Generate SSH key pair

For authentication under Unix, authentication via password is often dispensed with and SSH key pair authentication is used instead. With key authentication, the public key of a key pair is stored on the target server.


Generate key pair

You can create a new key pair with the following Bash command. It is recommended to use the -C option to store an e-mail address so that the intended use of the SSH key can be assigned.


ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C name@creoline.com

Key pairs are stored in the corresponding user directory in the .ssh folder (~/.ssh).



Store key pair on a Linux server


Make sure that you do not store your private SSH key on a server at any time. The public SSH RSA key always ends with the suffix .pub.

via customer center

Click on Server in the navigation bar and select the desired server on which you would like to store the SSH key. Then select Settings → SSH key file in the top right-hand corner to customize the key file.

You can store the public key in the pop-up window:

SSH-Schlüsseldatei - Linux Server



The command cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub outputs the public key from the key pair id_rsa as text.


via SSH command

To store the public key on a server, you can use the OpenSSH command ssh-copy-id to read the key with a command and import it on the server:

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub USER_NAME@SERVER_IP


Authorized Keys

All public and authorized SSH keys that may be used for authentication on the server are stored in a user's authorized_keys file.

To authorize an additional SSH key, you can add the public key to the file. The storage location is in the following directory:

/root/.ssh/authorized_keys


By removing SSH keys from the authorized_keys file, the key can no longer be used for authentication in the future.


Attention: Our employees will never ask you for your SSH root password or ask you to store an unknown public SSH key on your server.