clouder ssh-key

Manage SSH keys — both local keys and keys registered with your cloud provider. SSH keys are used for authenticating to VMs created by Clouder.

Commands

clouder ssh-key create

Create an SSH key pair locally and register it with the cloud provider when supported.

clouder ssh-key create <name> [OPTIONS]

Argument	Description
name (required)	Name for the SSH key

Option	Short	Description
--type	-t	Key type: ed25519 (default), rsa
--region	-r	AWS region for key pair import (AWS only)

The key pair is generated locally in ~/.ssh/ using ssh-keygen.

• AWS context: imports the public key as an EC2 key pair (import-key-pair).
• OVH context: registers the public key in OVH cloud keys.
• Azure context: keeps keys local (Azure has no account-level SSH key registry).

Example:

clouder ssh-key create my-key
clouder ssh-key create my-key -t rsa

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clouder ssh-key ls

List SSH keys (both local and cloud-registered where available).

clouder ssh-key ls

AWS region override:

clouder ssh-key ls --region us-east-1

Shows two tables:

• Local keys from ~/.ssh/ with their paths.
• Cloud keys registered with the current provider:
  • AWS: EC2 key pairs (name, fingerprint)
  • OVH: cloud SSH keys (id, name, fingerprint, public key)
  • Azure: local keys only

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clouder ssh-key set-current

Set or clear the default SSH key used for all commands.

clouder ssh-key set-current

Lists the SSH keys available in ~/.ssh/ and asks you to pick one as the default. You can also choose (clear default) to unset it. The selection is stored in ~/.clouder/clouder.yaml and automatically used by:

• clouder ssh
• clouder kubeadm setup, enable-ingress-nginx, smoke-test, etc.

An explicit --key/-i flag on any command still takes priority.

Example:

clouder ssh-key set-current
#  SSH keys:
#    1. ci-cd (current default)
#    2. id_ed25519
#    3. (clear default)
#  Select SSH key number or type key name [1]:

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clouder ssh-key download

Save a private key to ~/.ssh/ with correct permissions (600).

clouder ssh-key download <name> [OPTIONS]

Argument	Description
name (required)	Name to save the key as (e.g. my-server)

Option	Short	Description
--key	-k	Private key content or path to a file containing it

If --key is not provided, you'll be prompted to paste the key content interactively.

Example:

# From a file
clouder ssh-key download my-server --key /path/to/downloaded-key.pem

# Paste interactively
clouder ssh-key download my-server

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Notes

• During clouder vm create, you can pick from existing local keys or generate a new one.
• Use clouder ssh-key set-current to avoid being prompted for a key every time. The stored default is used whenever no explicit key is provided and no cluster-specific key exists.
• Keys generated during VM creation are named <vm-name>-key.
• clouder ssh auto-detects keys matching <vm-name>-key in ~/.ssh/.