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I am trying to connect to an EC2 instance and it has a .ppk security key. I am not an expert on server frankly and I am still try to figure things out by trail and error.

I usually connect to my server by opening up the native command line in ubuntu and then issuing the following command:

ssh -i path/to/my_security_key.pem user_name@ip_address

But I am now trying to connect to another server which has a ppk security key instead of pem and when I try to connect it asks me to enter a passphrase. I asked the admin of the server and he says that he connects to the server using Putty and is never asked the passphrase. I tried this and it works but I want to know why wouldn't it work otherwise. Is there a special parameter I am supposed to pass so that it connects using the command line?

Rohan
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1 Answers1

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The key format that PuTTY uses is not the same as the one OpenSSH uses. You need to convert the key to the OpenSSH format in order to use it with SSH.

You do this in Puttygen, using Menu -> Conversions -> Export OpenSSH key

Jenny D
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