Step 1: Generate Keypair on Localmachine

ssh-keygen -t dsa

When prompted for a passphrase you can leave it empty to enable logging in without a password (please note that there are potential security issues with doing this).

After confirming your passphrase at the second prompt you’ll find two new files (the keypair) in your ~/.ssh directory. The first file id_dsa is your private key, the second file id_dsa.pub your public key.

Step 2: Set Local ~/.ssh Permissions

chmod 700 ~/.ssh

Step 3: Copy Public Key to Remote Server

scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub username@remoteserver:~/id_dsa.pub

Step 4: Login to Remote Server:

ssh username@remoteserver

Step 5: Update Authorized Keys on Remote Server

cat id_dsa.pub >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Step 6: Set Remote ~/.ssh Permissions

chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Done!

At this point you should be able to login to the remote server without using a password.

ssh username@remoteserver
 - or - 
ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_dsa username@remoteserver

Filed under: System Administration, linux, ssh