Owner's Manual

To create RSA keys, perform the following steps:

NOTE: It is assumed that you are running an SSH2 server and are using the RSA2 keys.

Run PuTTYgen (or your preferred mechanism) for generating public/private key pairs. You can save your

private keys (".ppk" files)to any location on your system.

The following is a sample public key that you would put in a file that you create called "authorized_keys2 for

RSA2 keys."

ssh-rsa

AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAABJQAAAIEAxfMzTwS4Cwnua61h7kiad9l3Hvl

SeFIYPsZOrCYMuA++

9mPRraUEtrKNkwdaPKqPnc2/JFHyAxOu31jfUgQqgM2CSqwdr7fuowjseVVPTuG

5JdVR1BwUAXlJK/

Hy1BM+mkKHMuNe0jTrN/gUxcmlA0lHFaFNRjV++AeM15upJsk= rsa-key-20050209

Linux ships with other utilities for creating public/private key

pairs. You can download PuTTYgen from the following Web address:

"http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html"

The public keys are saved in the following configuration file on

the Linux system.

~/.ssh/authorized_keys2

Create this file, if it is not present.

You can store the private keys in the directory of your choice. For security reasons, it is recommended that you

set the appropriate permissions for your private key files.

This is a sample "sshconfig.pro" file where you can configure the names and location of your private keys:

#server[.user]=<path-to-file>

#A server-name of global would be appropriate to accommodate a

network where all or most systems are set up using the same key.

#global[.user]=<path-to-file>

global.root=C:\SSH Private Keys\root\global_root_privatekey.ppk

global.fred=C:\SSH Private Keys\fred\global_fred_privatekey.ppk

192.168.157.149.root=C:\SSH Private Keys\root\

system1_root_privatekey.ppk

192.168.157.151.fred=C:\SSH Private Keys\fred\

system2_fred_privatekey.ppk

Copy "sshconfig.pro" to the bin folder of IT Assistant. By default, this folder is located at:

"C:\Program Files\Dell\SysMgt\ITAssistant\bin directory

NOTE: A blank password in IT Assistant triggers SSH authentication using the RSA keys instead of using

passwords. IT Assistant then attempts to find the entry in the "sshconfig.pro" file. If IT Assistant finds the

system and user or global key in "sshconfig.pro", it uses the ".ppk" file for establishing an SSH connection to

the server. However, if IT Assistant cannot find this information, it assumes that you meant to enter a blank

password.

Dell recommends that SSH version 2 or above be used on the managed system for better security.

For more information on the usage of public keys for SSH authentication, see

"http://www.tartarus.org/~simon/puttydoc/Chapter8.html"