What is the formal name for the address when you SSH into a remote server?

Question

Is the formal name: hostname? I am trying to SSH. Since I don’t know what the formal name is, I don't know where to search for it to SSH.

Answer 1

It could be referred to with various terms depending on the exact context and circumstances. "Hostname" and "address" are both often-used terms, and "FQDN" is another that would be used to differentiate the full name (ssh-server.foo.com) from the plain NETBIOS name (ssh-server). Machines can have aliases also, so its true hostname could be "caen-vnc-vm16" even though you're reaching it via "login.engin.umich.edu". It's also possible that there's a pool of load-balanced servers sitting behind a proxy or gateway, so the actual hostname that you end up reaching could be different from one session to the next, even though you're using the same address. If the question is "how do I access the resource I need", ask for the address.

Answer 2

You asked for the formal name. Well, to get really formal, we can refer to some official documentation.

The premier source of standards for Internet protocols is the IETF BCP documents, followed by the other IETF RFC documents. RFC 4251: The Secure Shell (SSH) Protocol Architecture and RFC 4254: The Secure Shell (SSH) Connection Protocol both seem to favor “server”.

The OpenBSD man page for OpenSSH's “ssh” command uses “hostname”. This operating system's documentation is particularly significant for OpenSSH because the OpenBSD team are the people behind OpenSSH.

Both of those are formal names. Although someone could argue that DNS terminology might be even more formal, the remote system for SSH can be accessed by an address other than a (DNS) domain name. So, the prior documents seem most authoritative (for current SSH implementations).