In one example, a method includes connecting through a first connection, at a network management system, with a seed network device; discovering through the first connection, by the network management system, a plurality of neighboring network devices that neighbor the seed network device; initiating, by the network management system, second tunneled connections to the plurality of neighboring network devices through the seed device; committing through the second connections, by the network management system, an activation configuration on each of the plurality of neighboring network devices, each activation configuration being unique to one of the plurality of neighboring devices; establishing, by the network management system and in response to the committing of the activation configurations, a non-tunneled ssh connection to each of the plurality of neighboring network devices.

In another example, a system includes memory and one or more processors coupled to the memory, the one or more processors being configured to: connect to a seed network device through a first connection; discover through the first connection a plurality of neighboring network devices that neighbor the seed network device; initiate tunneled second connections to the plurality of neighboring network devices through the seed device; commit through the tunneled second connections an activation configuration on each of the plurality of neighboring network devices, each activation configuration being unique to one of the plurality of neighboring network devices; and in response to the committing of the activation configurations, establish a non-tunneled ssh connection to each of the plurality of neighboring network devices.