An SSH Key allows you to log into your server without needing a password. SSH Keys can be automatically added to servers during the installation process.
To create and use SSH keys on Windows, you need to download and install both PuTTY, the utility used to connect to remote servers through SSH, and PuTTYgen, a utility used to create SSH keys. On the PuTTY website, download the.msi file in the Package files section at the top of the page, under MSI (‘Windows Installer’). Generate ssh public private key mac pro. You can generate an SSH key on Windows using the PuTTY SSH client. You can download PuTTY for free from this URL. To generate a key with PuTTY, you should: Download and start the puttygen.exe generator. In the 'Parameters' section choose SSH2 DSA and press Generate. Move your mouse randomly in the small screen in order to generate the key pairs.
As you can see, it’s very easy to generate SSH keys on Windows these days. Basically, the ssh-keygen command does all the work. If you find it difficult to understand how to add the public key to the server, look up your provider’s documentation. The.pub file is your public key, and the other file is the corresponding private key. If you don’t have these files (or you don’t even have a.ssh directory), you can create them by running a program called ssh-keygen, which is provided with the SSH package on Linux/macOS systems and comes with Git for Windows.
Creating an SSH key on Windows
The simplest way to create SSH key on Windows is to use PuTTYgen.
- Download and run PuTTYgen.
- Click the 'Generate' button.
- For additional security, you can enter a key passphrase. This will be required to use the SSH key, and will prevent someone with access to your key file from using the key.
- Once the key has been generated, click 'Save Private Key'. Make sure you save this somewhere safe, as it is not possible to recover this file if it gets lost
- Select all of the text in the 'Public key for pasting into OpenSSH
authorized_keysfile'. This is what you would need to enter into the control panel to use the SSH key.
Creating an SSH key on Linux
The tools to create and use SSH are standard, and should be present on most Linux distributions. With the following commands, you can generate ssh key.
- Run:
ssh-keygen -t rsa. For a more secure 4096-bit key, run:ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 - Press enter when asked where you want to save the key (this will use the default location).
- Enter a passphrase for your key.
- Run
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub- this will give you the key in the proper format to paste into the control panel. - Make sure you backup the
~/.ssh/id_rsafile. This cannot be recovered if it is lost.
How To Generate Ssh Keys
Adding an SSH key to your control panel
Create Ssh Key Linux
- Once you're logged in, go to https://my.vultr.com/sshkeys.
- Click 'Add SSH Key'.
- Enter a descriptive name for the key.
- Paste in your SSH public key. This is a long string beginning with 'ssh-rsa'. You should have saved this from when you generated your key.
- Click 'Add SSH Key'.
- Now, when you're deploying servers you will be able to select which SSH keys you want to add to the newly deployed server. Remember to select the keys before the initial server deployment, otherwise you will need to log into the newly created server and add the SSH keys manually.
Limitations
- SSH keys are only available for Linux and FreeBSD. They are not supported for Windows, custom ISOs, nor snapshot restores.
- SSH keys can only be managed from the control panel during deployment. You cannot use the control panel to manage them on an already-installed instance.
Connecting to a server using an SSH key from a Windows client
- Download and run the PuTTY SSH client.
- Type the IP address or Username + IP address (
[email protected]) of the destination server under the 'Host Name' field on the 'Session' category. - Navigate to the 'Connection -> SSH -> Auth' category (left-hand side).
- Click 'Browse..' near 'Private key file for authentication'. Choose the private key file (ending in
.ppk) that you generated earlier with PuTTYgen. - Click 'Open' to initiate the connection.
- When finished, end your session by pressing
Ctrl+d.
Connecting to a server using an SSH key from a Linux client
- Check that your Linux operating system has an SSH client installed (
which ssh). If a client is not installed, you will need to install one. - Initiate a connection:
ssh -i /path/to/id_rsa [email protected] - When finished, end your session by pressing
Ctrl+d.
You can generate an SSH key on Windows using the PuTTY SSH client. You can download PuTTY for free from this URL.
To generate a key with PuTTY, you should:
- Download and start the puttygen.exe generator.
- In the 'Parameters' section choose SSH2 DSA and press Generate.
- Move your mouse randomly in the small screen in order to generate the key pairs.
- Enter a key comment, which will identify the key (useful when you use several SSH keys).
- Type in the passphrase and confirm it. The passphrase is used to protect your key. You will be asked for it when you connect via SSH.
- Click 'Save private key' to save your private key.
- Click 'Save public key' to save your public key.
For more information on how to load the key and connect via SSH using PuTTY, please check this tutorial.
Get Ssh Key
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