Using SSH2 Key Pair authentication on multiple computers

Hello everyone,

I'm now successfully using SSH2 Key pair authentication after following this tutorial - https://library.linode.com/securing-your-server

What I'd like to know is how to use this authentication method across multiple local computers.

Do I use the same private key or just go through the process of generating a new private and public pair like the first time around?

Many thanks 8)

2 Replies

You make a unique key pair for each computer and put each public key into the authorized_keys file.

  • Les

Not sure if you mean "login to multiple machines" or "login from multiple machines".

If you have multiple linodes and want to use the same key to login to all of them, then just add the public key to each machine.

If you have multiple desktops and want to be able to login from all of them, then you can either copy your private key to each one, or create multiple entries (one per machine).

If you always login to one machine, from there login to others and from those machines login to your linode then you might want to look into ssh-agent; now you just have your key on one machine but allow it to be 'forwarded'. This is what I do for my home network.

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