I currently have a setup which allows me to connect to all computers on my home network via SSH and RSA keys. I'm very security-conscious, so all of my keys are passphrase protected. I'd like to essentially set something up where I'm running Unison on a cron job to back up to a file server on my network, which we'll call timmy
. I've noticed that the first time I try to use a key on my Ubuntu laptop teeks
, I get a dialog which pops up asking me to type in my key passphrase. I've heard that for servers needing to make automated backups like this that one should use ssh-agent
to ask for the key passphrase on login/server start. How can I set this up on teeks
?
I'd essentially like to have the following happen:
- When I boot and come into the OS, prompt visually for the passphrase as is done when I first use a key.
- If I SSH into this computer (as it's internet-facing) and I haven't provided the SSH passphrase yet, then prompt for it. (Sometimes, I might need to remotely reboot the machine over SSH, so I'll be SSH'ing into it after it reboots and I'd like to be able to authenticate the key without having to VNC in and do it manually.)
Is there a tool that I can use to accomplish this?