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I have accounts on two machine: H1 and H2. I created ssh keys on H1 and installed it on S1. I can now ssh to S1 from H1. I want to do the same from H2. How do I install the ssh keys generated on H1 on H2?

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Sep 6 '11 at 15:42

4 Answers

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You need to copy your private keys from H1 to H2, if you want to use your private keys to be able to login from H2 to S1. When you at H1 do the commands:

H1$ ssh H2 mkdir ~/.ssh
H1$ scp  ~/.ssh/id_rsa ~/.ssh/id_dsa H2:~/.ssh/

Warning! This will delete and replace any private key you have at H2.

Or you can generate new private keys on H2 and install their public part on S1 with ssh-copy-id. In second case you will have two sets of keys; one is for H1-S1 login and second for H2-S1 login. There will be two public keys authorized at S1. And you will be able to revoke any of them or both.

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up vote 7 down vote

Use ssh-copy-id

SYNOPSIS

ssh-copy-id [-i [identity_file]] [user@]machine

DESCRIPTION

ssh-copy-id is a script that uses ssh to log into a remote machine and append the indicated identity file to that machine's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.

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@I want to do ssh from H2 to S1. I want to transfer and install my private and public key from H1 to H2. Will this do that? – Bruce Sep 6 '11 at 15:17
@Bruce no, you need to regenerate the keys on h2 and use that command to copy your keys. Another approach is letting h1 and h2 share home directory. – Mu Qiao Sep 6 '11 at 15:19
up vote 0 down vote

Would ssh-copy-id do the job for you: http://linux.die.net/man/1/ssh-copy-id?

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@I want to do ssh from H2 to S1. I want to transfer and install my private and public key from H1 to H2. Will this do that? – Bruce Sep 6 '11 at 15:16
1  
If you are logged in to either S1 or H1 (which now have your key) using ssh-copy-id will allow you to transfer your public key (not private) to the H2. In general it is best to limit the number of machines on which your private key is installed. Try to keep it to a few secure machines only to prevent its loss. – Alex Sep 6 '11 at 15:21
How do I copy my private key to H2? – Bruce Sep 6 '11 at 15:25
up vote 0 down vote

LocalUser is Lu , and RemoteUser is Ru.

Lu$ mkdir ~/.ssh

Lu$ scp usernameOfRu@ipOfRu:.ssh/* .ssh/*

usernameOfRu@ipOfRu's password: "Enter password of remote system"

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