Creating an SSH key on Windows

There are two ways to create an SSH key on Windows. The first method is the easiest and recommended, since you will also need to use Git to deploy your application to Healthcare Blocks.

Method 1: Creating Key Using Git Bash

1. Open Git Bash

2. Run the following command, substituting your own email address:

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "your_email@example.com"

3. When prompted to save the key, press enter to use the default location.

4. At the prompt, type a secure password. Keep this information private.

5. Be sure the SSH agent is running in the background:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"

6. Add the SSH key to the agent. If you used a different path to save the key, you'll need to replace the path below.

ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Method 2: Using PuTTY

1. Download PuTTYgen.exe here: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

2. Make sure your private key is in a PuTTY Private Key format (.ppk).

When you start it, it should look like this:

3. Click Load next to "Load an existing private key file", and select your private key .pem file.

Once loaded, you will get the below PuTTYgen popup notice.

4. Click on Save Private Key. Then save the new private key file as a .ppk file. Keep this file secure, do not share it with the Healthcare Blocks team or anyone else.

5. Please copy the value for the public key (OpenSSH authorized_keys) and send it back to the Healthcare Blocks support team.

6. After the Healthcare Blocks support team confirms the key was added to your server(s), here's how to update your PuTTY configuration:

In the connection string, you will enter a Host Name based on the value provided by Support.

7. Then in the left menu, select Connection -> SSH -> Auth, and click "Browse" next to Private key file for authentication to select your .ppk file -

8. After that, you should be able to connect to your server using the converted PuTTY private key.In addition, you may want to go back to the first section, the Terminal menu, add a new profile name to Saved Settings, and click save to create a profile so you do not have to re-enter the settings again.