22
votes

I've used PuTTY for years, but alas, my saved session list has grown to the point that the simple alphabetical list is a bit cumbersome. What I'd really like to see is a nested/hierarchical style of saved sessions so that I can say create:

  • ACME
    • switch01
    • switch02
    • router
    • ...
  • Rand
    • mailserver
    • webserver
    • ...

Any suggestions?

1
  • +1 - SecureCRT lets you organize like that, but it's clunky in other ways and expensive, I'd like something better too. Mar 24, 2011 at 14:45

11 Answers 11

25
votes

If you're looking for something similar to a remote desktop connection manager but for SSH connections, you can use the PuTTY session manager.

2
  • Ah, very nice. That's exactly what I was looking for.
    – gravyface
    Mar 24, 2011 at 14:53
  • This is a great tool. I've used it for many years.
    – garconcn
    Mar 24, 2011 at 20:46
14
votes

Check out KiTTY. It is a fork from PuTTY that has additional features, including organizing saved sessions in a folder hierarchy.

Site: http://www.9bis.net/kitty/

8
votes

Try out mRemoteNG, it'll manage SSH sessions as well as RDP, VNC and a bunch of others. You can create groups, assign common settings to groups, .e.g username, port number, etc.

1
  • +1, mRemoteNG does exactly what the asker requires. It's worth pointing out too that mRemoteNG is a wrapper around PuTTy, so if you're used to PuTTy you will find it simple to transfer. Mar 25, 2011 at 11:06
7
votes

I've been using puttycm for some time now and it serves me well.PuttyCM

4
votes

If you don't already use Cygwin, this may be too roundabout, but:

  1. Cygwin (and install mintty for a good terminal)
  2. Install zsh as your shell
  3. Install openssh

This setup will give you ssh host completion, so that you can 'ssh h[TAB]' and get all my hosts that begin with 'h' as found in the known_hosts file (the file that logs all hosts you've logged into).

2
  • 3
    You can configure host completion in bash too. Mar 24, 2011 at 16:43
  • With mintty and openssh, you could also create Windows shortcuts to your servers and stick them in appropriate folders, on the desktop, or in the start menu. Set the shortcut targets like this: C:\cygwin\bin\mintty.exe /bin/ssh server
    – ak2
    Mar 25, 2011 at 13:44
2
votes

You can also try ZOC Terminal.

It's pay-ware but the host directory has sections (tabs) and each can contain folders and subfolders too.

.

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1
vote

Another choice is the terminals program for Windows:

 http://terminals.codeplex.com/

It does multiple protocols, SSH, VCN, RDP, etc...

1
vote

I use mRemote. It does nested folders, and lets you set inheritance on nested items. Very nice. RDP, putty for SSH, quite slick.

1
vote

I know you asked this question quite awhile ago... years ago I had this need and didn't find anything free & available at the time, so I created a script to do essentially what you are seeking in Autohotkey. It can be found here:

http://www.ghisler.ch/wiki/index.php/AutoHotkey:_Launch_putty_or_RDP_sessions_out_of_a_tree-driven_selection_menu

It's quite flexible and can be modified to do things other than just putty (my example includes RDP). Have noted your profile and can see you're proficient with code, so you might appreciate something that you can extend and modify, even automate.

At my workplace our list of servers can be exported from the config mgmt database in a CSV format, so I can actually auto-populate the config file for this script on whatever interval necessary.

0
votes

I use this: http://remotedesktopmanager.com/ for all my networking stuff -- VNC, SSH, RDP, etc. It remembers settings for you

0
votes

Bitvise tunnelier stores each connection in a shortcut file, so you can use folders to create whatever organizational scheme you want. However I still prefer putty for it's great terminal.

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