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SSH Key Configuration

Configure your SSH key so rdc can connect to your servers without passwords.

SSH Key Configuration

rdc connects to your servers over SSH, so each server needs to trust your SSH key. Three steps total. Two are one-time setup, and one repeats for every new server you add.

Watch the tutorial

The three steps

Generate, copy, register

  1. Generate an SSH key on your laptop. Once, ever.
  2. Copy it to your server. Repeat for every new server.
  3. Register the key with rdc. Once, ever.

Step 1: Generate a key

If you already have a key you want to use, skip ahead. Otherwise:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

ed25519 is the modern default: small, fast, and well-supported.

Step 2: Copy it to your server

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 user@your-server-ip

Replace user and your-server-ip with the SSH user and IP of your server. You’ll be prompted for your server password one last time. After this, password authentication is no longer required.

Step 3: Register the key with rdc

time rdc config ssh set --key ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

That’s it. From here on, every rdc command authenticates with this key. No more passwords, no more interactive prompts.

Next: Adding Your First Server.