An SSH key pair consists of a set of two keys: a public key and a private key. These keys are used to authenticate and establish an encrypted communication channel between a client and a remote computer over a network. The public key is stored on a remote server (for example: the BC HPC cluster) and can be freely shared with any SSH server the user wishes to connect to. The private key is kept secret, known only to the user and never shared with anyone else.
Users on MacOS and Linux can open a terminal and perform the following:
- Open a Terminal and generate a key pair:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 - Copy the contents of the new public key to your Andromeda account
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub | ssh <cluster_login>@andromeda.bc.edu 'cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'
Windows 10 and newer has a similar process using WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux):
- Open a Terminal and generate a key pair:
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 - Copy the contents of the new public key to your Andromeda account
type%USERPROFILE%\.ssh\id_ed25519.pub | ssh <cluster_login>@andromeda.bc.edu 'cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'