Create SSH key and store it in the customer backend

You need at least one stored public SSH key in the customer backend to be able to access your server via the Internet.

This greatly increases security against passwords and is already mandatory in some Linux distributions.

1st step

Create SSH key pair

Linux

On Linux, this is super simple. Simply open your terminal and create a new SSH key with the following command.

ssh-keygen

You will then be asked for the location of the private SSH key. If you have already created a private SSH key, please change the path. Otherwise existing data will be overwritten.

As soon as the command was successful, you can easily display the public key with the following command and copy it to the clipboard:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Once you have specified the save path you must replace the above path with yours!

Please make sure that you only open and pass on the .pub file!

Mac

The method for Apple computers is nearly the same as for Linux computers. However you need to specify the Type Parameter to "RSA".

ssh-keygen -t rsa

You will then be asked for the location of the private SSH key. If you have already created a private SSH key, please change the path. Otherwise existing data will be overwritten.

As soon as the command was successful, you can easily display the public key with the following command and copy it to the clipboard:

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Once you have specified the save path you must replace the above path with yours!

Please make sure that you only open and pass on the .pub file!

Windows

On Windows it is a little bit more complicated to get an OpenSSH Format SSH Public Key. But nothing is impossible. You just need the Tool PuTTYgen (https://www.putty.org/).

Now Launch PuTTYgen and in the "Parameters" section, select the type of key to generate. It is recommended to use RSA, as it is widely supported.

Click now the [Generate] Button and follow the on-screen instructions to generate the key pair. You will be asked to move the mouse around the window to generate randomness for the key pair.

Enter a passphrase for the key pair. It is recommended to use a strong, unique passphrase for added security. And confirm the passphrase by entering it again.

Now the key pair will be generated and displayed in the PuTTYgen window. To save the private key, click the [Save private key] button and choose a location to save the file. It is recommended to save the file with a .ppk extension.

To view the public key, click the [Export OpenSSH key] button and save the file to a location of your choice. Now you can open the file, copy the content to the clipboard.

2nd step

Save the public SSH key in the customer backend,

Now that you have your public SSH key on the clipboard, you can click on [your name] (user options) in the customer backend and on [SSH key] in the drop-down menu. If you have not yet created an SSH key, you will be prompted to create one, otherwise click on [Add] in the top right-hand corner.

Now give your public SSH key a name. We recommend using the computer name you will be using this key on, such as "my-macbook".

In the Public key field, enter the public SSH key you saved in the previous step. The content will look something like this:

ssh-rsa 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 kai@lenovo