Generating SSH Key Pairs

This section outlines the requirement to generate SSH key pairs on your local system, which can be UNIX or Windows.

Note: All references to UNIX also apply to Linux.

If you already have an SSH key pair, you may use that to connect to your environment whether it is running On-Premises or in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Tip: The best practice is to create at least two SSH keys, a primary and a backup, because if for any reason an SSH Key is no longer valid, access to the instance or machine would be lost with no means to recover the access. A user cannot access an instance or machine without using an SSH Key.

For instances in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, it is recommended you use the Oracle Cloud Shell to interface with a Oracle Cloud Infrastructure instance. Oracle Cloud Shell is browser-based, does not require installation or configuration of anything on your laptop, and works independently of your network setup. The below referenced Oracle documentation for generating SSH keys provides instructions for these options:

Oracle Cloud Shell
Apple MacOS
Microsoft Windows 10
Prior Microsoft Windows Versions
SSH Keys for Linux

Refer to this Oracle tutorial that describes the process to generate an SSH key pair for Oracle Compute Cloud Service instances. Fundamentally, you can use these same procedures for On-Premises environments.

Generate SSH keys