Generate Private and Public Encryption Keys

All of the screenshots that follow are from PuTTY 0.62.

Navigate to Chapter 8: Using public keys for SSH authentication of the online documentation, and read Section 8.2 Using PuTTYgen, the PuTTY key generator to begin generating the new private and public encryption keys. The screenshots that follow illustrate the key steps in the process.

1 Run PuTTYgen.

2 Inspect the default parameter values, and then press the Generate button.

3 Move the mouse over the blank area that is in the Key pane for a few seconds to proceed.

4 Replace the default value that is in the Key comment field with your email address, and then enter in the Key passphrase: field, and confirm, a passphrase that you will remember.

File Naming Convention

The file names that are used below follow an optional naming convention of starting with the user's initials (in this example "jd" for Jane Doe), followed by an indication of the scope of the key's applicability (in this example "eas" for the Enterprise Addressing System), to account for a given individual possibly having more than one private key.

<user's-intitials>_<scope>_public_key.txt
<user's-intitials>_<scope>_private_key.ppk
<user's-intitials>_<scope>_public_key_paste.txt

5 Use the buttons to save both the public key (jd_eas_public_key.txt) and the private key (jd_eas_private_key.ppk) somewhere on your Windows machine. It is also worth selecting (right-click, Select All), and then saving, the public key from the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file: field that is in the PuTTY Key Generator dialog (jd_eas_public_key_paste.txt).

6 Exit the PuTTY Key Generator dialog.

7 Request access to one or more EAS Linux VMs, and provide the public key file (jd_eas_public_key_paste.txt) to the EAS administrator who is fulfilling your request. For an example, see service request SER0159691.