Managing SSH Keys

Use when:

• Adding or generating an SSH key for Acquia Cloud
• Listing or deleting SSH keys
• Setting up SSH access for IDEs or CI/CD pipelines

SSH keys provide secure authentication to Acquia Cloud resources without needing to enter passwords.

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Why SSH Keys?

SSH keys allow you to:

• Securely access your IDEs without entering a password
• Push code to your repositories
• Execute remote commands on your servers
• Automate deployments in scripts or CI/CD pipelines

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List Your SSH Keys

See all your SSH keys

acli ssh-key:list

Output:

SSH Keys for your account:
  [0] My Laptop (generated 2024-01-15)
      Fingerprint: ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90
  [1] Work Desktop (generated 2024-02-01)
      Fingerprint: 11:22:33:44:55:66:77:88

List keys per IDE

acli ide:ssh-key:list

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Generate a New SSH Key

Create an SSH key interactively

acli ssh-key:create

This will:

1. Prompt for a label (e.g., "My Laptop", "CI Server")
2. Generate a public/private key pair
3. Store the public key in your Acquia account
4. Save the private key locally (usually ~/.ssh/id_rsa)

Example:

$ acli ssh-key:create
? Enter a label for this SSH key: My Laptop
✓ SSH key created!
  Public key added to your account.
  Private key saved to: ~/.ssh/id_rsa
  Fingerprint: ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90

Note: The label prompt is the last step before the key is generated and permanently added to your Acquia account. Confirm your label is correct before pressing Enter.

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Upload an Existing SSH Key

If you already have an SSH key, upload it without regenerating:

acli ssh-key:upload --filepath ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub --label "Existing Key"

Or interactively:

acli ssh-key:upload

Prompts you to select the key file and enter a label.

Skip waiting for propagation

By default, acli waits for the key to propagate to all servers. Skip this with:

acli ssh-key:upload --filepath ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub --label "My Key" --no-wait

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Create and Upload in One Step

Generate a new key locally and upload it to Cloud Platform in a single command:

acli ssh-key:create-upload

Options:

acli ssh-key:create-upload \
  --filename=my_key \
  --password="" \
  --label="My New Key" \
  --no-wait

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Inspect an SSH Key

Get details about a specific key by fingerprint:

acli ssh-key:info --fingerprint="ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90"

Useful for confirming which key is registered before deleting.

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Delete an SSH Key

Remove a key from your account

acli ssh-key:delete

Prompts which key to delete:

? Select the SSH key to delete: [0] My Laptop
? Delete "My Laptop"? (yes/no)
✓ SSH key deleted.

Non-interactive delete

acli ssh-key:delete --public-key "ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90"

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Using SSH Keys with IDEs

SSH into your IDE

Once you have an SSH key set up, you can connect to your IDE:

# Note: Use the IDE ides-hostname, not the web URL
ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa user@ide-12345.ides.acquia.com

Set up git over SSH in your IDE

Instead of using HTTPS (which requires password authentication), use SSH:

# Configure your IDE's Git to use SSH
git remote set-url origin git@github.com:yourorg/yourrepo.git

# Now push without entering a password
git push origin main

Export public key for other systems

# Show your public key
cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

# Copy it to GitLab, GitHub, internal systems, etc.

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Best Practices

1. One Key Per Device

Create separate keys for each machine:

# Personal laptop
acli ssh-key:create --label "Personal MacBook"

# Work desktop
acli ssh-key:create --label "Work Desktop"

# CI/CD server
acli ssh-key:create --label "Jenkins CI Server"

2. Use Descriptive Labels

# ✓ Good
acli ssh-key:create --label "2024 MacBook Pro - Home"
acli ssh-key:create --label "GitHub Actions CI"

# ✗ Bad
acli ssh-key:create --label "Key 1"

3. Revoke Old Keys

Remove keys you no longer use:

acli ssh-key:delete

4. Protect Your Private Key

# Permissions should be 600 (read/write for owner only)
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa

5. Use SSH Agents

macOS:

# Add to ~/.ssh/config
Host *
  AddKeysToAgent yes
  UseKeychain yes

Linux:

eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa

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Advanced: SSH for CI/CD

Generate key for CI/CD pipeline

acli ssh-key:create --label "GitHub Actions CI"

Then:

1. Copy the private key
2. Add it to your CI/CD provider's secrets (GitHub Secrets, GitLab CI/CD Variables, etc.)
3. Use in your CI script

GitHub Actions example:

- name: Deploy to Acquia
  uses: actions/checkout@v2
  env:
    SSH_KEY: ${{ secrets.ACQUIA_SSH_KEY }}
  run: |
    mkdir -p ~/.ssh
    echo "$SSH_KEY" > ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
    acli api:environments:code-switch <env-id> main

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Related Topics

• IDE Management — Use SSH keys to access IDEs
• Getting Started — Initial setup
• Troubleshooting