Connecting to a server using an SSH key from a Windows client
- Download and run the PuTTY SSH client.
- Type the IP address or Username + IP address (
user@x.x.x.x) of the destination server under the "Host Name" field on the "Session" category. - Navigate to the "Connection -> SSH -> Auth" category (left-hand side).
- Click "Browse..." near "Private key file for authentication". Choose the private key file (ending in
.ppk) that you generated earlier with PuTTYgen. (Another guide: How to convert RSA Private Key to Putty Private Key .ppk ) - Click "Open" to initiate the connection.
Connecting to a server using an SSH key from a Linux client
- Check that your Linux operating system has an SSH client installed (
which ssh). If a client is not installed, you will need to install one. - Initiate a connection:
ssh -i /path/to/id_rsa user@x.x.x.x
