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Livia Lima
Livia Lima

Posted on • Originally published at blog.livialima.net on

PuTTY Basics

PuTTY is a free and open-source terminal emulator, very popular as a SSH client; used primarily by Windows users.

SSH Connection

  • Open PuTTY
  • Select Session
  • Enter the username@hostname or just the remote hostname or IP address at Host Name. Example:
admin@192.168.1.2

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  • Connection: SSH
  • Port: 22
  • (Optional) Name your session in Saved Session field and click Save
  • Click Open

DISCLAIMER: You may need to generate/add a private key for authentication.

putty-session.png

Add a private key for authentication

  • Connections
    • SSH
    • Auth
  • Browse and select the private key for authentication. It should be a .ppk file.

putty-auth.png

Create a private key with PuTTYGen

On Windows:

  • Go to Windows Start menu
    • All Programs
    • PuTTY
      • PuTTYgen
  • Parameters:
    • Type of key: RSA
    • Number of bits in a generated key: 2048
  • Generate
  • Specify a passphrase for the key
  • Save private key

On Linux:

puttygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C "user@host" -o keyfile.ppk

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Check the PuTTYGen manual for more details.

Convert an Amazon .pem key to PuTTY .ppk key

On Windows:

  • Go to Windows Start menu
    • All Programs
    • PuTTY
      • PuTTYgen
  • Parameters:
    • Type of key: RSA
    • Number of bits in a generated key: 2048
  • Load
  • Select your .pem file for the key pair
  • Open
  • Save private key

On Linux:

puttygen keyfile.pem -O private -o keyfile.ppk

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Check the Amazon Docs for more details.

More about PuTTY and PuTTYGen can be found at the manual page.

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