Generating an SSH key (Windows)

By Joe Gardiner Tuesday, 23rd March 2010

This guide ois for generating an SSH key using the PuTTY ss client that must be donwloaded before use. To generate an SSH key in Mac OSX view Generating an SSH Key on MacOSX.

In Windows a couple of light weight applications are required, as the windows command prompt does not support ssh natively.

Head to http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html which is the download page for a program called PuTTY. You want the installer that contains everything apart from PuTTYtel.

Note: At the time of writing there is only one installer available for download. You don’t want PuTTYtel as telnet is generally considered to be insecure, and is not supported by CatN vCluster.

Run the file once it’s finished downloading and install the program.

Look in your start menu and run “PuTTYgen”. This will generate your public and private ssh keys that you can then add to the CatN control panel.

Select the “Generate” option in the actions menu, and follow the instruction to move your mouse over the empty space. These random movements will generate a unique numerical key. Move the mouse until the progress bar is full.

When complete your public key will be displayed. Select the entire key, and copy it onto your clipboard (Ctrl + C).

Now we’re going to setup the PuTTY terminal. Bring up the PuTTYgen window again, and enter a password to lock your key in the “Key passphrase” text boxes.

Select “Save public key”, and choose a location on your computer to save this file. You may find it useful to create a PuTTY folder in your My Documents. Now select “Save private key”, and again, choose a location to save this file on your computer.

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