remote-access

Remote Access with Acquia CLI

Platform: This skill applies to ACE (Acquia Cloud Enterprise) subscriptions only. For MEO (Multi-site Enterprise Operations), see MEO Overview.

Use when:

• Opening an SSH shell on a Cloud environment
• Running a Drush command on a remote environment
• Downloading or listing Drush aliases
• Tailing live logs from an environment

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SSH into a Cloud Environment

Open an interactive shell in a Cloud Platform environment:

acli remote:ssh <alias>

Alias: acli ssh

The alias format is app-name.env (e.g. myapp.prod, myapp.dev).

# Open interactive shell
acli remote:ssh myapp.prod

# Run a single command without opening a shell
acli remote:ssh myapp.prod -- ls -la /var/www/html

# Run multiple commands
acli remote:ssh myapp.prod -- "cd /var/www/html && git log --oneline -5"

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Run Drush Remotely

Run any Drush command on a Cloud environment without SSHing in manually:

acli remote:drush <drush_command>

Aliases: acli drush, acli dr

# Check Drupal status
acli remote:drush status

# Clear caches
acli remote:drush cr

# Run database updates
acli remote:drush updatedb

# Export configuration
acli remote:drush cex

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Tail Logs Live

Stream live logs from an environment:

acli app:log:tail

Aliases: acli tail, acli log:tail

Prompts you to select the application, environment, and log type.

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List Drush Aliases

List all Drush site aliases for your Cloud environments:

acli remote:aliases:list

Aliases: acli aliases, acli sa

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Download Drush Aliases

Download Drush aliases for use with local Drush:

acli remote:aliases:download

Options:

acli remote:aliases:download \
  --destination-dir=/path/to/aliases \
  --all                               # download aliases for all applications

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Best Practices

1. Use remote:drush over SSH for Drush commands — It handles authentication and environment selection automatically.
2. Use aliases — Download aliases with remote:aliases:download so local Drush can target Cloud environments directly.
3. Tail logs during deploys — Run acli app:log:tail while deploying to catch errors in real time.