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Background

I have a Proxmox node running in my homelab where I run some LXC containers.

I was learning how to create an Ubuntu virtual machine template through this Learn Linux TV video and the presenter described being able to SSH into the Proxmox shell using SSH keys.

I wanted to figure out how to do it and so this is a quick doc outlining the steps I took to get it working.

1. Generate a new SSH key pair

First, I generated a new SSH key pair using the ssh-keygen command:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "root"

As part of the prompts, you can give the public and private key files a friendly name. I called mine proxmox_root.

Note: I originally thought that the -C flag and value needed to match the username that I wanted to login as in the Proxmox Shell i.e. root but I have since learned that the -C stands for Comment and can be any value.

2. Add the new SSH key info to the ~/.ssh/config file

Host proxmox                        # give the host a friendly name so the ssh command is easier to remember
  HostName 192.111.1.111            # the IP address of the Proxmox node
  AddKeysToAgent yes                # whether to add the key to the ssh-agent
  User root                         # the user you wish to login as in the Proxmox node shell
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/proxmox_root  # the key file to use as part of the ssh key exchange

3. Transfer the public key to the Proxmox node

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/proxmox_root [email protected]

This will copy the public key called proxmox_root.pub to the Proxmox node for the root user in this case.

4. SSH into the Proxmox node

ssh proxmox

If everything has gone to plan, this should log you into the Proxmox shell without needing to enter a password.