Keypairs

Keypairs serve several critical functions in colossus cloud environment:

Security

  • Provide secure SSH access to instances
  • Replace less secure password authentication
  • Enable encrypted connections between user and instances

Authentication

  • Act as your digital credentials for instance access
  • Allow automated scripts and tools to securely connect
  • Prevent unauthorized access to your cloud resources

Management Benefits

  1. Instance Access

    • Required for initial instance setup
    • Enable remote administration
    • Allow secure file transfers

  2. Automation

    • Enable infrastructure as code
    • Support automated deployment scripts
    • Facilitate CI/CD pipelines

Best Practices

  • Keep private keys secure and never share them
  • Use unique keypairs for different projects
  • Back up private keys safely
  • Name keys descriptively

To create a keypair with the CLI:

openstack keypair create <keypair-name> > <keypair-name>.pem
chmod 400 my-key.pem

You can also create a keypair with your own local ssh public key:

openstack keypair list
openstack keypair create --public-key <public-key-name>.pub <keypair-name>

Then you can exter your instance by using your ssh key, for example in a ubuntu instace:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/my_ssh_key ubuntu@INSTANCE_IP

Without a valid keypair, you cannot access your instances, making them a fundamental component of colossus infrastructure.

Create SSH key for Colossus

You can also create your public/private ssh keys and upload the public key to Colossus to create the keypair, the steps are:

Step 1: Create the SSH keys

Launch the ssh-keygen command and leave empty the passphrase.

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "user-email@domain.com"

[openstack@DESKTOP-G16DBTQ]:/mnt/c/Users/openstack/Desktop $ ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "user-email@domain.com"
Generating public/private ed25519 key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/home/openstack/.ssh/id_ed25519): /home/openstack/.ssh/id_openstack_key
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /home/openstack/.ssh/id_openstack_key
Your public key has been saved in /home/openstack/.ssh/id_openstack_key.pub
The key fingerprint is:
SHA256:ErPuaD4XKwOXgfaY5s user-email@domain.com
The key's randomart image is:
+--[ED25519 256]--+
|**o .....   .    |
|+oo.     . . .   |
|...o  o   . o    |
| o...  +   . +   |
|..+oo.o S   . +  |
|o.*=o...     E   |
|*o.+  .o         |
|*.  =oo          |
|+o oo=.          |
+----[SHA256]-----+

Step 2: Upload the publilc key

Inside colossus web interface in Compute -> Key pairs, create a new one by pressing Import Public Key, fill the name fiel, select SSH key in Key Type selection and choose the .pub file just created in step 1, then press Import Public Key button: