SSH keys are more secure than passwords and can help you log in without having to remember long passwords.

With RunCloud you can easily add your ssh key to your server. If you are running an *NIX type OS such as MacOS or any Linux distro, ssh is already included with your OS. You can easily open a Terminal window execute ssh commands to connect to remote hosts.

For Windows users, This has traditionally been a bit of a challange. It has required the installation of 3rd party software called PuTTY. This software creates SSH sessions from your local OS to the server.

It must be mentioned that this situation has changed recently. Since the Windows 10 Creators Update in 2017, Windows 10 users can enable the Linux Bash Shell for Windows and use a beta OpenSSH client to directly connect with remote servers via SSH. We will show you how to use the Windows 10 Linux Bash Subsystem for SSH in a future tutorial. Having said this, it is a beta client so there may still be some bugs whereas PuTTY is a truly tried and battle tested solution.

In this tutorial, I’ll guide you how to connect to your Runcloud managed server with PuTTY.

1.Download and Install

To get started you just need to install PuTTY to your computer. Here is the download link

2.Create an SSH Key Pair

Now you need to create an SSH key Pair. Open the PuTTYgen program through your Start Menu or by tapping the Windows key and typing “PuTTYgen”. It will look something like this:

Just click on generate button then the process will start:

In case you didn’t read the program’s instructions, MOVE YOUR MOUSE OVER THE BLANK AREA RANDOMLY so the program will generate an ssh key. After the key is generated the program will show you something like this:

Remember to save the public key and the private key to any folder that you wanted. Let me explain a bit about these two keys.

The Private key is used to determine and verify the user’s identity, therefore the key cannot be passed to anyone else. If another person obtains this key, they will be able to falsely access any account that you link with this private key and issue bogus commands.

The Public key is the key that is associated with your private key that you will install on other machines and accounts, this will enable access to them without a password. This key can be share freely.

Now that you have generated the keys that you need, we’ll continue to the next step.

3.Upload Your Public Key to Runcloud.

To upload your public key to runcloud, first you need to open the ssh key menu on the runcloud panel on the server that you wish to connect to:

Then you need to create SSH key, It will look like this:

Make sure the user selected is also the Web Appilcation owner. In this tutorial, I’ll be using root (ROOT CAN’T HAVE ANY WEB APPLICATION. PLEASE DON’T USE ROOT USER TO UPLOAD, CREATE OR EDIT YOUR WEB APPLICATION FILES). After you finish your public key will be displayed on the panel screen:

4.Setting Up an SSH Session with SSH Keys in PuTTY

Now you have your uploaded your public key into your server, the last step is to setting up the connection.

Start up the PuTTY program through your Start Menu or by tapping the Windows key and typing “PuTTY”.

Inside the program you will see the session screen:

Just insert your server ip address. The port is 22 this is standard port for ssh.
You need to set your data and SSH auth. On the data screen I have added root to the auto-login username, but assuming you followed my advice above, you should be using the Web Application owner so use that username instead:

Then select your saved private key in the SSH auth screen:

Now all configurations are done, you just need to revisit the session screen and click the OPEN button. You will get a prompt to click yes, once clicked you are now connected: