Generating an SSH key for virtual system patterns

You can generate an SSH key for virtual system patterns.

About this task

If you do not have an existing RSA key pair, you can generate one from the user interface or you can use a third-party application to generate a key pair.

Use these instructions to use the system to generate an SSH key. See the Related information section for instructions on using PuTTY to generate the SSH key.

Procedure

  1. Click Patterns > Virtual System Patterns.
  2. Select a virtual system pattern and click the Deploy icon.
    The Deploy Pattern page opens.
  3. In the Deploy Pattern page, click the Generate link below the SSH key field.
  4. Click Generate. The SSH public key is automatically populated in the SSH Key field.
    You can use an existing public key or generate a new key.
  5. Copy and save the generated public key from the SSH Key field.
  6. Click Download or Download (PKCS1 format), depending on the format that you want to use, to save the private key file.
    The default name for the file that is downloaded by using the Download link is id_rsa. On Windows, the file might be saved as id_rsa.txt. The default name for the file that is downloaded by using the Download (PKCS1 format) link is id_rsa_pkcs1. On Windows, the file might be saved as id_rsa_pkcs1.txt.
    Important: SSH keys are generated and used in pairs. Only this private key provides SSH key log in to virtual machines deployed with this public key. The system does not keep a copy of the private key. Save your public key and id_rsa private key file in a secure location.
  7. If you want to continue with the deployment and upload the generated public key, specify the remaining required information and click OK. Otherwise, cancel the deployment. For more information about virtual system pattern deployment, see the Related tasks section.

Results

The SSH key pair is generated and can now be used to set up access to virtual machines in multiple deployments. When you use the same key pair for multiple deployments, users who maintain or troubleshoot virtual machines in your environment do not need to reconfigure their SSH client with a different private key each time they access a particular virtual system instance.

The generated id_rsa private key file is in OpenSSH format and can be used with OpenSSH and is compatible with SSH clients. To use the key with other clients, the key might need to be converted to a different format. If this conversion cannot be done, it is recommended that you generate a key pair separately.

You can optionally use the command-line interface to regenerate or verify the complexity of an SSH key. To use the command-line interface to regenerate an SSH key, start the command-line interface and enter the following command:
sshkey reset
To use the command-line interface to verify the complexity of the SSH key, start the command-line interface and enter the following command:
sshkey verify