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Generating a new SSH key and adding it to remote server

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Generating a new SSH key

  1. Open Terminal.
  2. Type the command below, changing your email address
$ ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "you@example.com"
  1. When you're prompted to "Enter a file in which to save the key," press Enter. This accepts the default file location. But take care to avoid overiding existing used keys
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/you/.ssh/id_rsa):
  1. At prompt, type twice a secure passphrase, do not forget it:
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:

Generating a new SSH key

  1. Ensure ssh-agent is enabled:
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
Agent pid 84959
  1. Add your SSH key to the ssh-agent
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Enter passphrase for /Users/you/.ssh/id_rsa:
Identity added: /Users/you/.ssh/id_rsa (/Users/tsamaya/.ssh/id_rsa)

Placing the public key on the remote server

ssh to-the-remote-server
mkdir ~/.ssh
chmod 700 ~/.ssh
cd ~/.ssh
touch authorized_keys
chmod 600 authorized_keys
vi authorized_keys

then paste your public key

on your local machine.

edit file ~/.ssh/config

add

Host your-remote-serve-ralias
   User you
   Hostname your-remote-server-dns-or-ip
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/your-private-key

Other resources

Github has a similar MacOSX, Linux, and Windows help page to generate ssh keys: https://help.github.com/articles/generating-a-new-ssh-key-and-adding-it-to-the-ssh-agent/

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