NOTE: This is an advanced topic, and is not necessary to understand in order to use your ExaVault FTP service.

If you want to create automatic logins to your ExaVault SFTP service, you can do so via an ssh keypair. This document describes how to create and upload such a keypair.

To generate SSH keys in MS Windows, you'll need to use PuTTYgen:

• PuTTY Download Page
• PuTTYgen requires no installation; you need only to download the executable.
• You will only need to create a standard RSA SSH-2 key pair.
• Complete instructions for using PuTTYgen can be found on the PuTTY website

Once the key pair is generated:

1. Rename the public key to authorized_keys. Note: there is no extension for this file.
2. Using an SFTP client with a username and password, upload the public key to your ExaVault SFTP server. It must be placed inside of a folder named .sftp in the root folder of the account or sub-account (e.g. /.sftp/authorized_keys )
3. Import the private key into your SFTP software on your local machine.

You should now be able to connect without a password.

1. Open a terminal and use SSH to generate a public/private key pair. You should not enter a password when prompted (e.g. just press return):
   

   ssh-keygen -t rsa -f mykey

2. Convert the public key to RFC-4716 format, which is the only format our SFTP server accepts for public keys:
   

   ssh-keygen  -e  -f  mykey.pub  >  mykey.rfc4716.pub

3. Change the name of the public key to read authorized_keys.
   

   mv  mykey.rfc4716.pub  authorized_keys

4. Using an SFTP client with a username and password, upload the RFC-4716 format key to your ExaVault SFTP server. It must be placed inside of a folder named .sftp in the root folder of the account or sub-account (e.g. /.sftp/authorized_keys ).
5. Import the private key into your SFTP software on your local machine. There are many ways to do this, depending on the software. For example, if you use sftp you would enter:
   

   sftp -oIdentityFile=mykey accoount@account.exavault.com

You should now be able to connect without a password.

Yes! Simply append each additional public key into the authorized_keys file on the FTP server as described above.