How To Set Up SSH Keys

This mini-tutorial shows how to set up ssh keys, and assumes that you have the basic knowledge of SSH, remote servers (CS and Cluster worlds at Earlham, to be specific) and Unix environment.

SSH Key Setup

1. Step One - Create the RSA key pair

user$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096

-t specifies the type of key to create. You can check the possible options in the help. Since we are creating an RSA key, we will use -t rsa. -b flag specifies the number of bits for the key. It is common to use 2048 or 4096 as possible values for this flag. Press enter for all questions, you may change the defaults, but it is preferred not to. Also, it is common to leave the passphrase empty. The entire point of ssh keys is to make login easier and faster, and passphrase defeats the purpose, I believe. So, your public key will be saved in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub and private key will be saved in ~/.ssh/id_rsa.

2. Step Two - Copy the public id to remote host.

user$ ssh-copy-id user@remote.host

You can install ssh-copy-id if it doesn't exist already. OR, manually copy it as follows

user$ cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh user@remote.host "mkdir -p ~/.ssh && chmod 700 ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

Note that, user@remote.host should be replaced with appropriate terms.

3. Step Three - Create a config file (Optional) Now that you have the key setup, and know how to use vi editor, let's create a config file. Personally, I enjoy the ability to type `ssh tools` and let ssh config take over, instead of typing `ssh user@tools.cs.earlham.edu`. For that,

user$ vi ~/.ssh/config

Enter the insert mode

Host $hostname_you_want_to_use
HostName $complete_hostname
User $username

$ sign indicates variable, so you should replace your username with $username, and you can use tools in place of $hostname_you_want_to_use, tools.cs.earlham.edu in place of $complete_hostname.

Similarly, you can add more hosts to this config file with a line space between each. For e.g., a file with multiple configs might look like:

Host host1
HostName remote.host.1
User username

Host host2
HostName remote.host.2
User username

Host host3
HostName remote.host.3
User username