Generating SSH Keys

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Last updated: Apr 13, 2023 by Sean HastertVersion comment
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Using PuTTY to Generate SSH Keys in Windows

Use PuTTYGen on Windows to generate private/public key pairs for SSH authentication.

Once PuTTYGen has been downloaded, use the following procedure to generate a SSH key for a SoftNAS® instance in Microsoft Azure.

  • Open PuTTYGen and select SSH-1 (RSA).
  • Click Generate to generate new public/private keys.

  • Generate randomness by moving the mouse when prompted. 

  • Copy the public key, which will be used for the SoftNAS® instance in Microsoft Azure. 

Save both the private and public keys.

Using OpenSSH to Generate SSH Keys in Linux

To set up SSH access, the following is required:

  • Create a public/private key pair.
  • Copy the public key that will be uploaded to the remote server.

Create the Key Pair

  • Open a Terminal session.
  • Run the following command to create a new public/private key:

Generate Public/Private Key
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048
  • When prompted, select a location on the local machine to save the key.  The default location is recommended.
  • When prompted, provide a passphrase to protect the private key if it is required.

Adding the Key to the Remote Server

  • Add the newly created public key to the SoftNAS® instance in Microsoft Azure.  In order to do this, copy the key from Terminal and then paste it into the SoftNAS® VM at the time of creation.
  • To display the key, run the following command and copy the entire output including ssh-rsa:
cat rsa.pub
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub


Move on to complete section Create & Configure Virtual Machine.