It is possible to easily set your computer and vps up so that you can
login without the need to supply the password on each occasion.
To do this you need to create an ssh key. Assuming that you are on
windows you can use a program called puttygen which can be downloaded
from
PuttyGen
Once you have downloaded this program check that it is set to either
SSH2-RSA or SSH2-DSA and if is simply click the 'Generate' link do as
it says and move the mouse around to generate the key.
Once the key has completed alter the Key-Comment to something more memorable - 'mycomputer' if you want to.
Now what we need to do here is to save the privatekey to a location on
your hard-drive - it will prompt you regarding not entering a
passphrase but you can just ignore this - just save it as e.g.
sshkey.ppk
Its also an idea to back up your publickey so you can use it again in the future.
Now that bits done we now need to simply get this key on to your server.
Using putty login to the server as you normally do using 'root' or your changed admin login username. And do the following
cd ~
mkdir .ssh
echo "COPY CONTENTS OF KEY INTO HERE" >> ~/.ssh/authorizedkeys2
(Replace COPY CONTENTS OF KEY INTO HERE with the actual contents of the key file, please note the quotes ARE required.)
Log out of putty now and reopen it -
now from the menu options choose:
Connection->Data and enter your login name into the Auto-login box
and
Connection->SSH-Auth - click the browse button and locate the privatekey that you saved to your harddrive.
Now go back to the 'Session' menu item at the top - and put your IP in
the Hostname box and in saved sessions box give it a name such as
'myvps' and click the save button
You should now see your saved session listed in the box - simply double
clicking this should now log you into your vps without any need for a
password (the first time you will be asked if you want to add the key
to the cache)
Article ID: 157, Created On: 3/18/2009, Modified: 9/15/2010