Question

46

How do I backup ssh keys?

rated 0 times [ 46] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 49685 / 2 Years ago, thu, april 28, 2022, 11:12:39

I am planning to do a fresh install of ubuntu 11.10 in my system. Before that i have setuped key based ssh authentication in this machine. Is it possible to take backup of those ssh keys, so that i can use that in my new installation. Or else i must setup keybased ssh authentication again? If i can take backup, what are the files i need to copy? Can someone explain it in detail pls. Thanks in advance.

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2 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago ncharm · Accepted Answer

Responding to SSH only... yes, you can keep your keys.

I can't think of any topic on which to expound about that, though. It is straight forward: if your username is karthick, then the keys are located in a hidden directory here:

/home/karthick/.ssh

or

~/.ssh

The id_rsa.pub file contains the public key used to authenticate. But there are other files to keep - all of them, really, such as known_hosts for example. The MOST IMPORTANT is id_rsa (note the lack of .pub) as this is your private key. Back up each user. For example, if you set up SSH for root, get /root/.ssh as well. And so on for as many accounts as you have for this reason.