Distribution of SSH keys

When you want to allow public key authentication, you have to first create a SSH keypair. Next step is then the distribution of the public key to the other systems. Let’s have a look at a few options, including using the ssh-copy-id utility.

Option 1: Manually

In the past, you had to log in manually to the new system and do things yourself. Especially if you created your key with a tool like PuTTYgen on Windows. Then you logged in on the other system, created a .ssh directory and the related authorized_keys file. Of course, it was common to forget setting the right permissions, resulting in the authentication to fail.

Option 2: Using ssh-copy-id

Much easier is to use the SSH utility ssh-copy-id. Just run the tool and provide it your username on the remote server, with the remote server name.

 ssh-copy-id michael@my-server

It will use your local environment to determine the related key(s) and copy it over. In case you use an alternative identity file, you can provide that with the -i option. Same for when running on a different port, specify it together with -p. To simplify your life, set up a ssh_config file. This way the right username and port are used.

In need of support from a colleague or vendor, but don’t want to give them permanent access? SSH has an option to allow temporary access! Next time you need to provide temporary access for an hour or day, use this great option.

The Run SSH Command activity opens an SSH connection to a remote server and runs shell commands on that server. Use the Run SSH Command activity to run backup applications or a batch script that runs a set of complex commands on a non-Windows computer. The Run SSH Command activity can run any command in a Secure Shell.

Run SSH Command activity is based on PuTTY beta .70. The implementation of SSH in "Run SSH Command" has certain limitations:

• The Run SSH Command activity does not work against all SSH-1 and SSH-2 servers. In general, this activity functions with most SSH servers, but it does not work for all SSH server implementations.

• You must download and use the PuTTy key generation tool to create keys for the Run SSH Command activity. The key generation tool is available at Download PuTTY - a free SSH and telnet client for Windows.

KiTTY is a fork from version 0.70 of PuTTY, the best telnet / SSH client in the world.
KiTTY is only designed for the Microsoft® Windows® platform. For more information about the original software, or pre-compiled binaries on other systems, you can go to the Simon Tatham PuTTY page.

KiTTY has all the features from the original software, and adds many others as described below:

Precision colors for machines and people // Solarized is a sixteen color palette (eight monotones, eight accent colors) designed for use with terminal and gui applications. It has several unique properties. I designed this colorscheme with both precise CIELABlightness relationships and a refined set of hues based on fixed color wheel relationships.