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Google Cloud SSH Keys Metadata-Managed Project Level

Google Cloud SSH Keys Metadata-Managed Project Level

Step-01: Introduction¶

Metadata-managed SSH Connections
Automatically Configured at Project Level: Temporarily grant a user access to an instance (so far we are using this one)
Manually Managing SSH Keys in Metadata: Generate SSH keys and upload to Project Medatada
Instance-Level Public SSH Keys
OS Login-managed SSH connections (Google Recommended)
In this section, we are going to focus on SSH Keys Metadata-Managed at Project level

Step-02: Create SSH Keys Manually - Public and Private Key¶

Risks of Manual Key Management

# Switch Directory
cd ssh-keys

# Generate SSH Keys
ssh-keygen -t rsa -f ssh-keys-custom -C sshcustomuser1

# File Names
SSH Private Key: ssh-keys-custom
SSH Public Key: ssh-keys-custom.pub

# Restrict access to your private key so that only you can read it and nobody can write to it
chmod 400 ssh-keys-custom

# Copy content from ssh-keys-custom.pub
cat ssh-keys-custom.pub

Step-03: Upload Custom SSH Public Key and Username to GCP Project Metadata¶

Go to Compute Engine -> Metadata -> SSH Keys -> Edit
Click on Add Item
Copy content of file ssh-keys-custom.pub to text box, automatically username will be populated, and click on Save
Refresh browser to see sshcustomuser1 public key present in Metadata.

Step-04: Connect using your Local Desktop Terminal¶

# Connect from MacOS / Windows10 CMD line
cd ssh-keys
ssh -i ssh-keys-custom <USER-FROM-SSH-KEYS>@<VM-Public-IP>
ssh -i ssh-keys-custom sshcustomuser1@104.198.236.153

Additional References¶