SSH Key based authentication is very useful for transferring data and for some data sync applications to work, to configure the key based login on a CentOS Server

1. Generate SSH Key pair by running

[root@localhost ~]# ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa):
Created directory '/root/.ssh'.
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
5b:9c:74:08:15:4a:13:13:cb:15:ff:c2:f6:d8:0b:d3 [email protected]
The key's randomart image is:
+--[ RSA 2048]----+
|        B+=o     |
|       o B o     |
|        + o o    |
|         o + .   |
|        S + + .  |
|         o . *   |
|        .   + E  |
|             o . |
|              .  |
+-----------------+

Passphrase for the key is optional and you can leave it blank.

2. Once the key pair is generated copy it to the remote server using

[root@localhost ~]# ssh-copy-id -i /root/.ssh/<PUBFILE>.pub [email protected]
The authenticity of host '192.168.1.2 (192.168.1.2)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 5c:3a:99:15:46:a6:56:1c:66:5c:1e:ed:ea:76:a3:cd.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added '192.168.1.2' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
[email protected]'s password:

3. Once the key is copied successfully, you can start logging into the server by just login using

ssh [email protected]

4. If the other server is running SSH service on a different port other that the default (22) you need to copy the ssh key as below

ssh-copy-id -i /root/.ssh/<FILENAME>.pub "[email protected] -p 2232"