How to add a new user into Ubuntu and setup ssh key?

Create a new user

sudo adduser <newusername>

i.e: create a new username: snowan

$ sudo adduser snowan

Adding user `snowan' ...
Adding new group `snowan' (1005) ...
Adding new user `snowan' (1004) with group `snowan' ...
Creating home directory `/home/snowan' ...
Copying files from `/etc/skel' ...
Enter new UNIX password: 
Retype new UNIX password: 
passwd: password updated successfully
Changing the user information for snowan
Enter the new value, or press ENTER for the default
 Full Name []: snowan               
 Room Number []: 
 Work Phone []: 
 Home Phone []:
 Other []: 
Is the information correct? [Y/n] Y

Now you've already created a new user, username: snowan

Next you want to add new user to sudo group, so new user can have sudo privileges.

Add user to the sudo group

sudo usermod -aG sudo <username>

i.e. sudo usermod -aG sudo snowan

Now you've added new user into sudo group, and you want to verify it's added successfully.

Verify sudo user group

1. Login with newly added user

   su - <username>

i.e. su - snowan and enter password you added for this user

1. Verify sudo group user privileges

   sudo ls -la /root or sudo -l -U <username>

for example: snowan is sudo user and snowan.test is not user,

sudo user priviledges

Now you want to be able to ssh into remote server without password. you need to create private and public key.

Add public key to allow remote SSH login for new user

1. Go to client server and create ssh key

   ssh-keygen -t rsa and add file snowan-rsa under folder ~/.ssh/

under ~/.ssh/ you will see 2 files

• snowan-rsa -- this is private key

• snowan-rsa.pub -- this is public key

and you need to add snowan-rsa.pub public key into server ~/.ssh/

1. Copy public key over to server (snowan)

   ssh-copy-id ~/.ssh/snowan-rsa.pub <remote server>

i.e ssh-copy-id ~/.ssh/snowan-rsa.pub snowwan@localhost

NOTE: If you encounter permission denied (publickey) issue, it is possible that your server do not allow passwordAuthentication. how to fix?

• go to server (snowan) -- su - snowan

• go to /etc/ssh -- cd /etc/ssh

• check PasswordAuthentication in sshd_config file, by default this value is set to no, and to allow copy public key over from client server, temporary set to yes

• vim sshd_config and then set PasswordAuthentication yes

• go to client server, and copy public key over to server (snowan), it should copy over.

Now you've copied public key over to server, you need to verify ssh is working

Verify ssh key working

• Add ssh private key into host in config under ~/.ssh

  Host snowwan
    HostName <ip address> -- i.e. 127.0.0.1
    User snowan
    IdentityFile "~/.ssh/snowan_rsa"

• now go to terminal, ssh snowan, and you should ssh into remote server

ssh remote user

Congrates, you've already added a new user and ssh into remote server! :)