How deeply does Road to Kubernetes cover SSH key?

Defines the private/public split and demonstrates generation, secret storage, instance installation, and Ansible prerequisites.

SSH key

As explained in Road to Kubernetes

An SSH key is a cryptographic key pair consisting of a private key and a corresponding public key for authenticating secure shell connections.

An SSH key is a cryptographic key pair: a private key and its corresponding public key. Together with a remote host, username, network connection, and SSH client, the pair supports secure-shell authentication without relying on a password. section 3.1.2 section 4.1.2

Use the two files for different purposes:

Keep the private key secret; store it as a GitHub Actions secret when automation needs it. section 4.1.2
Install the public key on the remote machine or provision it on new instances. section 4.1.2
Create a purpose-built pair for automation instead of exposing a personal key such as ~/.ssh/id_rsa. section 4.1.2
Ensure the required keys exist on both the machine running Ansible and the machines it configures. section 4.2

Create a dedicated automation key pair

Run ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -f github_actions_key -N "". This creates github_actions_key as the private key and github_actions_key.pub as the public key. Add the private file to a repository secret named SSH_PRIVATE_KEY, and install the public file on the remote instance. section 4.1.2

How Road to Kubernetes covers it

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Related concepts

password authenticationalternative to · Password authentication is an authentication method that verifies a claimed identity or access by checking a supplied secret password or passphrase.
administratorused by · An administrator is a user, account, role, or process granted elevated permissions to manage a system, application, or its resources and settings.
HashiCorp Vaultused by · HashiCorp Vault is a secrets-management system for securely storing sensitive data and controlling, auditing, and providing access to secrets and credentials.
GitHub Actionsused by · GitHub Actions is GitHub’s workflow automation platform for defining and running jobs in response to repository events, schedules, and other triggers.
SSHconfigures · SSH is a cryptographic network protocol providing authenticated and encrypted remote access, command execution, and data transfer over untrusted networks.
private keyhas part · A private key is the secret component of an asymmetric cryptographic key pair used by its holder for operations such as authentication, decryption, or digital signing.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of Road to Kubernetes. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.