use ssh key pair on pve?

[Beau]

Hi, all I have a question on ssh keys and proxmox I am not on a cluster I would ssh key for the root user.
I know I need to edit sshd_config but I am looking for help on what to change not to break things

 

[Chris]

Hi,
you can simply add your ssh key to the pve hosts authorized_keys by running a command like ssh-copy-id -i path/to/keyfile root@host from the client.

 

[Beau]

Hi Chris,
the client is windows 11 i have made the key with puttygen
when I look at pve /etc/ssh i do not see authorized_keys
thanks for any help

 

[IRO]

putty doesn't have this function.
You can copy your key with WinSCP

 

[Beau]

Hi the first key is called ssh-rsa does my key need to replace that or can it be any name?

 

[IRO]

ssh-rsa is the key format or type, not the name.
Don't edit the generated key, just copy it with WinSCP or manually and that's it.

 

[Chris]

Hi Chris,
the client is windows 11 i have made the key with puttygen
when I look at pve /etc/ssh i do not see authorized_keys
thanks for any help

Hi,
please append the full content of the newly generated ssh public key from the Windows client to the /root/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the PVE host (make sure there is a newline after the existing keys). The run pvecm updatecerts, which merges the newly added key also to /etc/pve/priv/authorized_keys, relevant for PVE.

 

[JohnR82]

If anyone else needs this information, @JayLaCroix

has a video here: ProxMox Create SSH Key Pairs

The only thing I noticed is that finding the private key in putty is slightly different from the video.

The path is:

Connection > SSH > Auth > Credentials

Another user here on ProxMox forum has asked an identical question > How to add own ssh key for root user

Also, I'm not sure what the comments about WinSCP are about? I used Putty with the PuttyGen that downloads with Putty on Win 11.

It was a very fast and easy