SSH keys are a way to identify trusted computers, without involving passwords. The steps below will walk you through generating an SSH key and adding the public key to the server.
Step 1: Check for SSH Keys
First, check for existing SSH keys on your computer. Open Git Bash, Cygwin, or Terminal, etc. and enter:
The host keys are usually automatically generated when an SSH server is installed. They can be regenerated at any time. However, if host keys are changed, clients may warn about changed keys. SSH keys are a way to identify trusted computers, without involving passwords. The steps below will walk you through generating an SSH key and adding the public key to the server. Step 1: Check for SSH Keys First, check for existing SSH keys on your computer. Open Git Bash, Cygwin, or Terminal, etc.
Before adding a new SSH key to the ssh-agent to manage your keys, you should have checked for existing SSH keys and generated a new SSH key. When adding your SSH key to the agent, use the default macOS ssh-add command, and not an application installed by macports, homebrew, or some other external source. If you currently have access to SSH on your server, you can generate SSH keys on the command line using the ssh-keygen utility which is installed by default on our servers. Run it on your server with no options, or arguments to generate a 2048-bit RSA key pair (which is plenty secure).
Check the directory listing to see if you already have a public SSH key. By default, the filenames of the public keys are one of the following:
- id_dsa.pub
- is_ecdsa.pub
- id_ed25519.pub
- id_rsa.pub
If you see an existing public and private key pair listed (for example id_rsa.pub and id_rsa) that you’d like to use, you can skip Step 2 and go straight to Step 3.
Step 2: Generate a new SSH key
With your command line tool still open, enter the text shown below. Make sure you substitute in your email address:
You’ll be asked to enter a passphrase, or simply press Enter to not enter a passphrase:
After you enter a passphrase (or just press Enter twice), review the fingerprint, or ‘id’ of your SSH key:
Step 3: Add your key to the ssh-agent
To configure the ssh-agent program to use your SSH key, first ensure ssh-agent is enabled.
If you are using Git Bash, turn on the ssh-agent with command shown below instead:
Then, add your SSH key to the ssh-agent:
Step 4: Add your SSH key to the server
To add your public SSH key to the server, you’ll copy the public SSH key you just created to the server. Substitute “username” with your username on the server, and “server.address.com” with the domain address or IP address of your server:
The server will then prompt you for your password:
Ssh Key Generated From Server Or Host Id
Ssh Key Generated From Server Or Host 2017
That’s it! You should now be set up to connect to the server without having to authenticate.