diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index dfe420c..668bdd6 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+authorized_keys
 .vagrant
 .env
 *.zip
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 3319003..9c1ee10 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -69,6 +69,11 @@ These are:
     - Security is not enabled at the moment. 
     - See [distillery/resources/compose/triplestore](distillery/resources/compose/triplestore) for implementation details. 
 
+- [proxyssh](https://github.com/tkw1536/proxyssh) - an ssh server that delegates client connections to different WissKIs
+    - It is configured to run inside a docker container
+    - Uses a global configurable authorized_keys file. 
+    - Also allows users to write their own authorized_keys files. 
+
 To manage multiple docker containers, this script makes heavy use of [docker-compose](https://docs.docker.com/compose/). 
 
 Setting up these steps is fully automatic.
@@ -231,6 +236,10 @@ MAILTO="some-admin-email@example.com"
 0 9 * * 6 /bin/bash /distillery/backup.sh
 ```
 
+## SSH Access
+
+- to be documented
+
 ## License
 
 This project and associated files in this repository are licensed as follows:
diff --git a/Vagrantfile b/Vagrantfile
index 15767d9..5460d18 100644
--- a/Vagrantfile
+++ b/Vagrantfile
@@ -5,10 +5,11 @@ Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
   # use an iamge of debian, in this case buster 64
   config.vm.box = "debian/buster64"
 
-  # forward ports 80 and 443 to the host system
+  # forward ports 80, 443 and 2222 to the host system
   # this will allow accessing the webserver from the real system. 
-  config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 80
-  config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 443, host: 443
+  config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 80, host: 8080
+  config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 443, host: 4443
+  config.vm.network "forwarded_port", guest: 2222, host: 2223
 
   # share the factory folder in /factory/
   config.vm.synced_folder "distillery/", "/distillery/"
diff --git a/distillery/.env.sample b/distillery/.env.sample
index a28014b..c76c9ad 100644
--- a/distillery/.env.sample
+++ b/distillery/.env.sample
@@ -41,4 +41,7 @@ DISTILLERY_BOOKKEEPING_TABLE=distillery
 # Various components use password-based-authentication. 
 # These passwords are generated automatically. 
 # This variable can be used to determine their length. 
-PASSWORD_LENGTH=64
\ No newline at end of file
+PASSWORD_LENGTH=64
+
+# A file to be used for global authorized_keys for the ssh server.
+GLOBAL_AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE=/distillery/authorized_keys
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/distillery/lib/10_config.sh b/distillery/lib/10_config.sh
index 85f4d9e..709628a 100644
--- a/distillery/lib/10_config.sh
+++ b/distillery/lib/10_config.sh
@@ -85,6 +85,15 @@ function is_valid_https_url() {
    fi
 }
 
+# 'is_valid_file' checks that the value passed is an existing file
+function is_valid_file() {
+   if [[ -f "$1" ]]; then
+      return 0;
+   else
+      return 1;
+   fi
+}
+
 # The 'DEPLOY_ROOT' variable must be an absolute path. 
 if ! is_valid_abspath "$DEPLOY_ROOT"; then
    log_error "Variable 'DEPLOY_ROOT' is missing or not a valid path. ";
@@ -178,11 +187,21 @@ else
    SELF_REDIRECT="https://gitlab.cs.fau.de/AGFD/wisski-distillery"
 fi
 
+# The 'GLOBAL_AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE' should point to a real file
+if ! is_valid_file "$GLOBAL_AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE"; then
+      log_error "Variable 'GLOBAL_AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE' is not a valid file. ";
+      log_info "The variable is currently set to '$GLOBAL_AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE'. "
+      log_info "You might want to create this file to get rid of the error message. "
+      log_info "Please verify that it is set correctly in '.env'";
+      exit 1;
+fi;
+
 # paths to composer things
 DEPLOY_WEB_DIR="$DEPLOY_ROOT/core/web"
 DEPLOY_SELF_DIR="$DEPLOY_ROOT/core/self"
 DEPLOY_TRIPLESTORE_DIR="$DEPLOY_ROOT/core/triplestore"
 DEPLOY_SQL_DIR="$DEPLOY_ROOT/core/sql"
+DEPLOY_SSH_DIR="$DEPLOY_ROOT/core/ssh"
 DEPLOY_INSTANCES_DIR="$DEPLOY_ROOT/instances"
 
 DEPLOY_BACKUP_DIR="$DEPLOY_ROOT/backups"
diff --git a/distillery/provision.sh b/distillery/provision.sh
index 16231e2..dfb4d73 100755
--- a/distillery/provision.sh
+++ b/distillery/provision.sh
@@ -52,11 +52,12 @@ curl -X POST \
     --header "X-GraphDB-Password: $GRAPHDB_PASSWORD" \
     -d @-
 
-log_info " => Creating local directory '$INSTANCE_BASE_DIR'"
+log_info " => Creating local directory structure at '$INSTANCE_BASE_DIR'"
 mkdir -p "$INSTANCE_BASE_DIR"
 mkdir -p "$INSTANCE_DATA_DIR"
 mkdir -p "$INSTANCE_DATA_DIR/.composer"
 mkdir -p "$INSTANCE_DATA_DIR/data"
+touch "$INSTANCE_DATA_DIR/authorized_keys"
 
 # Generate some more random credentials, this time for drupal. 
 # We again make use of the randompw alias. 
@@ -77,6 +78,7 @@ sql_bookkeep_insert \
 log_info " => Writing configuration file"
 load_template "docker-env/barrel" \
     "REAL_PATH" "${INSTANCE_DATA_DIR}" \
+    "GLOBAL_AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE" "${GLOBAL_AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE}" \
     "VIRTUAL_HOST" "${INSTANCE_DOMAIN}" \
     "SLUG" "${SLUG}" \
     "LETSENCRYPT_HOST" "${LETSENCRYPT_HOST}" \
diff --git a/distillery/rebuild.sh b/distillery/rebuild.sh
index abb8d25..0708e3e 100644
--- a/distillery/rebuild.sh
+++ b/distillery/rebuild.sh
@@ -18,6 +18,9 @@ fi;
 # Read everything from the database
 read -r INSTANCE_BASE_DIR MYSQL_DATABASE MYSQL_USER GRAPHDB_REPO GRAPHDB_USER <<< "$(sql_bookkeep_load "${SLUG}" "filesystem_base,sql_database,sql_user,graphdb_repository,graphdb_user" | tail -n +2)"
 
+log_info " => Touching authorized_keys file"
+touch "$INSTANCE_BASE_DIR/data/authorized_keys"
+
 log_info " => Updating compose files"
 install_resource_dir "compose/barrel" "$INSTANCE_BASE_DIR"
 
diff --git a/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/Dockerfile b/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/Dockerfile
index 1d045ce..d0013b7 100644
--- a/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/Dockerfile
+++ b/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/Dockerfile
@@ -77,5 +77,8 @@ CMD ["apache2-foreground"]
 # Add the provision script
 ADD scripts/provision_container.sh /provision_container.sh
 
+# Add the user_shell.sh
+ADD scripts/user_shell.sh /user_shell.sh
+
 # expose port 8080
 EXPOSE 8080
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/docker-compose.yml b/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/docker-compose.yml
index 5c0df32..d9795cc 100644
--- a/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/docker-compose.yml
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@ services:
   barrel:
     build: .
     restart: always
+    hostname: ${VIRTUAL_HOST}
     environment:
       # port and hostname for this image to use
       VIRTUAL_HOST: ${VIRTUAL_HOST}
@@ -16,11 +17,14 @@ services:
     # label it with the current slug
     labels:
       eu.wiss-ki.barrel.slug: ${SLUG}
+      eu.wiss-ki.barrel.authfile: /var/www/.ssh/authorized_keys,/var/www/.ssh/global_authorized_keys
     
-    # the volumes to 
+    # volumes that are mounted
     volumes:
+      - ${GLOBAL_AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE}:/var/www/.ssh/global_authorized_keys:ro
       - ${REAL_PATH}/.composer:/var/www/.composer
       - ${REAL_PATH}/data:/var/www/data
+      - ${REAL_PATH}/authorized_keys:/var/www/.ssh/authorized_keys
 
 networks:
   default:
diff --git a/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/scripts/user_shell.sh b/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/scripts/user_shell.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..8ebf53d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/distillery/resources/compose/barrel/scripts/user_shell.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# This script is used to start a user shell inside the docker container. 
+cd "/var/www/data/project"
+sudo -u www-data /bin/bash "$@"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/distillery/resources/compose/ssh/docker-compose.yml b/distillery/resources/compose/ssh/docker-compose.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1bc7af8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/distillery/resources/compose/ssh/docker-compose.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+version: "3.7"
+
+services:
+    ssh:
+        image: tkw01536/proxyssh
+        command: -hostkey /keys/hostkey -shell /user_shell.sh -keylabel eu.wiss-ki.barrel.authfile -userlabel eu.wiss-ki.barrel.slug -L triplestore:7200
+        ports:
+            - "2222:2222"
+        volumes:
+            - './data/keys:/keys'
+            - '/var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro'
+        restart: always
+
+networks:
+    default:
+        external:
+          name: distillery
diff --git a/distillery/resources/templates/docker-env/barrel b/distillery/resources/templates/docker-env/barrel
index 2c881ea..e30c954 100644
--- a/distillery/resources/templates/docker-env/barrel
+++ b/distillery/resources/templates/docker-env/barrel
@@ -5,3 +5,5 @@ VIRTUAL_HOST=${VIRTUAL_HOST}
 
 LETSENCRYPT_HOST=${LETSENCRYPT_HOST}
 LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL=${LETSENCRYPT_EMAIL}
+
+GLOBAL_AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE=${GLOBAL_AUTHORIZED_KEYS_FILE}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/distillery/shell.sh b/distillery/shell.sh
index 5ccc352..f75a189 100644
--- a/distillery/shell.sh
+++ b/distillery/shell.sh
@@ -24,4 +24,4 @@ read -r INSTANCE_BASE_DIR MYSQL_DATABASE MYSQL_USER GRAPHDB_REPO GRAPHDB_USER <<
 cd "$INSTANCE_BASE_DIR"
 
 # and open a www-data shell
-docker-compose exec barrel /bin/bash -c "cd /var/www/data/project; sudo -u www-data /bin/bash"
+docker-compose exec barrel /user_shell.sh
diff --git a/distillery/system_install.sh b/distillery/system_install.sh
index d361a5f..bdc8214 100755
--- a/distillery/system_install.sh
+++ b/distillery/system_install.sh
@@ -49,6 +49,7 @@ log_info "=> Creating docker-compose directories"
 mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_INSTANCES_DIR"
 mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_WEB_DIR"
 mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_SELF_DIR"
+mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_SSH_DIR"
 mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_TRIPLESTORE_DIR"
 mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_SQL_DIR"
 mkdir -p "$DEPLOY_BACKUP_INPROGRESS_DIR"
@@ -68,6 +69,9 @@ load_template "docker-env/web" \
 log_info "=> Creating 'docker-compose' files for the 'self'. "
 install_resource_dir "compose/self" "$DEPLOY_SELF_DIR"
 
+log_info "=> Creating 'docker-compose' files for the 'ssh'. "
+install_resource_dir "compose/ssh" "$DEPLOY_SSH_DIR"
+
 # setup the lesencrypt host for the default domain
 if [ -n "$LETSENCRYPT_HOST" ]; then
     LETSENCRYPT_HOST="$DEFAULT_DOMAIN"
diff --git a/distillery/system_update.sh b/distillery/system_update.sh
index 920b701..159a331 100755
--- a/distillery/system_update.sh
+++ b/distillery/system_update.sh
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@ update_stack "$DEPLOY_WEB_DIR"
 log_info "=> Rebuilding and restarting 'self' stack"
 update_stack "$DEPLOY_SELF_DIR"
 
+# build and start the ssh server
+log_info "=> Rebuilding and restarting 'ssh' stack"
+update_stack "$DEPLOY_SSH_DIR"
+
 # build and start the triplestore
 log_info "=> Rebuilding and restarting 'triplestore' stack"
 update_stack "$DEPLOY_TRIPLESTORE_DIR"