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I have a virtualbox on which I have installed ubuntu 12.04. My host computer is Mac OS (mavericks). I did a SSH key copy to my remote (which is ubuntu server and I call it myubuntu).

when I did 

ssh username@myubuntu
ssh: Could not resolve hostname ubuntuhadoop: nodename nor servname provided, or not known

but when I tried:

ssh username@66.90.115.178

I was able to log in to the remote server (which is myubuntu).

why is it need that I give IP address it connects properply but not the servername.

I am not sure if this is possible. But I found in one of youtube tutorials. ssh myubuntu (NOT username@myubuntu) and logged onto the remote server, without username. is this possible?

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This may give you the solution from the last part of your question: askubuntu.com/questions/257472/host-alias-for-ssh – Takkat Jun 24 '14 at 8:38
up vote 5 down vote accepted

You have a few options.

If you need access from only a few locations, or a single location, update /etc/hosts

sudo nano /etc/hosts

Add an entry for your server

66.90.115.178 myubuntu

Second, purchase or find a free DNS service, http://www.noip.com/free/ or similar.

Third, ssh uses your current user name by default, so if you have the same user name on both client and server, just ssh server_name

ssh your_server

You only need to specify a user name if the names are different or you want a new user

ssh new_user@your_server
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I followed the first option since it is simple now. do I have to restart the computer. right now, it is hanging when I tried ssh myubuntu and I get operation timed out – brain storm Jun 23 '14 at 22:33
    
Not sure about the hang, look at the output of ssh -vvv myubuntu – Panther Jun 23 '14 at 22:35
    
sorry, I had a typo on IP which I found out using ssh -vvv. after I fixed it works great!. one question though, why do you say if you need access from only a few locations or a single location update /etc/hosts. if you could give a line or two for the two methods you described and when they will be useful, they will be helpful for beginner like me. Thank you very much!!!! – brain storm Jun 23 '14 at 22:38
    
Well, it is proportional to how many machines you need to edit /etc/hosts on vs the time it takes to configure a DNS server. – Panther Jun 23 '14 at 22:40
    
There's also an another option for local networks: Avahi (which is installed by default on Ubuntu Desktops). – Andrea Corbellini Oct 20 '14 at 16:14

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