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Managing SSH Keys

AVA platform requires from every developer a unique SSH key to authorize any code deployment into the system. This is a standardized, industry accepted security feature which is widely used in similar services like GitHub.

Creating your SSH keys

GitHub has an informative page on SSH Key generation and what you see here is practically taken from the page Generating SSH keys. Before moving forward it would be prudent to check for existing SSH Keys on your computer and if it’s necessary to create a new one.

Check for Existing SSH keys

To see all existing SSH Keys open a terminal and type:

$ ls -al ~/.ssh
# Lists the files in your .ssh directory, if they exist
...
drwx------   7 username  staff   238 Aug  3 14:08 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 33 username  staff  1122 Jul 24 09:06 ..
-rw-------   1 username  staff  1766 Jun 25 12:29 github_rsa
-rw-r--r--   1 username  staff   403 Jun 25 12:29 github_rsa.pub
-rw-r--r--   1 username  staff  2005 Aug  3 14:11 known_hosts

This shows that this user called username has already GitHub created SSH key which is possible to use. We recommend creating a new one for a simplicity and proper record keeping.

Alternatively, you can use an [API call]((/v2#/sshkeys/get_sshkeys) to list all SSH keys of the current user.

Creating a new SSH key

Please note: according to the OpenSSH manual, the following RSA key signature types are available for creation: rsa-sha2-256 and rsa-sha2-512 (default for RSA keys), ssh-rsa (SHA1 signatures, not recommended).

To create an SSH key, for example, a key of type rsa-sha2-256, open a terminal and enter:

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa-sha2-256 -b 4096
...
Generating public/private rsa-sha2-256 key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa): [Press enter]
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):  [Type a passphrase]
Enter same passphrase again:  [Type a passphrase]
Your identification has been saved in /Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /Users/username/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
01:0f:f4:3b:ca:85:d6:17:a1:7d:f0:68:9d:f0:a2:db username@yourcomputer.local

The example above ties your SSH key with your computer.

Please note: if you want your SSH key to be connected with your e-mail address then use

$ ssh-keygen -t rsa-sha2-256 -b 4096 -C username@youraddress.com

After generating the SSH Key if we check our SSH directory we will get two more entries:

$ ls -al ~/.ssh
total 40
drwx------   7 username  staff   238 Aug  3 14:08 .
drwxr-xr-x+ 33 username  staff  1122 Jul 24 09:06 ..
-rw-------   1 username  staff  1766 Jun 25 12:29 github_rsa
-rw-r--r--   1 username  staff   403 Jun 25 12:29 github_rsa.pub
-rw-------   1 username  staff  3243 Aug  3 14:08 id_rsa
-rw-r--r--   1 username  staff   755 Aug  3 14:08 id_rsa.pub
-rw-r--r--   1 username  staff  1595 Jul 28 16:14 known_hosts

Use the newly generated id_rsa.pub key to work with the platform. For the simplicity type:

$ less ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | pbcopy

This command copies the newly created SSH Key into your clipboard, so that you can paste it into the SSH entry form on the AVA platform.

Alternatively, you can use an [API call]((/v2#/sshkeys/post_sshkeys) to create a new SSH key.

Uploading your SSH keys

To add a newly generated SSH Keys, click your “avatar” and navigate to Identity Keys section. There you can define key name, enter the SSH key and save it:

Identity Keys section

If you already have some SSH keys, just click Add New SSH Key:

Add New SSH Key