I’m not a fan of passwords. Too easy to mistype, too complex to remember without sticky notes (or a password manager). Too much room for error.
But SSH keys? I like ‘em a lot. Create something secure once, use ssh_copy_id to get it on the target system, and blammo! No more passwords.
Except that I can’t use ssh_copy_id to install my SSH key to an NSX-T Manager appliance. Or an Edge node. So what’s a person to do when you don’t have a complete shell to work with on the target system?
I don’t know for all systems, that’s for sure, but in the NSX CLI shell we’re presented in NSX-T, it’s pretty straight forward. All you need is your SSH public key and credentials to get to your NSX appliance. I’ve even produced a video to show you how!
It’s pretty simple, though – use the following command in nsxcli. Piece of cake!
set user <username> ssh-keys label <label> type <type> value <SSH public key>
VirtualKrueger 