Private and Public SSH Key

For communication with SSH you often need a private/public key pair.

To create this you can user the tool puttygen which comes with the PuTTY installation (see:http://www.putty.org/).

Open the application puttygen:

Now click “Generate” and follow the hints.
When the key is generated, enter your comment and passphrase.

Noch you can save this private key, usually to the directory /users/Username/.ssh, name something like my.private.key.ppk
To create a file with the public key, you only have to select the text in the field “Public key for pasting …” and copy it in a text file.
If you want to communicate with a linux host, the filename of this file is “authorized_keys”.
Copy this file to the linux directory /home/username/.ssh.

Important: There is no CR or LF at the end of this file!

Ready.