Administer Host Groups › Host Group Implementation Process › Create the Destination Directory and File for the Public Key

Create the Destination Directory and File for the Public Key

If you decide to create the optional trust relationship to remote hosts referenced by the host group, first verify the existence of the following directory and file on each remote host. If the directory or file does not exist, create it.

The following are required on each remote host before you create the trust relationship from the host with the host group.

• The .ssh directory under /home/<user_name>, the target directory for <user_name>.pub
• An authorized_keys file, to which the public key contained in <user_name>.pub can be appended. The ~/.ssh/authorized_keys is the default file that lists the public keys that are permitted for DSA authentication.

You can create the .ssh directory and authorized_keys file on a UNIX or Linux remote host

Follow these steps:

1. Use ssh to access a remote host and log in with the Remote User Name and Remote Password configured for the host group.
2. Verify the current directory is your home directory. Enter:

   pwd
   

   The response is:

   /home/user_name
   

3. Create the .ssh directory in this path and navigate to the new directory.

   mkdir .ssh
   cd .ssh
   

4. Create authorized_keys in the .ssh directory.

   cat > authorized_keys
   

   An empty authorized_keys file is created in the /home/user_name/.ssh directory.

To create the .ssh directory and authorized_keys file on a Windows remote host

1. Use remote desktop to access the remote host and log in with the Remote User Name and Remote Password configured for the host group.
2. Navigate to your home folder. For example, \Users\user_name.
3. If a folder named .ssh does not exist, create a new folder and name it .ssh.
4. In the following folder, create a file named authorized_keys with no extension.

   \Users\user_name\.ssh
   

   The following empty file is created.

   \Users\user_name\.ssh\authorized_keys