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Instructions for Generating and Sharing a Public Key for SFTP Access
Instructions for Generating and Sharing a Public Key for SFTP Access

MetaLocator Enterprise customers can generate a private SSH key for use in our SFTP connector

Michael Fatica avatar
Written by Michael Fatica
Updated over 2 weeks ago

When using MetaLocator's SFTP connector, MetaLocator can provide an public/private key pair, or your team can generate a private key and provide MetaLocator the public key.

To generate a key pair, follow these instructions


To create a key pair on Microsoft Windows operating systems:

  1. Download PuTTy Key Generator PuTTygen.exe file and run it.

  2. In the Key menu, select SSH-2 RSA Key.

  3. In Parameters, select the RSA option.

  4. In Number of bits in generated key field, enter at least 2048, ideally 4096.

  5. In Actions, select Generate.

  6. A progress bar appears. In the blank area under the bar, move your pointer in a random pattern to complete key pair generation.

  7. When generation completes, copy the contents of the Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file field and past into a text editor application (like Notepad).

    Important

  8. Save your file as metalocator-yyyymmdd.pub.

  9. Provide the metalocator-yyyymmdd.pub file to the MetaLocator support team via email or Asana.

  10. Key passphrase and Confirm passphrase fields aren't required. Leave blank for no passphrase.

  11. Select Save private key to save the private key file. This key lets you connect to SFTP in your preferred FTP application.

Create an SSH key pair on Macintosh or Linux

To create a key pair on Macintosh or Linux operating systems:

  1. Open a Terminal window. in Macintosh operating systems, find Terminal in the Dock or in the Utilities folder.

  2. Enter the following command: ssh-keygen -b 2048 -t rsa -C "your_username" -f filename.

    1. The length, determined by -b, should be at least 2048, ideally 4096.

    2. Update your_username and filename values.

    3. Example: ssh-keygen -b 2048 -t rsa -C "your_username" -f metalocator-yyyymmdd.

  3. Select enter and follow prompts.

  4. A passphrase isn't required. Supply a passphrase or leave blank and select enter to continue.

  5. When successfully generated, you see these messages:

    1. Your identification has been saved in filename.

    2. Your public key has been saved in filename.pub.

  6. Search for the public and private key files in Finder.

    1. The two key files are named based on what was specified in the Terminal command.

      1. Example: metalocator-yyyymmdd and metalocator-yyyymmdd.pub

    2. With no specified file name, the key files appear as: id_rsa and id_rsa.pub.

  7. Provide the id_rsa.pub file to the MetaLocator support team via email or Asana.

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