Using the PuTTYgen Program to Generate an SSH Key Pair

Posted by Pete on September 10th, 2018

An SSH public key is used for authentication when you use an SSH client to connect to the Database Cloud Service instance. These procedures are specific to the Microsoft Windows operating system.

For procedures that are specific to UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems, see Using the ssh-keygen Utility to Generate an SSH Key Pair.

1. Download and install PuTTY from http://www.puttygen.com/
   
2. On you computer, click Start, All Programs, PuTTY, and then PuTTYgen.
3. Select SSH-2 RSA in the Parameters area.
4. Enter 1024 in the Number of bits in a generated key field.
5. Click Generate and then move the cursor around the blank area of the Key area to generate the random characters that create a unique key.
6. Leave the Key passphrase and Confirm passphrase fields empty.
7. Export the SSH private key:
   1. Click Conversions and then Export OpenSSH key.
   2. Click Yes when the PuTTYgen Warning dialog appears.
   3. Enter a name for the SSH private key file, change the file extension to .openssh, and then click Save.
8. Select and copy all of the characters in the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file area.
9. Open a text editor and paste the text you copied in step 8.
10. Save the SSH public key file in the same location as the SSH private key.
11. Enter a name for the SSH public key file, change the file extension to .pub, and then click Save.