Question

How to install several ssh keys when creating droplet through api

I’m setting up droplets via the API. in the create call I’m both adding an ssh key that’s already installed on DigitalOcean for logging into the droplet, and another third party ssh key to use for external communication. The second one is added via the user data cloud init script.

When I use the call with only the login key it works. But when I add the init script the login key doesn’t work. This means I can’t log into the droplet to debug. Any ideas what is going on?

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jesper67c05ff7894361d0ba03 • February 1, 2018
Accepted Answer

Turns out the key was malformed. It lacked proper line endings. Very confusing debugging.

    Andrew SB
    DigitalOcean Employee
    DigitalOcean Employee badge
    • January 31, 2018

    Can you share an example of how you are calling the API and the cloud config script used? It would help narrow down the issue. At the surface, what you’re trying to should be supported.

    You have a few options for adding multiple SSH keys to a Droplet:

    The API allows for adding more than one SSH key when creating a Droplet. The ssh_keys field and take an array of SSH key IDs. For example, the body of your request might look like:

    {
    "name":"example.com",
    "region":"nyc3",
    "size":"s-1vcpu-1gb",
    "image":"ubuntu-16-04-x64",
    "ssh_keys":[123456, 654321]
}

    You can also add SSH keys to new Droplets via user data. For example:

    #cloud-config
users:
  - name: root
    ssh-authorized-keys:
      - ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADA....

    If you specify the root user, these keys will be merged with the keys specified via the API into the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file.

    If you are still having issues and want to do further debugging, you can reset the root password for your Droplet via the “Access” tab for the Droplet in the control panel in order to gain access.

      jesper67c05ff7894361d0ba03 • February 1, 2018

      The following also only installs the FIRST key provided:

      { name: 'NAME',
  region: 'lon1',
  size: 's-1vcpu-1gb',
  image: 'ubuntu-16-04-x64',
  backups: false,
  ipv6: true,
  ssh_keys: [ 18005919 ],
  private_networking: null,
  volumes: null,
  tags: [ 'dev' ],
  user_data: '#cloud-config
      ssh-authorized-keys:
        - ssh-rsa AAAAB3xx9aR 
        - ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaCC+KgGV 
   ' }

      So there’s something wrong with the documentation of how cloud config works. In this case the first SSH-KEY provided is added to authorized_keys and I can log in. But the second key simply disappears. I’ve yet to find any debugging information.