Report this

What is the reason for this report?

Add a new ssh user to a droplet

Posted on December 23, 2014

I created a LAMP droplet on ubuntu.

I set it up so I can login on root using SSH, there is no problem there. However I’ve tried multiple tutorials to add a new SSH user and nothing works. I just want a simple way to add an SSH user by using the same SSH key the root user uses. Is there not a tutorial for that?

I’ve created a user (ftphtml), I want ALL the steps to allow that user to login using SSH, could anyone give me the instructions?

I’ve tried this so far:

cp /root/.ssh/authorized_keys /home/ftphtml/.ssh/authorized_keys nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config Added: AllowUsers ftphtml root Uncommented: AuthorizedKeysFile %h/.ssh/authorized_keys service ssh restart

But when I try to login to ftphtml it gives the following error:

Server refused our key



This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.

You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!

These answers are provided by our Community. If you find them useful, show some love by clicking the heart. If you run into issues leave a comment, or add your own answer to help others.

I’ve fixed the issue by adding the following lines:

chmod 755 /home/ftphtml/.ssh/ chmod 644 /home/ftphtml/.ssh/authorized_keys

But WHY is ALL that necessary just to login using a new SSH user? Shouldn’t DO droplets’ default settings make it easier for us? This is the full list of instructions allow an existing user to SSH:

cp /root/.ssh/authorizedkeys /home/ftphtml/.ssh/authorizedkeys nano /etc/ssh/sshdconfig Added: AllowUsers ftphtml root Uncommented: AuthorizedKeysFile %h/.ssh/authorizedkeys chmod 755 /home/ftphtml/.ssh/ chmod 644 /home/ftphtml/.ssh/authorized_keys service ssh restart

The developer cloud

Scale up as you grow — whether you're running one virtual machine or ten thousand.

Get started for free

Sign up and get $200 in credit for your first 60 days with DigitalOcean.*

*This promotional offer applies to new accounts only.