SSH to EC2 linux instance from Windows

Question

I'm setting up a "data analysis on the cloud" class and most of the students will probably be using Windows.

The students will have to set up EC2 Ubuntu instances and connect to them.

What is the easiest way to set up SSH for Windows XP-7?

I've tried PuTTY but Puttygen can only convert the public key to putty format if I manually add newlines in a text editor. This is too involved for the class of 80.

I've tried OpenSSH but I can't seem to find the correct permissions for the public key file. On Mac OS/Linux it's just chmod 600.

Is there a decent SSH client that supports Amazon's key format that I can set up easily?

"too involved for the class of 80." lol++ – gonzobrains Jun 09 '15 at 20:42 — gonzobrains, Jun 09 '15 at 20:42

score 16 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 10 '11 at 19:53

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The .pem file Amazon Web Services gives you is supported by the openssh client implementations, but for a Windows-based client that works directly with the .pem file without converting it with puttygen.exe, look into Bitvise Tunnelier.

answered Mar 10 '11 at 19:53

wkl

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that worked but there's something wrong with windows not recognizing the newline characters. – Austin Richardson Mar 10 '11 at 20:06
Actually, if you download the key when you create it, it has newlines which Windows finds acceptable. Thanks! – Austin Richardson Mar 10 '11 at 20:26
@wkl Maybe you can help me. Look at this : https://stackoverflow.com/questions/52072330/how-can-i-set-in-the-bitvise-ssh-client-the-tunnel-automatic-connect-if-open-wi – moses toh Aug 29 '18 at 07:59
@wkl updated the correct answer due to OpenSSH being integrated into Windows in 2015. – Austin Richardson Jan 04 '21 at 23:55
@AustinRichardson Good stuff! I haven't used Windows in years so I knew nothing of what happened since I wrote this answer. – wkl Jan 05 '21 at 17:37

HV Sharma · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-07T07:30:40.987

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If anybody's looking for windows 10 solution.
In Windows 10, you can use powershell.
Use below command.

ssh -i \..\location-to-pem-file.pem ubuntu@X.X.XXX.XXX

If ssh is not supported in your windows 10 machine, follow this url for installation.
I used it and suggested the same.

edited Sep 07 '22 at 07:30

answered Dec 09 '20 at 08:47

HV Sharma

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A much easier solution. Almost 10 years later! I'm going to make this the correct answer due to it being 2021. – Austin Richardson Jan 04 '21 at 23:55

Rex Andrew · Answer 3 · 2019-08-04T02:54:32.040

Step1: Download the keypair

The download will create a .pem file on your local system. It contains a private key that you can use to connect to the EC2 instance via SSH

Step 2: Launch your linux instance

Copy the public ip address for the future use to connect the linux instance

Step 3: Download puttyGen from https://the.earth.li/~sgtatham/putty/latest/w32/puttygen.exe

Step 4: Execute the PuttyGen exe and load the private key(the pem file you have downloaded while launching the instance)

Step 5: Save the private key, it will give the .ppk file which will be used to connect the linux instance

Step 6: Download and install the Putty software, open the putty, and paste the public ip address which you copied from the linux instance

Step 7: Now load the .PPK file which we have saved

Step 8: Choose yes from the alert window

Step 9: Login as ec-user

gonzobrains · Answer 4 · 2015-06-09T20:45:52.757

Another possible solution is to use PuTTY but follow Amazon's guide for doing so. I found some other guide's that weren't as clear in the steps but I was able to get PuTTYgen to work correctly when I used their guide.

Install PuTTY.
Follow Amazon's guide for converting your PEM file to the PuTTY PPK format.
Connect to your server!

As for newlines, maybe you need to run unix2dos or some other program that will fix that for you?

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 18 '22 at 10:45

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If anybody's looking for windows 10 solution.

icacls.exe .\Desktop\xxxx.pem /reset
icacls.exe .\Desktop\xxxx.pem /grant:r "$($env:USERNAME):(r)"
icacls.exe .\Desktop\xxxx.pem /inheritance:r
ssh -i .\Desktop\xxxx.pem ec2-user@54.229.xxx.x

answered Sep 18 '22 at 10:45

Fatih Ertuğral

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 11 '22 at 23:44

I borrowed the method giving in this video. https://youtu.be/P1erVo5X3Bs Open power shell and run below commands. You can open power shell at any location by print powershell in the nevigation bar and press enter. enter image description here

1.reset premission:

icals.exe key.pem /reset

2.check the current user id

whoami

3.add permision to specific user id

icacls.exe key.pem /grant:r "YOUR USER ID GIVEN BY WHOAMI"

4.remove permission of other user

icacls.exe .\ec2.pem /inheritance:r

Now it should work.

SSH to EC2 linux instance from Windows

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