When you would like putty to autologin to the HPC servers without asking for username and password every time you connect.

Step-by-step guide

Creating the Public/Private Key Pairs

  1. Open puttygen.exe
  2. Click Key → Parameters for Saving File
    1. Set PPK file Version: 2
    2. Click OK
  3. Click Generate
    1. Create some chaos (i.e. jiggle the mouse)
  4. Click Save private key
    1. Click yes to save it without a passphrase to protect it 
    2. Save it somewhere on a secure location (not "publicly" accessible)
  5. Copy all the text within the "Public key for pasting into OpenSSH authorized_keys file:" box


    Make sure you copy all the text as there usually is a scrollbar within the box. Your ending text should usually include "rsa-key-" or similar.

  6. Open up a putty terminal
    1. Connect to HPC of choice 
    2. navigate to ~/.ssh
    3. Add what you copied (your public key) to a new line in "authorized_keys" file
      1. You can use VIM, nano, or other

Setting Up Putty

  1. Open Putty (https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html)
  2. Connection→SSH→Auth
    1. Under "Private key file for authentication" click Browse
    2. Navigate to your private key file that you saved in step 4 
    3. Click open
  3. Go back to session
    1. In "Host Name (or IP address)" put in: username@quantum-login1-ema
      1. Port: 22
  4. Don't forget to save your session so you don't have to repeat these steps
    1. Under "Saved Sessions" box enter a session name (e.g. EMA)
    2. Click Save

Skip the Username

If you want putty to automatically use a predefined username you can set it in Connection→Data


https://groups.google.com/a/solvay.com/g/sbs-quantum-hpc/c/7LqS_iGvRz8?hl=fr