ssh using secure file method

Setting SSH on a machine using security file for direct ssh

Client:- The system from which the ssh session will be started via the ssh command

Server:- The system that the ssh session connects to

Steps to taken on the client :

On the client run the following commands:

1. $ mkdir -p $HOME/.ssh
2. $ chmod 0700 $HOME/.ssh (set the security on .ssh folder)
3. $ ssh-keygen -t rsa -This should result in two files, $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa (private key) and $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub (public key).
4. Copy $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa.pub to the server.
5. On the server run the following commands: $ cat id_rsa.pub >> $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys2
   $chmod 0600 $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys2
   Depending on the version of OpenSSH the following commands may also be required:

$ cat id_rsa.pub >> $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys

$ chmod 0600 $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys

An alternative is to create a link from authorized_keys2 to authorized_keys:

$ cd $HOME/.ssh && ln -s authorized_keys2 authorized_keys

On the client test the results by ssh'ing to the server

$ ssh -i $HOME/.ssh/id_rsa server

(Optional) Add the following $HOME/.ssh/config on the client:

Host server

IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

This allows ssh access to the server without having to specify the path to the id_rsa file as an argument to ssh each time.