Linux: SSH Key Setup

Owned by Lisa Stafford
Last updated: Aug 14, 2024
1 min read

Overview

This article provides details and specifics for how to set up a SSH key to connect to ARCC HPC Clusters from a Linux OS PC. Each key is associated with your identity on that HPC resource, therefore you do not need to create a new key for every client you use to ssh into the HPC.

If you’d like to configure a specific SSH connection application in Linux OS specific directions may be found below:

  • Configuring SSH Key Authentication in CyberDuck for Mac

Creating and Managing your SSH Keys with the SSH Key Manager

Configure keys on your Linux Box

  1. Unzip the files associated with your login to your .ssh folder:

    unzip <username>.zip -d ~/.ssh/

  2. Test your configuration. If If configured properly, you will be logged in automatically, and will not be prompted for a password (first factor), nor second factor authentication for login.

 

Note: If you run into permissions errors on the key files (usually errors will take the form of something similar to: "permission 0### too open") we recommend running the following commands then reattempting to ssh using your key files.

chmod 0600 -R ~/.ssh #sets appropriate permissions for the .ssh private keys ssh-add #configures ssh agent for certs when not natively supported