Setup SSH Keys

Nimbus uses SSH key pairs to authenticate access from a user’s computer (i.e. local machine) to Nimbus workspaces.

The process for SSH key setup differs based on the IDE you are using and if you are a first time user. In this doc, we cover all three cases.

Set up for JetBrains IDEs and all first-time users:

JetBrains IDE users will need to upload a public key via the Nimbus webapp before creating their workspace.

First-time users (those who have never connected to a a Nimbus workspace before)

See the steps below to learn how:

Confirm that you have not already created keys on this computer

Run ls ~/.ssh on your terminal
If you see a similar output as the following then it means you already have keys created on your computer and you can jump to Step 3 directly.

➜ ~ ls ~/.ssh/

config id_ed25519.pub id_rsa.pub known_hosts.old

id_ed25519 id_rsa known_hosts

Create a new pair of keys

Run ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C '<your email>' on your terminal at your home directory
Follow the instructions to finish the creation process

Note: the keys have to be saved under the ~/.ssh directory

Confirm that keys are successfully created (see Step 1)

Identify your public key:

Run cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub on your terminal
Save the output for later use.

Go to the Account page on Nimbus webapp

Scroll down to the “SSH Keys” section

Add the public key you created above

Confirm that you can see a new key record created under “SSH Keys” section.

Now you are good to go. You can now create a new workspace and connect to it via JetBrains IDE or VSCode

Set up for VSCode:

VSCode users do not need to set up SSH keys manually because the Nimbus extension does this for you during the connection to a Nimbus workspace from VSCode.

During this connection, the Nimbus VSCode extension creates a new SSH Key pair on your computer and passes the required key to the newly created workspace.

When this is done, a secure SSH tunnel can be established between your computer and the Nimbus workspace.