SFTP guide - including SSH Key pair generation and Public key transfer

A short guide on generating and using SSH keys for use with Halo SFTP

Generating SSH keys#

Why?#

To use any Halo SFTP Service you will need to generate an SSH Key pair, the private part of this pair will be retained by you and will act as a password when connecting. The public key should be of the form in the Notes Section[^1] and passed through one of our team members for validation and assignment to a user.

How to generate a key pair#

The ssh-keygen command is available on all UNIX and MacOS operating systems, and Windows OS versions newer than Windows 10. This should be used to generate key pairs as it will output in OpenSSH format which is preferable to us.

For an explanation on how to generate an SSH key pair please see this guide.

How to access the SFTP Server#

Once we receive the public key a credential set is created and a connection information block will be passed back to you in one of two forms[^2] and this is to be used by yourselves in an SFTP client of your choice. Two great choices are Putty or FileZilla however accessing SFTP can be done using SSH on command line.

Example#

Here the user haloguides has requested an SFTP connection.

They generate an SSH Key pair as follows:

The public key is then passed to the team at Halo and connection details are returned to you.

Connection Details

Server: SFTP.haloservicedesk.com

Port: 22

Username: haloguides

Password: your private key

Using the Key Pair in FileZilla#

To use the key pair in FileZilla you should set up a new server connection using the details above. In file> Site Manager> New Site and instead of a password you will select Key File as 'Logon Type' then navigate to your private key.