Private/Public Key Authentication

Creating a Private/Public Key Pair

If you have never use public key authentication before, you will have to start by creating a key pair. Once the key pair is created, you need to keep the private key in a safe location. Never upload the private key, and never send it by Email. Whoever has your private key can use it to try logging in to ARROW. So, treat the private key as a secret at all times.

The easiest way to prepare a key pair is the use of "puttygen", part of the "putty" software on Windows. Pressing the Windows Key together with R will open a window where you enter "puttygen". Once you press "Ok", the software opens up:

We can go with the defaults and just click on the "Generate" button. Some randomness depends on you moving the mouse around on the screen. Once enough random data is gathered, the private and public key will be generated.

Once the keys have been generated, you need to store the private key in a easy to find location on your local file system. I recommend creating a folder "Keys" within your "Documents" folder, but any other location is fine as well. The idea is that you may easily forget where the key is stored when you need it a later point in time. Click on "Save private key", and navigate to the "Keys" folder you created.