This page describes how to obtain an SSH key for public cloud and how to add it to your user Abiquo account.

SSH keys to create and access VMs in public cloud

 To access your VMs in many public cloud providers, such as AWS, you must have an RSA key pair.
For example, see http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AccessingInstances.html:

When you deploy a VM, Abiquo launches it in the provider with a key pair.

To connect to the VM, you will need the private key file of the key pair that you selected when you launched the instance.

Abiquo stores a public key for a user and automatically adds it to VMs at deploy time.
The user must keep the corresponding private key in a safe place and use it to access the VM.

Generate your own key pairs

On Linux you can create an RSA key for SSH in Linux using the following command.

ssh-keygen -t rsa
ssh-add id_rsa

By default the keys will be saved in a folder such as ~/.ssh and the public key in a file such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.

For AWS, you can generate your own key pair or get AWS to generate one for you. See  http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/generating-a-keypair.html

Add your public key to Abiquo

To save a public key in Abiquo:

• Edit an Abiquo user who will use the public datacenter. There are two ways to edit a user:
  
  1. In Users view, by selecting the enterprise name, then the user name and clicking the edit button OR
  2. If allowed in your installation, cloud users can edit their user details by clicking on the user name in the top right-hand corner of the screen
• Enter the RSA public key for the user
• The user should keep the private key in a safe place and supply it to access their virtual machines