SSH Keys

SSH Keys allow you to log into your server without needing a password. SSH Keys can be automatically added to servers during the installation process.

Creating a SSH key on Windows

The simplest way to create a SSH Key on Windows is to use puttygen.

Download and run PuttyGen
Click the ‘Generate’ button
For additional security, you can enter a key passphrase. This will be required to use the SSH key, and will prevent someone with access to your key file from using the key.
Once the key has been generated, click ‘Save Private Key’. Make sure you save this somewhere safe, as it is not possible to recover this file if it gets lost
Select all of the text in the ‘Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file’. This is what you would need to enter into the control panel to use the SSH key

Creating a SSH key on Linux

The tools to create and use SSH are standard, and should be present on most Linux distributions

Run ssh-keygen -t rsa
Press enter when asked where you want to save the key (this will use the default location)
Enter a passphrase for your key
Run cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub This will give you the key in the proper format to paste into the control panel.
Make sure you backup the ~/.ssh/id_rsa file. This cannot be recovered if it is lost.

Adding a SSH key to your control panel

Once you’re logged in, go to https://my.vultr.com/sshkeys
Click ‘Add SSH Key’
Enter a descriptive name for the key
Paste in your SSH public key. This is a long string beginning with ‘ssh-rsa’. You should have saved this from when you generated your key
Click ‘Add SSH Key’
Now, when you’re deploying servers you will be able to select which SSH keys you want to add to the newly deployed server.

Limitations

SSH keys are only available for Linux and FreeBSD. They are not supported for Windows, Custom ISOs, nor Snapshot restores.
SSH keys can only be managed from the control panel during deployment. You cannot use the control panel to manage them on an already-installed instance.

Source: VULTR