SSH Key Pairs

Key pairs are SSH public/private key pairs used for secure access to instances. You can either generate a new key pair (AceCloud creates both keys and returns the private key once) or import an existing public key.

Command: ace key-pair

Aliases: ace keypair, ace kp

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Table of Contents

• List Key Pairs

• Get Key Pair Details

• Create a Key Pair

  • Generate a New Key Pair

  • Import an Existing Public Key

• Delete Key Pairs

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List Key Pairs

List all SSH key pairs in the current project.

ace key-pair list

Aliases: ls

Example Output

NAME                           TYPE     FINGERPRINT
deploy-key                     ssh      ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90
my-laptop                      ssh      12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef

# JSON output
ace key-pair list -o json

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Get Key Pair Details

Get details of a specific key pair by name.

ace key-pair get <key-name>

Aliases: show

Example

ace key-pair get deploy-key

Detail Output

Name:              deploy-key
Type:              ssh
Fingerprint:       ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90
Public Key:        ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABgQC7...

# JSON output
ace key-pair get deploy-key -o json

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Create a Key Pair

There are two modes for creating a key pair:

Generate a New Key Pair

Omit --public-key to have AceCloud generate a new SSH key pair. The private key is returned once and cannot be retrieved again.

ace key-pair create --name deploy-key

Output:

Key pair created.
  Name:            deploy-key
  Fingerprint:     ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90

Private Key (save this — it will not be shown again):
-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----
MIIEpAIBAAKCAQEA...
-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Save the private key immediately. It is displayed only once at creation time. If you lose it, you must delete the key pair and create a new one.

Save the private key to a file and set proper permissions:

# Save the output, then:
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/deploy-key.pem

Import an Existing Public Key

Provide your own public key with the --public-key flag. No private key is returned because you already have it.

ace key-pair create --name my-laptop --public-key "ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAA... user@host"

# Or read from a file
ace key-pair create --name my-laptop --public-key "$(cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)"

Output:

Key pair created.
  Name:            my-laptop
  Fingerprint:     12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef:12:34:56:78:90:ab:cd:ef

Flags

Flag	Required	Description
--name	Yes	Key pair name (must be unique within project)
--public-key	No	SSH public key string (≥100 characters). Omit to generate a new pair.

Note — Imported public keys must be at least 100 characters long. A standard ssh-keygen -t ed25519 or ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 output easily exceeds this; truncated or invalid keys are rejected with a clear error.

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Delete Key Pairs

Delete one or more key pairs by name.

# Delete a single key pair
ace key-pair delete <key-name>

# Delete multiple key pairs
ace key-pair delete <key-1> <key-2> <key-3>

Aliases: rm

Examples

ace key-pair delete old-key
ace key-pair delete staging-key production-key

Deleted 1 key pair(s).

Deleting a key pair does not affect instances that were launched with it. Those instances will continue to accept the corresponding private key for SSH access.

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Using Key Pairs with Instances

Reference a key pair by name when creating an instance:

ace instance create \
  --name my-vm \
  --flavor C4i.medium \
  --image Ubuntu-22.04-LTS \
  --network <vpc-id> \
  --security-group <sg-id> \
  --key deploy-key

Then SSH into the instance using the corresponding private key:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/deploy-key.pem ubuntu@<instance-ip>

The default SSH username depends on the image:

Image	Default User
Ubuntu	ubuntu
CentOS / Rocky	centos or cloud-user
Debian	debian
Windows	Use console or RDP

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Command Reference

Command	Description
ace key-pair list	List all key pairs
ace key-pair get <name>	Get key pair details
ace key-pair create --name <name>	Generate a new key pair
ace key-pair create --name <name> --public-key <key>	Import an existing public key
ace key-pair delete <name> [name...]	Delete one or more key pairs