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SSH keys let you log in to your servers without passwords. Rackdog accepts a public key at provision time and installs it on the server so you can connect as soon as it’s ready.

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Generate a key

On your local machine, run: 
ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email@example.com"
This creates a private key (keep it on your machine) and a public key that you’ll paste into Rackdog.

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Find your public key

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub
Copy the output. That’s what you’ll paste into the dashboard.

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Add the key to your organization

SSH keys are stored at the organization level, so add the key once and reuse it across servers.
  1. In the dashboard, go to https://metal.rackdog.com/<organization_id>/sshkeys.
  2. Click to add a new key, give it a name, and paste in your public key.
  3. Save.

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Select the key when provisioning

During server provisioning, pick the key you just added from the SSH key selector. Rackdog will install it on the server automatically so you can log in as soon as provisioning finishes.

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Connect to the server

Once the server is ready, grab its IP from the dashboard and connect. The username depends on the OS you provisioned:
OSUsername
Ubuntuubuntu
Debiandebian
CentOScentos
Fedorafedora
Rocky Linuxrocky
AlmaLinuxalmalinux
WindowsAdministrator
Anything elseroot
For example, on an Ubuntu server: 
ssh ubuntu@YOUR_SERVER_IP

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Good habits

  • Keep the private key on your own machine and don’t share it.
  • Use a passphrase when you generate the key.
  • Rotate keys periodically, especially if a machine holding one is lost or decommissioned.
  • Disable password-based SSH on the server once key access is working (set PasswordAuthentication no in /etc/ssh/sshd_config and reload sshd).