Generate an SSH Key

This page contains information about generating a public SSH Key. If you are generating a key for production access, please see SRE/Production access#Generating your SSH key.

Generate an SSH key

### Generate SSH key
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@youremail.com"  # Replace email's value, save on default filename, type your passphrase
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub             # Public key, to copy into your other tools
# ~/.ssh/id_ed25519                   # Private key, keep this private!

A fingerprint and randomart image for the key will also be generated.

Add or Change a passphrase

Add or change the SSH passphrase using this command:

1. Enter the following into your terminal $ ssh-keygen -p, and press Enter.
2. When prompted Enter file in which the key is (/Users/you/.ssh/id_rsa):, type the location of your key and press Enter.
3. Enter your old passphrase, and press Enter.
4. Enter the same passphrase again, and press Enter.
5. our identification has been saved with the new passphrase.

Notes

• Make sure to choose a passphrase. Do not leave it empty.
• ssh-agent can be used to store your passphrase securely, so you do not have to re-enter it.
• Mac OS X Leopard or later and Linux users SSH can save their passphrase in the system's keychain.

See also

• Help:SSH
• Production shell access
• Help:Accessing Cloud VPS instances