Connect to Virtual Machines via SSH

When creating storages based on IONOS Linux images, you can inject SSH keys into your VM. You can access your VMs safely on the IONOS Cloud, which uses SSH keys for authentication and secure communication. SSH keys that you intend to use more often can be saved in the DCD's SSH Keys view.

Note: Connecting via SSH is only possible with the Linux operating system, not Windows, because IONOS Windows images do not support SSH key injection.

Establish connection using SSH Keys

With SSH key-based authentication, you can establish secure connections to your Linux VMs. An SSH key is composed of a public-private key pair:

• A private key: It stays on your local system. Ensure that you do not share your private key.

• A public key: It is saved on your VM and enables you to access your provisioned VMs.

When you connect to your VM (which has the public key) using an SSH client, the remote VM validates the private key of the client. The client can access the VM only if the client has the correct private key.

Supported SSH Key types

SSH keys are necessary to connect via SSH. The following are the types of SSH keys that can be used for an SSH connection:

Keys from the SSH Keys view	Ad-hoc SSH Keys
SSH keys that you intend to use often, either as default or non-default.	SSH keys that you only use once and do not intend to save in the SSH Keys view for reuse.
Select the Default checkbox in the SSH Keys to set them as default SSH keys.	An Ad-hoc SSH Key cannot be set as default.
Default SSH keys are preselected when you configure storage devices.	An Ad-hoc SSH Key must be specified manually.
Clear the Default checkbox if you do not want to set them as default. However, you can still associate a non-default SSH key while adding storage to a VM element.	You can specify only one Ad-hoc SSH Key when you associate a storage with the VM element.

Workflow

You can connect to the VM via SSH in the following ways:

1. Generate an SSH key.

2. Store the default SSH key in the SSH Keys view for reuse. This is not applicable for an Ad-hoc SSH key.

3. Attach a Linux storage image with a VM and associate either a key saved in DCD SSH keys view or an Ad-hoc SSH key with it. You can choose an appropriate SSH key by selecting the respective checkbox. An Ad-hoc SSH key must be entered manually.

4. Connect to your VM (Linux) instance via an SSH client of your choice. An SSH client is a collection of tools for establishing SSH connections to remote servers. Example: OpenSSH, PUTTY, etc.