Hi There,

I always prefer to use PKI authentication to my devices, if I have a chance to configure that.

Advanatges:

– We don’t have to type password every time, it decreases the risk to type your passwd to the chat window for example.
– It’s much more stronger than the your dog’s name or your date of birth 🙂
– Not necessary to change it periodically

So if we have a possibility, I recommend to use PKI authentication.

First we have to generate a private/public keypair locally:

On windows(with putty):

Download the putty keygen from here, and run it:

pki_1

On Linux machines:

ssh-keygen -t rsa

It will create 2 files in the ~/.ssh/ dir.
id_rsa           : identification (private) key
id_rsa.pub    : public key

We get the keypair in both cases, we have to copy that to the remote machine.

Create the necessary directory, if it doesn’t exist:

mkdir .ssh
cd .ssh

And create the file for the public keys:

touch authorized_keys

In this file, we will store our public keys (!!!1 key in 1 line)
If you copy the public key correctly, then you will able to log in without password.