaded payload via SHA-256 checksum and backs up your existing authorized_keys before touching it.
  3. Nothing is left on disk after the script finishes.

Admin steps​

1. Grant temporary support access​

curl -sSL https://packages.hypervisor.io/tools/hv_support.sh | bash -s -- add

What this does:

  • Downloads and verifies the key over HTTPS.
  • Appends it to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.
  • Prints success or failure.

2. Revoke support access​

curl -sSL https://packages.hypervisor.io/tools/hv_support.sh | bash -s -- remove

Guarantees:

  • Takes a backup of authorized_keys first.
  • Removes only the Hypervisor key. Your own keys are untouched.

3. Check current status​

curl -sSL https://packages.hypervisor.io/tools/hv_support.sh | bash -s -- check

Outputs either "Hypervisor support key IS installed" or "Hypervisor support key NOT installed".

4. Manual backup​

curl -sSL https://packages.hypervisor.io/tools/hv_support.sh | bash -s -- backup

Backup location:

~/.ssh/hypervisor_backups/authorized_keys_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS

Why this is safe​

  • HTTPS-only transport. No unencrypted downloads.
  • SHA-256 checksum verification of the downloaded key.
  • No persistence. The script does not leave anything on disk.

Troubleshooting​

Permission errors​

The script can fail if your SSH directory has wrong permissions. Fix them with:

chmod 700 ~/.ssh && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Still having problems​

The script ships a built-in help mode:

curl -sSL https://packages.hypervisor.io/tools/hv_support.sh | bash -s -- help

Best practices​

  • Always run remove once a support session is finished.
  • Periodically audit ~/.ssh/hypervisor_backups/ and delete old backups.
  • Run check before manually editing authorized_keys so you do not accidentally double-add or delete the key.