Creating a new Key pair in Mac OS X or Linux

Overview

This article walks you through generating a key pair on your computer to upload to your DreamCompute dashboard.

Creating a Key pair

To generate a new Key pair, run the following commands on your home computer.

1. Open an SSH terminal.
2. Generate an ed25519 private key using ssh-keygen under your username:

   [local]$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519
   Generating a public/private ed25519 key pair.
   Enter the file in which you wish to save they key (i.e., /Users/username/.ssh/id_ed25519):
   

   Custom key name

   If you press Enter, the key will be created with the default name of id_ed25519.

   You can name this anything you like, but if you choose a custom name, you'll need to let your SSH client know about the new key using Step #6 in this article. Also, if you choose to use a custom name, make sure to specify the full path to your user's .ssh directory. If you do not, the new key pair is created in the directory you're running the command. For example:

   [local]$ ssh-keygen -t ed25519
   Generating a public/private ed25519 key pair.
   Enter the file in which you wish to save they key (i.e., /Users/username/.ssh/id_ed25519): /Users/username/.ssh/customkey_ed25519
   

3. Proceed through the prompts that appear.

   Enter a passphrase (leave empty for no passphrase).

   You do not need to enter a passphrase, but it's highly recommended as it protects your private key if compromised. If so, someone would still need your passphrase in order to unlock it. The exception to this is if you're running an automated process such as as cron job. You should then leave the password out. From ssh-copy-id:

   "Generally all keys used for interactive access should have a passphrase. Keys without a passphrase are useful for fully automated processes."

4. Press Enter to continue.

   Enter same passphrase again:

5. Press Enter to continue.

   The following message appears:

   Your identification has been saved in /Users/username/.ssh/custom_ed25519
   Your public key has been saved in /Users/username/.ssh/custom_ed25519.pub
   The key fingerprint is:
   SHA256:7pNvrznUREXWY2r1otEwUWo40aKfZDFsUVDac3YuzrI
   The key's randomart image is:
   +--[ED25519 256]--+
   |            o+*+=|
   |             X..o|
   |            @.= +|
   |           o #.* |
   |        Q o @oB o|
   |       .   *.C.+ |
   |        ..S.+    |
   |       .o . .o   |
   |        .+..+.   |
   +----[SHA256]-----+
   

6. Import the public key into your DreamCompute dashboard.

See also