After mastering SSH on Day 6, the author spent Day 7 sharpening core skills that keep cloud servers running smoothly. He began by pinging the Ubuntu host at 10.255.125.231 to confirm network reachability, then logged in to verify the session with pwd and ls. These checks proved the machine was online and ready.

Next, he opened the firewall with sudo ufw allow ssh and inspected the rules via sudo ufw status to ensure port 22 stayed open. He then ran ip a and hostname -I to capture the current IP, a habit that prevents mis‑addressed connections when IPs change on dynamic clouds in a controlled environment daily.

To mimic real‑world hiccups, he restarted the SSH daemon with sudo systemctl restart ssh and checked its status. Finally, he reconnected from a Windows command prompt using ssh [email protected], confirming that the service, firewall, and network were all functioning. Consistent practice turns theory into reliable skill.