Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
API Reference (API Version 2013-02-01)
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ImportKeyPair

Description

Imports the public key from an RSA key pair that you created with a third-party tool. Compare this with CreateKeyPair, in which AWS creates the key pair and gives the keys to you (AWS keeps a copy of the public key). With ImportKeyPair, you create the key pair and give AWS just the public key. The private key is never transferred between you and AWS.

You can easily create an RSA key pair on Windows and Linux using the ssh-keygen command line tool (provided with the standard OpenSSH installation). Standard library support for RSA key pair creation is also available in Java, Ruby, Python, and many other programming languages.

Supported formats:

  • OpenSSH public key format (e.g., the format in ~/.ssh/authorized_keys)

  • Base64 encoded DER format

  • SSH public key file format as specified in RFC4716

DSA keys are not supported. Make sure your key generator is set up to create RSA keys.

Supported lengths: 1024, 2048, and 4096.

Request Parameters

KeyName

A unique name for the key pair.

Type: String

Default: None

Required: Yes

PublicKeyMaterial

The public key. You must base64 encode the public key material before sending it to AWS.

Type: String

Default: None

Required: Yes

Response Elements

The following elements are returned in an ImportKeyPairResponse element.

requestId

The ID of the request.

Type: xsd:string

keyName

The key pair name you provided.

Type: xsd:string

keyFingerprint

The MD5 public key fingerprint as specified in section 4 of RFC4716.

Type: xsd:string

Examples

Example Request

This example uploads the public key for a key pair you name gsg-keypair.

https://ec2.amazonaws.com/?Action=ImportKeyPair
&KeyName=gsg-keypair
&PublicKeyMaterial=LS0tLS1CRUdJTiBDRVJUSUZJQ0FURS0tLS0tDQpNSUlDZHpDQ0FlQ2dBd0lCQWdJR0FQalRyR3pQ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&AUTHPARAMS

Example Response

<ImportKeyPairResponse xmlns="http://ec2.&api-domain;/doc/2013-02-01/">
   <requestId>7a62c49f-347e-4fc4-9331-6e8eEXAMPLE</requestId>
   <keyName>gsg-keypair</keyName>
   <keyFingerprint>
     00:00:00: 00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00:00
   </keyFingerprint>
</ImportKeyPairResponse>