Version

Argent Omega 2.2A-2404-A and later

Date

Wednesday, 26 June 2024

Summary

Password-less SSH logon is considered more secure than typical user/password logon.

It is very common for Linux/UNIX administrators. It is accomplished by implementing public key authentication between Linux/UNIX hosts.

Argent Omega implements public key authentication as well.

It makes use of PuttyGen.exe, which is part of Putty package (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html), to generate private/public key pair for authentication.

Take following steps:

• Start PuttyGen.exe, select key type ‘RSA’, then click button ‘Generate’ to generate key pair.
  
  Note: Private/public keys currently used by Linux/UNIX environment can be re-used here. By doing so, it would be no need to update authorized_keys file on each host.
  
  To re-use the existing private key, copy the key file from Linux/UNIX host, the use button ‘Load’ to import.
• Leave key passphrase empty, click button ‘Save Private Key’ to save private key as a PPK file.
  
  

  

• Logon to Linux/UNIX host, append public key to file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.
  
  

• Add Linux/UNIX host to CMDB-X.
• Configure CMDB-X node properties to use SSH and PPK with appropriate logon account.
  
  
  

  Click For Full Size

  
  

  Note: Password is empty in Authentication and Logon User is the account that has the updated authorized_keys file.
  

• Run connectivity test to make sure that logon is successful.