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Create a Public SSH Key

Before you can use key-based authentication, you will need to have a key on your own system.

UNIX

From your local machine's terminal, use the following command to create a private (id_rsa) and public (id_rsa.pub) key pair:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096

Where -t rsa enforces the RSA encryption algorithm and -b 4096 sets the key's length in bits.

You will be prompted to choose where to save the files and if you would like to protect the key with a passphrase. Press enter to skip these steps.

Once the command has finished, navigate to .ssh/id_rsa.pub and open the file in your text editor of choice.

Windows

You can generate an SSH key on Windows 10 or later using the ssh-keygen command.

  • Open a Powershell terminal window
  • Run ssh-keygen -b 4096
  • Enter the passphrase if desired, or hit Enter to continue without a passphrase
  • To get the contents of your public key, run get-content against the full path of the newly created public key
PS C:\Users\Administrator> ssh-keygen -b 4096
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (C:\Users\Administrator/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory 'C:\Users\Administrator/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in C:\Users\Administrator/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in C:\Users\Administrator/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:Kmos01FGD1/vYliJRwOczRQtoVwOlnNUk1MLgxU0p1M administrator@company
The key's randomart image is:
+---[RSA 4096]----+
|     .+O*OX+E    |
|    oo==X +O .   |
|* = o.o=ooo=   . |
|+O.o o o..o.     |
|   o   +S.       |
|  .   ..o .      |
| o .. .. .       |
|o +. .           |
| +.              |
+----[SHA256]-----+